Who knows what machines are emulated in this collection?

Brit73 - Neve Preamp 1073
Brit84 - Neve Preamp 1084
US Rack - API Preamp ... ?
Thick Pre - Chandler Germanium Preamp
TransformerX -
Green AD -
Nylon -
Tube Shelf -
Tube Bell -
Tube Filter -
Tape S -
Tape M -

 

Last edited: Dec 30, 2024

Green AD perhaps...


US Rack - API Preamp...maybe...

 

Tube is a Pultec, Nylon is the saturation circuit of the Neve MBT. Tape M I think is the Studer J37?

 

Brit73 - Neve 1073 (EQ and Preamp)
Brit84 - Neve 1084 (EQ and Preamp)
US Rack - API 5500 (EQ and Preamp, Line Amp)
Thick Pre - Chandler Germanium Preamp/DI
TransformerX - "Iron" is known for Neve sound, "Steel" for API as example. Taken from newer Rupert Neve Design era hardware.
Green AD - Burl AD Converter
Nylon - Rupert Neve Design's "Silk" saturation circuit.
Tube Shelf - Pultec EQP1A
Tube Bell - Pultec MEQ5
Tube Filter -Pultec HLF3C
Tape S -Studer (could be A800)
Tape M - Telefunken M15A

 

Last edited: Dec 30, 2024

Tape M is presented as inspired in a german brand (see site and manual), but Studer was from Zurich, Switzerland, and Ampex was american...

 

Tape M could be a Telefunken M15

 

yeah definitely that one. didn't check TBTECH the website before. it's 70s and German, quick AI search suggests Telefunken M15a that stands for Magnetophon 15A

 

The only one that i have my doubts are TransformerX, since the dev said is based on an especific color box using an american transformer. Ok, we all expect what iron transformers should do when you work with Neves or SHMC, but they don't sound the same. True Iron plugin is another cool example of how different kinds of transformers can affect the audio. I don't know if it's something 'Neve' because they already got the 1073 1084, RND Silk... But who knows?

 

I left out the German brand Magnetophon (by AEG) for "Tape M" because it is very dated, more from the time of the Second World War, and because it would later become a very generic term for magnetic tape recording.

I can't compare the emulation with the Telefunken M15, which I don't own. But I wonder if the guys at TBTECH hide the identity of the emulations to avoid legal problems or because they fear comparisons made by users with access to the hardware...

It would be good if someone from TBTECH, who frequents this forum, came here to say, even if anonymously, what the sources of these emulations are, not all of them as obvious as the Pro-Q3 in the case of the Kirchhoff-EQ...

 

pretty sure the devs are part of Gearspace gang and it's a common sayings there about those iron, steel, nickel etc transformers sound. The sound character description most of the time originates from the material used to build it. The "steel" for API comes from the silicone steel used, something like that. I know from GS, Iron is always associated with Neve and in the SHMC, Iron was meant to be inspired by Neve 1073 transformer sound with how they even added a Class-A circuit just for that selection only. I think it is written in the manual. The idea of the full Class A SHMC comes after because of how people liked the Iron sound selection.

 

Last edited: Dec 30, 2024

It's more about licensing issue I believe. It's common in plugin world.

 

Yeah, and they love PA, which has given them recognition in the plugin industry and which adopts that terminology in the presets of Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor (your SHMC, I suppose): iron, steel, and... nickel.

Transformer X has something to do with this slang, if we think that Rupert NEVE Design MBT (Master Bus TRANSFORMER) was manufactured not in England but in the USA, which is in accordance with what is said in the manual: "Inspired by a custom 'Color Box' using a vintage US transformer". Maybe it's an emulation of the "Color Comp" section of the MBT, just as Nylon emulates the "Super Silk" section...

 

There are many emulations that are not officially identified, even under the pressure of the licensing issue. Everyone clearly knows what the sources are. The case of Distressor and all his masks is hilarious, from Arousor to Stress, Xtressor > Comp... In this collection, Neve 73 and 84 are obvious, but also the Pultec ones. However, other emulations are less simulations than dissimulations...

 

Last edited: Dec 30, 2024

Really cool. I didn't knew it. On this thread on GS that you linked, Gregory Scott Kush said he had preferences on the model he chooses for a mixing console, for example. And i always believed that different brands of iron transformer would sound slightly different, not huge because of the physics, just different. This just makes it simpler to understand.

 

Another dev stealing the work of others and profiting?!! where is the outrage?! Giancarlo would be proud!

Since its the internet, and can be hard to read, i am 100% being sarcastic. Love the deep vintage stuff.

 

Unrelated to the thread, but I love Gregory. Never talked to him or anything, but I owe him a lot on the "mindset" field. In a single video on the House of Kush channel he changed my whole perspective on compression. Very rarely you get those moments where things just click and now everything makes sense after years of doing something but not truly understanding it. And he did all that without showing a single audio example.

Also, his plugins and hardware are killer. Clariphonic and AR-1 are beasts.

 

Kush is Kush. All of his plugins are top of the line, while still expressing a rare knowledge and passion for tube sound.

 

Tube Shelf - YouTube 480p
Tube Bell - YouTube 720p
Tube Filter - YouTube 1080p

 

Gotta agree. I loved the Deep Vintage stuff, but i know a some free pultecs which sounds better than this machine learning capture. Maybe the HW that they sampled is bad AFwe got so much pultec HW clones as we got pultec plugins. God knows which unit they sampled

 

yeah, me too, but not the Pultec for sure. I have DV plugins all over my busses these days. I just don't like how they just added the captured static curves to the EQ boost/cut and not accurately doing the reverse polarity passive style EQing. Not a real Pultec emu in my book.