Studio hardware makers Elysia continue their exploration of the 500-series format with 500, their sound shaping preamp. The idea is to give you “everything you’ll ever need in front of your DAW” say its makers. That’s because this single-width unit features a preamp, filters, harmonics, dynamics and a balanced DI.
The preamp itself is a fully Class-A design and instead of using potentiometers, Elysia have instead opted to use single resistors controlled by a relays cascade. This combined with stepped controllers for completely repeatable settings.
Sound shaping is afforded by filters and harmonics, meanwhile, the low end can be cleaned up with a variable low-cut filter. There’s a single-knob compressor with a fixed low ratio, with the one knob controlling threshold.
It’s not just a mic preamp though, Elysia have also designed the Skulpter 500 to accept a balanced DI input.
The metering is worth a mention, too. The multifunction meter can display level, gain, compression and clipping.
Pricing is yet to be finally confirmed, but it should be available in May.