Shadaloo Audio DSP has released H, a free tone and loudness enhancer plugin for macOS and Windows.
H was built by Fabio “Shadaloo” Caterino, an Italian multi-platinum certified mix and mastering engineer. He originally designed the plugin for his own mixes and then decided to release it publicly as a pay-what-you-want download.
First of all, I’ve tested numerous one-knob plugins before, but this is my first-ever one-letter plugin. So, a plugin named “A” would have been more fitting, but oh well…
H is not a traditional saturator or clipper. It’s a multi-stage processor where the controls interact with each other in nonlinear ways, which is what makes it interesting.
The Push control drives the signal from very gentle enhancement to somewhat obvious saturation, but it’s not just an input gain.
Even with Color set to 0%, increasing Push will change the dynamic response. According to the developer, this comes from a combination of quintic clipping and a level-dependent shaping stage that reacts progressively as the signal increases.
The Color section offers five modes (Smooth, Soft, Edge, Grit, and Crush) that shape the character of the processing. Each mode works more like a macro, so it basically changes both the harmonic structure and the frequency-dependent behavior rather than applying a fixed saturation curve.
Push, Color, Blend, and the selected mode all influence each other, so the behavior is intentionally context-dependent rather than a set of independent parameters.
The Blend control is tuned for parallel-style processing, letting you add character while keeping the source grounded and mix-friendly. The Output control works directly with Push for cleaner gain staging and easier level balancing.
With the technical stuff out of the way, I would simply describe this plugin as “tasty” saturation. It’s pretty good.
H also includes Peak and RMS output reading modes to help you compare levels and match output more precisely.
The developer notes that he tends to rely on Peak mode for drums and RMS for full mixes. I prefer using third-party metering plugins, so I didn’t pay much attention to the built-in meters during the test.
Oversampling can go up to 4x to help prevent aliasing.
One thing to note is that the current Windows build is not yet digitally signed, so your system may display a security warning before installation.
H is available as a free (pay-what-you-want) download in AU and VST3 formats for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and VST3 for Windows (64-bit).
Download: H – Tone and Loudness Enhancer (FREE, pay what you want)
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Last Updated on March 28, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
