The hardware Golden58 was always going to be a short run. Chris Yetter and his team at AudioScape designed it around the 5879 tube (the US military equivalent of the EF86 found in classic British preamps) with four NOS transformers per unit, and those parts simply aren't available in volume. The plugin version means the tone of that original circuit is permanently accessible. It's a two-channel tube preamp with 56 dB of gain, a polarity switch, and a voice switch for shaping the character of the saturation. At lower gain settings it adds a warm, round presence to sources like vocals, DI bass, and acoustic instruments. Push the gain and it opens up into a rich, harmonically dense saturation that works on everything from drums to a full mix bus. The plugin adds two features the hardware doesn't have. Auto-Gain keeps your output level consistent as you drive the saturation harder, so you can focus on the tonal change without compensating for volume jumps. Output Trims give you finer control over how the saturation circuit responds, letting you dial in exactly how much of the tube character you want in the final signal. AudioScape designed the original circuit as what they consider the American answer to the classic British preamp designs of the same era. The plugin captures that philosophy and makes it available to anyone working in the box.
