Exactly. I had been struggling with this phenomenon for awhile trying to mix out some of my heavier projects, and I could get the other instruments sounding punchy and tight, but when it came to the guitars, they were just "bitey" and shrill. Also the mic I used (SM587) to do some of the captures had a very pronounced bump in the 8K which I am sure contributed. But I also saw this same type of tone in the ribbon mic captures I did. These were taken from a Marshall Mode 4 run through a 1960B cabinet, and when recording, that shrillness wasn't there in the room where the captures were taken.
I tried eq'ing as my first approach, and when I got the shrillness out, the guitars just sounded flat and dead. No punch, no depth. Admittedly this could have been my eq choices, and my room is treated better than it was at the time. I watched a video where I saw CLA using the Slate VTM on guitars, and I noticed them transform to what I was used to hearing on Pro Recordings after he added that to the chain, so I tried it on my chain, and it did improve the results. I still wasn't completely happy until I started checking out the R2R presets in Nebula. Specifically the Wollensak. What that thing does to mic'd guitars is just magical. It sounds great on overly bright acoustics, clean and distorted electric, etc.
I'd like to start looking into tape duties on the 2 bus, I think.

 

I agree 1000 percent. I love the stock reaper plugs just because of the lack of fancy guis. Their compressor is a workhorse that will handle all tasks extremely well. Dialing in side chain triggering is a breeze

 

Last edited: Jun 10, 2017

Hey DigitalDragon have you tried ToneBoosters ReelBus, too? When it comes to distorted stuff and guitars, first of all I use a couple of analogue pedals > into a console > gate it with an analogue gate and then go into my audio interface. As they say: the source is the most important, or something along those lines. That gets it nicely into a ballpark for digital editing and mangling. Sometimes I sample stuff coming from the console into one of my samplers, too.

 

@digitaldragon Use some quality IR`s cabinets and get rid of most problems. You have everything available from Marshall to Diezel to Mesa.
Sure its nice to fuck around with your own stuff but IRs will save you lots of headaches since the sound is usually already very optimal

 

A question about signal Flow.

So, if I wanted to emulate an Analog channel Strip. Should I slap the Tape on the 1st insert or on the last in the chain?

I was thinking about 2 Options:

Analog Channel Input (like Airwindows, McDSP or Soundtoys) > Comp > EQ > Tape?
- or -
Tape > Comp > EQ? (similar to spanking it with the L1 like CLA does, maybe?)

Any Feedback, suggestions and tips appreciated.

 

Last edited: Jun 10, 2017

I definitely agree about the IRs for amps because I don't have an amp so I have to use these. Amps are just too expensive. And you would have to buy at least 2-3 different amps to get a range of colours for different styles. However, Line6 rack thingy could be a better solution.

@5teezo: Tape should be last in the chain, of course, but before EQ and reverb. IMHO So channel strip>insert FX>comp>tape>EQ and aux FX

 

@Von_Steyr, @SineWave, I agree, IR's are the way to go if you don't have facility to record with an amp. Also, they are a really good way to show you what you need to be after (ear training so to speak) tone-wise when micing your own amps. I use them as well when I'm scratch-padding a song together/writing.
I started micing my own amps after hearing the difference between the energy of the captures vs any IR tech I had used (Nebula was closest). I also already have access to several different types of amps, Orange, Krankenstein, Marshall, Line 6. All of them are 12" speaker configurations and most are 4x12 except the Line 6.
My chain to record DI's is Guitar-->Art MPA Pro II-->HD-192. The Art was the secret sauce that made the IR's sound 100 times better. I assume it does the same for reamping, but haven't tested without it in the chain.
I've also replaced the SM587 with 2 actual SM-57's which really helped the tone. I'm usually trying to mic up the cab with several different mics when I do the re-amp captures so I have several to choose from. It's normally the ribbon mic or the SM-57 that I go with or a blend of the 2.

 

Zozilla did a pretty lengthy (1:40 h) and deep comparison of analog modeled Tape and Saturation Plugins, including CPU usuage analysis:

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2017

Mixing With Mike - Plugin of the week

​

 

Interesting Video about mimicking analog signalflow in the Box. The guy explains 2 approaches of incorporating tape into it. Good Channel, too.