Ultra Channel

64-bit Channel Strip with Micro Pitch and Stereo Delay

UltraChannel is Eventide´s 64-bit native channel strip plug-in featuring micro pitch functionality from their flagship hardware H8000, stereo delays with variable feedback paths, plus two stages of compression, gating, and five bands of parametric EQ.

UltraChannel includes a variety of factory presets tailored to signal sources such as guitar, bass, kick drum, snare, piano, strings, synths and vocals.

UltraChannel features a pair of dynamics processors: the O-Pressor, capable of extreme compression (this is the compressor section of the Omnipressor) and a conventional compressor with de-essing and side-chain capability.

UltraChanne also offers Soft-Saturation, and Transformer emulation which recreates transformer core saturation. This feature adds harmonics to low frequency material while remaining relatively transparent to the rest of signal. While relatively subtle, in aggregate, Transformer can bring life to otherwise dull mixes and help glue disparate sound sources together.

FlexiPath routing allows drag and drop for reordering the signal path of the top level components (O-Pressor, compressor/de-esser, EQ, Gate).

UltraChannel includes a variety of factory presets tailored to signal sources such as guitar, bass, kick drum, snare, piano, strings, synths and vocals. A number of the presets were created by Eventide artists.

Fazit

Der Eventide UltraChannel ist der mit Abstand beste Channel Strip, der mir auf nativer Ebene bislang begegnet ist. Für die gelungene Konzeption, den erstklassigen Klang und die hohe Effizienz der Module dürfte nicht zuletzt die beinahe 35-jährige Erfahrung des Herstellers verantwortlich sein. Einen direkten Vergleich zu den entsprechenden Algorithmen des H8000 kann ich nicht ziehen, doch die Qualitäten des O-Pressors und des Mikro Pitch Shift haben mich lebhaft an frühere Arbeiten mit dem Eventide Orville erinnert. Wenn im direkten A/B – Vergleich ein Qualitätsunterschied hörbar sein sollte, kann er nicht groß sein.

Holger Obst

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