PRE puts a channel strip's front end in a module: a drive stage running from clean gain to full saturation, a three-band tone stack, and two ways out.

The tone stack is shelving lows, a mid band and shelving highs, each ±12 dB and flat at center. The HOT output taps the driven signal before the EQ, so the saturation can feed a second chain while the main output carries the shaped sound — patch the two in parallel and use PHASE to play them against each other.

Controls and patching

• DRIVE — input gain into the saturation stage, from clean gain at the bottom to full fur at the top. Every knob has a CV input; CV the drive and the tremolo gets dirtier as it gets louder.
• LOW / MID / HI — ±12 dB each, flat at center.
• PHASE — polarity invert on the output, for parallel chains that need phase games.
• OUT — the full channel: drive plus tone stack.
• HOT — the driven signal before the tone stack: saturation without the EQ, ready to patch elsewhere.