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Saturation

Pre 1973

Arturia

Where to get itAvailable from Arturiaarturia.com

Pre 1973 is a faithful emulation of the legendary Neve 1073 microphone preamp and three-band equalizer, delivering the warm, colored saturation and harmonic distortion that made the original a studio standard for decades. It combines a Class-A preamp with a hybrid EQ featuring fixed High Shelf (12 kHz), sweepable Midrange Bell (360 Hz–7.2 kHz), and sweepable Low Shelf (35–220 Hz), plus a -18 dB/octave High Pass Filter. The plugin exceeds the original's flexibility with sweepable frequency selection on the Mid and Low bands, selectable transformer types, stereo linking, and Mid/Side processing modes.

Written from the manual and checked against it. How we check

Key Features

01Three-band EQ with fixed 12 kHz High Shelf, sweepable Midrange Bell (360 Hz–7.2 kHz), sweepable Low Shelf (35–220 Hz)
02High Pass Filter with -18 dB/octave slope (50–300 Hz sweepable)
03Boost/cut up to ±18 dB per band (exceeds original's ±16 dB)
04Input Gain (-80 dB to -20 dB) and Output Trim (-24 dB to +24 dB) controls
05Two transformer types selectable (Type 1 original, Type 2 inspired by alternate vintage design)
06Stereo, Mid/Side, and Dual Mono modes in Double Channel configuration
07Automatic Gain Compensation on Input Gain to decouple saturation from perceived volume
08TAE® (True Analog Emulation) modeling of vintage analog circuits

Things to Try

  • 01Raise Input Level to -50 dB to introduce harmonic saturation while using Automatic Gain Compensation to keep perceived volume stable
  • 02Boost High Shelf by 1 dB for added 'air' in the high frequencies without excessive brightness
  • 03Set Midrange Bell frequency around 1.6 kHz and boost by 3 dB to enhance vocal presence using the sweepable Presence control
  • 04Engage High Pass Filter at 45 Hz to reduce proximity bass while maintaining punch, then boost Low Shelf between 60–110 Hz to restore bass character with a different timbre
Formats
VSTVST3AUAAX
User Manual↗

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