The « British Mode »
The 1176 is a vintage FET (field effect transistor) compressor. Based on an internal
feedback configuration, these designs are known to be fast and colorful, capable from soft
limiting to heavily saturated tones.
The original 1176 compressor has 4 selectable ratios. But it just so happens that all 4
buttons can be pressed at the same time, this is called “all buttons mode” or “British
Mode”. Although probably an unanticipated feature, this mode has become very popular
because of its distorted, explosive and highly compressed sound.
While prototyping FET compressor algorithms, we found a digital modification that could
be made to the algorithm that models the British Mode, that adds definition to the low-
frequency transients and makes the sound more aggressive.
Based on this idea, we developed the Pulsar Smasher, a very easy to use plug-in,
consisting of an extreme and aggressive compressor, ideal for raising the level of
ambiences in a drum bus, but also for adding presence to vocals, or warming up guitars or
basses.
Pulsar Smasher – User Manual v1.0 – page 5/16
