In this article, Julian considers what is important and useful about software channel strips and gives some examples of plugins that do it well.

The Channel Strips phenomenon started with the trend of enterprising people realising that, as demand declined for large format consoles, there was money to be made breaking up decommissioned consoles channel by channel and installing individual channel strips into a suitable case with a power supply and appropriate connectors to allow them to be used individually.

The most desirable vintage consoles were ideal for this treatment and while many people were sad to see these inspiring vintage consoles get broken up, not many of those people were prepared to actually buy those consoles and preserve them! Many Neves and SSLs have received this treatment and it wasn’t long before manufacturers spotted an opportunity for new products.

Focusrite was one of the first with their ISA hardware channel strip. Based on the impossibly rare Forte console this 19” rack unit combined an equaliser and dynamics sections with the ISA 110 mic preamp. Originally a way to bring a classy analogue front end to an indifferent interface, this format has been replicated in software form as a convenient one-stop solution for utility processing and there are a great number of plugin offerings out there.

If we’re dealing with software emulations it does beg the question, why not just use compressor and EQ plugins? Here are 5 reasons you might want to use channel strips and 5 channel strips you might want to try.

Tracking Through A Preamp - UAD Neve 1084/Neve Preamp

The channel strip phenomenon arguably began with classic Neve modules and while with early Neves it’s relatively straightforward to rack up just the EQ, a channel strip starts with the mic preamp and there are no better known preamps than Neve preamps. The preamp has always been something of the odd cousin in software emulation because most plugins are principally used at mixdown whereas preamps are significant during tracking.

The UAD platform is DSP based and as such offers low latency performance suitable for use in tracking so the influence of a modelled preamp is available right where it matters, the point at which the signal is captured.

However UA take things further with Unison, the ingenious system in which the impedance of the preamps built into Apollo interfaces mimics the electrical behaviour of the preamp being modelled. Depending on the mic being used the effect varies from minimal to quite significant, just like using the real thing.

When looking for a really excellent vintage Neve channel strip try the 1084, which is a 1073 with more luxurious EQ facilities, but if you are tracking and want the influence of the Unison preamp then try the Neve Preamp plugin, a stripped-down version, which offers just the preamp. Perfect for conserving DSP when tracking through those fat (virtual) Neve preamps!

Authenticity - Brainworx SSL G Series

A channel strip is more than just the preamp though. Adding some analogue “life” into equipment, which can sometimes be a little too well behaved, is often the reason people turn to virtual channel strips. Why use your DAW’s stock EQ and compressor when you can fire up a photorealistic rendering of a big-name, big-money console? However, if it doesn’t sound like the real thing isn’t it a bit pointless?

Authenticity matters, even if you have never actually used the real thing you still want to know your plugin is at least close to the real McCoy. If we are looking for the last word in analogue realism then Brainworx’s Tolerance Modelling Technology (TMT) is as close as any of the current offerings to the real deal. By modelling every channel of a desk the variations from channel to channel are captured and are available to bring subtle variation to your mixes. To find you more about TMT check out this demo from Julian using the Brainworx SSL G Series plugin, his favourite of the Brainworx Channel Strip plugins he’s tried.

More Options - PSP Infinistrip

One of the most significant possibilities offered by plugins is the possibility to audition and compare different options quickly and easily, something which in most cases is onerous in the hardware world. Lots of plugins offer many different module choices but however good the differing options sound, there is little to be gained if swapping out different modules doesn’t offer consistently comparable results.

While lots of these kinds of ‘choice heavy’ plugins employ a system where settings persist between alternative modules, the Infinistrip from PSP, while not modelled on any specifically recognisable units, uses an auto gain matching system, where swapping out modules always results in level-matched comparisons making meaningful comparison easy. Try that with hardware!

Simplicity - Symphony ECS Channel Strip

One of the undeniable advantages of a well designed Channel Strip plugin is that all the controls are in a single window, allowing quick, consistent access to mix parameters.

While the mixing and matching of different processing on every channel is of course a perfectly legitimate choice, using the same plugin on every channel in a mix replicates the experience and effect of mixing through a console much more closely.

Simplicity is a desirable quality in a channel strip and if the processing sounds good, it’s far more likely that you won’t need to indulge in deep level tweakery anyway. The Symphony ECS Channel Strip from Apogee is a great example of how, if the processing sounds great, you might find you don’t need as many facilities as you think you might. That combined with the flexibility of DSP and Native operation and hardware control with the Symphony Desktop interface’s touchscreen/encoder interface you’ll find a lot to like. We don’t usually go for presets but these are by Bob Clearmountain and that’s the kind of mix fairy dust we’d all like sprinkling across our sessions!

Control - Softube Weiss Gambit

Of course, it’s not an either/or choice between ease of use and depth of control and a great example of this is in Softube’s Console One. We couldn’t discuss channel strips without calling out this product which exemplifies the channel strip workflow with its dedicated controller which rather than offering faders and plugin control, eschews faders altogether and presents a consistent interface from channel to channel.

Softube offers several desk models with all the usual suspects from Neve, SSL and API are represented, all consoles with identifiable characters. However interestingly Luke Goddard, a longtime Console One user opted for the Weiss Gambit for Console One, a reversioning of the famously transparent digital hardware from Switzerland. If you’re after a transparent channel strip why not use something like the excellent Avid Channel strip? When we asked Luke what brought him to that choice, he said it was control. As well as praising the extreme flexibility of the processing, particularly the filters, he added that it wasn’t just the control the processing offered over the sound but the control he had over the plugin - via his Console One!

In Conclusion

So perhaps we’ve come full circle? Sound, authenticity, usability both in terms of ergonomics within the software UI but also in how we interact with the software from the physical world. There’s nothing you can do in a channel strip, which you can’t do using individual plugins but the consistency and simplicity really appeal to many users. Do you use channel strips? If so tell us which is your favourite choice.