Add body and character to your tracks with a Console 1 strip inspired by classic British units from the 60s and early 70s. Paired with the smooth workflow and hands-on control you'd expect of Console 1, British Class A gives you the perfect mix solution for the DAW-based studio.
Let your tracks soak in the fat transformer crunch of the input stage, get great tone with the honey-sweet equalizer, control dynamics with the beautifully musical compressor, smash them into oblivion with the limiter, and keep things tight and tidy with the smooth gate. British Class A For Console 1 collects the most coveted and distinctive sounding units of the pro audio world in a single channel. Feast on a few details of the different components:
Drive
In the early 70s, recording engineers were quick to figure out that they could use these amazing consoles to add a rich and dense tone to recordings. The trick was to push the transformer-coupled input stage harder than it was really designed for.
Still a studio trick used today by the lucky few with a hardware original: get your hands on the British Class A for Console 1 and try it for yourself. The transformers we've modelled here were used in the first and most coveted generation of the original analog input channels, so Drive is guaranteed to give you the most authentic British sound.
Equalizer
To ensure the model's accuracy, the British Class A Equalizer has been based on several different original vintage hardware pieces. While the sound is indistinguishable from the analog originals, the British Class A Equalizer offers even greater flexibility by incorporating dual mid bands instead of a single one. This lets you shape your sounds in creative ways that with the original hardware would have required two daisy-chained equalizers.
Compressor
The British Class A Compressor adds a full-bodied and syrupy tone to the sound source, in addition to its highly musical gain reduction. The model is based on the classic British diode bridge compressor/limiter, which first came out in 1968. But just as with the equalizer, we've added extra flexibility, incorporating a modification used by many top-level studios to improve control of attack times and additional release times.
Limiter
The original compressor unit incorporated both a compressor and a limiter. For maximum usability, we have modelled the two separately and installed them as two distinct plug-ins in British Class A. Use the British Class A Limiter for exceedingly subtle level control or for beating your sounds into submission.
Gate
One of the lesser-known classic British units, the original gate shared the same form factor as the famous equalizer and compressor units modeled in British Class A. It was also a transformer based class A design and does a terrific job of keeping tracks tighter and cleaner. Using the sidechain input makes it very useful for ultra-musical keying purposes.
Features
Channel emulation for Softube Console 1 with EQ, compressor, limiter, gate, high/low cut filters and input stage drive
Inspired by vintage British Class A hardware units
Doubled equalizer mid band
Additional compressor attack/release times, based on the most famous modification available
Perfectly compatible with Console 1
"British Class A delivers every aspect of the timeless vintage British sound. From the rich, dense crunch of overdriving the input stage, to the compressor and EQ. Furthermore, Softube made the units better suited for modern day mixing with the cool and useful feature additions."
Michael Ilbert,Grammy awarded engineer for Taylor Swift, Pink and Katy Perry.
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System Requirements
Mac OS X 10.12 or newer (older OS versions may work but are not tested).
Windows 64-bit, versions 7, 8 or 10.
Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 X2 or newer.
Screen resolution 1280x800 or larger.
8 GB RAM or more is recommended, as well as at least 8 GB hard disk space for installation (individual plug-ins take less space, while sample libraries may require additional disk space. Specific information available on each instrument's page).
Softube account.
iLok account.
Internet access for downloading installer and managing licenses.
iLok generation 2 and up, if you intend to use an iLok dongle for authorizing your plug-ins (note that an iLok dongle is not a requirement).
In theory, any 64-bit VST, VST3, AU, or AAX (11.0.2 or higher) compatible host application should work.
Please Note:Softube plug-ins support 64-bit hosts only, and a 64-bit OS is required. Therefore, for example, Pro Tools 10.x is no longer supported (contact support for latest 32-bit compatible instalers).
