Olive

Name: Olive
Author: Acustica Audio

by Acustica Audio · Channel Strip · Vintage console suite

Not rated yet

Olive is a suite of four plugins sampled from a 1971 Olive Electrodynamics console from Canada: EQ, preamps, compressor and expander.

It comes as VST, VST3, AU and AAX; the shop page did not show a price.

Best for: Vocals, Drums, Bass, Guitars, Mix Bus. Genres: all genres.

Keywords: vintage, downward expansion, 70s, VCA, AAX, bass, bus processing, drums, full mix, gentle, hardware emulation, mix bus, mixing, vocals.

What it does

Olive is the fourth release in Acustica's Boutique Collection, a sampled emulation of the Olive 2000 console built by Canadian firm Olive Electrodynamics in the early 1970s. The developer credits the original with introducing "what we know today as a standardized channel strip", and Rekkerd notes that very few units were ever built.

Olive EQ: a vintage 4-band parametric with low and high shelves, two mid bells, high-pass and low-pass filters, and its own preamp stage.
Olive Pre: a preamp section with 4 line and 4 mic preamps, for adding the console's color without other processing.
Olive Comp: an original VCA-based compressor/limiter, also with a preamp stage.
Olive Exp: a VCA expander with a preamp stage, for downward expansion and cleaning up noise or spill.
Separate plugins: each section loads on its own, so you can use only the EQ or only the dynamics on a track.
Engine: built on Acustica's Hyper 2 technology, its current sampling-based modeling engine.

It launched in May 2023 with an intro offer.

Source: Acustica Audio product page

When to use it

Olive captures a rare Canadian console that few engineers have heard in person, where bx_console SSL 4000 E, Native Channel Strip 2 and the API Vision Channel Strip Collection, among the rated channel strips, all model famous British or American desks in one combined window. It is the only one of these with a dedicated expander. It is split into four plugins rather than one strip, which suits adding one stage at a time but is slower for full channel setups. It is also a sampled Acustica product, so expect heavier CPU use than algorithmic strips like PSP InfiniStrip. Pick it for a vintage flavour that sounds different from the usual SSL and API choices.

Best for: vintage console color and tone shaping on tracks and buses, and gentle expansion on noisy sources.
Genres: any; suits rock, soul and vintage-style productions.
Look elsewhere if: you want one combined strip window (bx_console SSL 4000 E or Native Channel Strip 2), or a well-known console sound you can match to classic records.

Where to buy

Acustica Audio: see store

Tutorials and reviews

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