The Heritage Audio Britstrip is a single rack channel strip combining a 73-style mic preamp and EQ as well as a diode-bridge compressor based on the popular Successor The Heritage Audio Britstrip faithfully assembles 50 years of analogue design to create an uncompromising channel strip oozing with vintage character. 73 Mic preamp The Britstrip features with the same preamp found on Heritage Audio’s “73Jr” and includes a new custom input transformer designed in collaboration with Carnhill in their St Ives factory. The output transformer is also a custom Carnhill St Ives to recreate the legendary “larger-than-life” sound associated with the most legendary British mic preamp. This Class A mic preamp delivers an impressive 80dB of gain and includes a -20dB Pad for loud sources and a polarity reversal. An impedance switch changing the impedance between 1200 Ohm and 300 Ohm input to offer optimum performance with any microphone. It also includes a discrete class-A JFET DI, also taken from the “73Jr”, and placed just before the input transformer, providing the colour and weight associated with the mic preamp. A Thru output is also provided to let you plug your instrument to a separate amplifier. Expanded 73 Equalizer. The Britstrip includes a three-band EQ with 3 Vinkor pot core inductors used for the mid-band and the high-pass filter sections. These provide huge benefits and ample headroom. The inductor based low pass filter is taken directly from Heritage Audio 73. Both low and high shelf bands have seen the inclusion of a bell mode, for increased flexibility. Diode Bridge Compressor The compression section takes many of its cues from the celebrated Successor including its incredibly fast attack and release times. On the Britstrip, Heritage Audio have made a few changes to make it more suitable for tracking, adding a parallel path controlled by the blend knob and an elaborate sidechain filter that includes five frequency options as well as an external side-chain input. In use, the diode bridge compressor provides a great and fast way to get record-ready dynamics at the tracking stage. A Link section lets you use two Britstrip together and match their gain reduction for the ultimate stereo tracking compression. The compressor can be placed before or after the EQ section at the press of a button.
