MHB Green

Name: MHB Green
Price: 49.99 USD
Author: Kazrog

by Kazrog · Compressor · Tube compressor / saturator

Not rated yet

MHB Green emulates Michael H. Brauer's custom-modified AWA G7201 tube limiting amplifier, one of the compressors behind his mixes for Coldplay and John Mayer.

It is a heavily colored compressor and saturator, with a line-amp mode for tube tone without compression and 120 presets from Brauer and other engineers.

Best for: Mix Bus, Drum Bus, Vocals, Bass, Keys & Synths. Genres: Rock & Indie, Pop, R&B & Soul, Hip-Hop & Trap.

Keywords: tube, colored, bass, hardware emulation, built-in mix knob, mixing, vocals, bus processing, keys, drum bus, drums, full mix, heavy, mix bus, modern, parallel processing, preset-driven, single-band, vintage.

What it does

MHB Green is a "virtual analog compressor/saturator" built with Grammy-winning mix engineer Michael H. Brauer, based on his custom-modified AWA G7201 Limiting Amplifier. Kazrog says it is the first time that unit has been available as a plugin.

The G7201 sound: vintage tube compression and saturation modeled on one of Brauer's most-used pieces of hardware.
Modern additions: expanded headroom, a Warmth adjustment, wet/dry blend and Analog Entropy, which models component tolerance drift between channels.
Line amp mode: runs the tube stage without compression for subtler saturation on mixes and masters.
Presets: 120 presets from Michael Brauer, F. Reid Shippen, Vance Powell, Bruce Sugar and others.

The free demo drops to silence at random intervals and disables preset saving.

Source: Kazrog product page

When to use it

MHB Green is a color box first and a compressor second, closer in spirit to Kush Audio UBK-2 or Soundtoys Decapitator than to a clean bus compressor. Choose it over Softube Tube-Tech CL 1B Mk II or Waves CLA-2A when you want obvious tube saturation and a scooped, larger-than-life tone rather than smooth leveling. Its sibling MHB Red is the more mid-forward, punchier option.

Best for: making drums, bass, keys, buses and vocals sound bigger, and parallel saturation with the wet/dry control.
Genres: rock, indie, pop, R&B and hip-hop mixes that want a thick, colored sound.
Look elsewhere if: you need transparent compression or a flat frequency response; users report large EQ shifts even with little gain reduction.
Standout: the unusual G7201 character, which boosts lows and highs while compressing, from a unit few engineers have used.

What producers say

KVR users mostly love its size and saturation, though several note how strongly it colors the sound.

KVR users (2024) called it "Beautiful saturation and compression. My new favourite"; one planned to replace Kush's TWK with it, noting much lower latency.
bmanic on KVR (2024) called it the "sausage fattener" type thing but measured up to 6 dB of smiley-curve EQ change even with the Warmth knob up.
Gripe: a KVR user (2024) complained about "the clean output knob not having enough range" for gain matching, and another said it was "the first Kazrog plugin i didn't gel with."

Where to buy

Kazrog: $49.99

Tutorials and reviews

Kazrog MHB Green - Michael Brauer Compression (loudnoisestudios)
Kazrog's MHB Green Compressor Plugin (The Time Preservation Society)
MHB Green By Kazrog REVIEW! My new favorite PLUGIN!!! New female singer Gracie Snow #kazrog #Reaper (VOLT MUSIC STUDIOS)
Michael Brauer - MHB Green Plugin Tutorial
Did Kazrog do it AGAIN? || Kazrog MHB Green

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