Devil-Loc Deluxe

Name: Devil-Loc Deluxe
Price: 99 USD
Author: Soundtoys

by Soundtoys · Distortion · Crushing compressor

vst3s Score 8.2/10 · rated #7 of 10 distortion

Soundtoys' take on a vintage broadcast level-locker, turned into a pounding compressor-distortion for drums.

Crush, Distortion and Darkness controls, plus a Mix knob for parallel blend, turn a flat drum bus or room mic into something huge.

Best for: Drums, Drum Bus. Genres: Rock & Indie, Hip-Hop & Trap.

Keywords: drums, heavy, bus processing, drum bus, built-in mix knob, parallel processing, room mics, samples & loops, vocals, 60s, aggressive, broadcast, dark, extreme, hardware emulation, huge, mixing, single-band, vintage.

What it does

Devil-Loc Deluxe is modelled on the 1960s Shure Level-Loc, a brick-wall limiter built for public address systems that producer Tchad Blake used to crush drums. Soundtoys calls it an "Audio Level Destroyer".

Crush and Crunch: Crush drives a fixed-threshold compressor, and Crunch adds make-up gain that pushes the output stage into distortion.
Darkness: a low-pass tone control that rolls off harsh highs after the compression.
Mix: blends in the dry signal for parallel compression.
Release: switchable fast or slow; the attack is fixed and very fast.
Two plugins: includes the original two-knob Devil-Loc as well.

The current version is 5.5.

Source: Soundtoys product page

When to use it

Devil-Loc Deluxe is the one-trick specialist in the rated list: a compressor-distortion rather than a distortion toolkit. Where Saturn 2, Thermal or Rift give you dozens of styles, Devil-Loc does pumping, crushed, gritty drums and does them very well with a handful of knobs.

Best for: room mics, drum buses and drum loops, with the Mix knob keeping the transients; also aggressive vocal effects.
Genres: rock, indie, hip-hop, lo-fi and breakbeat-based music.
Look elsewhere if: you need a general-purpose distortion for synths, bass or the mix bus.
Tip: there's no input trim, so watch your levels going in; start with Mix around halfway on a drum bus.

What producers say

Long established as a go-to for crushed drums, though reviewers note its narrow focus.

Computer Music / MusicRadar (2011) praised its snappy compression flavour and distortion at extreme settings, and said there are "few others that sound quite like it".
Resident Advisor (2011) found the Mix control "easily the most useful" feature for keeping transients while lifting the decay, and liked it on vocals too.
Gripes: no input trim, so levels need watching, and limited versatility beyond drums.

Where to buy

Tutorials and reviews

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