Favourite software for getting a warm "analog" sound

[Dan C]

That's lovely and all, but I asked how distortion can sound fake.

[TechDiff]

Kinda interesting little thingy....

 

 

Not entirely sure what you mean by 'analog' sound. Do you mean in terms of the tones of synths, drum machines, effects etc, or the general recording techniques like tape saturation, mixer gain and distortions an so on?

 

I've never been entirely convinced by the record-to-tape-and-back-into-computer method. For a start, it seams like a whole lot of hastle for what is often a mediocre result. I hate tape machines tbh, they are the most backward and annoying things ever. tape is such a rubbish medium, and tape machines themselves are very rarely well looked after and working properly. Also, as someone mentioned earlier, that method of applying 'warmth' is really dependent on the quality of your sound card, as well as the quality and type of tape you use. It can give really good results, but a lot of factors to take into account.

 

the reproduction mixer channels look kinda cool. Mate of mine had a bunch of them for his pro tools rig, name escapes me now, and had some fun playing around with those. Again though, not really my cup of tea. Felt a bit backwards devoting so much CPU juice to fuzzing things up, prefer to spend it on better reverbs and not bouncing synth parts and such. still I guess if you're working on stems or mastering it'd be a little different. But aside from anything else, just because it's supposed to copy a good mixer, doesn't mean that instantaneously it will make everything you put through it sound good. it's just a mixer and there are pleanty of tracks made with all fancy super duper hardware that sound like shite.

 

My ears aren't good enough, nor do I have the experience to differentiate between 2 different neve channels or super rare compressors. would love to have built that experience one day, but for now ignorance is bliss. I managed to get my hands on a pretty solid 32 channel analogue desk for next to nothing. Sounds pretty fkn great when you distort stuff through it, and definately adds some character to things, sweet EQs as well. Saving pennies for a sound card with more outs so that I can run groups into it for full mixdown scenarios. Definately a lot cheeper than forking out for a spanking UAD card and all the plugins for it. If space isn't at a premium I'm certain it's a better option than running virtual channels.

 

analogue synths and drum machines can be, in my opinion, recreated more faithfully than desks, EQs and the like. still not spot on but quite surprisingly accurate sometimes. I often prefer to run the plugin rather than the real thing. A lot less hastle for a start, no signal path to get fucked with, shitty leads, no mains hum, crackly pots, writing down patches and such. I think that a lot of the behaviours that people desire from real analogue synths can be mimicked with virtual. Tuning instability, drift, filter behaviour and the like can be reproduced pretty well. at least within the context of a track. when playing around with a good poly it does just sound amazing, much better than a virtual one, but once it's mixed into a track the difference is far harder to spot. I think when people lust after analogue and vintage kit, they really don't spend much time considering all the negative points that go with it. things that helped develop music technology forwards. why tape is a defunct medium and digital synths came to be, it's not all roses.

 

anywhooo, assuming that the subject of this thread isn't a massive leg pull, software for analogue sound..... You're always going to have limited success trying to make one thing do another, Perhaps try to figure out exactly what characteristics you are hoping to achieve, and then try to find more creative ways of finding them. if it's tape saturation, then get a cheep and functional tape machine, if it's analogue warmth find a old uncool brand mixer, if it's 'real' distortion there's a million places you can find that. Detuned synths and line noise is a no brainer.

 

with all that said, there are things that any plugin or work around just won't give you. sitting in front of a massive great polysynth and playing huge chords through a real plate reverb, or wigging out on a mono synth cutoff dial is just a shit load of fun, as is turning up mixer channels till all the lights go red, or poking a tape reel and giggling like a small child. That's the part that no plugin will give you.

 

Going off on a tangent I think, sorry... Just to add, in spite of everything I just wrote, I doubt most people could really dissect a track and notice the difference between what is real vintage kit, and what is a reproduction using software. For a start, are you certain that you can tell the difference, or are you just trying to convince yourself that the £1500 virtual channel you're using sounds warmer or more analogue, it might sound different but have logged the number of hours on a real desk to be able to honestly say that the difference is actually the sound you wanted? If up you can genuinely quantify the characteristics more than just using the vague description of 'warmth' then maybe... But otherwise why bother? Break down the characteristics as much as you can, figure out a way you can emulate it, and get on with writing music!

[futureimage]

That's lovely and all, but I asked how distortion can sound fake.

I've used several VSTs that claim to replicate guitar distortion pedals, they never sound anywhere near what they're trying to emulate and still sound like a typical digital distortion effect - they don't introduce 3rd harmonic distortion but simply clip the signal a lot of the time. I like d16's Devastor and Redoptor as, whilst they don't attempt to recreate any of those pedals or amp distortions, they sound close to what I expect a distorted amp or an overdrive pedal to sound like - they don't simply clip the signal to death.

 

Just a sidenote, saturating tape gives third harmonic distortion.

[Guest MrSparkle666]

That's lovely and all, but I asked how distortion can sound fake.

...they don't introduce 3rd harmonic distortion but simply clip the signal a lot of the time. I like d16's Devastor and Redoptor as, whilst they don't attempt to recreate any of those pedals or amp distortions, they sound close to what I expect a distorted amp or an overdrive pedal to sound like - they don't simply clip the signal to death.

 

Just a sidenote, saturating tape gives third harmonic distortion.

 

 

I don't know where you are getting your information. Clipping a signal does introduce third harmonic distortion. Most saturation/overdrive/distortion plugins generate plenty of 3rd harmonic distortion.

 

The only plugin I know of that really does a good job of making things sound like analog hardware itb is Acustica Nebula, but it's such a clunky and inefficient plugin that you might as well use real hardware.

[futureimage]

That's lovely and all, but I asked how distortion can sound fake.

...they don't introduce 3rd harmonic distortion but simply clip the signal a lot of the time. I like d16's Devastor and Redoptor as, whilst they don't attempt to recreate any of those pedals or amp distortions, they sound close to what I expect a distorted amp or an overdrive pedal to sound like - they don't simply clip the signal to death.

 

Just a sidenote, saturating tape gives third harmonic distortion.

 

I don't know where you are getting your information. Clipping a signal does introduce third harmonic distortion. Most saturation/overdrive/distortion plugins generate plenty of 3rd harmonic distortion.

 

The only plugin I know of that really does a good job of making things sound like analog hardware itb is Acustica Nebula, but it's such a clunky and inefficient plugin that you might as well use real hardware.

Yes of course clipping a signal introduces third harmonic distortion, it generates harmonics of all odd orders. What I meant to say was with "natural" tape-based distortions, it's the 3rd harmonic which will "stand-out" as being distorted. I haven't heard many plug-ins that make it sound like a real tape machine's distortion though.

 

And yes, those plug-ins do, but something about it just doesn't sound right to me... I dunno, it might be user error or myself knowing it's a plug-in makes it sound like a plug-in to me.