top of page

Pure Unobtainium

Howie Weinberg

The 179-120 was built in 1975 for the very first Neumann mastering consoles, the SP 75 and the SP 77.

When I started at Masterdisk in ’77, it was just there, bolted into the wall, part of the furniture.

Bob Ludwig leaned on it. I leaned on it. It became a staple for both of us on records all through the ’80s and ‘90s, and most people who love those records have never heard its name. That’s exactly the point. It’s the most unobtrusive stereo bus compressor ever made.

The sound is big and smooth; it holds a record together without ever telling you it’s there. In my opinion, it’s one of the finest-sounding stereo compressors ever produced.

I still have my pair racked up in Laurel Canyon, and for years when people asked me how to get that glue, the honest answer was - you can’t.

There are only a handful of these left in the world. That‘s what makes what Metric Halo and Make Believe Studios did so special, they didn’t build something ‘inspired’ by it, they captured my actual units, exactly.

Music today doesn’t need more loud. It needs more glue, more weight, more smooth. This is where I’ve always gotten mine, and now it’s in your DAW.”

A sonic marvel. 

We worked with legendary mastering engineer Howie Weinberg to capture the essence and nuance of his personal 179-120s.

From the details of the dynamics processing to the boxtone and distortion characteristics of his specific units, Howie’s 179 is a loving recreation of Howie's pair of NTP 179-120 compressor/limiters. Based on his 40+ year mastering career working on the biggest albums across all genres, Howie has zeroed in on the range of settings that are the key to getting the most out of this legendary processor.

 

The Howie’s 179 plugin provides a streamlined UI that takes that experience into account, while also adding the required controls to make it easy to utilize the compressor/limiter in the box rather than in an analog loop; add in recallability and not being limited to a stereo pair, and Howie’s 179 opens a new world of possibilities for you!

Key Features

  • Detailed model of Howie Weinberg’s NTP 179-120

  • Add smoothness, weight and glue

  • Apply the analog saturation of Howie's units

  • World-class Signal Processing and Workflow

  • Adjustable UI size

  • MH Preset Manager - Provides cross-platform presets

bottom of page