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Description

The Universal Audio 1176 Blue Strip Fet Limiter is a legendary tool for any recording enthusiast seeking the iconic sound of vintage compression. This classic signal processor has been revered in studios worldwide for its fast attack times and versatile performance, capturing the essence of the original 1176 lineage with modern enhancements. Designed for both new and seasoned audio professionals, the Blue Strip delivers the punchy dynamics and nuanced control that have made it a staple in professional recording environments.

Harnessing a field-effect transistor (FET) compression circuit, the Blue Strip offers a distinct sonic character, perfect for adding warmth and presence to any track. Compatible with a wide range of audio signals, from vocals to drums and beyond, this limiter provides unparalleled flexibility, allowing you to shape your sound with precision. Its simple interface and intuitive controls make it an essential addition to any rack, facilitating seamless integration into your workflow.

Whether you're looking to bring out the subtleties in a vocal performance or add a polished edge to your instrumentals, the Universal Audio 1176 Blue Strip is engineered to meet the demands of the modern studio, all while preserving the timeless appeal of its predecessors.

Key Features:

  • Classic 1176 FET compression circuit
  • Fast attack and release times for dynamic control
  • Intuitive interface with simple controls
  • Suitable for vocals, instruments, and more
  • Legendary sound quality trusted by professionals
Colt Capperrune

Colt Capperrune

$15,000 Compressor Everyone is WRONG ABOUT

Video thumbnail for $15,000 Compressor Everyone is WRONG ABOUT by Colt Capperrune

$15,000 Compressor Everyone is WRONG ABOUT

Colt Capperrune

Colt Capperrune

Reviews

Owner Insights

We analyzed real musician discussions from forums and Reddit to find what players love, question, and tweak about Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier.

Build quality

  • It's noted that vintage components in original 1176 units, often no longer available, contribute to its unique sound, despite modern clones being close.

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  • Some clones, like Hairball, have input sections that can drop to 150 Ohms below 200Hz, affecting their use in certain applications.

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Use cases and applications

  • Audioscape 76A is favored for its performance in professional studio settings, noted for surpassing lower-end models in quality.

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  • The 1176 is frequently used in the classic vocal chain of a vintage German mic into a British preamp, highlighting its role in iconic setups.

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  • Users frequently apply the 1176 in a parallel compression setup for snare and kick drums, noting its ability to add snap and punch.

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  • The 1176 is frequently employed for parallel compression on drum busses, enhancing the punch and presence without overpowering the mix.

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Value and pricing

  • Klark Teknik 1176 copies are highly valued for budget-conscious buyers, allowing multiple units to be obtained for less than $2000.

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User experience

  • Hairball Rev A is described as trashier and more aggressive, while Rev D is smoother and more predictable, preferred for vocals and bass.

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  • Many users agree that the 1176 excels in adding "magic" to strummed acoustic guitars, offering a tight shimmer ideal for pop mixes.

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Features and functionality

  • The Audio-Scape 76A clone receives praise for its superior performance over Warm Audio and KT models, particularly in terms of sound quality.

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  • Some users desire modern emulations with threshold and makeup gain controls, critiquing the traditional fixed threshold design of the 1176.

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  • Users often utilize the "all buttons in" mode for aggressive compression, especially on drums and vocal tracks.

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  • The 1176 is praised for its ability to handle fast attack and release settings, making transients pop and brightening the sound, especially on drums.

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  • Fast attack and release settings are preferred for vocals and drums, but adjusting the attack can alter the knee of the compressor, affecting the sound's depth.

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Mods and upgrades

  • Owners building Hairball units often use vintage components like transformers and transistors for a more authentic sound.

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Comparisons

  • The Hairball Rev D is noted to sound closest to an original UA Anniversary Edition in blind tests, with a preference for its audio fidelity.

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  • A comparison was made to the Black Lion Seventeen, which features a wet/dry knob and high pass sidechain, offering more versatility than the original 1176.

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  • The Hairball Blue Stripe clone with upgraded cap kit is favored over original blue stripes by some owners, who note variability among the original units.

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  • Owners find the UAD 1176 plugin superior in authenticity to many other emulations, citing its accurate replication of the original hardware's characteristics.

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Software and compatibility

  • The Purple MC77 plugin is praised for its similarity to hardware versions, delivering a bright and gritty sound often favored in rock and metal genres.

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Artist usage

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See how Knife Party uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Knife Party

Music Producer

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Verified via Twitter

Rob Swire of Knife Party [formerly Pendulum] posted on his Twitter acount the provided image of his studio holding two of the mentioned Universal Audio Blue Strip Fet Limiters.

See how Caleb Followill uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Caleb Followill

Guitarist

Kings of Leon

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Verified via Soundonsound

Used for the vocals on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the item can be found here.

  • Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

See how Nils Frahm uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Nils Frahm

Composer, Music Producer

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Verified via Vimeo

In the opening shots of the Vimeo video "Late Night Tales: Nils Frahm - Behind The Records," Nils Frahm's studio is shown featuring two Universal Audio 1176 Blue Strip FET Limiters.

See how Rob Swire uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Rob Swire

Keyboardist, Music Producer

Pendulum

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Verified via Soundonsound

Vocals, meanwhile, were recorded in a corner of the band's main working area. "It's all me," says Rob. "I recorded them with a Brauner VMA, and unless we were using it as an effect vocal, there might be a bit of EQ first, and then through the Blue Stripe [1176 compressor].

See how Benny Blanco uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Benny Blanco

Music Producer

Bangers and Cash

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Verified via Soundonsound

In this interview under the control freak section he says "a Manley microphone and a Chandler TG2 mic pre, plus a [Universal Audio] 1176, one or two effect boxes and the guitar pedals, and that's it."

See how Adele uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Adele

Singer

The Gangbang

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Verified via SonicScoop

Used for vocals on "Hello", as stated by mix engineer Tom Elhirst in this December 21, 2015 SonicScoop interview.

The chain in LA was the Neve 1066 (Mic pre/3-band EQ) to the Bluestripe UREI 1176 compressor into a Fairchild 660 limiter. I’m taking the multitrack return from Pro Tools to the line amp on the Neve 1066, then straight into the 1176 and 660 and back up the insert return.

The UREI is hitting and releasing quicker, while the Fairchild is doing a much slower attack and release. Here at Electric Lady I use a Neve 1081 into a Blackface 1176 and then into a Tube-Tech CL 1B compressor.

A large part of the vocal sound is the plates and chambers at Capitol Studios: There’s chambers that Les Paul built back in the 1940’s, and they are literally like nothing else on earth. When I got back to NY in September, I mixed five or six songs at Electric Lady, so we’d send the vocals from here and they’d record it through the chamber, and send back the prints.

Once you’ve found the vocal sound for someone like Adele, you want to use it through the whole record, and these plates and chambers sound incredible. To get to them is hard enough: you go in to the basement of Capitol, you then climb through a ladder to get to the sub-basement, where it looks like no one has been for 50 years. You literally open a hatch and climb down a steel ladder.

Have you ever been in a reverb chamber? They’re like tiled rooms, not painted – like Alice in Wonderland rooms, they don’t look right.

There’s a lot of effects going on behind the vocals. There’s an AMS delay, an Eventide preset called “Canyon,” a plate, a spring…You can see the escalation of things. There’s about seven or eight things going on. You get this wide kind of thing, but her vocal remains super-present.

So what’s going on in the box?

There’s no compression processing going on at all, just some de-essing and some little volume draws on the vocals – little dots and dips, but no rides. The rides have been done with automation on the flying faders.

See how Greg Kurstin uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Greg Kurstin

Music Producer

The Shins

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Verified via Soundonsound

"My desktop Mac is an eight?core Intel with 8GB of memory, and I have Apogee Ensemble for going in and out of the computer, and Brent Averill BAE 1272 and BAE 312A preamps, plus a Universal Audio 1176 compressor. Almost everything I track goes through the 312A, then the 1176 and into the computer. Everything else is done in the box. My master keyboard is a Roland A37, my monitors are the Adam 7s, and I recently acquired an Adam Sub 8 bass speaker. My room has some acoustic treatment, with stuff above my head and in front of me. I also have a large selection of analogue keyboards, organs, Moogs, ARPs. I love these things and I have about everything from the '60s and '70s. I've sampled many of them in Logic's EXS24 sampler, so I have a bunch of unusual and imperfect?sounding sounds that I can use for writing and arranging.”

See how John Osborne uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

John Osborne

Guitarist

Brothers Osborne

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Verified via YouTube

In the video titled "EPIC HOME STUDIO Setup 2024 | John Osborne (studio tour)" by Andrew Masters on YouTube, at the 6:48 mark, a pair of Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifiers can be seen stacked in a rack in John Osborne's studio.

See how Jaycen Joshua uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Jaycen Joshua

Music Producer, Audio Engineer

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Verified via Jaycenjoshua

Listed in the Gear-Section. Said to be used as a Buss-Compressor (eg vor Vocals) in MixWithTheMasters Rosalía " Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi" Part 7 at 3:55

See how Lorenzo Wolff uses Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier

Lorenzo Wolff

Keyboardist, Music Producer

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Verified via YouTube

At 7:01 in the video titled "Restoration Sound Tour: The Studio Empowering Brooklyn Artists" by Gear Club Podcast, a Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier is visible in a rack within Annie's room, which is part of Lorenzo Wolff's studio.

Album Usage

The Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier has been featured on the following albums:

Genre Usage

Based on how artists on Equipboard use this gear, it is most commonly found in the following genres.

Used With

Based on how musicians on Equipboard use Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier, it is most commonly used with the following gear.

2 alternative and related items for Urei Universal Audio 1176 Blue Stripe Rev. A/B Limiting Amplifier, curated by the Equipboard community.

Hairball Audio FET/500 1176 Rev. A Blue Stripe

 

similar sound cheaper alternative

A 500 series clone of the 'Blue Stripe' 1176, available as a kit.

Echo Fix EF-P5 FET Compressor Pedal
similar sound cheaper alternative

The Echo Fix EF-P5 is a pedal format, FET compressor based off the Blue Stripe 1176.

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