Native Instruments emulates ’80s analogue mastering hardware with new digital channel strip plugin

Native Instruments has launched the Brainworx bx_console AMEK 200, a new digital channel strip for mixing and mastering that delivers the “transparency, precision and detail” of the 1980s mastering-grade analogue hardware.

“Meticulously modelled” on some of what NI calls the “most desirable analogue studio hardware of all time” – including the AMEK EQ 200, AMEK Mastering Compressor, and the Gate/Expander feature from the bx_console AMEK 9099 – bx_console AMEK 200 combines sounds and features that would be “impossible to produce” as a hardware unit in the real world.

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Diving deeper into features, with the channel strip’s AMEK EQ 200 section, users can recreate the sound of a “legendary parametric equaliser from the early 1980s.

Elsewhere, its AMEK Mastering Compressor offers “stunningly transparent dynamic control”, and users can even mimic the component tolerances found in real analogue hardware thanks to TMT – Brainworx’s patent-registered Tolerance Modelling Technology.

With these features wrapped in a CPU-efficient channel strip plugin, NI calls it a “dream come true for audio professionals who love the colour and character of vintage analogue hardware.

bx_console AMEK 200 is on sale at an introductory price of $299 through 7 December, at which point it will rise to $399. As part of this introductory offer, customers will also receive the AMEK EQ 250 – of $349 value – for free.

To learn more and purchase, head to Plugin Alliance.