Considering just how many different approaches have been taken over the years to do the same job - to record and mix music. It’s striking just how many studios have the same gear. There are lots of reasons for this and only some of them are about the sound of the gear. However, there is something very tempting about this classic gear, and if you’re not in the market for the real thing you can get alternatives which reference these originals. Some are meticulous and comparable in price to the, often difficult to find, original gear. Some would be more accurately described as tribute gear but there are options all the way from component-accurate clones to ‘looks similar from a distance’. Here is our pick, with something for all budgets.

1176 - Warm Audio WA76

Have you ever seen a big studio without an 1176? I’m not sure I have. The 1176 is the most copied, most reproduced and most ubiquitous compressor of all. Introduced in the late 60s and exploiting the speed of the newly available Field Effect Transistor, unlike its valve and optical predecessors the 1176 was lightning fast. These days there are even faster ways to control levels but the unintended colour the 1176 introduced has kept it at the top of the popularity stakes ever since.

An 1176 is two things, it’s a sound, a style of compression, usually used as a channel compressor, noted for its aggression and energy, though used with care it’s actually pretty versatile. It’s also a control set: the threshold is fixed and you dial in more or less compression using two hands, turning the input and output controls in opposite directions, the attack and release controls work ‘backwards’ and the ratios are switched, not continuous. You can have the sound of the 1176 without these controls but that isn’t quite an 1176…

Our pick of the many, many alternatives for an 1176 has to be one of the first companies to bring us off the shelf 1176 compressors for self build kit money. The Warm Audio WA76. Ignore the logo and the external PSU and for all intents and purposes you have the 1176 experience for $699.

Warm Audio WA76 $699, Universal Audio 1176LN $2599

1073 - BAE 1073

The Neve 1073 - other mic preamps exist, but they exist in a universe with the 1073 at its centre.  Introduced in 1970, this unit defined ‘that sound’ which 50 years later is still held as a high water mark in Pro Audio. Transformers and a discrete EQ design with fixed frequencies. If you want a big sound there is no better place to start. To do things the way Neve did in the 70s will always be expensive - hand built and without the cost-saving manufacturing techniques of today. You have been able to get Neve-style preamps which follow the design closely and cost far, far less for years. Early examples of just this were offered by Golden Age, offering performance which must have made owners of the expensive originals uncomfortable.

You can still buy a real 1073 but some of the clones are as well regarded as the Neve units. The late Brent Averill’s company started selling their 1073 clone in 1999 and BAE regard their versions of the 10 series preamps as more Neve than Neve, explaining that If you buy a new 1073 and it doesn’t have a Carnhill/St Ives transformers, it can’t be considered an authentic 1073. Theirs does.

Some years ago I was in the market for a Neve style preamp and bought a 2 channel BAE 1073MPF over the equivalent Neve product. It doesn’t have the EQ but does have the high pass filter. Even without the EQ it’s not cheap but I use it every day and it will be making stuff sound bigger and lovelier long after I’ve hung up my headphones!

Dual Channel BAE 1073MP with PSU $2295, Dual Channel Neve 1073DPA $2595

Pultec EQ1P-1A

Hardware is optional these days. We don’t need much beyond mics, speakers and an interface but many of us still choose to use at least some. In the days before infinitely flexible, transparent and noise free software alternatives, the expectations around hardware were different. It had to be able to do everything because there wasn’t anything else! These days hardware limitations are no longer limitations, they are specialisations. The 1176 wasn’t designed to be coloured but that colour is now what is attractive about it.

Nowhere is this irrelevance of what a piece of gear can’t do more apparent that in the Pultec EQ. Can you notch out a ring on a snare drum with it? No. But that’s irrelevant if we have tools which can do that. The point of this EQ is that it makes things sound lovely at the top and at the bottom. Sweet sheen at the top? Done. Addictive oomph and the bottom? No problem. Need something else? Well, use something else.

If you want an original vintage Pultec you’re not going to find it easy even if you have the money, of which you’ll need a lot. There is a reissue available so if it’s authenticity you’re after then you can get it if you have the cash. However it’s not a complicated beast and lots of clones exist. How close they are to an original unit can get complicated as original units can be twice the age of their operators! Components drift, valves change and get replaced. At the end of the day it’s going to be about whether you like and use whichever clone you choose. The Music Tribe companies are hard to ignore in this ‘tribute’ gear area and the Klark Teknik EQPKT offers the Pultec hardware experience for the price of a premium plugin.

Klark Technik EQPKT - $279, Pultec EQP-1A $4295

Neve 33609

We’ve featured a compressor already and, while mixing with hardware, and the consequences that has for recall of mixes, is far less popular than it used to be, two places in the production process where hardware is still the choice of many is at the capture stage, with compression and EQ often committed at the tracking stage, and on mix bus and mastering duties. While FET compressors like the 1176 are definitely more popular as a channel compressor, Diode Bridge compressors like the Neve 33609 are often associated with bus processing.

When talking about bus compression a natural choice might be the famous G series SSL compressor and clones of this VCA design are available, from the Smart Research C2 which is most definitely priced for the same market as the SSL original to very inexpensive self build kits. However I’m going with a clone of the Neve 33609, a compressor which, in its UAD plugin form has almost totally replaced the SSL bus compressor on my mix bus. It took me a long time to really ‘get’ the 33609 but I was a fan of the plugin before I tested the Heritage Audio HA609 for Production Expert. It’s a wonderful sound and definitely worth checking out even if you’re a long term SSL compressor user like I was.

Heritage Audio HA609A - $1999, Neve 33609 $3995

EMI TG12345

There is definitely a variety of views on what makes a classic piece of gear but the equipment which is associated with records you love definitely drives the desire to have access to these pieces. For example nothing shouts Neve louder to me than ‘Rumours’ and if I think of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ I think of the EMI TG12345.

Far more esoteric than a mere vintage Neve, I’ve walked past one of these in a corridor at Abbey Road but that’s as close as I’ve come to using one. However I have had the pleasure of using Chandler’s excellent Zener Limiter and Curve Bender EQ which are respectful developments of the original hardware. The Zener Limiter is gorgeous but here I’ll reference the amazing Curve Bender EQ. Beautiful, vibey but unfortunately not cheap. The Softube plugin version is a very satisfying virtual version though, available both natively and on UAD.

Chandler Audio Curve Bender $6290, Original EMI TG12345 $1,800,000

No Fairchild?

You might have expected to see the holy grail of classic gear on this list - the Fairchild. I thought about it but ultimately decided against it because, while clones exist, there is simply no such thing as a cheap Fairchild. The design is too complex and involves too many tubes and transformers to ever be anything other than a big ticket item. Heritage Audio have recently released the Herchild, it looks lovely but a stereo 670 is £10K, Stam Audio come in at half that with their Stamchild but expect to wait for that. However, price and availability aside, although it might be heresy for some, I just don’t get on with the Fairchild. I’ve never used a real one but the lack of a filter on the side chain usually means that even with excellent plugin versions available I end up using something else on everything apart from the odd vocal. Both these modern versions feature tweaks like SC filtering and dry/wet controls to make these venerable units more useable in modern contexts.

So do you still use outboard hardware? If so what, if any, clone gear do you have or are you considering? Share your thought in the comments.