Zaffre

Name: Zaffre
Author: Acustica Audio

by Acustica Audio · EQ · British mastering EQ and compressor

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Zaffre is a mastering suite modeled on high-end British gear from the mid-1990s: a dual-mono 4-band EQ and a Class A VCA compressor/limiter.

It includes Zaffre EQ and Zaffre Comp; no price was shown on the product page.

Best for: Mastering, Mix Bus. Genres: all genres.

Keywords: mastering, true-peak, 90s, bus processing, full mix, glue, mid/side, transparent, built-in analyzer, dual-mono, gentle, hardware emulation, inspired by, look-ahead, metering, mix bus, oversampling, resizable UI, static, stereo-linked.

What it does

Zaffre is a two-plugin Acustica suite, Zaffre EQ and Zaffre Comp, inspired by high-end British mastering gear from the mid-1990s. The EQ is drawn from a rare British mastering equaliser and the compressor from a British Class A VCA compressor/limiter.

Zaffre EQ: a transparent four-band mastering EQ with dedicated high- and low-pass filters; Sound On Sound lists gain of up to ±10 dB on the bands, adjustable Q on the two mid peak bands, and three modelled preamp stages.
Zaffre Comp: a Class A VCA compressor/limiter whose compressor and limiter stages can be used separately or in series.
Compressor controls: an SHMOD control for shaping the attack envelope, attack and release hold settings, and continuous stereo linking.
Limiter and output: a look-ahead limiter with true-peak limiting, plus dithering options.
Stereo and M/S: stereo and Mid-Side processing, with Delta, LR, Mid and Side listening modes.
Engine and displays: Hyper 3 technology with a new anti-aliasing algorithm, and the Aria engine with real-time metering, an interactive EQ display and a spectrum analyser.
Workflow: resizable GUI and factory presets.

Zaffre was released in 2024 with an introductory price, and no demo was mentioned.

Source: Acustica Audio product page

When to use it

Zaffre is aimed at clean, refined mastering, with a matching EQ and VCA compressor/limiter from one British design family. Compared with the Manley Massive Passive EQ, it is more transparent solid-state shaping rather than tube colour, and it adds its own compressor, true-peak limiter and dither. It has far fewer bands and no dynamic EQ next to Pro-Q 4, so it suits broad tonal moves more than surgical fixes. Against Mäag Audio EQ4, which is mostly about airy top-end lift, Zaffre gives fuller four-band control and dynamics in one suite.

Best for: gentle tonal balance and light VCA glue on the master or on stem and bus groups, finished with a true-peak limiter.
Genres: any; it suits acoustic, pop and other material that needs polish without obvious colour.
Look elsewhere if: you want tube warmth (Manley Massive Passive EQ or the Pultec Passive EQ Collection), surgical or dynamic EQ (Pro-Q 4 or TDR Nova).

Where to buy

Acustica Audio: see store

Tutorials and reviews

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