Relab - Color Drive

Color Drive is Relab's tube saturation plugin, built from the tube stage of the Relab 176 compressor. It's for producers and mix engineers who want saturation that responds like real hardware rather than a static "warmth" curve.

A real circuit, not a curve

Color Drive solves the 176's input transformer, 6BC8 variable-gain tube, calibration bias and output transformer as one continuous circuit. Every control changes how the whole stage behaves, so tone, dynamics and harmonics interact as they would in analogue gear.

The controls

Drive pushes the tube harder, building harmonics and rounding transients gradually. Switching in the output transformer completes the analogue chain and adds mostly odd-order harmonics for focus and punch. Calibration adjusts the tube's bias to blend in even-order harmonics for warmth. Input shaping uses a low-end crossover to keep bass clean, plus tilt and high-shelf filters to choose which frequencies hit the tube hardest.

The sound

From subtle weight and glow to obvious drive, Color Drive suits vocals, drums, bass and the mix bus. It's not a fuzz or distortion box for extreme sound design. Like the 176, it needs an Apple Silicon Mac or a recent Windows CPU and 8GB of RAM. Relab says more circuits and colour packs are planned.

Features

• Tube saturation from the Relab 176 circuit model
• Drive control on a 6BC8 tube stage
• Switchable output transformer
• Calibration (tube bias) control
• Low-end crossover, tilt and high-shelf input shaping
• Preset manager

System requirements

• Version: 1.1.0
• Mac: macOS 12 Monterey or later, Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) only. AU, VST3 and AAX
• Windows: Windows 10 or later (64-bit), Intel Core i7 8th gen or AMD Ryzen 5 3000 series or newer, with AVX2. VST3 and AAX
• 8GB RAM minimum (16GB recommended)
• Licence: iLok, authorised to your computer or an iLok USB key (a free iLok account is needed). One active device at a time

SOUND7 is an authorised Relab Development reseller. Digital delivery: licence activation code sent by email.