New York, NY (August 4, 2023)—The PSP BinAmp plug-in (Mac/Windows) emulates the preamp stage of the Echorec 2 Delay, a hardware unit introduced in 1960 by the Italian manufacturer, Binson. Because of its distinctive sound, PSP decided that a model of its preamp would make an excellent saturation plug-in.
The original hardware featured Class A circuitry and a triode design, which utilizes an amplification tube with three electrodes. PSP states, “This kind of design results in an asymmetric nonlinearities and a buildup of even-order harmonics in the output signal.”
The plug-in features a simple parameter set. The Drive knob controls the amount of saturation. It simultaneously balances the input and output levels to keep the volume under control even when the saturation is cranked.
The Character knob governs the response time of the preamp circuit, which affects the tonality of the saturation. For filtering, the plug-in sports a high-pass filter and a high-frequency rolloff. The HPF knob changes the frequency between 5 and 250Hz. The Rolloff is controlled by a trim-style knob that can be set between 6 kHz and 30 kHz.
You can create parallel saturation by turning the Blend control below 100 percent and alter the variability of the saturation with the Variation control.
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For metering, PSP included a “Magic Eye Indicator,” which is a circular display with left and right “wings” that move closer to the center to indicate a higher level. You can set the Magic Eye to monitor Saturation or Output level.
Other controls include a -20dB Pad button and dual polarity reverse buttons, one for the input and one for the output.
As usual with PSP plug-ins, you get a good selection of presets, which can be viewed in a single list or in source-specific categories. The plug-in also features an A/B system for comparing two different settings and an Undo/Redo control. The GUI is resizable from 70% to a whopping 250%.
PSP BinAmp is on sale for $49 until August 14, after which it rises to its regular price of $99.
