Softube The European alternative to Waves / UAD

Softube is a Swedish manufacturer of audio plugins and hardware based in Linköping. The company was founded in 2003 and has since developed plugins for mixing, mastering, synthesis, and guitar and bass processing. For many products, Softube partners with established hardware manufacturers such as SSL, Tube-Tech, Marshall, Weiss Engineering, and Empirical Labs to build official software versions of their devices. The portfolio includes over 100 plugins as well as hardware controllers. The products are used in professional studios and in home studios.

Softube's plugins are downloadable software and run locally inside the user's DAW on Windows and macOS. Softube AB is registered as an Aktiebolag in Linköping, Sweden, where all products are developed. Account, licence, and update services are handled via Softube's own infrastructure, including Softube Central as the management application. Hardware such as Console 1 is also distributed from Sweden. As a result, the vendor side is located entirely inside the European Union.

Console 1 is a hybrid mixing system from Softube that combines a hardware controller with a software channel-strip emulation. The controller physically replicates a classic mixing-console channel strip with gain, EQ, compressor, gate, and send sections. In the software, mixing-console models such as SSL or British Class A emulations are loaded as a plugin chain. This lets users operate a mix like on an analogue console while audio processing happens inside the DAW. Console 1 is currently offered as the Mixing System Mk III.