Waves Scheps 73

Waves Scheps 73 - Legendary Preamp & EQ Plugin | Recreating the Essence of the Legendary 1073, Infused with a Modern Mixing Soul

The Waves Scheps 73 is a meticulously crafted digital plugin designed to perfectly replicate the most iconic 1073 preamp and equalizer in audio engineering history. The reason this hardware has remained a benchmark for top engineers worldwide for over half a century lies in its irreplaceable tonal character, intuitive and efficient controls, and its warm, full, and musical sound magic. While the 1073's preamp and EQ are exceptional on their own, the chemical reaction produced by their interaction is the true secret to its success.

Modeled in collaboration with Grammy®-winning mixing engineer Andrew Scheps (Adele, Metallica, Jay Z), the Waves Scheps 73 uses meticulous analog modeling techniques to not only recreate every nuance of the original hardware but also bring this legend into the modern digital music production workflow. From the unique saturation of the Marinair transformers to the musicality of each EQ band, this analog-modeled EQ plugin allows you to effortlessly infuse your tracks with classic analog color and harmonic distortion. It's an indispensable mixing plugin that brings extraordinary depth and warmth whether used on vocals, drums, guitars, or the entire mix.

Core Strengths & Applications

Inject Musical Analog Color
Limited by the technology of the analog era, engineers had to design EQs to be extremely musical to achieve maximum sonic impact with limited controls. The Scheps 73 perfectly inherits this characteristic. Its combination of high and low shelving filters, a mid-range bell filter, and a high-pass filter always provides the precise tonal sculpting you need, adding rich musical texture to your sound.

Beautifully Musical Harmonic Distortion
A transformer is a signal processor in its own right, and not all transformers react the same way when saturated. The Marinair audio transformers used in the original 1073 are renowned for their smooth and elegant transition into harmonic distortion and saturation. The Scheps 73 precisely captures this characteristic, allowing you to achieve a progressive harmonic distortion—from subtle warmth to rich saturation—as you drive the preamp, adding dimension and life to your sound.

First-Ever Recreation: The Lost 10 kHz EQ Band
The original schematics for the 1073 actually included a 10 kHz band in the mid-range section, but this design only appeared on the extremely rare 1078 channel strip. The Waves Scheps 73 is the first to restore this highly practical frequency range, giving you more flexibility in high-frequency processing to add crisp air and detail to vocals or instruments.

Modern M/S Processing and Monitoring
Building on the perfect recreation of the original sound, we've added powerful features to the Scheps 73 that meet the demands of the modern studio. It supports independent Left/Right (L/R) and Mid/Side (M/S) processing modes, allowing for more detailed sculpting of stereo signals. Additionally, the plugin includes Stereo, Mono, and Dual Mono modes, along with various monitoring options, making it easy to check your processed results at any time.

Tech Specs

• Sample Rate Support: 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 kHz
• Internal Processing: 64-bit floating-point
• Channel Modes: Mono, Stereo (supports L/R & M/S processing)
• Latency: 0 samples (zero latency)
• Plugin Formats: VST, VST3, Audio Units (AU), AAX Native
• System Requirements (Mac): macOS 10.15 or later (Apple Silicon supported)
• System Requirements (Windows): Windows 10 64-bit or later
• Activation: Online activation via the Waves Central application (internet connection required)