A Letter From Bill Putnam, Jr.
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It is hard to believe that it has been over 40 years since my father first designed the 1176 limiter. One
of the characteristics that my father exhibited was a love for new technologies and innovation. I can
only imagine my father’s excitement about the potential represented by transistors and
semiconductors, which has often been called the most important invention of the 20
th
century. My
father got to watch the emergence of semiconductors from a lab in Murray Hill New Jersey (Bell), into
devices that became consistent and dependable. He was aware that FETs (field effect transistor)
exhibited a voltage-variable resistance characteristic that made them appropriate for use in
compressors and limiters.
The challenge presented by these early devices was threefold – 1) how to create a circuit which was
repeatable and predictable even with variation in part characteristics and 2) how to minimize the
noise which was a natural result of the nonlinear behavior exhibited by the FETs, and 3) to do so in a
way which sounded good. These were the key design challenges at heart of the innovation embodied
in the 1176. I wish that I could say that I had clear memories of his work on this project, but alas, I
was 3 years old when he started selling the first 1176s. This is a personal reminder of how long this
product has been around, while still maintaining its relevance (especially!) in the modern digital
recording environment. However, I do remember visiting the lab that he had set up near our home in
Tarzana, California where he did much of the work on the 1176 along with other early products. This
exposure to creative innovation and excitement about new technologies made a big impact on me.
It has been 10 years since my brother and I started putting together plans and ideas to re-create
Universal Audio as a company that would bridge the growing divide between analog and digital
electronics, old vs. new. The 1176LN was the first hardware product we decided to make; largely due
to the pride my father took in not only its commercial success, but also its creative and technical
success. As a matter of chance, the day that we shipped our first 1176LN out of my garage in Santa
Cruz, was February 20
th
, 2000, which was also my father’s birthday (he would have been 80). The
reformed Universal Audio has been shipping 1176s for over 8 years now!
At some point in time as limiters and compressors were leaving their sonic imprint on the music that
we listened to and grew up with, they expanded their role from strict tools into ‘tone boxes’, providing
a broad creative pallet with which to craft and manipulate sound for artistic purposes. With that as
the backdrop, we are presenting the 1176AE (Anniversary Edition), which I feel is a unique
embodiment of our respect for the past, while also introducing several new sonic possibilities for the
1176.
I am often asked about the difference between “Blackface” 1176s and the earlier “Bluestripe” units.
One of the main differences is the nature of the program-dependent compression characteristics. In
the Anniversary Edition, we are going back to the program dependent characteristic of the Bluestripe,
which provides a subtle, but distinct character difference. We have added a user-selectable, “super-
slow” attack setting, which creates all sorts of new uses for the unit. With a nod to the 176 limiter
(the tube forerunner of the 1176), the unit offers a gentler ratio array of 2:1, 4:1 and 8:1 while retaining
the high 20:1 setting. This also opens up the unit to greater sonic variety with more “multi-button”
configurations than any previous 1176 before it. I thank you for your purchase of this unit and support
for Universal Audio. I hope that it finds a nice home in your rack, and that it plays even a small part
in your pursuit of your creative and musical goals. Have fun! Make music!
-Bill Putnam Jr.
