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.
