Plugin Alliance has announced the release of the HG-2 tube processor effect plugin by Black Box Analog Design.
There’s good reason why celebrated mix engineers like Dave Pensado, Bob Horn, and Jack Douglas use the high-end Black Box Analog Design HG-2 tube processor on their mixes. The boutique stereo processor’s multiple, diverse tube circuits not only make tracks sound richer and fuller, they also make them sound louder, bigger and punchier at the same peak level. Much more than a mere distortion box, the HG-2 can impart subtle harmonic coloration and sparkle without compromising fidelity, or add brilliant saturation that totally changes the character of a sound.
Now you can have that lush and vibrant sound in the Black Box HG-2 plugin. Brainworx collaborated with Black Box to model the HG-2’s sweet tubes and creamy-sounding transformers, and then added a host of powerful digital mods to greatly expand the processor’s tonal palette and range of saturation-based compression.
Black Box HG-2 features
- Faithful emulation of the high-end Black Box Analog Design HG-2 tube processor, with additional digital controls—Input Gain, Density, Calibration, Air and Mix—providing a greatly expanded palette of tube flavors and saturation.
- Modeled transformers and separate gain controls for virtual 6U8A pentode and triode tubes add warmth, body and tube sweetness to thin mixes and sterile mono and stereo tracks.
- Parallel Saturation circuit selects one of two modeled 12AX7 tubes—one voiced more aggressively than the other—for adding tube radiance to scorching overdrive distortion on instrument and vocal tracks.
- Saturation Frequency selector adds generated 12AX7 harmonics to only low or high frequencies or across the entire audio spectrum.
- Calibration menu mimics an internal trim adjustment in the HG-2 hardware to give high frequencies Dark, Normal or Bright coloration.
- New, continuously variable Density control boosts gain equally for virtual pentode and triode tubes while making a compensatory adjustment to output gain.
- New, continuously variable Air control adds silvery sparkle and sweetness above 10 kHz.
- New, continuously variable Input Gain control simultaneously trims gain for all active virtual tube circuits: Saturation, pentode and triode.
- New, continuously variable Mix control adjusts wet/dry balance, preserving detail and punch.
The Black Box HG-2 for Windows and Mac (VST/AU/AAX) is available for the introductory price of $149 USD until February 28th, 2017 (regular $249 USD).
More information: Plugin Alliance / Black Box HG-2
