Hey friends,

I know this gonna be a really awkward topic, and please don't make this some joking and shitting thread,
I've been here for years around forums, yet I finally decided to ask this weird question, perhaps more from a technical standpoint rather than use-your-ears point of view:

why are plugin devs trying to mimic/copy/emulate all sorts of analog (mixing) gear?
what's the purpose of using plugins with limited controls and very cut-down options and limited sound "range" if digital audio signal processing is virtually limitless?
what's so cool about using some vintage mojo plugins?

for example, why would I need various compressor analog-inspired types, if all those in the end are just some sort of non-linear envelope automations I could either have within one rule-them-all compressor plugin, or some smart script to manipulate envelopes of all sorts of parameters directly on tracks/items within a DAW?
or another example, why would I need imperfect clones of already imperfect hardware of various distortion/saturation or reverb plugins if they all are just manipulating based on some waveform "mangling", blending impulse responses etc..?

I have no idea howto change my mindset to start understanding this whole thing, I didn't grow up on analog hardware, I use "simple" RME interfaces with TotalMix for recording and then use just a few various plugins - frankly more because they're "eye candies" rather than hearing some nuances between them - am I truly missing something special?

 

Analogue equipment played a big part in vinyl pressing back in the day! Engineers/devs are trying too get that warmth sound with the plugins they develop today.

 

Last edited: Jan 11, 2023

Your question is not awkward at all and has been questioned times and times again... Well, from my point of view it's just about those little imperfections which made analog hardware so special. I guess it's all about chasing that vintage mojo sound in modern digital world.
Those who achieve to emulate vintage hardware close enough are very special - great vintage sound without thousands $$$ tag price and mainteance cost.

 

One reason is that limitations spark creativity, and those plugins mimic the "limitations" the hardware has. I use CraveEQ for 95% of my EQ needs, but sometimes, for example, I like to use a Neve 1073/84 emulation because they have a distinct high shelf sound. I can absolutely recreate this in CraveEQ, but because you're limited to one type of high shelf on those units, its sound became recognizable. At times, I will hear a guitar and think "Oh this one will really benefit from a 1073 high shelf", and it'll be simpler for me to load a 1073 emulation rather than recreate it on a digital EQ.

For something like compressors, it's a bit more complicated. There are so many variables that make up the character of a compressor. Fixed or variable attack/release times, FB or FF topology, dynamic ratio, non-linear knee, harmonic distortion, RMS or peak detector, Hilbert transform... Honestly, if there's a compressor plugin that features every setting possible, it will be overwhelming and unusable. I know that I often like a LA3A-style compressor on my electric guitars, but I will have no clue how to replicate it on something like U-he Presswerk or Klanghelm DC8C (and even with the closest settings, it won't sound the same).

However, I couldn't care less about the harmonic distortion those plugins emulate. If I need saturation, I will load a saturation plugin.

 

Last edited: Jan 10, 2023

The lack of technical understanding leads to people gossip about something they do not understand.
And if you do not understand something, it becomes magic. And there is a lot to gossip about magic.

To me it's advisable to think about how much you need to self realize yourself in the order and amount of harmonic enhancement.
And this question led me to the conclusion that I just leave them out.

Since then, I suffer from way less headache.

 

thanks for your insights,
they seem to have one common thing I'm not sure what to think about - why are people trying to "catch" a sound they've heard years ago if they have so many various tools today?
I mean, why chase vintage sound if I can simply listen to those amazing recordings, but make new own music more unique by not being "stuck" in that legacy burden?
perhaps it's some kind of shortcut, laziness or psychological/hearing thing people want to reproduce sounds they're already familiar with and that brings them joy?

having all-in-one plugin with infinite amount of parameters would indeed be "mind-blowing" (in a bad way) but then wouldn't some randomization of underlying parameters be interesting enough, in a similar way let's say every channel on a console sounded bit different?

 

Because basically digital is shit!

 

how do people say "oh, back then, the mix sounded so much better" and in the same breathe say "oh, why are they emulating analog gear?"

are people just energy vampires?
Is energy/division a currency for some?

don't get it

 

Yes sometimes it's just people trying to replicate the sound of the past, but not always. It's been a few months that the Neold U17 has been my favorite vocal compressor. I've never heard of the hardware unit before the release of the plugin, and I'm pretty sure I don't hear a lot of music that have been mixed with this compressor. It's just that I like its sound and workflow.

There are also plugins like the Kush Novatron that are not inspired by any specific hardware. The dev created an analog-like compressor from his ideas, and tweaked and tuned it to his liking. The result is a plugin with a lot of character, and a beautiful one imo. It's like a collaboration : the dev suggests his idea of a colorful plugin, and sometimes it might suit your projects. Of course you can build your sound from "scratch" tweaking a complex plugin to your liking, but sometimes, other's ideas just work better, and you don't have to spend 20 minutes on a complicated plugin for one track. There's no shame in not being in control of absolutely every setting possible.

 

With synthesizers I can answer easily: they emulate equipment I understand, can use well, and like. I'm not particularly into accurate hardware fx emulations but surely the answer is the same. So the short answer does seem to boil down to nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that, but if I were young and had never used all that stuff I wouldn't give two craps.

 

for me, endlessly tweakable parameters can turn into option paralysis and jam up my workflow. i often prefer to reach for the "right" analog emulation in a given moment that has less controls to fiddle with when i'm dialing in a sound. it either works in context or it doesn't. i tend to prefer a similarly utilitarian approach with analog equipment outside the box as well (guitar amps, pedals, etc)

people are also drawn to the tools that made their favorite records, and an infinite amount of classic records were made on all that gear. if you're a guitar player who wants to sound like hendrix, you're reaching for a strat before anything else. think it's this same concept, just extended into the production realm

i also believe it's a big issue of supply and accessibility. analog equipment is limited in supply and requires a huge financial investment, so it seems that all these emulation plugins have become a placeholder for people who would love to use all that outboard gear given the opportunity, but don't have the money or the established business to facilitate the humongous expense. it's one of the reasons large format recording studios are still able to stay afloat

ultimately it's just about finding what gear inspires you to create and helps you manifest the sounds you hear in your head, whether it's pristine digital software or a rusty old box with bad component tolerances that sounds completely different depending on the temperature of the room that day lol

 

I think of these more as stereoypes, you roughly know what an 1176 sounds like or whatever, it's easier to imagine a solution for a specific problem if you have a small, well stablished set of sounds or behaviours and work your way from there. The cool thing about the emulations is that they try to amulate the stereotype itself, some even expand on them to make them more usable.

Also come on, they look way cooler than the bland black/grey background non-emulations tend to have, the listener might not care but rolling a virtual vintage knob wills the void in my empty, rotten soul.

 

Devs pretend to be accurate.
So they include LIMITATIONS from the original.

Witch is pure marketing : they could include different settings (like you said)
But how they could sell ANOTHER plugin emulating another hardware ?
Most devs use the SAME audio engine on the same generation plugins.

Same for hardware code : Line6 used the same base code from Pod 2 to Pod X3/XT (and amps based on it, like Vetta).
They totally changed code on Pod HD and further.
Helix is a glorified Pod HD

But how they could sell more hardware if they just update firmware ?

Hardware mojo is one thing
Limitations are coded for marketing/segmentation only

 

Let's imagine what happens...

We have tons of 1176 emulations.. All are different.... But what is THAT classic vintage sound if all 1176 units of same revision may sound slightly different, or all revisions are different at all.. So, which unit is THAT classic... Or what? Then it goes to another device.... That device may have also difference.... But adding another device, then another differs from the units chains used among other tracks...
Ok speaking about gear.... But chains, order, settings.... Or can mix it so, this way or another way....
So, adding any chains if effects, any settings of knobs still give that analog vintage vibes. Yeah?
So what is wrong with plugins? They still add harmonics, 2nd,3rd,4th etc, use oversampling for aliasing killing. If this 1176 emulation is not so exact true emulation, maybe this still can mimic another analog vibe?
Billions of saturation plugins still can't match even any random gear? What if that that arturia tube sta is not true original, but if it matches some tube device?
How we define analogness? Warmth? Is there any device that can measure analog warmth exactness? Calculator of vintage vibes? Dirtness? True hissness?
Why this curve on eq should exactly match original one? What this can make to your audio which has random spectrum you recorded? What if pultec not true emulation with smoother or sharper curve than original does better processing than any original pultec? Or in any case there must be only true pultec, doesn't matter how badly audio recorded? Not millimeter sharper or millimeter smoother?

What should be? Limited true gear or billions of difierent emulation to choose from?
If your digital stock eq/comp/reverb/etc sound very good with some not true mimic of past eras, why there should be still place for true analog? I think we have still enough of emulations, thousands, clean or dirty, digital or emulated, and not limited by 20-30 expensive gear units..

Have fun with what we have. Sounds good? Ok. Sounds bad? Redo, rerecord, re mix, remaster, readjust, try another.... Add harmonics? Good. Bad? Try another one.
Millenials are those who need no that sh*t, everything go digital. Another era is now, another music, another standards, if nostalgia about retro but too clean - distort as you want, or do cleaner as old engineers could dream about that decades ago.
I still can't listen to some The Beatles tracks because they used only analog, and even they sound...harsh yeaaaah. It is about ears that were there during mixing those times, not gear only.....add 10-15dBs 4kHz on your most analog vintage eq and it will sound harsh.....not warm)
Too much to say....
Do music, be a good musician, learn to play instruments, learn to mix, record, master, edit, restore.... Try billions of plugins, test, oversample, select your tools, remove the shit you don't want... Fuck that true analogness....
Do the good sound.

Who still watches analog valve TV sets with prerecorded VHS tapes from analog cable broadcasting? Bullshit, maniacness and insanity... Stop that... We are in a good era of possibilities... Gear is cheaper than decades ago, higher quality, tons of plugins, daws,.......... What is not enough?

Slammed digitally limitered EDM? If not too distorted, who wants to listen to this to be not squashed? You still need these sharp transients piercing out from loud loudspeakers? The case? The reason? For example, too dynamic, not overly squashed 80s and 90s sound too weak, not powerful, too funny than strong, it kills the power of groove and the groove of power. Just add one-two-three dBs of good limiting and this will sound way better (not louder, but more glued and like "everything is united into one" than all is separately sounding)...

It is not about analog or true analog or digital or variety of tools..... It is the case of instruments, performance, recording, mixing, mastering and more. Not the quantity of harmonics of quality of warmths..... Harmonics, saturation, dirtness, colour are just another tools of mixing, recording, mastering, processing...like decimation, aliasing, bit reduction, noise.
It adds vibes, colour, tone, not the trueness of analogness........

 

Last edited: Jan 10, 2023

For me using analogue plugins is about kind of like muscle memory and deeply ingrained expectations and preconceptions about how my music should sound based on all of the records that I grew up listening to throughout the years, although I've been of late looking to do it clean and add minor flourishes of colour here and there. Like someone here previously mentioned, if I was coming up now I probably wouldn't obviously have followed the same path. The times they are a changin'.

 

I like the visuals.

 

My feeling on this is that older analogue (spelled correctly) gear has the circuitry and components that added some warmth via saturation, harmonics, and even low level hun or distortion and such that altered the sound, perceived by the human ear as what's normally described as "warmth" due to it adding a pleasing layer of secret analogue sauce to the sound. This is not nostalgia or mythical, but a real thing that us older guys will realise. When you listen to pop made from the late 90s/early 00s onwards and such, when digital recording was introduced into studios, you notice the lack of warmth and character that has become normalised by today. Listen to older Led Zeppelin and Beatles tracks and compare to today's rock and pop, and, with a good ear, you will notice a difference in sonic characteristic and fingerprint of the sound.

This is what plugin developers are trying to recreate digitally, in essence that extra "warmth" by digitally recreating the circuitry and components as software code. Some are more successful than others, and many are just snake oil, but some are getting ever closer and closer where it is getting harder and harder to tell the difference.....some may argue that some plugins are there already.

Those who are 25+ years old should hopefully concur with the above summary

 

Last edited: Jan 10, 2023

Here we go, again and again...

For MY limited musical experience, coming from 70's, I remember only a desperate quest to destroy noise, hiss, crackles and pops, with scarceful results. That is my "warmth" experience.