Harrison's 32Classic runs input trim, then a transformer drive stage, then the gate, compressor, and EQ in whatever order you like, then output trim. Only those three middle blocks are draggable.
The routing strip sits along the bottom of the window in the legacy layout, and in the bottom right corner of the newer one. You swap tiles by pulling one left or right past its neighbor, and the display redraws to show the new signal path.
That looks like total freedom over the chain. It isn't, and the gap between what moves and what stays put decides more about your sound than the order your channel strip processes in.
So input trim is your only real drive control. Push it, and the saturation gets harder. Pull output trim back afterward to match the level.
That has a consequence people trip over. Input trim is also the gain-staging control for everything downstream. Nudge it once you have dialed in a compressor threshold, and you have effectively moved that threshold too.
There is no way to gate a noisy source before it hits the saturator either. On guitar amp tracks and old tape transfers, the hiss gets driven along with the music, then gated after the fact. It also rules out a move plenty of engineers rely on elsewhere. You cannot shape the signal into the saturator to steer which frequencies break up first.
That quietly breaks the most common piece of chain-order advice going. Nearly every guide tells you to clear out low-end rumble before compression so the compressor stops flinching at it. Good advice. But if you drag the EQ behind the compressor to shape the compressed tone, your filter goes behind the compressor too.
Picture a close-miked acoustic guitar in a room with a suspended wooden floor. Every footstep pushes energy under 60 Hz into the channel. With the EQ last, the compressor still ducks the whole guitar on each thump. Your high-pass then tidies up the damage instead of preventing it.
The outer EQ bands ride along for the same reason. Both can switch from bell to shelf. So EQ placement also settles whether those broad shelves shape the sound going into compression or coming out of it.
You can accept all that and keep the EQ first, knowing compression will soften your boosts. Or you can leave the order alone and go after the problem at the detector instead.
Turn the frequency up, and the compressor acts faster on transients and slower on low frequencies. Which is another way of saying it stops chasing bass energy around. Harrison calls the result a more vintage character, and that tracks with how older program-dependent compressors behaved.
An emphasis listen mode arrived with the sidechain additions in version two. You can audition the curve directly now instead of guessing where to park it. Set it by ear, then decide whether you still need the EQ up front.
The gate carries its own version of the same idea. Its sidechain filter is a band-pass that boosts one center frequency and cuts everything above and below it. A LISN button plays you that filtered detector signal on its own.
So two decisions come apart that most people collapse into one. Where the gate sits in the chain controls what gets gated. The sidechain filter controls what opens the gate. Place the gate after the EQ, and it keys off your EQ curve, boosts and all. The fix is to narrow its own filter onto the part of the source you actually want it tracking.
On a snare with heavy cymbal spill, that means tuning the band-pass down onto the drum's fundamental. Monitor through LISN until the hats stop pushing the gate open. The gate then triggers on the snare alone. The EQ ahead of it does whatever you need for tone, and the two stop fighting over the same setting.
The routing strip sits along the bottom of the window in the legacy layout, and in the bottom right corner of the newer one. You swap tiles by pulling one left or right past its neighbor, and the display redraws to show the new signal path.
That looks like total freedom over the chain. It isn't, and the gap between what moves and what stays put decides more about your sound than the order your channel strip processes in.
The saturator hears your input trim, nothing else
The drive stage is welded in place ahead of all three modules. Drag the gate to the front, drag the EQ to the front, and it makes no difference at all. The transformer saturation still sees your signal before anything else has touched it.So input trim is your only real drive control. Push it, and the saturation gets harder. Pull output trim back afterward to match the level.
That has a consequence people trip over. Input trim is also the gain-staging control for everything downstream. Nudge it once you have dialed in a compressor threshold, and you have effectively moved that threshold too.
There is no way to gate a noisy source before it hits the saturator either. On guitar amp tracks and old tape transfers, the hiss gets driven along with the music, then gated after the fact. It also rules out a move plenty of engineers rely on elsewhere. You cannot shape the signal into the saturator to steer which frequencies break up first.
Your high-pass filter travels with the EQ block
The high-pass and low-pass filters belong to the EQ module rather than sitting as separate stages. Move the EQ, and they move with it.That quietly breaks the most common piece of chain-order advice going. Nearly every guide tells you to clear out low-end rumble before compression so the compressor stops flinching at it. Good advice. But if you drag the EQ behind the compressor to shape the compressed tone, your filter goes behind the compressor too.
Picture a close-miked acoustic guitar in a room with a suspended wooden floor. Every footstep pushes energy under 60 Hz into the channel. With the EQ last, the compressor still ducks the whole guitar on each thump. Your high-pass then tidies up the damage instead of preventing it.
The outer EQ bands ride along for the same reason. Both can switch from bell to shelf. So EQ placement also settles whether those broad shelves shape the sound going into compression or coming out of it.
You can accept all that and keep the EQ first, knowing compression will soften your boosts. Or you can leave the order alone and go after the problem at the detector instead.
The emphasis filter changes what the compressor hears
Emphasis is a high-shelf boost applied to the compressor's sidechain rather than to the audio you hear. Harrison sets that shelf at roughly 10 dB at its lowest frequency of 100 Hz. At the top of its range, 12 kHz, the shelf reaches around 40 dB.Turn the frequency up, and the compressor acts faster on transients and slower on low frequencies. Which is another way of saying it stops chasing bass energy around. Harrison calls the result a more vintage character, and that tracks with how older program-dependent compressors behaved.
An emphasis listen mode arrived with the sidechain additions in version two. You can audition the curve directly now instead of guessing where to park it. Set it by ear, then decide whether you still need the EQ up front.
The gate carries its own version of the same idea. Its sidechain filter is a band-pass that boosts one center frequency and cuts everything above and below it. A LISN button plays you that filtered detector signal on its own.
So two decisions come apart that most people collapse into one. Where the gate sits in the chain controls what gets gated. The sidechain filter controls what opens the gate. Place the gate after the EQ, and it keys off your EQ curve, boosts and all. The fix is to narrow its own filter onto the part of the source you actually want it tracking.
On a snare with heavy cymbal spill, that means tuning the band-pass down onto the drum's fundamental. Monitor through LISN until the hats stop pushing the gate open. The gate then triggers on the snare alone. The EQ ahead of it does whatever you need for tone, and the two stop fighting over the same setting.
