I have too many plugins and I would like to be able to choose and delete a few from this category.
I mean "CHANNEL / PREAMP" like plugins.

ARTURIA, BLACK AUDIO, FUSE, KAZROG, KELVIN, KUSH, IZOTOPE, NOISEASH, PLUGIN ALLIANCE, PSP, SLATE, SOFTUBE, SONIMUS, SOUNDTOYS, TBPRO, WAVES.

I like to use them preferably for preamp, overdrive, saturate not for EQ.

Any preference/favorites and why?
Which one do you hate?

Thanks in advance

 

Last edited: Aug 25, 2023

I really like the Black Rooster VPRE-73 Halloween Edition solely because I love the GUI and remind me to not take things seriously, it's Halloween all year long! I use this on every track as part of "console" sound in conjunction with channel strip plugin (SSL J) in the template.



Fuse Audio VPRE-31A for because it makes things sound better in a way, have to be careful because it can easily destroy the track too, it has sweet spot.



Kush Audio Omega N for its obvious low end bump, works really well for thin drum/percussive elements


HOFA SYS-Saturator on Thermionic mode lately seems to do good stuff on sustained, melodic parts just to warm things up a bit. Pleasing sounding, can tell with the harmonics shown on display.

 

Overloud's Gem Tapedesk is my fav for individual channels, followed by Metric Halo's Channelstrip on the chain.

Besides that combo i generally use:

Waves NLS "Mike" setting on the drum bus (stole it from Michael Brauer and Jaycen Joshua)
Softube Trident A Range for cymbals and high perc
bx_console SSL 9000 J for melodic instruments
Anything Fuse Audio if i want something sounding vintage (especially the RCA one)
Black Rooster Omnitec for instant Motown on any source
Lindell "Buss" plugins for busses (all of them sound really good with grouped instruments)

 

PA Lindell 50 and 80, Waves Scheps Omni (the trick here is to use Heavy Saturation because, despite its name, it produces the least amount of harmonics).

Kush Omega A, N and maybe 458A, Black Rooster VPRE-73 (I prefer the Halloween Edition too), Sonimus Britson and ofc the aforementioned PA channels.

 

just want to add that the new PA LTL Silver Bullet MK2 is pretty good sounding, it gives that stack of "record on Neve, mix on SSL/API" style workflow a lot of good engineers been talking about. I already integrated it to all my group/bus channels in my template and it sounded pretty good in context of large size mix. The Baxandall EQ (Tone) section is cool too.

You can get similar result with stacking the Virtual Channel (American/Brit 4kE/4kG) + Neve preamp in Slate Digital Virtual Mixrack but the new Dyna Realism option in the Silver Bullet does make a difference a lil bit.

Overall a nice another-saturation-plugin with wide range of tone option based on the classic preamps/consoles. I like it.

just a yt video I found.

 

Well, I guess everyone has his / her own preference, but I like the free GSat+ by TBProAudio, because you can dial in the amount of even and odd order harmonics, which is theory is really all you need to create any type of preamp saturation (tube, tape, transistor, Neve-style, API style etc.) you can think of. Of course in practice there are a few more variables, for example: not only which kind of harmonics (odd or even order) are created, but also how many overtones... But I find it fairly flexible and good enough to get the results I want.

If you are on Windows I can also highly recommend the Variety Of Sound Tessla and Thrillseeker series plugins. They are subtle, but very good sounding.

 

Hardware for reference and knowledge : https://louderthanliftoff.com/products/silver-bullet-mk2
(prices are out of control - it really sux!)

 

I like the algos on this plugins, and worked with it on some sessions, although it would be easier if they had presets for all the possibilites the plugin can archieve (because are a ton). If you're just a musician can be hard to set it up the way you want for emulating some hardware behaviour.

 

If I were you, I'd do my own testing. Just because someone like/dislikes a plugin, doesn't mean you will too.

Example: An artist who paints knows every colour on his pastel and what type of colour he will get when he mixes different colours together and that can only come through experience.

 

lately i mix into proteus hardware emulations, i find it more convincing

 

I use proteus or for mastering or for sound design/midi recording. I don't use for mixing because it's quite CPU hungry and i can archieve a better sound at mixing with normal DSP. For master it shines, depending on the capture or the intention of the record. And after proteus i finish the track without any saturation/color/analog emu plugin, only 100% digital colorless thing, because for me mastering doesnt have to work with color. Think of "i'm mastering my track on a SSL 4K console with the most colorless tools of my arsenal" instead of putting mastering exciters or clippers to give you a vibe that good analog stuff gives you without efforts.

Chris from Airwindows being stolen really hard with this plugin, because it can do the same encode/decode thing that Airwindows Consoles do. There's a mode on the PA plugin for that, where you place the plugin first and last in the chain for "summing effect". Airwindows uLaw for nasty distortion uses the same concept. And of course the PA one is going to get a lot of hype, it has pretty cool emulations of famous stuff, easier tonal and psychoacustic possibilities at your fingertips, an analog GUI of the unity which this plugin is based... and pretty CPU hungry . It's more sofisticated, of course. But for the consumption and concept, my eyes didn't shine that much. I think i can do a better job in that aspect with airwindows building blocks and other saturation plugins (my fav neve or api for example) if i wanted that vibe.

 

I was playing with this lil monster today. I found out a combo that i will abuse out for a lot of time from now that consists on this plugin followed by the Softube Chandle Curve Bender. Don't need to eq. Those two tools combined has a sound of its own. Test it by yourself if you want some EMI germanium vibe

 

im just discovering this one, but it seems there are so many choices. what models do you think are good for adding some weight and vibe to tracks or on the master bus?

 

I thought the Airwindows Consoles line isn't really about the saturation but the high-end response of the old consoles instead. You can hear from the audio demo that Chris does on his channel while the music is kinda weird on its own, he always include some synth that contain the very high end element of the frequency spectrum to demonstrate how his plugin reacted to it, with close to no aliasing at all because that frequency tends to f-up real quick on bad console emulation plugins. It's all about filtering. No ?

 

Even tho I got them since forever, I only ever used:
SSL Native Channel Strip
Arturia Trident-A

Also got interesting results with Waves NLS,
the three models are good, but I prefer the EMI console.

If you don't need the EQ, and only want the flavor and gain, it may be an option


Plugin Alliance channels are interesting, (SSL being some of the best besides the official..)
but I don't really fancy the TMT stuff, they're bit gimmicky, and the controls are not the most handy..

 

Last edited: Aug 27, 2023

You're right. Totally true. But It's a way to discover plugins that might be unused or realize others that may be useful. I do NOT want to have 40 emulations. I want to be 10 maybe 5 !!!.... and know them well. As in all categories. Little by little I have been deleting plugins, too many and little time.

 

i would take about half of them and stick them into a new folder, and then move the folder so you can't use them but they aren't deleted.

if you miss anything, you can just put it back.

 

Yes and no. The filtering occours, you are right at this point, you got ultrasonic filtering, slew clipping for treble softening and a high pass for emulating a capacitor. But also color and tonal things. ConsoleBuss is sensitive to input gain, specifically the internal gain staging of the channel, that's why on most recent Console versions you got an output trim on the ConsoleChannel plugin, to drive the bus and simulate how a real console would react to gain (more gain = harder distortion). That's why the faders from the DAW don't interact with Console, because the whole encoding thing happens pre fader. You can use the faders on the most recent versions of console to place the things on a mix BUT they will not help to control the distortion, since is internal gain and the encode happens before the fader. So you can drive a kick drum really hard on the ConsoleChannel to ConsoleBuss and compensate for that on the fader, or just mix with the outputs of ConsoleChannel as a fader for more 'realistic' experience of driving a console with gain (as recommended by Chris himself).

Side note: the new version of console "EveryConsole" is there to prove what im saying. no filtering occours, only the color, and you can blend the flavours of different Console versions to see which one sounds more like what youre working or your taste.

 

For anyone interested, this is my favorite version of Console for making things big and punchy. And he tells about the filtering and the distortion, so check it out

https://www.airwindows.com/console7cascade/