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IHNY-2

Parallel Compressor

IHNY-2 by Baby Audio with Tweak Panel engaged.

IHNY-2

Parallel Compressor

Add punch to your mix

  • Add impact and punch with the industry’s hardest hitting compressor
  • Features an internal signal flow optimized for fast parallel compression
  • Open the tweak panel to shape the tone with surgical flexibility
  • I Heart NY owners: Upgrade to IHNY-2 here
Praise for our plugins
Baby Audio selected a Winner in the 2025 Sound on Sound AwardsKVR Reader's Choice Award for Most Innovative Plugin awarded to Baby Audio in 2023Music Radar Awards 2022 winner Baby AudioBaby Audio selected for the Computer Music Editor's Choice AwardBaby Audio's Music Tech 10/10 Excellence AwardPlugin Boutique Awards 2024 Multi-Effect title awarded to Baby AudioMagnetic Mag Editor's Choice Award 2025 awarded to Baby Audio

Mix smarter – and harder

IHNY-2 is a modern mix plugin dedicated to perfecting the parallel compression technique with a faster workflow and a more forceful sound. Use it to add weight and punch to drums, vocals and even full masters.

House Piano  /  Dry → Wet
Synth Pluck  /  Dry → Wet
Kick  /  Dry → Wet
Snare  /  Dry → Wet

Can a compressor be innovative?

Most compressors used in today's studios are either innovations from the mid 20th century or plugin emulations of the same thing. But has 50 years of evolution not enabled us to make a better compressor? We decided to find out.

IHNY-2 offers a powerful and clinical modern sound that can be dialed-in to taste perfectly. Move the node around the XY pad to control compression intensity and dry/wet blend in one motion. Open the tweak panel for creative features to shape your tone further.

Why parallel compression?

Contemporary mixes need punch. And to achieve maximum impact without killing a track's dynamics, engineers turn to parallel compression. This technique blends a dry track with a heavily compressed duplicate to get the best of both worlds.

IHNY-2 is specifically designed for this workflow. The plugin hosts two parallel signals internally that are blended via the Y axis on the XY pad.

More importantly, the compression sound itself is optimized for parallel work with an aggressive response that can effortlessly squash and slam a signal without destroying its clarity.

What people are saying

David Nakaji on IHNY-2 by Baby Audio

“I Heart NY was my favorite Baby Audio Plugin so IHNY-2 had a lot to live up to and it did not disappoint. It's the sound and soul of I Heart NY, but allows you to deep dive into tweaking how it shapes and colours the sound. An absolute must have that's going to live on my drum bus for a while.”

David Nakaji

Grammy-Nominated Mix Engineer - Kendrick Lamar, Gesaffelstein, Post Malone, Doja Cat, Glass Animals

Matt Sim on IHNY-2 by Baby Audio

"I fell in love with IHNY-2 instantly. Not only does it do a marvelous job as a parallel compressor, it also functions so well as a parallel harmonic exciter and EQ."

Matt Sim

Grammy Award-Winning Mix Engineer - Frank Ocean, Ryuichi Sakamoto, The Rolling Stones, Gucci Mane

Jennifer Ortiz on IHNY-2 by Baby Audio

“The “tweak" window is a secret compartment that holds all my favorite parallel compression tools.”

Jennifer Ortiz

Grammy Award-Winning Engineer and Mixer - Doechii, Erykah Badu, Noname

Preston "Pizzie" Reid on IHNY-2 by Baby Audio

"All I have to say is...DAMN. You guys literally nailed it with this. I tried it and immediately threw it into the template. Simple, effective and it just works! Great job. I don't think you can come up with a bad sound with this."

Preston "Prizzie" Reid

Grammy Award-Winning Mixer and Producer - Chief Keef, 21 Savage, Alicia Keys, Lil Uzi Vert

Neenah on IHNY-2 by Baby Audio

“Baby Audio does it again! I was already a fan of the first IHNY, but IHNY-2 just sounds SO good! It has a fresh crispy sound to it that enhances without taking anything away from the original sound. Putting this on your drumbus will have your drums simply sounding better and more lively within seconds.”

Neenah

Mixer,
Producer, and Songwriter

M-Phazes on IHNY-2 by Baby Audio

"Being able to really hone in on parallel compression is what separates the amateurs from the pros. The fact you can now do it in 1 plugin is awesome! I love how wild you can crush a signal but then only subtly blend that in with the dry signal, adds so much life to a sound without killing the dynamics, amazing work! This will be a go-to within my workflow!"

M-Phazes

Grammy Award-Winning Producer - Eminem, Lil Yachty, Remi Wolf, Kehlani

Delbert Bowers on IHNY-2 by Baby Audio

"What a fun plugin to experiment around with! You can reach for IHNY-2 when other attempts to create cool vibes have failed. I’ve created the ‘five boroughs’ as presets for the release: Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens."

Delbert Bowers

Grammy Award-Winning Mix Engineer - Lizzo, Icona Pop, Shawn Mendes

KurtCurt on IHNY-2 by Baby Audio

“Like a true New Yorker, this plugin gets straight to the point by adding in-your-face character and punch. So don’t be surprised if you end up putting ‘I Heart NY’ across multiple tracks in your mix.”

KurtCurt

Grammy-Nominated Engineer and Mixer - 2 Chainz, Young Thug, Babyface, Rotimi

Compression done your way

IHNY-2 can be operated simply by moving the circle-node around the XY pad. Or you can design the ideal compression sound for any track's needs. Open the tweak panel to access a menu of flexible tone-shaping options.

Highlights in the tweak panel include transient preservation, dynamic saturation (where the signal gets more saturated the more it gets compressed), low and high preservation filters and EQ curve enhancements. But you'll also find familiar controls like attack, release and ratio.

The GUIs of the original I Heart NY plugin and its successor IHNY-2

The plugin that started it all

IHNY-2 is the successor to Baby Audio's very first plugin (I Heart NY). We launched in 2019 with the idea to make a simple parallel compression plugin vaguely inspired by an obsolete hardware compressor/limiter unit.

The plugin name was inspired by the city that was our home base at the time as well as the term "New York compression" – another term for parallel compression.

IHNY-2 is the successor to our first plugin offering improvements in both sound and flexibility. If you're an I Heart NY V1 owner you can upgrade to IHNY-2 here.

Explore the features

IHNY-2 by Baby Audio with Tweak Panel engaged.

More details

✱ Plugin formats: VST, VST3, AU, AAX (64-bit).

✱ Platforms supported: Mac OS 10.11 and up (including Native Apple Silicon M-Chip Compatibility). PC Windows 10 and newer.

✱ DAWs supported: All major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, Studio One, Bitwig, Reaper, Reason etc.

Download User Manual

CONFIGURATION:

IHNY-2 splits the incoming audio into two duplicates. One remains untouched by the plugin (Dry track), the other is subjected to all the goodness IHNY-2 has to offer (Wet track). You balance the two signals on the vertical axis of the XY pad, while setting the compression amount of the Wet track on the horizontal axis. This allows you to operate the most important controls of the plugin in just one motion and find the sweet spot fast.

IHNY-2 has an autogain algorithm working under the hood to give you a consistent output as you move the node around the XY pad. But if you find that the make-up gain is too loud or too quiet you can use the Autogain slider to nudge its behavior.

While moving the node around the XY pad, you'll see a value displayed under the "AGR" abbreviation (Adjusted Gain Reduction). This number takes into account the current Gain Reduction and Dry/Wet balance to give you a value for the compression intensity. For a good starting point, we recommend you aim for AGR levels between -10 and -20.

TWEAK PANEL:

IHNY-2 is meant to be as fast and intuitive as its predecessor. But if you need to go deeper, the Tweak Panel gives you full control over the compressor. Here, you’ll find a number of new features that weren’t included in V1.

Attack + Release: Sets how fast the compressor engages and disengages.

Ratio: Sets the compression intensity from mild to aggressive.

Punch: Heavy compression tends to suck the transients out of a signal. The Punch control works to emphasize attack transients in the compressed track, helping it cut through even at very high compression levels.

Harmonics: Imagine a saturator that behaves like a compressor – that’s Harmonics. This feature introduces harmonic saturation controlled by the gain-reduction, meaning more compressed parts get saturated harder.

Shape: Adds our custom ‘smiley EQ curve’ to bring out the lows and highs and make the compressed signal more present. (The smiley EQ curve is what sets “New York Compression” apart from regular parallel compression. IHNY-2 can do both).

Tilt: Makes the compressor work harder on either the low or high end of your signal – which can be useful for controlling bass heavy material and letting the high end breathe (or vice versa).

Lo + Hi Preserve: Prevents the low and high frequencies from being compressed above/below the cutoff points. This is a great way to preserve the kick while squashing the rest of your drum bus.

OTHER FEATURES:

- Oversampling: Run the plugin in 1x, 2x or 4x oversampling modes. (We recommend 1x for better CPU performance).
- Solo: Monitor the wet signal in solo. Useful for finetuning – or for using IHNY-2 as a regular insert compressor.
- Tooltips: Turn on to get explanations of each parameter as you use the plugin.
- Save As Default: Save your own default preset, which will load whenever you open a new instance of IHNY-2.
- Reset To Default: Reset the plugin to your default preset.
- Baby Audio Logo: Bypass the plugin.
- Resize Icon: Resize the plugin.

IHNY-2 comes loaded with 156 presets created by BABY Audio and friends of the house - including:

✱ Delbert Bowers (Lizzo, Icona Pop, Shawn Mendes)
✱ Matt Sim (Frank Ocean, Ryuichi Sakamoto, The Rolling Stones, Gucci Mane)
✱ M-Phazes (Eminem, Lil Yachty, Remi Wolf, Kehlani)
✱ Preston “Prizzie” Reid (Chief Keef, 21 Savage, Alicia Keys, Lil Uzi Vert)
✱ Rob Kleiner (Sia, James Blake, Billie Eilish, Britney Spears, David Guetta)

✱ Cmd+Click: Slows down mouse movement in the Tweak Panel for finetuning purposes.
✱ Ctrl+Click on XY Pad Node: Horizontal movement only.
✱ Alt (Cmd) + Click on XY Pad Node: Vertical movement only.
✱ Double Click: Resets any parameter to its default value.

IHNY-2

Hard-Hitting Parallel Compressor

Buy IHNY-2

  • One time purchase to own IHNY-2 forever.
  • Already own V1? Upgrade for $.

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