- top rated
"The Trident A-Range and FET Compressor sounds very, very analog to me."Greg Wells. Producer and songwriter for Katy Perry, Weezer, Adele, Timbaland, Mika, OneRepublic, Pink, The Deftones, Rufus Wainwright, etc.
"I had a guy over here and I pulled up the Trident and we both were like 'wow, that sounds amazing'. It's just a great plugin."Doug Aldrich. Producer/Guitar wizard of Whitesnake.
"The trident eq is really musical and easy to use. I got to use the hardware again this summer and it totally stands up in the 'wow' stakes. Really great to make things sound in your face the high end is really sweet."Stu Richardson. Bass Player / Producer / Mixer for Lostprophets.
The Trident A-Range equalizer is a legendary piece of equipment. As only thirteen A-Range consoles were ever made, it remains a holy grail for sound engineers and producers around the world that hope to create works of art equal to those that were originally recorded on the A-Range - David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, Queen, Elton John, the list goes on...
It is sometimes said that one of the disadvantages of digital mixing and recording is that the happy accidents one could experience with analog gear just don't happen in the DAW. People saying that clearly haven't tried Softube's Trident A-Range equalizer.
Because the Trident A-Range is not only a tremendously nice sounding and highly characteristic equalizer. Its four frequency bands also have a way of integrating in sometimes rather unpredictable ways. More often than not you will find that the equalizer ends up giving you something even better than you may have expected when you made a certain setting. In this sense, the Trident A-Range is more of a musical instrument than a strictly scientific tool. We think this is one of the major reasons it has been used on so many great classic rock albums and why it's still one of the most coveted pieces of audio equipment around.
Only thirteen A-Range consoles were ever built, and the Softube plug-in version is a very exact model of channel 15 of the Trident A-Range at Sweet Silence Studio 'B' in Denmark. This is producer Flemming Rasmussen's favorite channel for recording lead vocals. Flemming also used it for the solo and rhythm guitars on Metallica's "Ride The Lightning" and "Master of Puppets", as well as Ritchie Blackmore's guitar on the Rainbow albums "Difficult to Cure" and "Bent out of Shape".
The A-Range channel features four bands of equalization plus high and low pass filters. By driving the console hot, it is possible to get it to distort with a hairy and effective saturation that is just right in some situations, and just wrong in others! We added a separate Saturation control to let you choose easily. Turn it down for clean (and less CPU draw), and up for the sound of a Trident A-Range hard at work.
Only thirteen A-Range consoles were ever built, and the Softube plug-in version is a very exact model of channel 15 of the Trident A-Range at Sweet Silence Studio 'B' in Denmark. This is producer Flemming Rasmussen's favorite channel for recording lead vocals. Flemming also used it for the solo and rhythm guitars on Metallica's "Ride The Lightning" and "Master of Puppets", as well as Ritchie Blackmore's guitar on the Rainbow albums "Difficult to Cure" and "Bent out of Shape".
The A-Range channel features four bands of equalization plus high and low pass filters. By driving the console hot, it is possible to get it to distort with a hairy and effective saturation that is just right in some situations, and just wrong in others! We added a separate Saturation control to let you choose easily. Turn it down for clean (and less CPU draw), and up for the sound of a Trident A-Range hard at work.
Features:
- EQ with a will of its own
- Created together with original designer Professor Malcolm Toft
- Each and every component carefully modeled
- Saturation control
- Very CPU friendly
System Requirements
- macOS Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13
- Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 11
- Softube account
- iLok account
- Computer with AU, VST, VST3, and/or AAX-compatible DAW host software
- Internet access (for downloading installers and managing licenses)
Supported CPU Families
- Apple macOS computers with Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or Apple silicon (M1 or newer) CPU. Apple silicon is supported natively.
- Windows computers with quad-core Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or AMD quad-core processors with SSE 4.2 support.
- Other Intel processors (Celeron, Pentium, and Xeon) are compatible if they support SSE 4.2 instructions.
Supported Host Software (DAW)
Any 64-bit VST, VST3, AU, or AAX (Pro Tools 11.0.2 or higher) compatible host application should work. However, due to plug-in host differences between DAWs—and our rigorous standards—Softube only officially test their plug-ins and instruments in the most recent versions of Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, Studio One, and Reaper. Softube plug-ins are not tested regularly in non-listed systems. They will likely work if the system requirements are met. However, the manufacturer cannot guarantee a solution for issues in unsupported systems.
Softube strongly recommend using VST3, as some of their plug-ins have features that are not present in the older VST format. Supported sample rates: 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz, in both mono and stereo. The most recent maintenance release of your DAW application is recommended. AAX DSP is not currently in active development. TDM/VENUE/RTAS are no longer supported. See Legacy Installers.
Important Note: Make sure that you always use the latest iLok License Manager. It is not included in the Softube installer but can be downloaded from www.ilok.com
Any references to any brands on this site/page, including reference to brands and instruments, are provided for description purposes only. For example references to instrument brands are provided to describe the sound of the instrument and/or the instrument used in the sample. Plugin Boutique do not have (nor do they claim) any association with or endorsement by these brands. Any goodwill attached to those brands rest with the brand owner. Plugin Boutique or its Suppliers do not accept any liability in relation to the content of the product or the accuracy of the description. "RHODES" is a registered trademark of Joseph A Brandstetter.