BinAmp is a plug-in that sounds like the '60s' Italian–made Binson Echorec 2—the pre-amplifier section only. The Binson Echorec 2 used triode tubes running in class-A and was popular with jazz guitarists and some rock bands for its warm and darker sound.
The PSP BinAmp comes with 92 saturated and colorful starting presets divided into six groups named after their targeted application. There are: Soft Sat, High Drive, Drums, Instrument, Vocals, and Miscellaneous. Presets are also listed by a good collection of internationally known sound designers. Once you modify a preset, you can save it in your own collection.
The BinAmp GUI mimics the Binson EchoRec complete with the original hardware's green Magic Eye "vacuum tube" that indicates the amount of saturation. I like that all the controls have mouse-over pop-ups describing what each controls does and makes assessing any parameter change easier. The main controls are: Character for setting the amount of saturation and the clever Drive control adds gain on the input signal while, at the same time, reduces the output level. The High Pass Filter or HPF ranges up to 250Hz and there is the Level control for setting the final output level with +/-20dB of gain available.
There are trims pots for a high-frequency roll-off, Wet/Dry/Blender and Variation adjusts slight differences between multiple instances of BinAmp in the same DAW session. I may want more 'color' on drums and bass and less on keyboards and vocals.
Simple to use and wonderful to hear, PSP BinAmp gives your tracks a little (or a lot) of that rich Binson tone. PSP BinAmp is available from the PSP Audioware website for $99 MSRP.
