Heritage Audio is a relatively new brand, founded in 2011 by Peter Rodriguez, a sound engineer with extensive experience in the music industry.
As the website states, Heritage Audio's mission is to take us back to the golden age of recording, adapting it to 21st century studios.
As far as we are concerned, we made our small bet on the Spanish brand as early as 2015 when we bought a pair of Heritage Audio 73jr. Defining them Neve clones is really an understatement, as we are talking about preamps with high quality components and with an absolutely incisive and colorful sound, in our opinion, even superior to brands whose brand is now engraved in the history of recording.
Over the years we have continued to keep an eye on HA's work, noting how the company has begun to represent a standard in the industry, creating products that are very high-end (we're talking about 80 series), both in the "economic" range such as ELITE series, economic yes, but with a superlative quality / price ratio.
On this occasion we will analyze a product that we strongly wanted in testing and for this I thank AgeofAudio for giving me the chance to test it for more than 2 months.
Let's talk about successor, a master bus compressor that fully reflects Heritage Audio's motto of marrying the old with the new.
Usually the most popular master buses are technology based VCA (Volder Cunrolled Amplifier), i.e. compression occurs via voltage-controlled transistor electronic circuits. One of the main features of VCA compressors is that they offer very fast attack and release times, which are excellent both on a Drum knock, Both on general master to give that “glue” effect at the end of a mix, often however lacking in color being very transparent.
In this case, the Spanish company has fished out a technology that is quite old in itself, namely that of diode bridge(we remember for example the historians Snow XNUMX and XNUMX based on this technology), although recently little used; four meticulously matched diodes are used as control elements, useful for reporting XNUMXnd order harmonic distortion characteristics.
Returning to attack and release times, having decidedly ultra-fast options, absent from vintage models, they allow much more flexible settings, including sounds similar to the JFET technology.
Front panel
Taking a quick glance at the Successor's front panel, of course, we can't help but notice how there is a strong resemblance to its putative fathers Snow 2254\33609, both from the color and the type of knobs used.
Being exclusively a master bus, obviously we will not have two separate compression channels (for example as in the Neve 33609), but only a single sequence of step controls, excellent for making a precise recall of the settings. No signal generated by the summation takes over the control processes, it is simply the signal with the higher level of the two channels that is responsible for the dynamic changes, a system called "Oxford Fashion".
The only negative note is the quality of the knobs, a little too "soft" compared to, for example, those of the 73jr which seem decidedly more solid to the touch.
Front panel parameters
Returning to the front panel, we have from left to right, the meter compression level (0-20db), the switch Dynamics In that in addition to activating the compression circuit, it also activates the lighting of the meter. Next we are in control of Threshold which varies between -20 + 20dBu to follow we have the Ratio control which selects compression ratios between 1: 5: 1 - 2: 1 - 3: 1 - 4: 1 - 6: 1 or a limiter ratio 20:1.
Next we have the Attack control, also in steps, which starts from a very fast value of 50µ and then rises to 0.2, 0.5, 2, 5 and 20ms. Following we have the release control ranging from 25ms to 400ms, as well as having two parameters A1 e A2 that automatically adjust the release (fast or slow depending on the sound material used).
As regards the side-chain filter is a great implementation of a feature that has become increasingly common in recent years and provides high pass filters at 80 and 160 Hz, bell pre-emphasis boost at 800Hz e 3kHz and a high pass filter a 5kHz, as well as an off position. The Side chain also includes a basic filter under the 50Hz to prevent too low frequencies from affecting the compressor.
Below we find the knob for the Gain Make Up, also in step, which reaches up to 10db. Next to it we find the button to enable the rear inputs for the side chain, as well as the button to activate the blend function, which thanks to the subsequent control allows you to balance the dry and wet of the output signal.
Listening impressions
Moving on to the test, we have squeezed this Successor in various situations and with various settings, going from a Drum Bus, processed with various settings, to acoustic and electric guitar stems, in addition to the general master of an entire song. The thing that struck us instantly is there gorgeous coloring that this machine supplies. Even not compressing, but only activating it, a really noteworthy color is added, among other things, even when turned off, the signal still passes through all the circuits, thus benefiting from the sound of the type transformers. 1073.
In the compression phase, however, already from the attack times, we understand that it is a really bad compressor, as you can see from the examples relating to the drum bus, but despite some really aggressive settings, it remains very musical and almost never from that one. excessive pumping effect, which often gives us back for example the SSL Bus Compressor.
Acoustic Drums
We also had fun on the drums by adjusting the filter and noticing such as setting it to 80hz, the bass drum manages to have its presence moving forward in the mix without dominating the compression level. TO 160hz we note for example how both kick and snare drum are involved in not dominating the musical content. With the filter set to 5khz, instead we can definitely soften the sound of the cymbals (usable in some cases also as de-esser on voices).
Control Blend it is very useful for not losing that feeling of punch for example when you go to sculpt the drums without using the side chain filters, as well as on the master bus if you want to use it in parallel compression.
Acoustic and electric guitar
Definitely useful also on guitars, both acoustic and electric, where the sensation of glue that gives to the stems inside the mix is evident.
Absolutely, the greatest perception we have received from this compressor is the almost impossibility of making a mistake in a setting, even trying decidedly imaginative solutions, the sound always has a very creamy and musical texture and on the whole, the stereophonic image also widens decidedly creating more space for tracks to breathe.
Obviously it is not a compressor that can be used in all situations, in fact its nature does not allow it to be used as a normal compressor, of those in which a certain amount of punch is sought, but its use remains to make everything more homogeneous and to make the various buses on which it is inserted better “sit” in the mix.
Voices
On the voices it gives an incredible presence and using the three filters a 800hz, 3khz o 5khz, even particularly unbalanced or sibilant voices can be tamed. With the boost a 800hz we manage to moderate mixes with too much content on the mid-highs. The Successor also responds well as a mastering compressor, although clearly not properly designed for this use.
The Successor can easily position itself in the Olympus of the master bus compressors that have made history, with the omnipresent G Buss Compressor of the SSL to 2500 of the API, while remaining a valid alternative to them, as it offers high quality components combined with a decidedly different color, full of harmonic distortion and decidedly musical.
Flexibility
Other points in favor is the ease of use, the only thing to pay attention to, is not to overdo the input signal coming from the DAW, in fact we do not have an input meter to refer to, we with ours Focusrite RED 8Pre we had to do the math as the interface is designed to go out of line by losing 8db and gaining too much from the plugin I\O di Logic, we had peaks that went far beyond harmonic!
The only contraindication that we have to point out is the fact that we cannot do without it anymore, as by now using it on anything you go through the study, the difference with \ without is abysmal….
Useful Information
Producer: Heritage Audio
Product: successor
Italian distributor: Midimusic SRL
Price: 1.550 Euro
Vincenzo Siani
