TC Electronic System 6000 Native Bundle

VSS3 exemplifies the System 6000 user interface, with its row of six ‘focus fields’ at the bottom.

Is there still a place in our plug‑in folders for the core algorithms from TC Electronic’s legendary System 6000?

When I joined the staff of Sound On Sound, sometime in the 18th Century, there were three big names in digital effects: Lexicon, Eventide and TC Electronic. And, at the time, they were all busy spinning the technology from their high‑end studio processors out into more affordable units. In the case of Danish DSP wizards TC Electronic, that gave us project studio staples like the Triple C dynamics processor and M One effects unit, and perhaps most ubiquitously, the Finalizer range of mastering processors. And TC had their fingers in many other pies too, for example with rackmounting guitar effects like the Gforce, not to mention the Dice II chipset that powered many FireWire audio interfaces.

As the market for digital studio hardware dwindled in the 2010s, new opportunities arose elsewhere. Now part of Music Tribe, TC currently make a huge range of guitar and bass effects pedals, floorboards and bass amps. But the studio expertise that powered iconic products like the System 6000 hasn’t been neglected. Indeed, several members of the team that developed those products are still active at TC, including studio product specialist Christian Gadegaard Frandsen.

Back in the day, TC were quick to spot the potential of the Pro Tools TDM system, and eventually introduced their own Powercore DSP co‑processor. Both platforms allowed engineers mixing ‘in the box’ to employ TC signal processing algorithms as plug‑ins, rather than routing the signal out of the computer to a black box in a rack. Fast‑forward to 2024, and there is now a comprehensive range of TC plug‑ins in all the major native formats, available individually or in themed bundles. Some are entirely new, some are essentially ports of those classic algorithms, and some are faithful emulations of even older TC hardware products. The ‘one ring to rule them all’ is the TC Studio Elite Collection, which includes a total of 20 plug‑ins encompassing seven themed collections. Among them is the System 6000 Native Bundle, the subject of this review.

Feeding Of The 6000

The TC System 6000 was TC’s flagship digital processor. A rackmounting unit with a separate remote controller called the Icon, it was offered in several ‘mainframe’ configurations to suit particular use cases, with additional algorithms available to buy separately. For example, you could buy it as a Reverb 6000, pre‑loaded with reverbs and other effects, and then later upgrade to full System 6000 specs by adding dynamics, EQ, noise reduction and other algorithms; or you could opt for the Mastering 6000, which shipped with various dynamics and EQ capabilities but could likewise be upgraded. Some individual System 6000 algorithms were also available as plug‑ins for TDM and Powercore systems.

Although there were all sorts of effects and processes available, the Virtual Space Simulation reverbs and multiband dynamics were the jewels in the System 6000’s crown, and the five plug‑ins that form the System 6000 Native Bundle repackage those key algorithms. There are three reverb plug‑ins — VSS3 Native, VSS4HD Native and Nonlin2 Native — plus the MD3 Native and MD4HD Native mastering processors. All major native plug‑in formats on macOS and Windows are supported, and authorisation is to an iLok account.

The native plug‑ins are, as far as possible, faithful to the implementations that appeared in the original hardware and Powercore/TDM plug‑ins, which in turn means they largely replicate the user interfaces as they appeared on the Icon controller’s touchscreen. This used a control paradigm whereby parameters were selected for editing by touching an on‑screen button, then adjusted by moving a fader. Consequently, even on/off switches and settings chosen from lists appear as ‘rotary’ controls. Retaining the System 6000 interfaces also means these plug‑ins don’t have the visual bells and whistles you find in many modern rivals. For example, many multiband processors display the crossover frequencies and other parameters graphically over an FFT display of the incoming signal, but that’s not an option in MD3 or MD4HD.

These are relatively complex plug‑ins, with at least 20 parameters exposed and often many more, yet they never feel overwhelming or unclear.

Considering its age, though, I actually think the user interface paradigm has held up rather well. These are relatively complex plug‑ins, with at least 20 parameters exposed and often many more, yet they never feel overwhelming or unclear. The controls are sensibly distributed across multiple tabs, and the freely resizeable windows can be made compact enough to fit comfortably on any laptop screen, or large enough for the most ginormous monitor. These aren’t the sort of plug‑ins where you can randomly drag pretty graphics around and hope for the best, but as long as you have some understanding and experience of the basic processing types and parameters, they’ll be straightforward, logical and fast to use. There’s also a commendable consistency of design between all five plug‑ins in this suite, meaning that once you’ve learned one of them, the others are easy to pick up.

A good example of this is the six ‘focus fields’ that appear along the bottom of each plug‑in window. These remain visible whatever editing page you’re on, and can be assigned to any control you like. So if, for example, you typically do most of your reverb editing using four or five parameters that happen to be spread across different editing panes in VSS3 or VSS4HD, you can drag these to the focus fields and shape your sound without the need for constant page flipping. You can also choose to ‘pin’ these assignments so that recalling a preset doesn’t change them.

V Is For ’Verb

In the days when TC and Lexicon were the only serious players in digital reverb, they were regarded as having slightly different strengths. If you wanted something larger than life to add a touch of glamour, you would perhaps favour Lexicon, but if you wanted a pristine, clear sound that could pass for natural rather than artificial reverb, you’d plump for TC. In practice, this perception underplays the capabilities of both; and what’s surprising about VSS3 and VSS4HD is how well they stand up against modern reverb plug‑ins. The latter, in particular, is definitely not some period piece you’d wheel out on the off‑chance someone wanted a retro ’90s mix. It’s a seriously powerful and versatile reverb plug‑in that can produce everything from tight ambiences to expansive halls.

Billed as an “authentic space reverb”, VSS4HD set new standards in replicating realistic acoustic spaces.

VSS features that were perhaps novel and exciting at the time, such as true‑stereo operation, are now commonplace, but the implementation here still works very well. Like many algorithmic reverbs, VSS4HD is based around separate engines generating the early reflections and the reverb tail. The Main page provides extensive and independent control over the parameters for both. Setup is where you choose a room type from a list of 12, and position the left and right sources within it, while the Colour pane offers detailed control over the tone of the reverb. Finally, Gloss is where you apply modulation to the tail. If you’ve ever used a conventional studio reverb, it’ll all feel very familiar, and for good reason: this is one of the products that defined those conventions in the first place!

In some ways, though, I actually found VSS3 the more useful of the two. Although VSS4HD is still remarkably effective at creating smooth, rich virtual halls and chambers, it didn’t displace existing favourites of mine such as Liquidsonics’ superb Cinematic Rooms. VSS3, by contrast, has a distinctive character that I haven’t heard in another plug‑in. It’s not lo‑fi in the sense of being grainy or gritty, but it has a brasher and more mid‑focused sound that’s often perfect on sources such as vocals. For some reason, its output is typically several dB higher than that of VSS4HD, but even if you match their levels, VSS3 sounds louder and more ‘in your face’, if that’s something you can say of a reverb plug‑in. It’s versatile enough that you could use it on almost anything, yet distinctive enough that you couldn’t easily substitute it with a generic reverb.

Nonlin2, by contrast, was always intended as a special effect reverb, and still excels in that role. The idea behind a non‑linear reverb is that the usual decay pattern is disrupted or even reversed, so that the reverb builds up rather than dying away. The classic application is on drums, but it’s by no means limited to cliched ’80s gated snares. A variety of short algorithm types is available, from emulations of vintage AMS units and the like to the descriptively named Box and Hollow, and some effective ambiences. There’s no separate early reflections section; instead, there’s a graphical Envelope not unlike a synth ADSR, with an Attack time that sets how long the reverb takes to develop, and a Hold parameter that forces it to remain at a constant level for up to 500ms before the release phase kicks in. The factor that sets this plug‑in apart, though, is the modulation. You can choose from a wide variety of Twist options with names like Aircon, Kazoo and Radiator, which warp the sound in a variety of entirely unrealistic but fun and rewarding ways. Many reverbs have come and gone since the System 6000 was developed, but I honestly can’t think of another plug‑in that works or sounds like this one.

Nonlin2 specialises in the production of unnatural and weird reverbs.

The Final Countdown

As the names suggest, the relationship between MD3 and MD4HD mirrors that between VSS3 and VSS4HD; they represent successive generations or iterations of the same idea. Both are, in essence, complete mastering processors, and it was the MD3 that formed the heart of the hugely popular Finalizer back when we were all discovering the joys of home mastering. Once again, it’s tempting to wonder why you might need MD3 when MD4HD is a ‘better’ version of the same thing, and once again, it turns out that the older and supposedly lesser version still has something to give.

For one thing, I would wager that at least half of the records made through a TC Finalizer simply used one of the presets. Unlike the System 6000, these 1U rack units were not blessed with a touchscreen remote control, and although a Wizard function made editing easier, you were still dealing with a parameter wheel, a small screen and lots of abbreviations. The MD3 plug‑in includes many of the most popular presets from the hardware Finalizer models, and thus offers ‘that sound’ but a much more user‑friendly interface. It implements the instant mastering settings for which the Finalizer was renowned, but makes it a much more practical proposition to go in and tweak them.

The MD3 plug‑in reproduces much of the functionality of TC’s Finalizer hardware units.

However, it’s an oversimplification to say that the MD3 plug‑in is simply a software Finalizer, because both units had several processing sections, which are not all identical. The biggest contributor to the MD3 ‘sound’, if there is such a thing, is the three‑band compressor, and this is exactly the same algorithm as found in the Finalizer. Any multiband is only as good as the crossover filtering, which can introduce unpleasant phasey artefacts if done wrong. Despite its age, the MD3 algorithm is still extremely transparent. The crossover points are not continuously variable, but there are sufficient options to cater for most needs, and control over the compression parameters is extensive, with separate threshold, ratio, attack and release times and make‑up gain for each band. What’s even better is the provision of various linking options that allow multiple related parameters to be quickly adjusted together.

The compressor is preceded by a separate three‑band expander, which is perhaps less useful in this day and age than it was when the Finalizer was launched; there’s a lot less tape hiss to clean up nowadays, and a lot more dedicated noise‑reduction tools around. MD3’s four‑band EQ is likewise not state of the art any more, but is sonically blameless, and it’s ideally configured for its role towards the start of the chain, allowing you to drive different regions of the frequency spectrum more or less aggressively into the dynamics. (It’s not possible to change the fixed processing order.)

The output stage is where MD3 and the Finalizer differ most. The Finalizer had a multiband limiter to complement the expander and compressor, whereas MD3 has a full‑band, brickwall limiting stage. Nevertheless, this very much holds its own against newer mastering limiter plug‑ins. In particular, it’s capable of true peak limiting, meaning you can guarantee that your mix will be free of intersample overs that can cause clipping distortion on some playback systems. There’s also adjustable release time and a Soft Clip option — two, in fact, since there’s a separate soft clipping stage that can be introduced at the start of proceedings. Both MD3 and MD4HD can be operated in Mid‑Sides mode, which opens up a whole new can of mastering possibilities/worms, as does the Detector Crest dial, which allows the side‑chain detector to be set to peak, RMS or various inbetween options.

Used with care and good taste, MD3 is a hugely capable mastering processor that, compared with modern rivals, lacks little apart from graphical sophistication.

One MD3‑only feature to be careful of is the button labelled Auto Makeup Gain. This is enabled by default, and operates pretty aggressively; if you’re wondering why reducing the thresholds or increasing the ratios is making everything louder rather than quieter, this is likely to be the culprit. Used with care and good taste, MD3 is a hugely capable mastering processor that, compared with modern rivals, lacks little apart from graphical sophistication. And used with indulgence, it will transport you back in time two decades!

The Four Factor

Despite the name, MD4HD offers five bands of dynamics processing to MD3’s three, and there are more EQ bands and filter types, too. There are also plenty of other differences. A key MD4HD feature is parallel processing, which is available in three flavours. By default, Parallel mode blends the dry and compressed signals in equal parts, with a ‑6dB gain offset; the Wet Gain control can be used to vary the balance. Parallel UL mode is the same, except that there are two unlinked side‑chain channels, which is particularly useful in Mid‑Sides operation but can add more ‘body width’ even in L‑R stereo. Finally, DXP mode is ‘true’ upward compression, boosting signals below the threshold but leaving peaks alone. Even in standard multiband compression mode, each band adds Defeat Threshold and Defeat Ratio controls to the usual compressor parameters, allowing the bands to revert to unity gain with quiet signals that fall below the Defeat Threshold. This helps to avoid low‑level noise being raised too much. Another area where MD4HD expands (if you’ll pardon the pun) on MD3 concerns the output limiter, which features several different Profiles, with names like Soft, Dynamic and Loud, and the option to unlink the two channels.

The specialities of MD4HD include parallel and upward compression, enabling it to control dynamics in a very transparent way.

MD3 was already highly versatile, but the extra bands and the various parallel and upward compression options on MD4HD open up many new possibilities. These are aptly exploited by the presets (including a number created by mastering engineer Bob Katz), which is lucky, because setting up the entire plug‑in from scratch would be a fairly daunting prospect. Whereas it would be feasible to start with a ‘blank slate’ in MD3, there are simply so many options and parameters in MD4HD that you’re better off picking a suitable starting point and adapting it to taste. At first, even this can sometimes be confusing, in that changing parameters doesn’t always have the effect you might expect, but you quickly learn to check key settings such as the compression mode on loading a preset.

You can push and pull a mix in any direction you like, and it never seems to lose its sonic integrity... The MD4HD algorithms may be ’vintage’, but if there are newer products that do things better, I haven’t heard them.

Sonically speaking, MD4HD doesn’t really have ‘a sound’. Quite the opposite, in fact: its speciality lies in processing audio in such a way as to completely obscure the fact that any processing has taken place. You can push and pull a mix in any direction you like, and it never seems to lose its sonic integrity, even when you’re slamming the output limiter or adding scary amounts of top end. Its transparency is remarkable, and although there’s a fairly considerable learning curve involved in getting the best from it, it’s a curve well worth following. The MD4HD algorithms may be ’vintage’, but if there are newer products that do things better, I haven’t heard them.

Quality is always in fashion, and both MD3 and MD4HD are every bit as useful in sonic terms as they ever were (with the possible exception of the expander stages). Indeed, once you get used to the user interface, the fact that it forces you to use your ears instead of watching an FFT display dance around is often a good thing. But there are a couple of ways in which these plug‑ins could benefit from being modernised. Neither offers output dither, so you’ll need to follow them with a separate plug‑in when you render a 16‑bit output; and, more importantly, there’s no loudness metering, so it’s not easy to work towards a loudness target in LUFS.

Verdict

The System 6000 was always a flagship product, and that’s reflected in the pricing of the Native Bundle. These are serious plug‑ins aimed at a professional market. They’re supremely versatile, and in the hands of someone who knows how to use them, can deliver impressive results with a speed and efficiency that’s still hard to match. TC’s algorithms set new standards at the time, and more than 20 years later, they remain right at the top of the tree.