Tegeler Audio Magnetismus 2: Analog Tape Saturation and Transient Processor

Magnetismus 2 is an analog tape-saturation and transient-shaping processor built for sources where attack and sustain need independent control, such as drums, plucked instruments, or synth percussion. It pairs a VCA compressor stage with a downstream transient shaper, so a signal can first be brought under gain-controlled tension and then have its attack and body reshaped separately from that gain reduction. The unit runs fully analog and is hand-assembled in Germany.

The transient section is where the design departs from a conventional shaper: instead of simple envelope-following gain changes, it routes the signal through one of three selectable Flux Modes, each named for a tape formulation (Eisen/iron, Kobalt/cobalt, Nickel/nickel) and each modeling how that material's magnetic saturation behaves over a different time window. Choosing between them changes how quickly and how densely the transient rounds off. A transformer at the output stage adds a further layer of harmonic thickening once the shaping is done, and the VCA compressor ahead of it can be bypassed on its own, so the transient shaping can be used without any gain reduction at all if that's all a mix needs.