Now we can harness the flexibility and sonic characteristics of classic channel strips without the exorbitant costs of maintenance and constantly running A/C - the latter can cost thousands per month.īeneath is a roundup of my favorite channel strip plugins. Truthfully though, many of us don’t have the space and/or budget to justify housing a console in our studios, so it’s fortunate for us that many digital audio software makers have created channel strip plugins. While music production has undoubtedly changed due to digital technology, there’s arguably no substitute for the sonics and flexibility a professionally designed and built console, loaded up with channel strips. That said, through the decades there were plenty of additional companies that designed recording and mixing consoles featuring high quality channel strips. If not for financial mismanagement, Electrodyne might have gone on to become more of a household name, sharing ranks with the “big three” of Neve, API and SSL.