Heritage Audio Motorcity, HA-81A, Tubesessor, Tapeoplex and Successor – A Mix Mini Review

The Basics: High-end hardware specialist unveils new line of throwback plugs, $139 each.

The Apps: I recently reviewed the Heritage 73JR plug-in for Mix and was impressed by its overall warmth, the “features beyond the hardware” and the general ability to mangle with useful results. Those characteristics appear to fit all of Heritage Audio‘s new plugs, with their authentic controls (which sometimes irks me, just a little), a focus on transformer- and tube-based non-linearity, and a chewy, analog-like response that has way more character than stock DAW plugs or low-budget, analog processors.

The diode-bridge compressor emulator Successor, for example, has a Nuke button and parallel-blending for crushing channel apps, as well as gentle harmonics for mixes and buses.

TapeOPlex takes that unmistakable Maestro Echoplex tone and allows different delay times for L and R, which, in my world, makes it bigger, fatter and chewier than a Snickers bar.

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