After many years as a developer for Waves, Thomas Ceyhan struck out on his own last year, and he has already built up an impressive library of plug‑ins under his Babelson Audio label. Many of these tools embody a visual and sonic aesthetic that’s derived from studio gear of the past, but they don’t emulate specific vintage items. Instead, the approach seems to be to cherry-pick favoured elements of classic designs to create a simple but effective hybrid.

That’s certainly the case with the three plug‑ins in the FD Bundle. Each comprises three main components: a simple equaliser with high and low shelving bands, a virtual input transformer and a valve saturation stage. The EQ and transformer modelling are identical in all three FD plug‑ins, with the latter being modelled after the classic Marinair design used in vintage Neve modules.