Heritage Audio has announced the availability of the BritStrip — representing the culmination of 50 years of analogue design in a single-space 19-inch rack device designed to nail the sound of yesteryear’s iconic recordings.

Heritage Audio’s BritStrip console channel strip combines a real-deal 73 mic preamplifier, an expanded 73 equaliser, and a discrete Class-A DI with the acclaimed diode bridge compressor found in the pro audio manufacturer’s Successor stereo bus compressor.

The closest equivalent of the BritStrip would be chaining together a 73JR II single-slot 500 Series true 73-style mic preamp module, a 73EQ JR fully-featured 500 Series line input module, and a ‘mono’ Successor.

The BritStrip features the same preamp found in Heritage Audio’s 73JR II — flavoured with a new custom input transformer co-designed with renowned British company Carnhill, also responsible for the custom output transformer that completes its Class-A, three-gain stage design.

Flexible features worth noting from a preamp perspective include -80dB of gain, a 20dB PAD, phase reversal, and an impedance switch for 1,200 or 300 ohm input.

The BritStrip console channel strip’s D.I. is also taken from the highly-acclaimed design found in the 73JR II, an all-discrete Class-A JFET (Junction Field-Effect Transistor) circuit fronting the microphone transformer to provide all the colour and weight any present-day demanding engineer could ask for. Furthermore, the D.I. also includes a passive THRU output to feed a separate amplifier.

As an expanded 73 equalizer, effectively, the BritStrip’s EQ features three Vinkor pot core inductors in the MID band and H.P. (high-pass) FILTER sections. Moreover, the MID band is great for sculpting fat and punchy snare, kick, guitars, vocals, and more.

Veering into compression territory, its implementation in the BritStrip renders it ideal for tracking, thanks to the BLEND control and elaborate SC (sidechain) FILTER flexibly, giving instruments ‘record-ready’ dynamics to provide performers with a ‘finished feel’ in real time.

The compressor section provides plenty of sidechain flexibility, with five frequency choices and an external sidechain (SC. EXT) option. Owners of two BritStrip console channel strips can even link their respective compressors, creating an ultimate stereo tracking solution.

The BritStrip is available now via RAD Distribution in the US, and elsewhere via Heritage Audio’s global network of dealers.