The 32C Channel combines 3 of Harrison's most renowned processing elements - the 32C EQ, the 32C filters, and the Mixbus channel compressor - into a single plugin with adjustable signal-flow.
In 1975, Dave Harrison launched the 32Series console. For nearly a decade, the 32Series remained the go-to console for new studio construction around the world.
Wondering what a Harrison sounds like? Think about these songs, and the sound of Harrison should become immediately apparent:
More recent hits include Kacey Musgraves's "Rainbow": Craig Alvin received a Grammy for his contribution to the Album of the Year. The song 'Rainbow' was mixed on Craig's Harrison SeriesTwelve.
It's not about the gear: It's no surprise that these amazing-souding songs were created by phenomenal artists and talented engineers. But the engineer chose the gear. And they chose Harrison.....!
Many successful artists, from ABBA to Zappa, chose a Harrison console for their personal studios.
The 32C Channel is the latest incarnation of Harrison's fanatical detail to sound quality and workflow.
"The best Master Control Channel I have seen. The Solo feature with the ear is brilliant for each section, as well for the routing section ... Being able to change the Routing with the move of a mouse and the EAR following makes it so versatile ... having the Filters as well as the EQ for the last minute touch-up makes it very nice ... !!!!!! "
- Bil VornDick, Grammy award-winning producer/engineer, Nashville legend
Features:
32C EQUALIZER
Predating the modern parametric EQ, the 32Series equalizer had to serve many purposes and remain easy to use. The middle 2 bands use a proportional-Q design: small gain changes provide for gentle classical-style tone controls; but cut a little harder and the filters become sharper, allowing you to hunt down and then notch-out troublesome frequences.
The high and low bands are a shelving design with a huge gain range, allowing you to add dramatic punch and shimmer to any source. If you needed more surgical work, however, you could switch the high and low bands to operate as additional proportional-Q 'bell' filters. The effort put into voicing this eq was unmatched at the time, and its signature remains on some of the biggest records ever made.
The 32C Channel Plugin provides a complex emulation of the original Harrison 32C EQ. Every resistor, capacitor, and transistor is included in the model. When combined with the 32C Filter section, a huge range of tonal possibilities are available with just a few knob turns.
MIXBUS CHANNELSTRIP COMPRESSOR
A channelstrip plugin isn't complete without a great compressor. The story of the 32C Channel compressor starts in 2009 when Harrison developed the Mixbus workstation.
Harrison has a unique history with digitally-controlled-analog consoles, allowing us to compile the settings that are most often used on our large-format consoles. To match the flexibility and ease of the 32C EQ, Harrison delved into our records to see what settings would be most appropriate for a general purpose channel compressor. We found 3 'types' of settings were favored by our users:
By simplifying the compressor into these 3 modes, the Mixbus compressor helps you recreate these signature compression effects with minimal effort.
32C FILTERS
The 32 Series consoles provided a pair of steep high-pass and low-pass filters to accommodate sources with undersired rumble or hiss.
These unique filters took advantage of newly developed 'dual log' potentiometers to cover an extraordinarily wide sweep range: so wide that you could effectively overlap the filters until the passband was eliminated.
Mixing engineers like Bruce Swedien used this feature to pack more instruments into a mix without interfering with each other, and credited the 32C filters as a critical part of their arsenal.
The “bump” button recreates the slight resonance of the original filter, resulting in extra low-end punch just above the filter's cutoff frequency. Use the 'bump' button to retain the presence of a vocal while filtering out the unwanted rumble picked up by the microphone.
MASTER INPUT & OUTPUT
The Master input & out section provides level controls at the start and end of the signal chain, as well as a polarity switch.
Combined with the Routing section, below, the 32C Channel plugin provides a multitude of ways to gain-stage your signal.
The final output meter provides a visual reference of your track's output level. The meter's ballistic movement is carefully tuned so you can match the level of your bass, kick, and lead vocal for an explosive pop mix.
AUTOMATABLE ROUTING
The routing section provides automatable routing order of the Filters, EQ, and Compressor stages.
Every stage has an Audition ('Ear') button to solo an individual stage. And the routing section also provides an Audition button for each point in the signal flow, between each element. This allows you to listen to the effect of one, two, or all three elements in their assigned order.
This was a game-changing feature for our post & film users, and is now available in the 32C Channel plugin for music mixing!
The results are quintessentially Harrison: effortless, smooth and transparent.
The 32C Channel is a cross-format plugin which supports the following platforms and formats:
AAX : Mac, Windows
VST3 : Mac, Windows
VST : Mac, Windows, Linux
AudioUnit : Mac