Shattered Glass Audio - Code Red Free (Console Emulation)

[djanthonyw]

Free Download

Code Red Free is inspired by a classic, all tube, British console form the late 60s. The original console was known for its EQ, bold and punchy character, and the warmth it imparted. The Beatles recorded most of their material using this, and other versions of this console. Easily recognized overdriven sound of the Beatles' Revolution was created by chaining two preamps from this console. Shattered Glass Audio has gone to considerable lengths to find accurate information and reproduce the original EQ curves and accurately model the preamp.

[murnau]

I hope some passionate experts here compare this freebie with EMI TG12345 Channel Strip or was it REDD by Waves?..

[Synthetic Wav]

would not surpised this one sound best... as this company make good modeling of analog saturation from the little try i gave to their saturator but it might be cpu heavy.

[murnau]

would not surpised this one sound best... as this company make good modeling of analog saturation

Yeah that is possible anyway still fascinate me what is freeware nowdays.

[lazymarc]

cool thing
thankyou to Shattered Glass Audio

[digitalboytn]

Still fascinate me what is freeware nowdays.

This....

We are really spoilt for choices these days and the internet has certainly leveled the playing field in many ways...

Unfortunately,it has totally leveled the music industry too

But the amount of high quality freeware or "cheapware" tools available to us is astounding really...

And many of the independent coders seem more passionate about their products than the "corporate boys"

EDIT : I put this - along with TB Reel Buss - on the Master Buss of a tracking session that I was just wrapping up and it sounds really wonderful...Crank it up and get some of that digi-analog goodness...

[planetearth]

cool thing
thankyou to Shattered Glass Audio

+1

I've already told a friend about this, and I look forward to trying it out tonight.

Steve

[Fleer]

Cheers SGA

[SGA]

Thank you all for downloading and trying the plug-in, and for the praises.

[OOBE]

Well, I have to say this plugin certainly added the saturated punch I wanted from some kicks that EQ or other compressors could never provide me. Never sounded or felt right. I'm very happy with this plugin. I instantly liked it and appreciated it. The sound is very chunky and rounded.

When I thought it would clip, it stayed clean and left me a lot of headroom. Wow! Never went to red and the sound was big. Oh, I like how the stuff happening behind the Dry/Wet knob works. Not sure why but I like it...to me it works different than other Dry/Wet knobs. Can't explain it. Awesome job to the developer. I will donate once Paypal verifies my new card.

[PTV]

Thanks Shattered Glass Audio! The plugin's sounds great. I have a feature request though: An option for the user to choose where to place the presets folder (or just keep it in the same dir with the .dll). Many thanks.

[RockinMillie]

This is very nice. Thank you for giving it away free
You guys rock

[Chris-S]

Thanks, installed.

[Compyfox]

First and foremost, interesting concept of the REDD console, but I do have a couple of questions:

1) which preamp type are we talking about. The Siemens V72 or the later models EMI models for the REDD51? The circuit diagrams are available these days, and I seem to remeber, that you (SGA) paid attention to detail on the diagram rebuilt with your other tube preamp tools as well



2) Obviously your EQ design is different to the original REDD as you introduced a shelving mid band. I am having copies of certain pages of the "Recording the Beatles" book in front of me (mainly the ones on Abbey Road gear), and the REDD17 was just a shelving EQ, while the REDD37 and REDD51 was both a Shelving and Peak EQ if you boosted the signals. Why did you not go for that concept? And also... is your EQ stepped (dB)?



3) This paragraph in the manual is confusing me a bit

CLASSIC-POP

Switches between the CLASSIC and the POP EQ settings. Both, CLASSIC and POP, EQ settings have the Bass, low-shelf, set at 500 Hz and Peak filter set at 5 kHz. The CLASSIC high-shelf, treble, is set at 7kHz, whereas the POP high-shelf is set at 3kHz.

Code Red Free EQ is more flexible than the original EQ. The original EQ had low-shelf, Bass, boost and cut at 500 Hz for both, CLASSIC and POP, EQ types. The original CLASSIC EQ had Treble control as high-shelf boost or cut at 7 kHz. The treble control in original POP EQ had a peak boost at 5 kHz and a high-shelf cut at 3 kHz. From this we can see that EQ in Code Red Free adds a peak filter at 5 kHz to the CLASSIC EQ type. Code Red Free EQ also adds a peak cut at 5 kHz and a high-shelf boost at 5 kHz to the POP EQ type.

Again from the "Recording the Beatles"
"The Classic EQ box provided shelving boost and cut at 100Hz and 10kHz*. The range of the EQ control was +/-10dB in 2dB steps. However, the Pop EQ box - the one most often used by the Beatles - was slightly different. While the Low Frequency was identical to that of the Classic box, the High Frequency was somewhat unusual. While boosting, the EQ was a peaking EQ centered around 5kHz, while cutting, it was a shelving EQ centered on 10kHz. This type of EQ - peak HF boost, all other options shelving - matches the classic Pultec equaliser used in the USA. (The Pultec itself was based upon original Bell Telephone designs)."

*center frequency

I did an in-depth test on the Abbey Road/Waves REDD console plugin in 2012, and the filter settings were mostly the same.


But taking it from your manual, you say:

ORIGINAL EQ:
- Bass Low Shelf 500Hz center frequency
- High Shelf in Classic at 7kHz (shelf on both boost and cut), in Pop at 5kHz peak boost and 3kHz Shelf cut.

CODE RED EQ concept:
- Bass Boost: 10dB at 80kHz
- Bass Low Shelf at 500Hz
- Peak Filter (boost/cut) at 5kHz
- Treble High Shelf at 7khz for Classic and 3kHz for Pop.

This reminds me a bit of the Altec clones by both SoundToys (ALTEC 1567A preamp with built in EQ) and Nomad Factory (just the ALTEC 9063B EQ).




4) Where in the circuit diagram is the VU placed? Post Input Gain/Pre-upsampling? Or post Wet/Dry dial but pre-output gain?


Thanks for clarification.

[SGA]

1) which preamp type are we talking about. The Siemens V72 or the later models EMI models for the REDD51? The circuit diagrams are available these days, and I seem to remeber, that you (SGA) paid attention to detail on the diagram rebuilt with your other tube preamp tools as well

Don't want to infringe on anyones trademark or copyright or imply endorsement of any kind so I will answer this question with the following. We didn't model V72.

2) Obviously your EQ design is different to the original REDD as you introduced a shelving mid band. I am having copies of certain pages of the "Recording the Beatles" book in front of me (mainly the ones on Abbey Road gear), and the REDD17 was just a shelving EQ, while the REDD37 and REDD51 was both a Shelving and Peak EQ if you boosted the signals. Why did you not go for that concept?

Actually we did go for that concept. Our mid-band filter is of the peaking type. Low and High are shelving.

And also... is your EQ stepped (dB)?

No. EQ gain is continuous from -10 to +10 db.

3) Again from the "Recording the Beatles"
"The Classic EQ box provided shelving boost and cut at 100Hz and 10kHz*. The range of the EQ control was +/-10dB in 2dB steps. However, the Pop EQ box - the one most often used by the Beatles - was slightly different. While the Low Frequency was identical to that of the Classic box, the High Frequency was somewhat unusual. While boosting, the EQ was a peaking EQ centered around 5kHz, while cutting, it was a shelving EQ centered on 10kHz. This type of EQ - peak HF boost, all other options shelving - matches the classic Pultec equaliser used in the USA. (The Pultec itself was based upon original Bell Telephone designs)."

*center frequency

I did an in-depth test on the Abbey Road/Waves REDD console plugin in 2012, and the filter settings were mostly the same.


But taking it from your manual, you say:

ORIGINAL EQ:
- Bass Low Shelf 500Hz center frequency
- High Shelf in Classic at 7kHz (shelf on both boost and cut), in Pop at 5kHz peak boost and 3kHz Shelf cut.

CODE RED EQ concept:
- Bass Boost: 10dB at 80kHz
- Bass Low Shelf at 500Hz
- Peak Filter (boost/cut) at 5kHz
- Treble High Shelf at 7khz for Classic and 3kHz for Pop.

Regarding the POP EQ. We found a scan of the '68 mixer manual where it says:
"Bass control 5 x 2 dB lift and cut. Half lift/cut at 500 Hz."
"Treble control 5 x 2 dB lift and cut. Half treble cut at 2.5 kHz. Treble lift peaked at 5kHz."
Taking into account tolerances of the actual, physical, components, 2.5 kHz can easily become 3 kHz. We also liked 3 kHz control marginally better than 2.5 kHz.

Regarding the CLASSIC EQ. Sources, other than "Recording the Beatles", that we came across, indicate that 10 kHz is the corner frequency, rather than mid-point frequency. Although you cannot trust everything you read on the internet, we decided to go with the concencus. This, and a chosen Q, resulted in 7 kHz mid-point frequency. Q factor was tweaked to get smooth EQ curves.

4) Where in the circuit diagram is the VU placed? Post Input Gain/Pre-upsampling? Or post Wet/Dry dial but pre-output gain?

VU meters are placed post output gain (i.e. at the very end of the signal chain).