Pepper your tracks with a tasteful dash of PreSonus flavor via these two State Space modeled plug-ins recreated from classic PreSonus hardware channel strips, available in Studio One® Native Effects, VST3, AU, and AAX formats for use in your DAW of choice. The RC 500 is modeled from the PreSonus RC 500 FET Channel Strip; VT1 is modeled from a PreSonus classic tube channel strip. When the engineer who designed the original analog circuits can get together for drinks with the master of State Space Modeling, the resulting plug-in sounds so true to the original that even the designer of the analog hardware can’t tell the difference.

The VT1’s input stage offers an uncommon complement of tone-sculpting options and is great for making a particular track shine from inside your mix; the tube-modeled input section can be dialed up for boosted warmth and color, and the six impedance options allow for some nuanced filtering—lower settings are darker. The four-band EQ allows for serious filtering.

The RC 500, on the other hand, is here to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible without calling attention to itself. That fixed 3:1 compression ratio and 3-band EQ removes a significant amount of guesswork, and since it’s modeled on a Class-A solid-state preamp, don’t expect any tube overdrive, here.

In short, if you want a lot of control and deliberate, surgical tone-shaping added to your tracks, pick the VT-1. If you need some signal processing quick, easy, and transparent, choose the RC 500.