The Black 76 Limiting Amplifier is modeled after what is probably the most used, most known and most universally recognized compressor/limiter in the audio industry. There are probably no professionally recorded tracks where this unit wasn't used. It's a true legend and a piece of music production history.
The engineers that made this FET based compressor reached a level of cleverness and magic that only true visionary geniuses can achieve. While there are many revisions of this hardware, we modeled the LN version, revision E, because it's the one that has the most sonically recognized and sought after character thanks to its input transformer and class A output stage.
New Black 76 Limiting Amplifier
All of its features have been closely modeled, from its lightning fast attack, a peculiarity of this model, to the "all buttons in" mode: this is a trick that engineer use to create some pretty intense and wild effects, since when all ratio buttons are pressed together distortion drastically increases due to continuous and radical time constants shifts; this is a good way to hit room tracks hard or smack parallel busses for distinctive sonic signatures.
It's also a “go to” unit for standard compression duties, thanks to the quality of the sound it imparts to a track, even when not compressing, and to the simplicity of its controls: just set the input and output level to get in the ballpark of how much gain reduction is needed, then once set the Ratio the compression is quickly fine tuned with the time constants controls.
It is difficult to find a track or source where this compressor won't sound good; it is practically able to give authority and personality even to the most sterile track; bass is one of the most common uses for this plug-in but its very fast attack makes it very handy on percussive sources, like snare drum; vocals will benefit from its solid compression, standing out in the mix with presence and boldness. It's not out of the ordinary to see a pair of these compressors stereo-linked across the main bus of a mixer, so the fact that the T-RackS model is either mono or stereo makes it easy to replicate this technique.
Unprocessed
Processed
When the preamp is disengaged the Gain and Out controls act as clean input and output levels to the EQ section for handy adjustments.
Also included in
White 2A Leveling Amplifier
This audio processor module is part of T-RackS CS "Custom Shop" Mixing and Mastering Plug-In Collection. With T-RackS CS you can:
Read more about T-RackS CS
*Legal detail
T-RackS® is a registered trademark property of IK Multimedia Production. All other product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with IK Multimedia. Product names are used solely for the purpose of identifying the specific products that were studied during IK Multimedia’s sound model development and for describing certain types of tones produced with IK Multimedia’s digital modeling technology. Use of these names does not imply any cooperation or endorsement. LA-2A and 1176 LN are registered trademarks of Universal Audio, Inc. IK Multimedia's products, specifically, the T-RackS 3 Black 76 Limiting Amplifier and T-RackS 3 White 2A Leveling Amplifier, are manufactured and developed by IK Multimedia based on its own modeling techniques. Universal Audio has neither endorsed nor sponsored IK Multimedia's products in any manner, nor licensed any intellectual property for use in this product. Leslie is a trademark property of Hammond Organ/Leslie, wholly-owned brand subsidiaries of Suzuki Musical Instruments Mfg., Ltd. of Hamamatsu, Japan, used under license. Fairchild® is a registered trademark property of Avid Technology, Inc. Pultec® is a registered trademark property of Pulse Techniques, LLC. Mac and the Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows Vista and the Windows logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. QuickTime and the QuickTime logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., used under license therefrom. The Audio Units logo is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. ARC System™ is a trademark property of IK Multimedia Production Srl. Audyssey™, MultEQ®, Audyssey MultEQ® are trademarks property of Audyssey Laboratories™ Inc. used under license.