At the recent NAMM show in Nashville, TN, London's Abbey Road Studios announced the release of the new Brilliance Pack plug-ins. The Brilliance Pack provides authentic emulations of vintage EMI presence EQs for Mac- and PC-based DAW systems. Based on the original modules built in the 1960s, the plug-ins bring these classic EQs to the digital domain, retaining the operation and response curves from the original hardware.
Three plug-in modules are included. The RS127 Rack is modeled on the original rack-mount Brilliance Control, and the RS135 recreates the 8kHz boost unit. The third unit, the RS127 Box plug-in, was created by modeling the stand-alone Brilliance Control with an EMI transformer used to connect it to modern consoles. As a result, the plug-in features an exaggerated response or “transformer effect” at some settings, due to an interaction between the RS127 and the transformer.
The original RS127 and RS135 EQ boxes were custom-built by EMI technicians in the early 1960s to supplement the limited EQ on the REDD mixing consoles. They were the predominant outboard EQs at Abbey Road throughout the '60s and were used on many famous recordings during this period, including almost every album made by The Beatles.
The plug-ins were developed from original EMI circuit schematics, circuit simulation and digital modeling of vintage Abbey Road units. As a group, they provide control of frequencies that can improve the presence and definition of recordings and help instruments stand out in a mix. They essentially provide the complete range of presence EQs that were used at Abbey Road in the '60s.
The software is compatible with all popular DAW applications, including automation and control surface support, and can be used on mono, stereo and multichannel tracks. Minimum system requirements are OS 10.4 for Macs and Windows XP for the PC platform.
For more information, visit www.abbeyroadplugins.com.