I noticed a lot of discussion on sister site as to which one is the best Pultec emulation. Since the majority of people having these type of discussions never had the original hardware or a clone, I have decided to post this excellent shootout article from Sweetwater.



According to the author, they gathered together eight hardware units that aspire to the Pultec sound and chose to include seven Pultec-style plug-ins. They decided not to include an original vintage Pultec, because even the youngest original Pultec is nearly 40 years old. Though the design and components of the originals are very stable (according to Steve Jackson of Pulse Techniques, who has measured dozens of originals with an Audio Precision test rig), it seemed unfair to put these new units up against a vintage unit, especially when choosing one particular vintage Pultec to compare them to. Also, software models are true to the one specific unit that was modeled, which may not sound the same as another unit. So he decided right up front that they would only compare contemporary units. With that decision out of the way, we proceeded to gather the contestants and design a listening test.

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/pultec-shootout-with-sound-samples/

 

thanks Pirate

 

Interesting post. Went through it real quick and listened to the demoes without over analyzing thing, and going with my gut just now. Here's what I think:

Only the IK TRacks Pultec sounds different to me, of course they are all different, but this one a little obvious to me. All of the others (plugin and hardware) somehow introduce some sort of gentle tube-compression and modify the transient a little bit, while the TRacks just feels like a digital EQ with Pultec curve that can also be useful now that I know this.

It's amazing the Softube Tube-Tech sounds so close to the hardware even when it's not Softube that doing the comparison, lol. And it's not even the MKII, it's the old one.

I don't know what is wrong with me, I like the solid-state Pultec sound, cleaner with so much more definition. I don't even know such thing exist. Now I want one.

For plugins, of course the Tube-Tech, long time favourite. Weird I think even the Waves sounds better than the hyped Apogee to me. The Apogee will sound "better" because it is somehow brighter, but pay attention to what it is doing to the transient. Also it muddied up the sound a bit IMO.

It has been a long day, already tired really. I will try to listen again tomorrow, but want to see what others think about it. Share your thoughts guys.

 

This is an excellent objective test. Everything on the table. Data + sound, as it should be.