Heritage Audio unveil the Tubestrip

New channel strip combines popular hardware designs

The latest arrival to the Heritage Audio line-up brings together a selection of their praised hardware designs in an attempt to create the new gold standard for tracking and sculpting any source . Said to be the company's most ambitious piece of outboard gear to date, the Tubestrip combines a preamp and EQ section with a pair of compressors, all of which have been carefully designed to function as a single, cohesive tool.

First up is a transformer-coupled, valve-based preamp that accepts mic, line-level and instrument signals and delivers up to 60dB of gain. The section includes a Morph control that makes it possible to blend seamlessly between a range of sound characters: with the control positioned fully anticlockwise, a Pentode mode delivers warmth and smoothness , while the opposite end of the scale imparts some bite and attitude courtesy of Triode mode; placed half-way between the two is UL (UltraLinear), which offers the best of both worlds, and as the control is variable, it's possible to dial in just about anything in between. A Preamp Out level control follows, allowing users to pull the level back when pushing the preamp hard for effect.

The Tubestrip's EQ section employs an inductor-based design inspired by Olympic Studio's Type 69 EQ - a model which Heritage Audio say is an all-time favourite of their founder and CEO Peter Rodriguez. It features a high band with a 10db cut/boost and frequency controls, a mid band that offers up to 10dB of cut or boost (its mode is selectable via a push button) and a low band with a frequency selector and separate 10dB cut and boost controls.

Two compressors follow, offering both vari-mu and optical topologies. The vari-mu design draws on Heritage Audio's LANG P.Lane design, and incorporates the 'Seawell Mod' - a modification that has been carried out by users of the LANG P.Lane to help deliver a more aggressive compression character. Finally, the optical compressor not only offers an additional flavour' of compression, but also includes a De-Ess Freq control which, as you might have guessed from the name, allows the section to function as a de-esser.

Pricing & Availability The Tubestrip is available now, priced at $ 3499.

heritageaudio.com/tubestrip

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