TBProAudio: CS-5501 - Channel Strip Plugin for Windows and Mac OS X

[TB-ProAudio]

TBProAudio announces CS-5501, a channel strip plugin with EQ, gate/expander, deesser compressor, limiter and saturation, flexible module routing and oversampling.



CS-5501 offers following features:

• Noise gate/expander
• 2x 7 band EQ
• 2x noise gate/expander
• 2x compressor, VCA/FET/OPTP design
• 2x deesser
• 2x limiter
• saturation
• thermal noise for analogue sound emulation
• HQ over sampling
• signal overshot protection
• linkable input/output fader including phase inversion
• extended metering, input/output/gain reduction, Peak, RMS, EBU and VU
• perceptual loudness matching (powered by AB-LM Lite)
• module routing
• extensive side-chain support for many effect modules
• many comfort functions like soloing and signal monitoring
• preset management
• selectable colour theme
• large and easy to use GUI
• 64-bit internal processing
• very efficient CPU usage design

System Requirements:

• Windows XP or newer
• Mac OS X 10.5 or newer
• Win: 32/64 Bit VST, 32/64 Bit VST3, 32 Bit RTAS, 32/64 Bit AAX
• OS X: 32/64 Bit VST, 32/64 Bit VST3, 32/64 Bit AU, 32 Bit RTAS, 32/64 Bit AAX
• Tested with: Cockos Reaper, Steinberg Cubase/Nuendo/Wavelab 6/7/8/9/10, FL Studio 12.x, ProTools 10/12/2018
• All sample rates

Demo version available

Price: 59€

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Was demoing this again recently. Almost wrote to you a couple of days back to ask if you'd ever consider offering different compression models, and whether you'd thought of further developing the saturation functionality...and look!

This might be the ultimate channel strip!!

[TB-ProAudio]

This might be the ultimate channel strip!!

We hope

[Burillo]

It's a bit on the expensive side but it looks very cool! I'll be certain to demo it.

[rob_lee]

This might be the ultimate channel strip!!

Could be if it works in Live 10.. like the look of this and might do great on my external hardware

[sinkmusic]

Very nice !

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

This might be the ultimate channel strip!!

We hope

Almost!!

Here're some of the smaller details which I really like:

- Added 36 & 48db filters to the lp/hp.

- The gain reduction lights for the compressor/gate.

- The removal of the midway numbers on dials, especially the compressor< It's a small thing, but it makes the whole thing clearer.

I'm sure I'll discover more

What I do not really dig so much is that now all the eq bands are 20-20k sweepable, it becomes a lot more delicate to dial in due to the steps being much greater. I know that using shift allows db-by-db control, but it still means that working with common frequencies results in everything being bunched up at different ends of the curve. It is somewhat counter-intuitive to be presented by such large, clear dials only to have to be so delicate.

If I could request one thing that would make this my perfect ch.strip, it would be a Pultec-style resonant low/high shelf, that when selected would somehow link the controls of lf-to-lmf and hf-to-hmf. Is that even possible?

Anyway, great stuff. I never jumped on the 3301, as I always ended up defaulting to Trackplug 5. This might have changed that. We'll see

[TB-ProAudio]

If I could request one thing that would make this my perfect ch.strip, it would be a Pultec-style resonant low/high shelf, that when selected would somehow link the controls of lf-to-lmf and hf-to-hmf. Is that even possible?

Thank you for your feedback.
regarding the Pultec-style EQ we look into it, not a big deal.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

If I could request one thing that would make this my perfect ch.strip, it would be a Pultec-style resonant low/high shelf, that when selected would somehow link the controls of lf-to-lmf and hf-to-hmf. Is that even possible?

Thank you for your feedback.
regarding the Pultec-style EQ we look into it, not a big deal.

On hi-shelf, also? I can see this very quickly becoming too hard to resist

[Burillo]

i have to second el-bo - the frequency knobs constantly feel like they don't have enough resolution. this applies to sidechain options and to the EQ's. i would rather have the knobs focus on a particular area at the expense of some flexibility.

i also am missing drag-n-drop routing. selecting modules is kinda tiresome.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

i have to second el-bo - the frequency knobs constantly feel like they don't have enough resolution. this applies to sidechain options and to the EQ's. i would rather have the knobs focus on a particular area at the expense of some flexibility.

i also am missing drag-n-drop routing. selecting modules is kinda tiresome.

Given the modular approach of this strip, and the fact that the previous incarnation (3301) had 'normal' focused eq's, maybe it could be another option that could be swapped out

Also, I agree on the lack of d-n-d for routing.

[Teksonik]

Two thumbs up for a great looking GUI.

[TB-ProAudio]

i have to second el-bo - the frequency knobs constantly feel like they don't have enough resolution. this applies to sidechain options and to the EQ's. i would rather have the knobs focus on a particular area at the expense of some flexibility.

Hmm, many customer requested to have full range EQs...

i also am missing drag-n-drop routing. selecting modules is kinda tiresome.

Well, this is on our todo list, thank you

[MountainKing]

Any crossgrade path for CS-3301 owners?

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

i have to second el-bo - the frequency knobs constantly feel like they don't have enough resolution. this applies to sidechain options and to the EQ's. i would rather have the knobs focus on a particular area at the expense of some flexibility.

Hmm, many customer requested to have full range EQs...

Given the modular environment, along with the fact that you already have the framework, would it be possible to allow the eq’s to be swappable? If not on a per-band basis (I’m sure there would be some technical reason why this would cause conflict), then as a whole, for each of the two eq sections.