Solid Channel

What's in it

• Input: line amp (-20 to +20 dB) and a mic preamp (0 to 66 dB), phase switch. AUTO TRIM takes the added gain back at the output, so you hear the drive without the channel getting louder.
• Filters: high-pass and low-pass, each can be moved into the sidechain of the dynamics.
• EQ: HF and LF shelves, two mid bands with Q, x3 on the high mid and /3 on the low mid.
• Compressor: ratio up to limiting, threshold, release, fast or programme-dependent attack. No make-up knob, it does that by itself.
• Expander / gate: range up to 40 dB, threshold, release, fast or slow attack.
• Routing: dynamics before or after the EQ, external sidechain, stereo link, a MIX knob for parallel compression.
• On stereo tracks it runs two channels with slightly different component values, like two real channels. Their own noise and a little hum are in too; you can switch that off in the menu.
• MONO: sums left and right and runs only one channel. On mono sources in a stereo track this halves the CPU load.
• Graph panel: the EQ curve, which you can also set by dragging its handles, with an analyzer behind it. Above it, the curves of the compressor and expander for the current settings, for display only.
• Factory and user presets, copy and paste between instances, 44.1 to 192 kHz.

A bit of history

In 1987 a British company brought out the last generation of its large-format console. The one before it was already in most of the big studios, and within a few years the new desk stood in many of them too. What made these consoles special was simple: every single channel had its own compressor and gate right next to the EQ. You could shape drums, bass and vocals on the desk itself, without a rack of outboard gear, and a computer could recall the whole mix the next day.

The new generation came with a revised EQ, easy to spot by its pink knobs, and engineers simply called it the pink EQ. Through the late 80s and the 90s a huge number of pop, rock and hip-hop records went through channels like this one, often every track of a song on the same desk. Drums that hit hard and stay in their place, vocals that sit right in front: a lot of that sound came from here.

A working console of this kind costs as much as a house and needs its own room and a technician. Solid Channel gives you one of its channels on every track of your session.

How it sounds

Many channel strip plugins add something on top of the signal: a bit of saturation, a tone curve. You hear the effect, and the source sits a little smaller behind it. On the console it works the other way round. The colour comes from the circuit reacting to the signal itself, so it moves with the music, and the source gets bigger instead of smaller.

That is what I built it for. The distortion rises and falls with the level of every note, and the compressor and gate work through the real detector and VCA circuit. On a stereo track the two sides are two slightly different channels with their own noise, so the image keeps its width and depth. Quiet passages don't drop into digital silence, and when you drive the input hard it stays free of aliasing, the harsh digital artefact that often gives plugins away.

PCCN™

PCCN is the engine I use for all my plugins. It calculates the actual circuit while your audio runs through it, instead of applying a fixed curve or a recorded response. That is why the channel reacts to level and to every knob the way the circuit does, and why it needs more CPU than a simple EQ.

Solid Channel is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed from the manufacturer of the original console. All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.