Universal Audio 1176LN Classic Limiting Amplifier

The Universal Audio 1176LN is iconic FET compressor with class A output and custom transformers, featuring an ultra-fast attack time and a signature sound that helped define the sound of popular music. There are two essential compressors in the recording industry that between them, can handle any tracking and mixing tasks you throw at them, and both with an iconic sound. One is the Universal Audio 1176LN, the other the Teletronix LA-2A (also from Universal Audio), but we’re here to talk about the 1176LN, the first solid-state FET compressor, which became an industry standard in 1968 and has remained so to this day. What set the 1176LN apart was its ultra-fast attack time and unique sound that it imparted to vocals and instruments. The 1176LN Classic Limiting Amplifier is a modern reproduction that remains faithful to UA founder Bill Putnam Sr.’s visionary design, that is inexorably linked to the sound of artists, such as Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and many more