Relab Color Drive - 176-Style Tube Saturation Plugin

Relab Color Drive - 176-Style Tube Saturation Plugin

The Color Drive is a saturation plug-in built from the variable-gain valve stage of the Relab 176, including the input transformer, the 6BC8 valve, the calibration bias and the output transformer. Because the whole circuit is solved in real time, density, tone and transient shape interact the way they do in hardware rather than as a fixed distortion curve.

Drive pushes the modelled valve stage, and Calibration sets its bias point, moving the harmonic content between odd-order focus and even-order warmth. The output transformer can be switched back into the signal path, and a low-end crossover routes bass around the drive stage so weight is kept without muddying the harmonics. A tilt or high-shelf filter before the stage controls which frequencies push it hardest, and auto gain and mix are provided for levelling and parallel use. The architecture is designed to take further circuit models as they are released.

• Real-time model of the Relab 176 variable-gain valve stage
• Drive, calibration and output transformer switching
• Low-end crossover to keep bass out of the drive stage
• Pre-stage tilt and high-shelf filter
• Auto gain, mix and output trim
• Built as an expandable harmonic platform for further circuit models

Supplied as a digital download with a perpetual licence. After purchase the licence is deposited in your iLok account; authorisation can be to a local computer or to an iLok USB key (v2 or later). An iLok account, an internet connection and the current PACE drivers are needed to activate; no hardware dongle is required. Formats: AAX, AU and VST3 (64-bit) on macOS 10.15 or later, and AAX and VST3 (64-bit) on Windows 10 or later.