Black Rooster Audio has released the OmniTec-436C, a plug-in emulation of a 1950s-vintage Altec 436 vari-mu tube compressor, recreating the sound of pop music’s early era from within a present-day DAW.
The 436A model had fixed parameters and no user controls, but became a favourite among mod-happy studio engineers of the time looking for levelling amplifiers with parametric possibilities. The third (436C) version in the series was the result of an extensive modification and redesign by Altec itself, incorporating a parametric Threshold (attack) control and optimised release time to make the unit behave more musically under ‘stress’. Subsequent units – such as the Fairchild 660 – from arguably better-known manufacturers took their inspiration from Altec’s creative circuitry and characteristic sound.
Today, Black Rooster Audio’s OmniTec-436C is a musical-sounding plug-in thanks to its use of tube-based modelling. Clearly colouration is evident, yet it is consistently able to ‘glue’ tracks together.
With OmniTec-436C, Black Rooster Audio has replicated the best features from the vintage vari-mu tube compressor, yet modernises them for present-day DAW workflow with the introduction of several further features, including Mode and Link switches allowing for selecting between limiter and compressor, and stereo and dula mono use respectively. Gain staging id available via fine-tuning the volume of both the input and output signals, while make-up gain catches the attenuation from the processed compression. Side-chain signal filtering uses SC High and SC Low filters from 20Hz to 12kHz and 100Hz to 20kHz, respectively, while the SC Listen mode makes it possible to audition to the isolated side-chain signal after filtering.
OmniTec-436C is available to purchase for its regular price of US$59 as a 64-bit AAX, AU and VST plug-ins for macOS (10.9 or later) and a AAX and VST plug-ins for Windows (7 or later) via the Black Rooster Audio webpage, which also includes in-depth information.
