EDYN Pre

Name: EDYN Pre
Price: 59 USD
Author: Tone Empire

by Tone Empire · Saturation · Discrete transistor console preamp

Not rated yet

EDYN Pre models a discrete transistor preamp from a classic 1960s American console.

Drive runs from light saturation to hard crunch, with an overdrive model, 50/200 ohm impedance switching and auto-gain, for $59.

Best for: Drums, Bass, Guitars, Vocals, Drum Bus. Genres: Rock & Indie, Hip-Hop & Trap, Pop, R&B & Soul.

Keywords: transistor, auto-gain, overdrive, 60s, American console, bass, classic, crunchy, drums, vocals, heavy, electric guitar, punchy, utility, bus processing, drum bus, gritty, hardware emulation, metering, mixing, single-band, smooth, subtle.

What it does

EDYN Pre models a classic discrete transistor preamp from a 1960s American console, which Tone Empire describes as having "bold presence, fast transients and deep low-end authority." Bedroom Producers Blog reports the source as the Electrodyne 1204 console; the plugin covers the preamp's saturation, not the whole channel strip.

Drive: from subtle saturation up to hard crunch.
Overdrive: a switchable pushed model for heavier distortion.
Auto-Gain: compensates the output level as you raise the drive, so you hear the colour rather than a volume jump.
Z-Impedance: switches between 50 ohm and 200 ohm models, which change how the input stage responds, as with different microphones.
Filters and utilities: high-pass and low-pass filters, phase flip, input and output trims and a preamp meter.
Modelling: Tone Empire's NM2 neural modelling, with Ultra-X models running at up to 192 kHz for minimal aliasing.

Updates are free, and a 15-day full-version trial is available. It was given away free for a week at launch in May 2025.

Source: Tone Empire product page

When to use it

EDYN Pre is the pick for one specific colour: punchy, transistor-console saturation with a heavier overdrive on tap. Compared with Soundtoys Decapitator, it has a single preamp character instead of five distortion styles and no tone or punish controls, but its Auto-Gain makes it easier to dial in safely. It does more than Softube's Saturation Knob, adding impedance switching, filters and an overdrive model, and it is transistor-based rather than tube-based like the Black Box HG-2. The trade-off is CPU: it is heavier per instance than most simple saturators.

Best for: punch and grit on drums, bass, guitars and vocals, and adding console weight to single tracks.
Genres: rock, hip-hop, pop and R&B.
Look elsewhere if: you want many saturation flavours in one plugin (Decapitator), tube warmth and parallel blending for buses (HG-2), or console EQ as well, which a full channel strip gives you.
Tip: leave Auto-Gain on while you set the drive, so louder doesn't fool you into thinking it sounds better.

What producers say

Early coverage found it a good-sounding saturator, with CPU use the main caveat.

Bedroom Producers Blog (Tomislav Zlatic, 2025) tested it in Studio One, liked the smooth saturation and the auto-gain, and recommended it as "a good-sounding saturation plugin with auto-gain."
Criticisms: the same review measured fairly high CPU use, about 10% per instance on an M1 MacBook Air.

Bedroom Producers Blog review

Where to buy

Tone Empire: $59

Tutorials and reviews

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