Black Rooster Audio OMNITEC-67A User manual

OMNITEC-67A | PRODUCT OVERVIEW & MANUAL
OMNITEC-67A
VINTAGE PREAMP

OMNITEC-67A VINTAGE PREAMP
GENERAL OVERVIEW
2
MOTOWN’S SECRET SAUCE
OMNITEC-67A | VINTAGE PREAMP
If what you are looking for is to add authentic vintage
warmth and grit to your productions, you have come
to the right place - the OmniTec-67A is the vintage
preamp that can awlessly do it all.
Inspired by the famous Altec 1567A, our latest vintage
emulation plug-in features lush vintage tube
saturation just like its hardware counterpart. It’s the
perfect tool to add saturation, harmonics, and subtle
distortion to your vocal, bass, and drum tracks.
The original unit was released in the early 1960s as a
rack-mounted tube mixer that had a simple two-knob
EQ and a whole lot of gain at a whopping 97 dB! Its
sound was lled with grit, density, and character, with
its signature green plate setting it apart from the rest.
This is the unit for that unmistakable raw analog
sound!
The 1567A went on to heavily inuence the sound of
countless Motown hits, from The Supremes to The
Temptations, and it was famously used by engineers
such as Russ Terrana and Matt Wallace. It is
impossible to think of Motown without thinking of the
purposefully distorted and oversaturated brass
sections, electric piano, bass, and vocals in these
songs, which gave them the sound that we all know
and love today.
This iconic piece of studio gear can be credited for the
sound of a generation, along with the recording
techniques that these brilliant engineers used at the
time.
Following the Motown era, the Altec 1567A stuck
around and became the gold standard for achieving a
colored tube sound, at a fraction of the cost. Above
technical excellence, Motown producers focused on
creating an unmistakable aesthetic, which was so
inuential that many artists across pop, rock, soul,
indie and hip hop still use it today - from vocals to
harmonic and rhythm sections, the Motown sound is
here to stay.
Our OmniTec-67A has been faithfully modeled to
bring this iconic studio sound to your DAW. Its drive
tube input and output channels have their own 3-
band EQ, as well as three tube types, allowing for
maximum versatility.
From gritty vocals to saturated kick drums and
harmonically complex mixes, the OmniTec-67A turns
any signal into pure analog gold.
This plug-in allows you to go back in time and breathe
new life to your digital recordings with all of the magic
of analog processing, and none of the hassle of
hardware gear.

OMNITEC-67A VINTAGE PREAMP
GENERAL OVERVIEW
3
FEATURE OVERVIEW
3 TUBE TYPES
The OmniTec-67A features three tube types, provi-
ding you with a variety of options to add warmth and
saturation to a track. Each tube type oers a dierent
frequency response, output gain, and harmonic ran-
ge.
LINE/MIC SWITCH FOR BASIC GAIN STAGING
The plug-in includes a line/mic switch, which allows
you to select a source - each with its own frequency
response and behavior (Mic impedance vs. Line
impedance). The plug-in auto-compensates at the
output stage.
CLASSIC 3-BAND EQUALIZER
As an extension to the original unit, we have added a
vintage 3-band EQ. Its frequencies have been meticu-
lously selected to provide you with even more op-
tions than its hardware counterpart did.
2 BIAS VOLTAGE OPTIONS
The bias control heavily inuences how the tubes are
driven, having an eect on their temperature and re-
sistance. If they are too cold (over-biased), the valve
sounds thin, and if they are too hot (under-biased)
the valve oversaturates. Choose between 2 options
to nd the optimal tone for your production.
As you can see in the diagram above, the Om-
niTec-67A has 2 inputs. The mic input introduces the
incoming signal into a microphone transformer, and
into a premix amplier (rst ½ of an 12AX7) there-
after. This adds an additional saturation stage that
you can control using the level of the incoming signal.
The line Input is connected straight into the input
switch. Since there is no level dierence between the
mic and line input in the digital world, we compensate
for the line input signal to reach the same boosted
level as the mic input (not shown in the diagram).
After the input switch, there is an input potentiometer
that acts as an attenuator before the single-stage
booster (second ½ 12AX7).
This potentiometer can act like a level and saturation
control before the EQ in the OmniTec-67A.
The single-stage booster injects the signal into a 3-
Band equalizer and an output control that acts as an
attenuator. With the EQ and the output control, it’s
possible to saturate the last stage of the circuit (third
1/2 12AX7 and 6CG7 network) in very interesting
ways.
Finally, we introduce an output transformer for that
extra oomph. It’s worth mentioning that the phase
control is not shown in the diagram, but it changes the
phase at the input level before any of the stages.

OMNITEC-67A VINTAGE PREAMP
PLUG-IN CONTROLS
4
» PHASE INVERSION
This switch allows you to invert the phase of the incoming signal to prevent phase
cancelation in the mix.
» LEVEL
This switch allows you to select a source. Choose between the mic or line op-
tions for dierent frequency responses and behaviors (Mic impedance vs. Line
impedance).
» TUBE TYPE & BIAS
Choose your preferred classic tube type using this control (A, B, or C). Each tube
comes with a dierent frequency response and saturation behaviour. Use the
BIAS option to adjust, and choose between two bias voltage options. BIAS con-
trols the voltage the tube is driven with.
» 3-BAND EQ
Use the frequency knobs to attenuate or boost your selected frequency between
-12dB to 12dB. Each knob corresponds to one frequency, as below.
Bass: 50.0 Hz
Mid: 400.0 Hz
Treble: 1 kHz
» GAIN STAGING & MIX
Control the in and output gain before or after processing, respectively. You can
blend the saturated signal with the dry signal using the mix control.
» VU-METER
The OmniTec-67A comes with a beautifully modelled VU-meter that allows for
the visualisation of the amount of ‘drive’ you are generating. The VU’s reference
level is -14dB.

OMNITEC-67A VINTAGE PREAMP
PREFS & INSTRUCTIONS
5
ADDITIONAL PLUG-IN PREFERENCES
(GEAR ICON MENU AT THE BOTTOM)
GUI SIZE
In the GUI size menu, you can select your preferred GUI ranging from a list of four settings, if you’re looking to
change the default sizing. Please note that the GUI size setting is a global preference that aects all Black
Rooster Audio plug-ins installed on your system. If you are stuck with large GUI sizes, please right click on any
non-control section of the plug-in for the regular settings menu to adjust GUI size.
KNOB BEHAVIOUR & KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Use the plug-in settings menu to select your preferred knob mode globally. Please note that all of our plug-ins
share the same settings across all DAW applications. Choose between “Host Setting“, “Circular“, “Relative Cir-
cular" and "Linear“.
• By default, the knob mode is set to "Host Setting", which means that the knob mode is dictated by the DAW
application. Some VST hosts allow you to change the knob mode setting in their preference menu. Our plug-
ins will respect the host knob mode in that setting.
• In "Circular" or "Relative Circular" mode, all knobs will react to circular mouse gestures and you have to drag
your mouse in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction to change its value.
• In the "Linear" mode you have to drag your mouse up or down when selecting a knob to change its value.
Use the knob sensitivity menu and adjust it to your liking. Please note that this function is only available in lin-
ear mode.
ALL OF OUR PLUGINS SUPPORT THE FOLLOWING KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
AU Hosts on Mac OS
Alt + Click - Reset control to its default value Shift + Drag - Fine control
Shift + Mousewheel - Fine control
VST Hosts on Mac OS
CMD + Click - Reset control to its default value
Shift + Drag - Fine control (only a applicable in linear knob mode) Shift + Mousewheel - Fine control
VST Hosts on Windows
Ctrl + Click - Reset control to its default value
Shift + Drag - Fine control (only a applicable in linear knob mode) Shift + Mousewheel - Fine control