When the Urei 1176 finally made it across the pond to the UK, those British engineers were keen to see what it was made of. Having dispatched the manual, these intrepid experimenters smushed in all the ratio buttons at once. This tone became so famous that it became known as ‘British’ mode, a legendary sound that has inspired the Smasher plugin from Pulsar.
Since this momentous occasion, studio types have been chasing this unique tone – one that imbues the sound with an unmistakable attitude, yet still magically allows dynamics to breathe naturally. Pulsar has captured lightning in a bottle with Smasher and simplified its controls. Just turn it on for that for archetypal ‘British’ mode squash. Best of all, it’s free for a limited time.
The ‘British’ mode compression settings on the Urei 1176 has been captured by the Pulsar Smasher. Download the plugin free for a limited time.
Not content to simply clone this magical mode, Pulsar explain how they’ve created their own flavour of compression in the plugin:
“While remaining very close to the original circuitry, the modifications we’ve built into Smasher will add definition to transients and make your tone more aggressive. We love using it to enhance the ambience in drum busses, but there are many more creative uses too.”
Get the low down on this compressor’s inspiration in our feature article.
Head over to Pulsar to pick up your copy and listen to the A/B test below.
