Wavegrove

Wavegrove x Handcrafted Labs x Tape Over

This is Islander – our take on Handcrafted Labs ingenious parallel tube driven design.

A plugin made with iPlug2

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Compressor features

  • Stereo and Mid-side modes, Linking or Dual Mono.
  • Two controls for gain, one for WET and one for DRY.
  • Gain Link to inversely mirror your movements between the gain  controls, to allow you to blend between wet and dry.
  • Threshold to control where the compressor starts to react.
  • Attack from 0.2 ms to 40 ms.
  • Release from 50 ms to 2000 ms.
  • VU meters to gauge your compression.

Additional features

  • Mastering-grade clipper allows you to push your LUFS to the limits, and maybe over them.
  • Control linking to allow you to control both sides of the compressor with just one set of movements.
  • Different emphasis styles for wet and dry. The wet side saturates to a brighter tone, while dry saturates to a smoother tone.
  • As everything isn’t completely linear, we include Level Calibration too.

Check out the manual for HCL Islander!

Be sure to try the plugin out in the trial mode before your purchase, download at https://www.wavegrove.com/downloads/

Testimonials for HCL Islander

Carlos Flores A.K.A: Maxter “El de la magia”

Carlos Flores A.K.A: Maxter “El de la magia”

Collaborator on the Latin Grammy Winner album "Mi Niña Bonita" by De Chino y Nacho. Nominated 2021 with Billos Legendarios. Magic Juan, Don fulano, Budu, Treo, La Nueva Calle, Jaison Jeack

Excellent, they have their magic! … I’m using the Varis on the Buses to generate the Glue effect, and the Islander to get the Claw 🤟🏻 HCL is part of my diary nowadays, they are doing it Very Well Wavegrove 🔥
Sonic Scoop

Sonic Scoop

Top Compressors of 2023

HCL Islander is awfully clean as a compressor, handling parallel duties to boost apparent loudness quite well. It also has a clipper that sounds fantastic. All of it combines seamlessly into a compressor worth using every day.
Maged Khalil

Maged Khalil

Naughty Dog, Ms. Lauryn Hill, MF DOOM, Kool G Rap, and more

HCL has been apart of my sound for a few years now, to have anything Gena makes as a plugin is beyond exciting. The Islander plugin delivers on everything you’d expect as a buss compressor. It’s even best out some of my favorite ITB comps for certain duties. I need more HCL plugins from Wavegrove…now. Lol
Nil Hartman

Nil Hartman

Computer musician, mastering engineer and Ableton Certified Trainer, Founding member of 3OP

Quite a wonderful compressor : while it can be set in a few clicks and work its magic already, I’m stunned by its flexibility and how you can dive deep and sculpt its dynamic behavior surgically. Tonally, it’s equally as versatile with very few controls, with lush box tone. Oh and don’t slip on its clipper !
Adrian Schinoff

Adrian Schinoff

Adrian Schinoff Studios, Latin Grammy nominated mixing engineer and composer of the ASCAP Pop Ballad of the Year winner

I’m in love with the plug in! Finally a compressor that sounds like a real thing!!
Niklas Silén / bManic

Niklas Silén / bManic

Beta testing, presets for industry leaders such as FabFilter, Tone Projects, Tokyo Dawn Labs, DMG Audio and many more.

This is an absolutely unique and superb plugin. You will not be able to duplicate it’s action and mojo with other tools. Believe me when I say that I’ve tried! That alone makes it extremely valuable in my opinion.
Wytse Gerichhausen

Wytse Gerichhausen

White Sea Studio

Wow! I’m really impressed – I can’t find anything to bitch about. They’ve done it really well – it’s a nice color box and I like how subtle it is.
Klas-Henrik Lindblad

Klas-Henrik Lindblad

Blackhead Studios, Berlin. Fatboy Slim, Eats Everything, Henrik Schwarz

Verdict after one week of work: very good control of movement and nice options for colour. Bass for the WIN 👍 A tip to all Pro Tools users, load it in Metaplugin and off you go.
Mats Takila

Mats Takila

Producer, Mixing engineer, Helsinki Unity Music, Consultant at Universal Music Finland

I’ve had the honor to use Ukrainian HCL’s gear for 17 years. When I first heard what Islander does to the sound, I had to open the old mixes and mix again. The compression is warm and withstands even harder pushing. A really good addition is the saturation, which I used to get the necessary brightness for the song without eq. Likewise, the clipper provides appropriate aggressiveness when needed. Islander will be an important tool in my mixing kit.
Francisco Javier

Francisco Javier

Audio engineer, Producer, audiotoolsblog.blogspot.com

The character offered by this compression / saturation / clipper is distinctive, and what we are looking for. It’s that ‘Glue compression’ you’re looking for, maybe it’s the mojo your mix or your tracks need, the necessary brightness for the song without eq. Likewise, the clipper on your master to get the desired LUFS level.
Mark Wingfield

Mark Wingfield

Heron Island Studio, Award winning mixing and mastering engineer

Islander has become one of my absolute goto mastering compressors. This compressor brings so many things to the table in one plugin and it does them all with such pristine sonic quality. It easily adds solid weight and punch while at the same time bringing out the energy of a song. It adds glue without sounding overdone and just as importantly it brings out the best parts of the tone of the music in a way I can’t get out of any other compressor.
Teemu “TB” Lampinen

Teemu “TB” Lampinen

Mixing and mastering engineer

Fun fact, I was the first who bought HCL Islander plugin. Nowadays, Islander is always in my mastering chain. I really love how it colors my sound. With the clipper in Islander I can make music LOUD! I love this!
Jerkka Perälä

Jerkka Perälä

Soft Neon Audiovisual

HCL Islander really isn’t just another compressor. Truly delivering what it promises, usage varies from slight silky gluing to ultra-punishing and pummeling impacts, and does it all with ease. Delta mode and the clipper are my two favourite features, and this has been sitting on all of my drum busses since day one. Dialing in the perfect compression with a tone flavour suitable for practically any use has really not felt this easy, 6/5.

For the first time ever there is a Handcrafted Labs based plugin!

Handcrafted Labs is a Ukrainian high end audio company known worldwide for their tube equipment. Their bestseller devices such as Varis and Thermos can be found in numerous studios around the globe. Sergey Rakovich and Gennadii Burzak started their company over twenty years ago in Ukraine, Kiev and since the occupation of Crimea in 2014 they have relocated their business to more stable grounds.

Gennadii has worked in world class classical studios in Kiev as a main technician and his passion shows in every wiring he does. Point to point old school soldering combined with innovative ways to approach the modern needs of engineers.

Tommi Langen from Tape Over Mastering is a mixing and mastering engineer from Finland. His merits include nine #1 albums in Finnish national album chart, mixing and mastering of Emma and Teosto Award-winning records and over fourty releases that have gone gold, platinum or double platinum.

Tommi is also known for his solo music, co-founder of critically acclaimed group Ruger Hauer and in his downtime Langen has toured over forty countries as a FOH engineer. Langen has also wrote an album titled “Ukraina” in 2013.

Handcrafted Labs and Tommi share a long history together, but first and foremost it’s based on sound and engineering quality.

Mastered with HCL Islander

A/B Test with original hardware

Handcrafted Labs
HCL Instagram
HCL Website

Tommi Langen
Tommishock Instagram

Tape Over
Tape Over Instagram
Tape Over Website

Changelog:

Version 1.3.8 – VU metering fixed with mono channels in some DAWs. Allow hard bypass on channel two with Stereo Link mode.

Version 1.3.7 – Added External sidechaining capabilities with selectable channel and blending between the internal input.

Version 1.3.6 – Make preset loading more robust, decouple from graphics, which caused problems with certain setups. Add user preset slots.

Version 1.3.5 – Further default preset work, scale and loading should work correctly now.

Version 1.3.4 – Allow saving window scale to presets.

Version 1.3.3 – Ensure custom presets load switches correctly.

Version 1.3.2 – Also fix an edited default preset loading at the wrong time in certain daws.

Version 1.3.1 Preset calibration fixes

Version 1.3.0 Funky Features
Caution: not fully backwards compatible due to calibration change, but well worth the update!

  • Automatic release, with BUS mode and Tempo derived fractional settings
  • A/B Comparison mode
  • Extended sidechain frequency and knob control
  • Revamped calibration

Version 1.2.6 – Update frameworks, fix crash reported on Cubase in Trial mode

Version 1.2.5 – Added noise variance control for compression, fixed bug in Channel bypasses from 1.2.3

Version 1.2.4 – Maintenance release, remove unused stuff

Version 1.2.3 – Fix for some DAWs that loaded the custom default preset on top of pre-existing instances of the plugin

Version 1.2.2 – Custom user preset saving, Delta mode fix for some DAWs

Version 1.2.1 – Further oversampling improvements, gain match accuracy improvement

Version 1.2.0

  • Combined trial and full version
  • Added help menu with links to manual etc.
  • Added license deactivation feature under the same menu
  • Improved oversampling

Version 1.1.2 – Logic and StudioOne specific fixes

Version 1.1.1 – Added control link for SC Feed modes

Version 1.1.0 – Feature Creature

  • VU Meters completely redone with vector graphics. Smoother action, more accurate.
  • Input and Output gains added with +/- 16 dB of Gain on tap.
  • Smoother clipper action at insane gain levels. ( -1.8 LUFS without compensation etc. )
  • Compressor topology update for feed modes
  • Sidechain FF/FB (legacy mode from earlier when used with FF comp mode)
  • Plugin scale recall

Version 1.0.3

  • Improvements to sidechaining circuit
  • Ease of use improvements for Activation
  • CTRL Link on by default
  • Made UI scaler area more visible

Version 1.0.2

  • Fixed issue with sidechaining at 96kHz and above.
  • Changes to how the Trial works.

Version 1.0.1

  • Fixed rare issue where activation would open the URL again once returning to the plugin.
  • Decreased the click area size of the info/manufacturer links.
  • Set the saturation knobs to 0 in the Factory Default preset.