Novatron by The House of Kush Review

Kush Audio also called, UBK or The House of Kush has been publishing plugins that are heavily based on the hardware that they custom developed over the past years. Novatron is an analog-modeled Tube Compressor. Novatron has that glue features a vintage-inspired interface and an appropriately “warm” sound for an overall laid-back, classic vibe.

If you wonder what UBK stands for: “Useless Bank of Knowledge” an ironic nickname for Gregory Scott who is the founder of Kush Audio and Sly-Fi Digital.

Related to this plugin: Anyone interested in music, mixing and lately personal non-senses guidance or just looking for a good time while you are riding to the office subscribe to The UBK Happy Funtime Hour (By Gregory Scott (UBK) & Nathan Daniel). At the time of writing this review, the podcast is in episode 145.

Installation

Download and install the plugin from Kush Website and register the iLok code that you receive after purchase.

Sound

Novatron as a vintage characteristic plugin includes a mix of various vintage models. Gregory Scott selected the right and suitable sounding devices to inspire this meshed plugin which is one of the leading and best sounding compressor available on the market.

Novatron is all about bringing the best energy to a track and the mix bus. Gregory Scott designed Novatron to replace his own hardware devices that as he stated many times do not need to use anymore and is now with all the Kush plugins and some 3rd party ones ready to thoroughly mix in the box.

Novatron is somehow a lush compressor that is still able to become an aggressive tool. The design of the compressor is aiming to generate additional harmonics, energy, and frequencies similar to hardware. The result is a musical track and a bit from the 90s.

Novatron works exceptionally good on a drum bus, vocals, and other instruments.  Besides on the different tracks or bus use it in concert with EQ and limiter on the stereo bus at the end to glue everything together.

Novatron shaping ability to emulate different hardware, but no specific one generates some appealing characteristics. Novatron is packed with a good number of presets to get you started. The UI makes it easy to dial in with the limited controls the sound you need.

There is also training from Nathan Daniel that I would strongly suggest to complete. In Nathan’s One-on-One Mix Training you can become a better person, mix and mastering engineer – or just a better engineer. Nathan Daniel is a mixing and mastering engineer based in Los Angeles. He has mixed records for Sony, Universal, Atlantic, and Warner Bros.

User interface & Usability

Kush audio is hiring talents to do the design of their plugins. The result is a supremely intuitive and eternal smart Interface to compress and glue your mix together.

Rating:  Five out of five stars

Novatron is a real character compressor and saturator that makes everything sound great. With this compressor and some additional tools like an EQ and limiter you can glue your mix and get the track tamed and dynamic that the result is stuck together and hit your soul and body.

Novatron’s secret weapon is that it adds harmonic energy to the track or mix bus, you can make that effect a settle one or drive to some utmost extent. Before we get to technical and if you are lost you can be assured that the compressor is easy to use and you can get right sounding results even when you go a bit too far with the knobs.