Your own Bluey

Experienced recording engineers are familiar with the concept of
“happy accidents” — those unique moments that ignite spontaneous magic in your recordings. You can't plan them—they're organic, composed of pure randomness or even stupid mistakes. It’s the guitarist getting caught in the wrong key (“modal jazz!”); wrong track fixed in sidechain (“Grammy-winning engineering!”); singers riffing when they thought it was just a passage (“pure poetic brilliance!”). The same audio gods sometimes smile upon a piece of vintage equipment. Through decades of repairs and maintenance, some units seem to improve with age.

The scarcity of original parts forces technicians to deviate from the original design, unintentionally creating a unique mod that sounds amazing. So is renowned mixing engineer Chris Lord-Alge's award-winning 1176, which he affectionately calls “Bluey.” Chris wanted more channels of this very special limiter and turned to the modification geniuses at Black Lion Audio. The result looked so spectacular that they decided to share it with the world in a 2U and now in a new 500 Series format. We are pleased to introduce you to the Black Lion Audio Bluey 500. Trust us — it will rock your world.

A very special blue belt

With his gifted ears, decades of world-class experience, and arsenal of coveted vintage gear, acclaimed mixing engineer Chris Lord-Alge identified one of his four Blue Stripe revision 1176 limiters as being especially wonderful. Based on the front panel cosmetics with a section of blue paint around the VU meter, 1176 A, A/B, and B revisions are all referred to as “Blue Stripe” units. This particular unit, nicknamed “Bluey,” has that special je ne sais quoi that makes vocal tracks shine like no other dynamic processor.

Bluey gets the BLA treatment

Intrigued by Chris's effusive praise for Bluey, Black Lion design engineer Jesus Ortiz and modification technician Preston Whiting hopped a flight from O'Hare to LAX to find out what gave this Blue Stripe its edge. Their diagnosis revealed a series of modifications made to the unit over the years to keep it running that miraculously created a monster 1176. BLA analyzed the unit in meticulous detail and, in cooperation with Chris, recreated the beast — available for the first time to all as the Black Lion Audio Bluey, and now in a 500 series form as the Bluey 500.

Characteristics

• All “Blue” without the 2U — the same character as the 2U Bluey, now on a 500 series unit;
• Fully discrete class A circuit;
• Through hole components;
• polyester capacitors;
• Vintage-inspired 1-side PCB layout;
• Cinemag remake of the original UTC Transformer;
• Wet/dry mixing feature;
• Stereo-linkable;
• Linear power supply;
• Accurate meter calibration;
• Manually tested for quality control and calibrated in the USA.

Specifications

• Processor type: FET limiter;
• Number of channels: 1;
• Controls: Ratio, Attack, Release, Comp Mix, Input, Output, Meter;
• Ratio: 4:1, 8:1, 12:1, 20:1;
• Features: Pluggable stereo;
• Module slot size: double.