British Class A

Now available as a standalone plug-in or with Console 1

Add body and character to your tracks with the most timeless and loved mixing tools ever—the Neve Class A units from the 60s and 70s. Either when used standalone or when paired with the smooth workflow and hands-on control 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 a 1073 input stage, set the tone with the honey sweet filters of the 1084 equalizer, keep the dynamics under control with the full-bodied 2254 compressor, smash them into oblivion with the 2254 limiter, and tighten things up with the musical 2257 gate. British Class A collects the world's most sought after Neve units in a single channel.

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 analog gate shares the same form factor as the equalizer and compressor units we’ve modelled. Just like the other units, it is a transformer-based class A design, hand built in the UK. The British Class A Gate helps keeping tracks tighter and cleaner. Using the sidechain input makes it very useful for ultra-musical keying purposes.

In Short

Channel emulation for Softube Console 1 or as a standalone plug-in with EQ, compressor, limiter, gate, high/low cut filters and input stage drive
Inspired by top-quality British analog units with the classic 60s and 70s sound
Doubled equalizer mid band
Additional compressor attack/release times, based on the most famous modification available
Directly compatible with Console 1