The Tone Sculpter

We knew from the outset of our development of the TLA-100A compressor that we wanted to create a beautiful looking, extremely versatile and gorgeous sounding channel strip plug-in which would combine the TLA and the EQ beast known as the EQF-100. But the EQF-100 proved to be a more difficult creature than we had first imagined.

After having modeled plenty of equalizers we felt confident that absolutely nothing could surprise us and that we would keep all deadlines. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The passive design of the EQF-100 was intricate, well-designed and just as beautiful as we thought it would be. We just didn’t realize how complicated it was.

But after plenty of work developing a new technique for modeling of big passive circuits we feel confident that you will enjoy this monster.

EQF-100 Full Range Equalizer

Four full bands of equalization, two cut filters, two VU meters and a warm output distortion makes this equalizer extremely versatile. It can be used on any type of source, and once you get to know it, it will become your best friend.

TLA-100A Tube Leveling Amplifier

It doesn’t have many knobs, but can create a vast amount of different sounds. With an opto-like compression circuit, you’ll get a smooth compression with a very soft knee. But due to its modern and intricate design you can set it to be faster than any other opto-compressor, which makes it more versatile than its competitors.

Different Kinds of Distortion

The TLA-100A has a separate saturation control which lets you adjust the headroom of the unit, so that you can go from a clean sound with almost no audible distortion at all, to a fully saturated leave-no-transients-intact sound. The distortion in the TLA is therefore wellsuited for taming transients in drums, but maybe not the first choice when you need to warm up a vocal track.

The distortion of the EQF-100 has a totally different character. Boost the EQ, or crank up the output volume and you’ll get a warm and fat type of distortion, due to its strong 2nd order harmonic, that is very well suited for vocals, bass or brass.

 

User Interface

The user interfaces of the individual units are the same as the individual plug-ins, so please see their respective chapter for more information.

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EQF-100 Full Range Equalizer

A fully parametric four band equalizer with two cut filters.

TLA-100A Tube Leveling Amplifier

The classic TLA-100 compressor with adjustable attack and release times and a smooth soft knee character.

TLA-100A Extra Panel

The additional panel adds modern features to a classic compressor. Detector low cut, parallel compression and an adjustable saturation.

Bypass and Routing Panel

The routing panel is used for engaging or bypassing the separate units, and also to select the processing order.

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  1. EQ bypass
  2. Compressor bypass
  3. Compressor before EQ

EQ Bypass: Bypasses the EQF-100 equalizer. Right position: BYPASSED. Left position: ENGAGED.

Compressor Bypass: Bypasses the TLA-100A compressor. Right position: BYPASSED. Left position: ENGAGED.

EQ Before Compressor, Compressor Before EQ: Selects if the equalizer should process the sound before the compressor (default) or the other way around. Left position: EQ BEFORE COMPRESSOR. Right position: COMPRESSOR BEFORE EQ.

It is also possible to click on the pilot lamps of each unit to engage or bypass them.

EQ Before Compressor

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Compressor Before EQ

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Signal Routing

The signal routing is very straight forward, except for the VU meters on the EQF-100, which are always placed at the master input and the master output. See the block diagram for more information.

Gain Staging

There are two main volume controls on this unit, the Output Volume on EQF-100 and the Gain knob on the TLA-100A. The best way to use these volume controls is to make sure the apparent audio level stays approximately the same when you bypass the unit. That way it will be easier to bypass and compare the audio, and also to switch order of the compressor and equalizer.

VU Meter Calibration

Just like the stand-alone TLA-100A plug-in, the Grand Channel’s VU meters are calibrated so that a -9dBRMS signal reads 0 VU.

Sidechain and the Equalizer

No, the equalizer does not affect the external sidechain of the compressor.

 

Extended Features

A whole range of added control can be accessed with Extended Features. Please see the separate "Extended Features" manual for more information.

 

Credits

Oscar Öberg – Modeling
Arvid Rosén – Modeling
Niklas Odelholm – Modeling
Mattias Danielsson – Testing
Torsten Gatu – Framework programming
Ulf Ekelöf – 3D rendering