This is from the Plugin Alliance Facebook group.
And it looks like they're collaborating with SPL for this one. And SPL had a beef with Make Believe Studio's emulation, they said it's not authentic.
How much accurate do you think PA's emulation will be? Their SPL Emulations are really good.

Link to the post : https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EGwC8xpq4/

 

if they are collabing with the brand, i would argue it might be pretty much a 1:1, since probably they will use the schematics as a form a guide to code this

 

True

 

as far as i know should be 1:1 since the hardware is digital and they have the code,i remember that from years ago a friend of mine told me that. now the mix head he he he people paid a lot for that replica

 

there is also like electronic limitations that are not easy to replicate in my opinion (hence why i said 'pretty much').... but yeah, i agree. also, it is sad as shit for people who bought replicas like wth

 

This Machine Head craze started from Serban Ghenea (well from people obsessed by his technique). He's using it subtly, to gain a bit of headroom. When pushed 1 dB harder (think chorus), it slightly thickens the low mids center (that's by design). Used since early 2000s when any digital outboard was used, to free up CPU. When presented with the early version, Serban Ghenea guided the MakeBelieve team (in essence was their beta tester) until MixHead was doing exactly what Serban needed (and some extras), so he could discard the hardware (hardware does not allow for offline mix bouncing). For all intents and purposes Mixhead is THE OG Machine Head. SPL were really pissed by the move (of MB team), although they were aware several masterign engineers use their red collection - so they could've laucnhed them as plugins long ago. So yeah, they're late to the party and instead of finally lauching the entire red bundle to provide some added value, they take the path of the low hanging fruit

 

Its not emulation, its 1:1 original SPL software code like Softube Weiss collection.

 

I love and hate MixHead, it can be an improvement to some sounds, but the UI/programming is a joke. I find it funny that the Serban Ghenea preset boosts gain and there's no gain compensation without the plugin going "hey, you fixed the gain so it's not the magic settings anymore!!".

I'm not exactly a fan or hater of SPL plugins (never really used or heard anything substantial about them), but I suppose it's going to be better than MixHead. Make Believe went on and on about it not being as simple as people say it is, so there's no chance an all digital machine can't be officially 100% replicated to sound like Serban's unit.

 

SPL has great plugins and hardwares . Old school people still use it.

 

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2025

To get that Serban Ghenea sound, we need to hear like him. Any gears or plugins he is using are useless until we learn how he hears sound.

 

I just compared both plugins.
Very hard to find a clear winner.

Settings :
SPL Low freq knob is VERY nice to find a balance.
MB hard clip setting is nice to have (i prefer disabled)

Drive :
MB seems "flabby" when pushed hard.
SPL handle drive better.

It is easy to hear the global effect by pushing Drive to 14 max
It is already happening at lower drive, of course ... MB fart like crazy, whereas SPL saturate/compress nicely (even if not usable at such extreme setting).

High Mids freqs : VERY HARD to find how they behave

No clear winner when set each one to match the other with regular setting.
BUT i would keep the SPL only, because of easy drive and low freq adjust

SPL react more like tape compression, MB react more like a "regular" saturation.
MB clip more than it compress, to sum it.

SPL win for me

 

I doubt it's a true 1:1 emulation :

1. To achieve 1:1, they would need to perform chip emulation, which they haven't done based on the CPU usage. Optimization implies modifications, and the plugin only consumes 0.8% CPU on my older octa-core machine. I suspect most of us are familiar with the Motorola DSPEMU synths and the demands of CPUs for it. Machinehead hardware uses 2 of them.

2. PA used at least 300 words to describe the code for both the Original and Ultimate versions, yet "1:1" was never mentioned. Any fool would agree that "1:1" is a powerful marketing term, THE BEST for plugins, yet they conspicuously avoided using it in the manual. Softube successfully employed this strategy with their Weiss emulations everywhere and hit jackpots for the collection.

3. The manual states, "The source code was then adapted to the C++ functions available today, whereby the results of the audio processing were also bit-perfect compared to the reference version at the time."

"Adapted" essentially means 'modified,' perhaps enhanced or perfected, but in simpler terms, 'changed'.

4. The concept of 'harmonic generation' for DSP is new. I'm not an expert, but I'm certain that no one intentionally added harmonics to digital hardware devices in the 90s when the emphasis was on pristine, sterile sound. The harmonics generated in the hardware likely stem from natural dynamic manipulation (high-frequency limiting) artifacts, which include a subtle form of aliasing. Perhaps they've cleaned these up, which would logically require some code modification to made the plugin only generate clean single harmonic (like we've seen in a lot of PA's plugins) without aliasing whatsover down to the noise floor.

5. While they may possess the original source code and the plugin might sound excellent, I view it as a somewhat lazy emulation. Given their resources and technology, a proper 1:1 emulation, including all its flaws and weaknesses, should have been achievable. This isn't to say I dislike it or that it sounds bad, just that it feels like a missed opportunity.

6. There's no room for ambiguity when it comes to 1:1, no explanation needed for anything – it's a straightforward concept. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but this is just my understanding.

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2025