Hello guys,

I trust those of you here with years of experience on producing and mastering.

I've been producing for almost a year and there's an area with is very frustrating for me, because as I use vst instruments synths mainly (Diva, Repro, Zebra, Arturia, Serum, UVI Falcon, D16 Lush, Omnisphere, Thorn, Spire, Pigments, Phase Plant, Kontakt librairies, ANA 2, Tal Juno to name a few) I struggle to process them in such an analog way that it would sound almost professional, warm, sharp and thick already, like the sample packs of high-end studios (mainly based in Berlin) for music I do which is electronic music. Stuff like analog tape, echo, delay, chorus, phasers, moisturizers effect units, ssl consoles, etc. do.

This crispiness, sharpness and rich/fatness processing on synth instruments is very important because I found these vsts although good for designing sound, missing that little spark that makes all the difference between a dull synth and fat one (especially those fat poly synths with built-in effects like Moog Mini & Sub 37, Dave Smith Sequential OB6 or Prophet 6, Jupiter 8, Arturia Matrixbrute, ARP Odyssey, etc.). I know it shouldn't sound too processed until the stage of mastering, but still I would like to make it better than they sound already (too digital and thin for now).

I have tried the following but I'm not too happy (maybe I need more practice):

- Audiothing Outerspace: Space Echo is very important to bring immediately a synth or bassline to life but I find it nowhere near the Roland RE-201 used by so many electronic music producers, what's your thoughts?
- Soundtoys: mainly Decapitator a bit everywhere it brings some nice saturation indeed. Echoboy & Echoboy JR are also nice to bring creative delays. Don't use much the others, like Radiator etc I don't think they're making the source sounds better. Crystalliser is a bit too cheesy too my taste, it's probably good for some genres, electric guitars or break buildups but not the main lead synths of a track in electronic music.
- Arturia FX suite like Delay TAPE: fun but nothing near analog quality right?
- Arturia compressors: I see everywhere they're good, speaking of compressors which brands are the best?
- Softube: I don't use it yet, it looks very impressive. Do you recommend them for treating sounds? Like Weiss, Chandler, Tube-Tech collections? Also Tape, Drawmer, Fix Flanger and Doubler, Console SSL, TSAR Reverb, Spring Reverb, Tube Delay, Saturation, Fet compressors?
- Fabfilter: obviously using the EQ but Saturn as multiband saturator is widely used by producers too, your toughts?
- Slate: I have had the SSL suite including VTM & VCC 2 for a few months, sounds good I think but a lot of debates about it on forums lol. Your verdict as to does it compare to analog gear? xD Eiosis Air EQ, D16 Repeater Delay, Lustrous Plates, VerbSuite & LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven Professional looks some pretty serious shit as well.
- Plugin Alliance/Unfiltered: widely used by my producer friends, I have the suite except the bx_console N, ssl console 4000 E / 9000 J. Never used any of them, do you recommend any? Also Byome, Triad, Sandman, Sandman Pro?
- Eventide: I only have an old version of Blackhole which I use on return channel, sounds good I think, is it any different from physical pedal? Their stuff looks great.
- Waves J37: a very established producer told me to use it everywhere on synths but to be honest I don't find it's doing anything to my leads lol, just making it worse (I generally find Waves too digital). How about Waves H-Delay, H-Reverb?
- Valhalla are nice overall to bring a big stereo image with reverb applied individually on synths (and drums) also on return channel to glue them together. But that said they're not making the synths sound better.
- D16 Syntorus as a creative Chorus-like tool I like it a lot but I don't think it's near analog, not very sharp. D16 Repeater also is nice I think (still haven't installed it). Decimort a bit too extreme, more for design.
- Blue Cat Audio free Chorus: sounds very cheap like a nasal voice, too much movement, still can't find a decent Chorus
- Tal free Chorus: I liked it at first until I realised how cheap it sounds, too digital and generic.
- Kilohearts plugins: are they any good for processing synths? Sounds cheap.
- OTT: still a big mystery for me, just looks like a Multiband preset destroying your signal, very generic.
- Ableton stock audio effects plugins like Corpus & Erosion (mainly for drums), Tube, Saturator, Overdrive, Resonator, Cabinet, Amp, Drum Buss... good to tweak sounds and make them sharper but nothing near analog I think?
- NI Guitar Rig: fun to transform a synth as I wanted to sound them like an electrical guitar-ish, but cheap, after processing sounds very thin and unusable.
- NI Replika? Never used but heard of it.
- Acustica: I've tried the demos (Taupe, Titanium, El Rey, Audio Lemon, etc.) sounds good but a bit weird, and GUI sucks.
- Vienna Suite Pro: looks like a great audio process plugin, a bit expensive unless you tell me to buy it xD
- DMG audio, Melda, Nugen, Serum MFX, and probably a lot more I forgot about...
- Audiority Deleight, Polaris, Xenoverb?
- u He Colour Copy?
- UVI Relayer?
- Izotope Neutron?
- UAudio plugins? EP-34 Tape Echo? Audio 1176 Classic Limiter Plug-In Collection? EMT 140 Classic Plate Reverberator Plug-In?
- Soundtheory Gullfoss intelligent EQ to improve the mix on master?

If you had to list only 3 of your go-to processing plugins you always use for electronic production, what are they?

If there's none that match a professional level, although I don't have so much to spend I'm ready to invest a bit in pedals and hardware stuff to get "that sound" already done easily: stuff like Strymon Big Sky, Eventide, Empress, Boss pedals... Ekdahl Moisturizer Spring Reverb... anything else?

In terms of gear I only have a Minibrute 2S and Roland SE 02 to get me started and regarding the sound interface I have a solid Audient which I'm happy with, I don't think it's the issue. Unless you tell me UAudio card + suite would make a difference.

Thanks!!

 

Last edited: Jun 10, 2020

Thanks - very helpful xD

 

For me Valhalla,Soundtoys,Fabfilter(EQ,Gate,Limiter & multiband compressor.I don't like the compressor and Saturn),Plugin Alliance,Empirical Labs Arousor(for me the best compressor out there),Eventide and iZotope Trash2.I don't need anything else.Sorry this is more than 3 plugins.

 

For tons of analog tone plugins with highly optimized code check out Chris from Airwindows. His Console plugins will add that special je ne sais quoi with the barest hit on your CPU. He works off of Patreon (I've been supporting him for years) donation and now his work is freely downloadable to anyone at all. PurestDrive can invoke a sweet buzz, but check out the lot and perhaps you'll find some things that wag your tail.

And also, the GUI of his plugins are purely functional and are the bare minimum to get you from point A to bliss.

https://www.airwindows.com/console5/

 

Some of hisplugins sound very nice but the difficulty is to find the good ones amongst hundreds.In theory no GUI is good because you focus your brain on your listening but that doesn't make them easy to distinguish.

 

RC-20 and Goodhertz shit...

 

Oh nice ones mate! Only vaguely heard about those before, gonna look into it

Speaking of Moogerfooger it's been discontinued right? Would you recommend an equivalent pedal which I think would be useful in my case as it's pretty limited I would stick to just one, instead of using 50 different delay/lfo and all vsts. Cheers.

 

You've made a list of just about everything and you aren't happy with any of it?

 

There were I believe 9-12 diff foogers. They all can still he had. But to be honest the Delay pedal which goes for stupid prices - is really the only one I recommend... You should think about getting into Eurorack kits for those kind of effects. But that stuff is crazy expensive... As for analogue sauce ITB, theres quite a bit of good things you mentioned in you trial list... Specifically what kind of analogue sauce are you looking for? Tape saturation, tape compression, analogue THD distortion, tube distortion, machine noise, tape wow & flutter, vinyl record pops & crackles, the list is endless... My suggestions for RC-20 and GOODHERTZ stuff covers almost all of that stuff.... my fav combo lately is RC-20 Mixed with Vulfcompressor on every bus. Instant Lofi vibe

 

Man, your right, those Goodhertz are the shit! I haven't heard a better tremelo plugin, for instance, than their Trem Control. For those not in the know...

 

I use Nebula Line input, Mic Preamp & Console Channel on all VST synth tracks, and sometimes I use Nebula tape too

 

I love the old Variety of Sound plugins! Although they're 32-bit only.

 

I think I missed one or two xD

No seriously that's why I'm asking for a top 3 because precisely I want to get rid of most of it to just you a few ones that I master well.

 

Year Eurorack is too soon and expensive for me at this point, I think I need to take a step at a time and finish tracks now with what I have.

The analogue sauce I'm looking for to be precise is this kind of fast (more or less, depends) melodic sounds (mainly Indie Dance/Melodic Techno with some Italian/retro-ish traces), stuff like Innervisions if you happen to know - a few examples:

-

from 2m30 on, what kind of delay/reverb/(tap?)
would you call it?

I think he used J37 for the tremolo-ish effect on the main lead

-
crazy sound design processings here

-
very fat juicy arp with lot of up and down movements throughout. I know Eagles & Butterflies applies Space Echo everywhere, and Coloray uses Buchla, Prophet 6, sometimes OB6 too

-
huge whoosing reverb in break

-
some effects on the very high pitch lead to make it fatter, some detuning at times

-
downtempo indie house, huge reverb on the bassline, how come? and what seems to be a chorus in the background melody throughout the track

-
more big room indie dance

-
subtle delays in sounds

Overall the leads in the genre are usually very processed to take a lot of space, a bit harsh on the edges to give it this sharpness but not too overly low fi (the signal is still close to dry one). The basslines are juicy, a bit acid.

 

Last edited: Jun 11, 2020

Try in chain some Kazrog True Iron , Ik Multimedia Tapes , Preamp Plugin (Fuse Audio, Black Rooster for example) for some analogish sauce from the start.
Btw, Audiority‘s LDC2 got a preset for synth enrichment. Forgot the name, but its an easy & effective way to make digital synths sound better. Btw2: Use Diva, warmest tone from scratch.

edit: its the pre x7 preamp plugin with preset „Synth Animator“

 

Last edited: Jun 26, 2020

The closest to an Air Windows plugin guide are the ones bundled with Tracktion Waveform 10+
For starters, the most eccentric ones are discarded. Check this videos:

Check this out too. Self-explanatory:
http://www.airwindows.com/airwindows-plugins-starter-kit/

 

Last edited: Jun 20, 2020

@ZUK I think i switched something ing. Guess it was Kazrog Synth Warmer with such a synth enrichment preset. Saw u found that to be interesting, so ibwanted to clear it up. Have yet to check if i am correct this time.

 

@ZUK my fault, now save, its this one , got that cool synth enhancement preset : Synth Animator. https://www.gearslutz.com/board/pro...9273-audiority-pre-x7-tube-preamp-plugin.html

 

Last edited: Jun 25, 2020

cause its nice
---
some good shit under that music links stuff you posted
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are there still ppl who just moving a tiny amount one of the two phases of a mix or mix elements for analog shizzle ?
this something i read bout in forum years ago but never did ...