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Control real analog gear straight from your DAW with the Analog Matrix. The Analog Matrix is not an emulation! It acts as a portal, connecting your digital audio workstation to actual physical gear in real time.
Reserve a session using the calendar below, or jump straight into the Analog Matrix plugin and use equipment on demand as it is available. Note: on-demand access requires credits or an active subscription.
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Overview
The Tegeler Creme combines a passive EQ based on the Pultec principle and a high-end bus compressor in a single device.
Many successful mixing engineers share one thing in common: They mix with a compressor and EQ in the master channel. The EQ is usually set to subtly boost the bass and treble, while the bus compressor compresses the sound by a couple of dB. This gives the engineer an idea of how the mix will sound after mastering, even still during in the mixing stage. It also helps in finding the right volume balance for individual sounds (especially vocals).
The Creme puts the very best of both functions into one device. The passive EQ has been reduced down to the most popular applications: Bass boost, to give greater definition to the bass, and treble boost, to give the mix the necessary shine. The boost has been made switchable to enable total recall and to reduce the boost to more appropriate levels for use on the master channel.
The bus compressor has a few additional functions such as a low-pass filter for the side chain and an additional ratio of 1.5:1 for especially subtle compression. The placement of the EQ and compressor in the mix can also be switched. Similarly, the Creme is suitable for use in mastering as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Tegeler Creme and what does it do?
The Tegeler Creme is a stereo analog mix-bus processor that combines a passive Pultec-style EQ with an SSL-inspired VCA bus compressor in a single unit. It handles the two moves engineers most often make across a master bus: a gentle boost to the lows and highs, and a few dB of glue compression. The result is warmth, punch, and cohesion, a more finished sound while you are still mixing. It is built in Berlin by Tegeler Audio Manufaktur.
What is the Tegeler Creme best for?
The Tegeler Creme is best for mix-bus glue, mastering, and adding polished analog character to a full mix. On the stereo bus, the EQ lends low-end weight and silky top end while the VCA compressor ties everything together. It also shines on drum and instrument busses – push the ratio and a fast attack for aggressive, groovy parallel compression. Subtle or hard, it stays clean and open.
Is the Tegeler Creme good for mastering?
Yes. The Tegeler Creme was designed with stereo-bus and mastering work in mind. Its boost-only passive EQ delivers gentle, musical low- and high-frequency lift, and its stepped, switched controls give precise, repeatable, stereo-matched settings. Many engineers monitor a mix through it to preview how a master will sound. For full mastering you will often pair it with a more fully featured EQ.
What kind of compressor is in the Tegeler Creme?
The Tegeler Creme uses an SSL-inspired VCA bus compressor with stepped, fully recallable controls. It offers four ratios (1.5:1, 2:1, 4:1, and 10:1), six attack times (0.1 to 30 ms), and five release settings including Auto, plus a switchable side-chain high-pass filter (60–120 Hz) that keeps heavy bass from pumping. The compression is harmonic and transparent. It preserves high-frequency detail rather than dulling it, almost like a gentle exciter.
What kind of EQ is in the Tegeler Creme?
The Tegeler Creme features a passive, Pultec-style EQ that is boost-only and stripped to its most useful moves. It provides selectable bass-boost frequencies (20–200 Hz) and high-boost frequencies (10–24 kHz), each switchable from 0 to 5 dB in stepped increments. Because it is passive with no tubes, it adds weight and silky air without harshness or obvious coloration. Rotary switches make every setting precise and instantly repeatable.
Can I use just the EQ or just the compressor, and can I change their order?
Yes. The EQ and compressor work independently, and their order in the signal path is switchable. You can place the Pultec-style EQ before or after the VCA compressor, which effectively lets the Creme behave like two separate tools. Zero the EQ boosts or back off the threshold to lean on just one section. That flexibility is a big part of why it works for both mixing and mastering.
What’s the difference between a passive EQ and an active EQ?
A passive EQ shapes tone using only coils, capacitors, and resistors, with no amplification stage inside the EQ circuit itself, while an active EQ uses powered gain stages to boost or cut. Passive designs like the Creme’s Pultec-style section are prized for their smooth, musical curves and the gentle character their components impart. The trade-off is that they are typically boost-focused and simpler, which is exactly what makes them sound so natural across a mix bus.
Is the Tegeler Creme at Access Analog the real hardware or an emulation?
It is the real hardware. Access Analog connects your DAW to a physical Tegeler Creme in our racks and controls its actual knobs and switches robotically in real time, streaming your audio through the genuine analog circuitry and back. Real Gear. No Emulations. You hear the actual passive EQ and VCA compressor, not a model of them.
Can I recall my settings on the Tegeler Creme through Access Analog?
Yes. Every knob, switch, and selector on the Tegeler Creme is saved and recalled independently through the Analog Matrix plugin. You can store a single setting as a preset or save an entire signal chain to bring back later, just like a software plugin. The Creme’s stepped, switched controls make recall exact, with no guesswork matching analog positions.
How much does it cost to use the Tegeler Creme at Access Analog?
Access Analog reservations for the Tegeler Creme start from $3.55. You can also use it on demand with credits (1 credit = $1, with bundles and subscriptions lowering the rate), or through a subscription. The Starter Credit Subscription includes unlimited Creme time after the first two months. Every new account gets 12 free credits, about one hour on an average device, to try it.
More Information
Select Features of the Tegeler Creme
The Compressor
Do you want to softly and inaudibly balance the track or give it a particular rhythmic signature? The Tegeler Crème’s VCA compressor can do all this. Its characteristic and powerful sound can bring every mix to the next level. The compressor can really work hard, giving your mix a more noticeable open and brilliant sound.
The compression is very harmonic in nature, the sound always remains transparent, and the individual instruments find their own place in the mix. The often lamentable loss of high notes in compression simply doesn’t happen here – rather, the signal sounds like it has already been fed through an exciter.
Bass sounds like a unified whole and refined with lean dynamics. The switchable high-pass filter in the side chain ensures that, when required, even heavy bass sounds don’t lead to pumping.
- Lowcut filter: 60 – 120 Hz
- Attack: 0.1; 0.3; 1; 3; 10; 30 ms
- Release: 100 ms; 300 ms; 600 ms; 1.2s; Auto
- Ratio: 1.5; 2; 4; 10
- Stepped Potentiometers
- Frequency response: 20 – 40 kHz ±1.5 dB
The Mastering EQ
Passive equalizers with their elaborate circuits with coils and capacitors are still among the most popular sound makers in master compression. The Tegeler Creme features the filter circuitry from the original Pultec for good reason – no other type of EQ manages to sound as good in almost any matter of setting. Soft and silky highs that deserve the name. A bass boost that gives the mix a solid foundation and thrust, without squashing everything into an indistinct nothingness.
Tegeler took the filter circuitry from the original Pultec and carefully updated it. Unnecessary controls have been replaced by fixed values. Similarly, unnecessary frequencies have been removed from the mix bus.
All controls have been replaced with rotary switches for greater precision. Limiting the range of settings possible to reasonably required values has made these adjustments much more precise. This gives the Crème its accurate stereo tracking features.
The result is an EQ you really have to hear. Hear it only once, and you’ll forever miss its absence. If you’ve never heard it, it’s that EQ that you’ve always been looking for.
- Passive EQ (Pultec style)
- Bass boost frequencies: 20-30-60-100+140+200 Hz
- Bass boost level: 0-5 dB switchable
- High boost frequencies: 10-12-16-18-20-24 kHz
- High boost level: 0-5 dB switchable
Additional Features of the Tegeler Creme
- Stereo device
- EQ switchable before and after the compressor
- Lowcut filter in side chain
- Balanced inputs and output