New Gear Review: 8776A Imperial Channels by Overstayer
Overstayer offers a comprehensive and distinctive approach to channel strip processing with the 8776A Imperial Channels.
It could be coincidence, or it could be that the hype is real, but it seems like people everywhere are talking about the 8776A Imperial Channel by Overstayer Recording Equipment, Inc.
These units have been dominating my social media feed, which is largely populated by well-known producers, engineers and musicians—many of whom are shamelessly singing the praises of these extremely versatile and unique standalone channel strips.
Versatility has become one of my core criteria in the quest to obtain new gear in recent years. Because mixing is now what I do most (as opposed to making records from the ground up), I’ve been in search of tools that can be of use not just during tracking, but during playback and the mix as well.
In other words, if I’m spending money on a preamp, I want it to be able to do more than just preamplify the signal. Because I still aim to grow my overall preamp count, channel strip-esque designs like this one (and the Empirical Labs EL-9 Mike-E, of which I now own two) have become the focus of my search.
Based on what I’ve seen of the 8776A, I came up with some big plans for using it on my drum bus, mix bus, and whatever else could be fun to throw at it. Let’s look a deeper and see what they’re all about.
Features
With mic, line, and instrument inputs, a 4-band EQ with filters, FET limiter with sidechain, and controls for shaping harmonic content, calling the 8776A versatile is an understatement. The unit features multiple discrete gain stages, transformer-coupled input and outputs, and separate preamp and channel outputs for parallel processing applications. And that’s not all; the Imperial Channel also offers access to various points in its signal path via a slew of TRS connections on the back panel. Overstayer’s design choice here allows for the ability to pull truly unique cross sections of your signal from the Imperial Channel… but more on that later.
The Imperial Channels are individually self-powered (no external power supply), and can be mounted into an optional dual, quad, or ten-space chassis sold separately by Overstayer. The chassis can be easily transported via the handle found at the top, or rackmounted (5U high). There are even faceplate covers available to keep the knobs and switches safe during transportation.
The front of the Imperial Channel is populated by over a dozen switches and knobs of various sizes, set upon a beige-colored faceplate. Its controls begin with a 3-way switch for input at the top left, offering choices between balanced line, mic, and mic padded at -20dB. Next to the right is a second 3-way switch, with the bottom two options dedicated to inverting polarity while the top activates the unbalanced instrument input, effectively overriding the mic/line switch to its left. The final switch at the unit’s top right engages/disengages phantom power.
Moving down the 8776A, next are knobs for preamp gain and “Drive”. The 8776A features an additional “Drive amplifier,” which is situated post-shelves (the unit’s high and low frequency EQ boosts), and pre-HMF and LMF EQ bells in the signal path.
And since the Imperial Channel features gain staging on either side of the Drive circuit (via controls for preamp gain and channel output), you can use Drive to push it into punishing distortion territory. This, along with the ability to shape different aspects of the EQ on either side of the Drive circuit, gives the unit a truly massive level of flexibility.
Below the Gain and Drive knobs is another series of three horizontal switches. From the left there is EQ In, followed by a 3-way high-pass filter with options for 75Hz, 150Hz and bypass, and low-pass filter with options for 7.5k, 15k and bypass.
If you’re using the 8776A, you might notice that the EQ In switch is 3-way, not 2-way. Here, in the “up” position, you engage a special EQ mode that produces cleaner low frequency boosts at increased Drive settings—yet another example of Overstayer’s commitment to flexibility on the Imperial Channel.
Moving downward, next are the EQ controls. The EQ section occupies the majority of the 8776A’s front panel real estate and hosts the unit’s two biggest knobs: the high and low frequency boosts. Situated between these are four smaller knobs, the top two for the high mid EQ and the bottom two for the low mid EQ.
The high midrange is variable from 170Hz to 10.5kHz, the low midrange from 50Hz to 3.3kHz. The low frequency shelf is selectable between 50, 100 and 200Hz and the high frequency from 5, 10 and 15kHz, each via its own 3-way switch. The mid bands have an available +/- 10dB of gain, while the passive low and high shelves are strictly additive, up to 10dB each. There is also a 2-way switch for LMF shelf and a corner frequency boost for the high shelf. The midrange frequency bells are wide and proportional Q.
Below the EQ is yet another row of three horizontal switches, which begins the dynamics section. Furthest to the left is a 3-way switch, offering options to engage the limiter at the middle position, the HPF sidechain (fixed at 200Hz) in the upper position, and limiter bypass in the lower position. Next to the right are controls for attack and release times, accessible via two 3-way switches, with the fastest setting in the top positions and the slowest in the bottom positions.
Moving downward, the 8776A offers two dual knobs (referred to as “faders” by Overstayer), meaning there is an inner and an outer portion of the knob. The left knob offers controls for the limiter, with the inner knob feeding the limiter’s fixed threshold while the outer knob controls output level. You can monitor gain reduction via the 4-segment LED meter at the foot of the Imperial Channel (more on that in a bit).
It’s important to note that the limiter is located after the EQ and Drive, but before the Harmonics circuit in the Imperial Channel. This means that the level of Drive applied affects how hard you’re hitting the limiter (and your limiter output settings affect how hard you’re hitting the harmonics circuit).
The right dual-knob offers controls for preamp gain (inside) and channel output (outside). Here, Overstayer yet again showcases the extensive flexibility of the Imperial Channel by providing the option for parallel processing, as the preamp fader is essentially a completely dry output—that is, unless you’ve purposely chosen to drive the preamp circuit to distortion.
Note that these output faders are additive, so attention to detail in the gain staging department may be needed here. With access to the preamp’s fader on the rear of the unit, you can patch signal from any other portion of the Imperial Channel (and even outside processors) directly into the chain here. The added flexibility at this point is no surprise.
Finally, at the bottom of the Imperial Channel you’ll find another 3-way switch labeled “Harm”, the aforementioned horizontal 4-segment LED meter, and one last 3-way switch that dictates what the meter displays. Here, you can choose between seeing preamp input level (VU1 setting), channel output (VU2), and gain reduction (LIM). Between 1 and 3 LEDs on the meter is roughly unity for the preamp gain, while 4 is clipping.
The harmonic saturation circuit on the 8776A offers two options, one of which accentuates 3rd order harmonics (middle position), while the other favors 2nd order harmonics. With the switch in its lowest position, the harmonics circuit is bypassed.
Since the the harmonic circuit’s threshold is lower than that of the drive circuit, it doesn’t only have to be used to introduce aggressive distortion into your signal; it can be driven cleanly as well. And since it comes after the filters, EQ, and limiter stages, you can be fairly aggressive with your settings for those preceding sections of the channel. And again, don’t forget that the harmonics circuit is being fed directly by the limiter output.
The back of the unit shows a single XLR microphone input at the top, followed by a whopping twelve 1/4” jacks that offer access to various points in the signal path, as mentioned earlier. Each section of the circuit has its own input and half-normalled output, allowing you to send multiple signals out of the unit simultaneously. Perhaps it is here where the expansive flexibility of the Imperial Channel is most blatantly on display.
Moving from top to bottom, there are options for balanced line input, unbalanced line input, instrument input, preamp output, EQ in/out, limiter in/out, harmonics in/out, balanced line output, and preamp fader access. Below the 1/4” jacks is an ethernet port for routing access, and a DC power input.
In Use
The sheer amount of options available on the Imperial Channel can be dizzying, and that’s if you simply leave the signal flow of the unit in tact and choose to not get creative with patching.
From a tactile standpoint, the 8776A does not disappoint. It’s heavy, well-built, and the movement of all of the knobs feels sturdy and has a bit of resistance, in a good way. (I believe that some degree of resistance, within reason, gives the feeling of robust build quality.)
I was sure to request two channels of the 8776A for review as I’m always applying at least some degree of saturation to my stereo drum bus and mix bus. By default I tend to reach for Soundtoys’ Decapitator in these cases, but I’ve been doing that for years and looked forward to introducing some true analog grit into my workflow.
On a drum submix, whether the goal was subtle harmonic coloration or total destruction, the Imperial Channels were up for the task. Like just about everything I ran through them, having the choice between 2nd and 3rd order harmonics proved extremely valuable. There’s a tape-like soft-clipping characteristic that is inherent in these units, and it plays very nicely over top a full drum kit, and even an entire mix.
It was quick and easy to dial in a nice “splat” tone on a deeply-tuned snare drum, as well as to add tons of energy and grit to a kick drum, all while keeping the dynamics completely under control, thanks to the limiter circuit. I’ll also note here that the switchable metering is of course an extremely important design choice.
On bass and vocals, the 8776As imparted instantaneous vibe. This is again another instance where the soft-clipping tonality took the sound to a whole new level. In both instances, use of the limiter with fairly conservative settings saved me a stage or two of compression down the line (less plugins, please!).
Whether used conservatively or for total annihilation, the character of the Drive circuit lends itself well to just about all source material, though it particularly excelled on drums, bass and vocals.
The Imperial Channels uniquely offer a variety of half-normalled TRS jacks on the back panel, providing access to various isolated points in its signal path.
Let us not forget that because of the half-normalled design on the patch points in the back, you can pull just the harmonics, for example, print them, and blend them later in your DAW. This is a different approach than blending the preamp and channel outputs directly on the unit, as the channel outputs have the other processing (EQ, dynamics, etc..) folded in.
Though I didn’t find much use for overdriving already-distorted guitars with the 8776As, the EQ (especially the midrange bands) lent themselves well here. The proportional Q design made it easy to get away with making drastic moves when necessary, and the limiting options—though not incredibly comprehensive—were flexible enough to create the right kind of movement across songs of varying tempos. And if you’re going for a hint of tape-like saturation, there’s no doubt you can find it here.
The high and low EQ bands are smooth. Though I didn’t find myself going too heavy with saturation on the mix bus, the option to engage the cleaner low frequency boosts at higher Drive settings added valuable extra flexibility here. I tend to mix a bit dark, and the high band on the Imperial Channels gives even my favorite EQs a run for their money when adding that extra bit of air at the very end of a mix.
To Be Critical
By and large, it’s intuitive to navigate the Imperial Channel once you wrap your head around the signal flow. However, I did find it odd that when sweeping the midrange frequencies, counterclockwise rotation moves you up the frequency spectrum instead of down. This, in conjunction with the lower and upper extremes of the knob’s movement being found at the top instead of the bottom, require an extra moment of thought when sweeping the EQ.
Recall on the 8776As is also very tough in a mix situation. Since there’s so much functionality packed into these units, the faceplates are pretty crowded. The non-detented knobs and their markers are fairly small and difficult to read. The unit’s 12 knobs and 15 switches (many of which are 3-way) require diligence and close visual inspection to truly recall to a T. And since real estate is at such a premium, I often find my fingers graze neighboring knobs and switches while dialing in settings. But I wouldn’t sacrifice any features just for the sake of having to be less careful when using them.
One last thought is it would be great to be able to link the Imperial Channels for stereo compression applications. That said, these are designed as channel strips, not task-specific processors, so I understand the absence of this feature.
Summing it Up
Instruments aren’t the only things in studios that can be used as creative tools. Just as the Imperial Channels can be used conservatively to sweeten or doctor a sound, they can also be pushed to transform it—to add movement, life, vibe, and emotion.
Typically when using hardware inserts, I’ll still need to employ several other plugins in the chain, but with 8776As, you’ve got everything under the same hood—and you can even patch effects directly into it before the output stage. Because of features like this, the Imperial Channels are a true one-stop-shop. There’s mojo, there’s attitude, there’s energy, there’s grit, and there’s flexibility. There are enough options built into these units for their feature set to play well with nearly any source material. And although the Imperial Channels can just as well perform as a more traditional EQ/dynamics unit, my instinct when I reach for these is to get them to sound dirty, because they do it so well.
Overstayer offers the Imperial Channels as part of their Framework Devices line, which is only available direct. One unit is priced at $1,475, though you can buy a pair for $2,750 ($1,375 each).
I had an inkling that I may feel the need to buy the review units after using them to write this article… but now I know for sure that they’ll have to be pried out of my cold, dead hands. I decided several years ago that I will only invest money into gear I plan on keeping forever, and I just can’t see myself ever wanting to let these go. In fact I’d love to have 6-or-so more of them to track a full drum kit through. Nicely done, Overstayer, the Imperial Channels might be the coolest pieces of gear I own.
Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.