PUSH shipped May 12. Five plugins now in the KERN lineup.

Copenhagen, Tue May 12, 2026. KERN Audio has shipped PUSH, the fifth plugin in its lineup of single-purpose audio tools for music producers.

PUSH is a three-character compressor designed to sit before, not replace, a final compressor. SETTLE provides slow bus glue in the SSL G-Bus tradition. TIGHT is fast transient grip in the 1176 fast-mode tradition. DRIFT is slow opto breath in the LA-2A tradition. Each character is hand-tuned via blind A/B against reference compressors. No AI, no neural networks, no learned parameter selection.

All KERN plugins cap at five user-facing knobs. PUSH commits to that constraint across all three characters: AMOUNT, SPEED, FOCUS, MIX, plus a CHARACTER selector. The internal compression curves are decisions the developer made, not parameters pushed onto the user.

PUSH is $29 single. The four-plugin KERN bundle (SMOOTH, WARM, WIDE, PUSH) is $59 launch-intro through Mon May 25, 2026, then moves to $69 list. Existing $59 bundle owners receive PUSH free in their downloads.

KERN ships Mac and Windows together. No iLok. No subscription. Permanent license. Demo available at kernaudio.io/push, 45-second fade-limited, fully functional, no email required.

KERN Audio is one developer in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jonas was a touring musician who stopped performing in 2023 after a hospital stay. He spent three years learning C++, DSP, and the JUCE framework to build the audio tools he wished existed. KERN shipped its first plugin in late 2024 and its fifth on May 12, 2026.

Every algorithm in every plugin is hand-tuned, deterministic, and traceable to a specific design intention. KERN does not use AI, neural networks, or learned-model parameter selection in any plugin. The test suite asserts against numerical baselines (528 tests, 698,620 assertions across the full regression).

KERN sells direct from kernaudio.io via Lemon Squeezy. No third-party retailers (CHECK is also on Plugin Boutique, free). No investors. No team. Jonas answers every support email personally.

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