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Intrigued by Chris’s effusive praise of Bluey, Black Lion head design engineer Jesus Ortiz and modification tech Preston Whiting took a flight from O'Hare to LAX to find out what gave this Blue Stripe its edge. This particular unit, dubbed "Bluey," has that special je ne sais quoi that makes vocal tracks shine like no other dynamics processor. Based on the faceplate cosmetics featuring a section of blue paint around the VU meter, 1176 revisions A, A/B, and B are all referred to as "Blue Stripe" units.
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With his gifted ears, decades of world-class experience, and an arsenal of coveted vintage gear, acclaimed mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge came to identify one of his four Blue Stripe revision 1176 limiters as being especially wonderful. Sweetwater is pleased to present to you the Black Lion Audio Bluey. The result sounded so spectacular they decided to share it with the world. Such is renowned mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge's prized 1176, which he affectionately calls "Bluey." Chris wanted more channels of this very special limiter, and he reached out to the modification geniuses at Black Lion Audio. The scarcity of original parts forces techs to deviate from the original design, unwittingly creating a one-of-a-kind mod that sounds amazing. Through decades of repair and maintenance, some units seem to improve with time.
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The same audio gods sometimes smile down upon a piece of vintage gear. It's the guitarist getting caught in the wrong key ("modal jazz!") the wrong track patched into the sidechain ("Grammy-winning engineering!") singers riffing when they thought it was just a run-through ("pure poetic brilliance!"). You can't plan them - they're organic, comprised of sheer randomness or even bone-headed mistakes. Experienced recording engineers are all familiar with the concept of "happy accidents" - those once-in-a-blue-moon moments that ignite spontaneous magic in your recordings.
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