Elysia presents the karacter 500

We are very excited to announce our new product today: The karacter 500 coloring box. It covers a complete spectrum including mastering-grade saturation, tube-inspired distortion and glorious destruction. We are actually showing it at the AES in New York in booth 458 – please come and visit us to check it out.

The official release and shipment of the first modules will happen on November 16th, so the wait will be everything but long. The price will be exactly the same as for our other 500 series modules. A rack version will be offered in the foreseeable future, at the beginning of 2016.

Just to give you a first idea, here are some key features of this bad boy:

Discrete Class-A Topology
The input and output stages as well as the complete audio path are fully discrete designs running in constant class-A mode. The result: Signal coloration, high-end style.

Mastering-Grade Saturation
In this mode, the karacter 500 generates gentle Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) with a soft characteristic curve, resulting in very musical symmetrical clipping.

Tube-Inspired Distortion
In FET Shred mode, the behavior of the karacter 500 changes drastically. The sound instantly reminds of tube amplifiers, with a wide range of asymmetrical distortion.

Glorious Destruction
Now, this is pushing the envelope. The Turbo Boost shifts the operating point of the distortion circuit in FET shred mode and generates even more asymmetrical wave forms.

Color Filter
The Color control changes the harmonics-frequency relation with tons of interesting variations. Middle is flat; turn left for more dub and right for more shred.

Integrated M/S Matrix
As an alternative to standard stereo operation you can process the mid and side signals, opening up completely new options for your work!

Dual Mono/Stereo Link
For ultimate flexibility, the karacter 500 offers both true dual mono and linked stereo operation, while in M/S mode the channels can be linked or unlinked as well.

Stepped Controllers
All potentiometers of the karacter 500 have 41 steps, which is a great help for recalling your previous sessions fast and precisely.