A link to the past
There’s something quite magical about hearing classic songs. If you let your mind drift, you’re transported to a totally different time: different fashion, different politics, different tastes, different lives. If you want to evoke the feeling of the 70s or 80s, when the 1073 was used on practically every chart hit, our 1973-Pre makes it easy. Added to individual tracks in your song, you can add that toasty, harmonic, saturated sound that typified the era.
Mixing confidence
Load up 1973-Pre as an “insert” effect on channel, dial in an appropriate preset, and most of the hard work has been taken care of. You’ll now be mixing with the sound of a classic analog console, with the parameters set up by a top sound designer. Now you’re free to get creative, safe in the knowledge that you have half a century of legendary pro audio heritage supporting you.
That’s what we think, anyway. How you decide to use 1973-Pre is up to you. Maybe you’ll just love the way drums sound when you slam the input gain and pull down the high end. In fairness, that does sound pretty awesome.
Cracking the code
We built our award-winning reputation on accurately modelling classic synthesizers and keyboards, now we extend our expertise to bringing legendary, rare, and unattainable pro audio hardware to every modern music creator.
We didn’t just want to make something that sounded like a 1073, we wanted to create a living, breathing emulation to bring you as close as possible to the joyous original, and go beyond your expectations. To do Rupert Neve’s brainchild justice, we analysed the unique response of every electronic component of the hardware. To guarantee the best preamp sound, Arturia’s engineers travelled the world, visited studios, and spoke to producers and engineers who use their 1073 on every project.
When designing the 1973-Pre, our quest brought us to London, England. There, we were able to spend some time with unit #3392, an original unmodified 1073 built in 1971. This particular preamp helped shape the course of popular music for almost half a century. Now owned by Fish Factory Studio, it also played its part in creating iconic Blur and Gorillaz tracks when it was used by Damon Albarn’s sound engineer.
Taking its rightful place alongside the best performance keyboards, analog synths, and digital powerhouses in Arturia’s virtual hall of fame, the 1973-Pre is ready to show you what it’s made of.
Rediscover an industry legend
Beautifully simple, yet stunningly effective, the 1973-Pre offers simple controls that pros will feel right at home with, and newcomers will quickly learn to love.
3-band equalizer
Creatively shape your signal with low, medium, and high band controls of +/- 18dB. The low band lets you perfectly balance the bass content in your signal, the mid band can add presence or cut the mud, and the high band can add shine and air, or remove any unwanted sharpness.
Input gain
Controls how much of your signal is sent through the circuitry. Subtle levels will introduce that flattering brilliance that the 1073 is known for. Pushing harder will introduce harmonic distortion, adding presence and fatness.
High pass filter
Cuts the super-low end, inaudible rumble in your signal. Switched on, this can give your mix more headroom and energy. Left off, it lets through the bass you feel, rather than hear.
Output trim
A fully transparent volume control to give your DAW exactly the level of signal you want.
It’s fair to say that in the 50 years since unit #3392 was built, the music industry has seen some changes. To bring this legend up to date, we’ve also included some optional enhancements to make the most of your DAW.
Automatic gain control intelligently alters the output volume based on the changes you make to the input gain.
Continuous controls, rather than stepped, for extra creative precision.
Switchable transformers, letting you choose between the original Carnill and the modified Marinair components, so you can easily choose which hardware voicing sounds best on your signal.
Self contained mid/side mode, so you don’t need to use additional convertors to use this advanced studio technique, your audio will sound amazing in both mono and stereo.
To top it all off, we even recreated the vintage style of the interface in a glorious, high-definition GUI. Every aspect of the 1973-Pre has been meticulously put together, ready to take your music to the next level.
Main Features
- Virtual recreation of famed classic British preamp
- 60 dB virtual continuous input gain
- 2 type of output transformers
- +/- 24 dB Output trim level
- Complete switchable EQ section
- Include bypass & phase Inversion switch
- High Shelf Filter
- +/- 18dB gain
- Fixed frequency of 12kHz
- Midrange Bell Filter
- +/- 18 dB gain
- Continuous frequency range from 360Hz to 7.2kHz
- Low Shelf Filter
- +/- 18dB gain
- Continuous frequency range from 35Hz to 220Hz
- High Pass Filter
- -18dB/oct. Slope
- Continuous frequency range from 50Hz to 300Hz
- 1 & 2 channels plugin versions
- 3 stereo modes
- Stereo Link
- Dual Mono Channels
- Mid/side (M/S) encoding-decoding for advanced stereo processing
- Output Analog VU meter
- 3 calibrations mode (-18dBFs, -12dBS, -8 dBFs)
- Analog clipping LED indicator
- Comprehensive set of presets
- State-of-the-art TAE® analog modeling
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