Heritage Audio BritStrip

The BritStrip combines a real-deal 73 mic preamplifier, an expanded 73 equalizer, a discrete Class-A DI, and the infamous diode bridge compressor from the Heritage Audio SUCCESSOR. This channel strip culminats 50 years of analog design in a single rack unit. BritStrip nails the sound of yesterday’s iconic recordings for today’s demanding engineers.

The mic preamp that meets the demands
The BritStrip starts with the same preamp as the Heritage Audio 73JR, with a custom input transformer co-designed with Carnhill and exclusively made in the St Ives factory. The preamp also features a custom Carnhill St Ives output transformer, which completes it’s all discrete, Class-A, 3-gain stage design. The preamp features 80 dB of gain, 20dB pad, phase reversal and an impedance switch for 1200 or 300 ohm input.

The discrete Class-A DI
The DI is also taken from the highly acclaimed design found in the Heritage Audio 73JR, an all-discrete Class-A JFET circuit in front of the microphone transformer, giving a broad range of color and weight. The DI also includes a passive thru output to feed a separate amplifier.

An expanded 73 equalizer
The BritStrip eq features 3 Vinkor pot core inductors in the mid band and high pass filter sections. The impact is hard to believe with extreme boosts being exceptionally musical. The mid band is great for sculpting fat and punchy snare, kick, guitars, vocals. No need to be subtle like you would with most eqs — BritStrip doesn’t sound phasey or loses headroom in extreme settings. The inductor-based low-pass filter, directly taken from the 73 design, lets you control out of range low end — without affecting the quality of your desired frequencies. The high and low shelves have been extended to include a bell mode — making them more versatile than ever before.

A SUCCESSOR -like compressor
The diode bridge bus compressor needs little introduction, as it’s the same compressor found in the multi award-nominated Heritage Audio Successor. Diode bridge compression, a 60 year old patent, took on a whole new life with the expanded features and incredible fast attack/release times of the Successor. With BritStrip, this powerful compressor design is perfect to use for tracking, thanks to it’s blend control and elaborate sidechain filter. This gives you plenty of tracking potential, as you can give instruments that “record-ready” dynamics as performers monitor — giving them a finished “real-time feel” as they perform. The compressor section provides plenty of sidechain flexibility, with 5 frequency options, and an external sidechain input. And if that weren’t enough flexibility, 2 BritStrips can have their compressors linked for the ultimate stereo tracking solution.

Routing flexibility.
The BritStrip allows for compression and equalizer routing. Eq’ing pre-compression makes the compression detector more sensitive to the boosted frequencies and less sensitive to those cut. Inversely, eqing post compression makes the detector insensitive to the eq settings.

Features

• A high-end, 3 stage 73-style microphone/DI preamplifier with 80dB of British-style gain
• An expanded 73-style equalizer
• A diode bridge bus compressor, taken from the Heritage Audio Successor
• The all-in-one, Heritage Audio value pack.
• Custom Carnhill St Ives input and output transformers exclusively made for Heritage Audio.
• Linking option for stereo compression with two BritStrips

Technical Specifications

• Input/Ouput
• Microphone input impedance: HI, 1200 Ohm min., LO, 300 Ohm min., transformer balanced
• Line input impedance: 10 kOhms, transformer balanced
• DI input impedance: > 2 Megohms, unbalanced.
• Output impedance: < 75 Ohms, transformer balanced
• Output (max.): > +26dBm into 600 Ohms
• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20Khz
• Pad: 20 dB
• Gain (max.): > 80dB (Mic), 50dB (Line)

EQ

• High Frequency: +/-16dB shelving, 10 kHz, 12 kHz, 16 kHz
• Low Frequency: +/-16dB shelving, 60Hz, 110Hz, 220Hz
• Mid Frequency: +/-18dB peaking, Mid and HI Q, 0.36kHz, 0.7kHz, 1.6kHz, 3.2kHz, 4.8kHz, 7.2kHz
• High Pass Filter: 18dB per octave slope, 50Hz, 80Hz , 160 Hz, 300Hz

Compressor

• Threshold: 20 to 20 dBu
• Ratio: 1.5:1 to 10:1
• Attack: Slow, Fast
• Release: 50ms to 400ms, Auto programm dependend
• Sidchain filter: off, High-pass: 80, 160, 5000 Hz, Peak, 800Hz, 3kHz
• Gain makup: 0 to 20 dB