Lurssen Mastering Console — measured

On the bench

48 kHz · 512-block · offline · same procedure for every plugin

Magnitude responsestepped sine, −12 dBFS

Output level vs. frequency.

It shapes your tone by up to ±6.4 dB on purpose — that built-in curve is part of its sound.

Distortion vs level1 kHz, THD / THD+N

─ THD ┄ THD+N. THD is the trustworthy figure; THD+N is method-floor-limited at low levels.

It adds clear harmonic color (1.7% at full level) — the grit and warmth this design is meant to give.

Latency, reported

419 smp

Latency, measured

419 smp (matches)

Onset

411 smp

Noise floor

−222.7 dBFS

Linearity residual

-18.7 dB (1000 Hz, -12/-18 dBFS)

Processing cost

not measured

Background hiss sits at -223 dBFS — far quieter than anything you would hear in a mix.

How hard you push it changes what it does (a -19 dB gap between levels) — expected for a saturator, which reacts to input level.

It delays the audio by 419 samples (8.7 ms at 48 kHz) and reports that delay, so your DAW lines it back up.

What these measurements mean

read from the numbers above · character / coloring design

On the bench it behaves like a coloring tool, scoring 10.0/10 on how clean its signal path is; its tone-shaping and harmonics are reported as character, not graded as faults. It shapes your tone by up to ±6.4 dB on purpose — that built-in curve is part of its sound. It adds clear harmonic color (1.7% at full level) — the grit and warmth this design is meant to give. Background hiss sits at -223 dBFS — far quieter than anything you would hear in a mix. How hard you push it changes what it does (a -19 dB gap between levels) — expected for a saturator, which reacts to input level. It delays the audio by 419 samples (8.7 ms at 48 kHz) and reports that delay, so your DAW lines it back up.

Measured score 10.0/10 — signal-path noise floor (the shaping and harmonics are the design's intent, shown as character, not graded). How scoring works.

What people report

sourced sentiment · in our words, not a bench measurement

7.4/10 independent reviews & user reports, 4 sources · a separate figure from the measured score

Consistently praised

Reviewers report it gets a finished, cohesive sound quickly by picking a genre Style template, which makes it approachable for people new to mastering or working under tight deadlines.
The modeled chain is described as adding a pleasing analog character, warmth and 'glue' that several testers found smooth and musical, and that some happily repurposed onto drum and bass busses.
The Push macro, which nudges all five EQ bands together as a single automatable move, is singled out as the standout control and a faithful take on Lurssen's own studio trick for adding emphasis.

Common criticism

Editing is deliberately narrow: a five-band fixed-frequency EQ with no Q, bandwidth or filter-type choices, fixed processor order, and no way to add or rearrange modules, so it is not a flexible mastering suite the way Ozone or the T-RackS Mastering Console are.
Testers flagged practical gaps, notably the absence of a limiter threshold (one needed a separate limiter), presets that load with unusually large EQ boosts requiring pullback, and a bypass that doesn't level-match so EQ changes are hard to judge.
Because the chosen preset largely dictates the result and per-preset differences can feel subtle, control-minded users found it restrictive and noted a clean source mix is needed since no surgical correction is possible.

Sources — proaudio.tech ↗ SonicScoop ↗ Audiofanzine ↗ AudioNewsRoom ↗

A review score is shown only when at least two independent sources — published reviews or genuine user discussion — return usable text. Launch or announcement coverage alone does not qualify, so some plugins read N/A here while still carrying a full measured score above.

How it sits in saturation

measured score + bench figures, then the sourced review score (separate, N/A if unscored) · alphabetical · not ranked

Plugin	Measured /10	Mag dev	Max THD	Latency	Noise	Review /10
Black Box HG-2	10.0	±1.5 dB	4.986%	32 smp	−182	8.9
Channel G Console	10.0	±0.1 dB	0.000%	0 smp	<floor	8.5
Decapitator	10.0	±5.4 dB	7.929%	63 smp	−163	8.9
Dist COLDFIRE	10.0	±6.5 dB	39.830%	143 smp	<floor	8.8
Dist OPAMP-21	10.0	—	—	0 smp	<floor	7.5
Dist TUBE-CULTURE	9.9	±3.8 dB	51.955%	112 smp	−154	N/A
Escalator	10.0	±0.2 dB	6.177%	0 smp	<floor	7.6
FireCharger	10.0	±2.1 dB	1.585%	8192 smp	<floor	8.0
Lurssen Mastering Console	10.0	±6.4 dB	1.705%	419 smp	−223	7.4
Quad Saturator	9.2	±0.1 dB	2.706%	4 smp	−117	N/A
Saturator X	10.0	±1.5 dB	26.227%	387 smp	−221	8.4
Super VHS	10.0	±3.9 dB	7.124%	1024 smp	<floor	7.9
TAIP	10.0	±2.5 dB	25.546%	63 smp	−165	8.4
Tape MELLO-FI	4.5	±65.8 dB	2.569%	248 smp	−70	7.6