An adjustable all-analog saturation stage with user control makes the El Moo an interesting choice as a sonic leveler.
The El Moo Tube Limiter is a dynamics processor designed to accurately level signal peaks while offering a variety of saturation options. The El Moo showcases the analog capabilities of the APB hardware with its own user controllable saturation circuit design that not only allows variable amounts of signal distortion, but does so while keeping all signal levels below the maximum peak of the limiter output.
The dynamics processing of the El Moo Tube Limiter are an amalgamation of a software-based model of tube circuitry response and the programmable analog processing of the APB hardware. Generally the El Moo is a useful subtle limiter. However the combination of limiter gain, recovery, and saturation controls provide a good selection of not-so-subtle tones. Whether its gentle dynamic control or intense sonic sabotage, the El Moo Tube Limiter is a great tool for the job.
An important aspect of any APB plug-in is that the plug-in is primarily a controller. The APB plug-in takes the input audio signal, combines it with a control signal, and sends both along a Thunderbolt connection to an APB unit for processing. The control signal sets up the analog components to do the selected algorithm with all the parameter values, and the audio signal is converted to the analog domain. The analog version of the audio signal is processed in the analog domain, and then converted back to the digital domain.
By operating the APB hardware from an APB plug-in in this way, all user controllable parameters are recallable and can be saved as presets. Furthermore, because the control signal is married to the input audio signal, parameters can be updating during playback with sample accurate automation.