For me, a lot of it is the novelty of having roughly accurate emulations of old gear that I could never dream of owning. For the most part I stick to more modern plugins.
When I do like analog plugins over "digital", it usually comes down to saturation. Not that you can't just add saturation after whatever effect, but sometimes it's just nice to combine multiple plugins into one.

 

in such cases, more likely than not you're usually finding an excuse on why your guitar tone sucks avoiding the fact it's the lack of practice and skill, buying better gear may give you false hopes, no?

interesting to see another accordance - imagine newer generations of home-studio-grown sound folks may never hear what real 1176 is supposed to sound like, what if they'll use some mediocre plugins (or just plugins that look like, not sound like the vintage gear), how would you explain 1176 to them? it's almost like in Matrix where you never realize what's real until someone shows you - but what if actual vintage gear becomes so rare to get hands on there will be no reality to compare/reference?

that would be an interesting "what-if", because arguably sound options, recording techniques etc... influence music genres in result, sonic characteristic contributes to musical piece and vice versa

 

i know some people who do this with vintage analog gear when they can't even dial in the plug-in emulation properly ;) lol

when i have the option to use comparable tools to the ones that were deployed on the art i'm influenced by, i usually chose to do so. just so happens that a lot of that art was made with vintage analog equipment, and the comparable tools i have access to are largely (digital) approximations

i'm very pro practice and making the most of the gear you have, but all the practice in the world won't necessarily make an EMG sound like a single coil, a dynamic mic sound like a condenser, a mesa boogie sound like a tweed deluxe, etc.

 

I think it also depends on whether you are talking about analogue effects or analogue instruments. I don't know about others, but analogue synths like the Moog Model D, Sub Phatty, Korg MS-20, or even the Novation Bass Station, just have next level 'weight' and fatness that I'm yet to see anything near in plugin form, be it the best analogue emulations from the likes of Arturia or modern digital synths like Serum.

 

Last edited: Jan 11, 2023

I don't think there's any real need for analogue emulations in contemporary music. It sounds artificial and it's meant to sound that way. It certainly doesn't sound like it was recorded in one take in a spacious cathedral, whereas some albums of the 70's would boast of such qualities. Live and raw. Part of that process was that everything was recorded to tape and everything went through the same types of compressors and eq's using the same microphones. But a newer generation of producers took note of the raw energy of those recordings and gave the bulk of the credit to the old equipment used and assumed it would transfer it's magic to their EDM track. But to me that's like attempting to get the power of John Bonham's drumming into an 808 bus by simply using the right analogue compressor.

 

This guy shows how to make an analog simulation in a DAW. And I'm quite convinced because I come from the analog world. But at the same time it's very clean. A dream for a sound engineer of the 60's/70's. I tested his method for fun but it doesn't work with everything. It's a question of context. After all, who cares because a good song is a good song.
I'm going to the 500 modules for fun. That's what I'm interested in: having fun and growing. Use plugins for what they are, 1's and 0's. Make music!

 

It was probably some kind of space race at first and Waves won it. But CLA-76 doesn't sound that convincing, compared to something like UAD. UAD was out of reach for many people so other developers started making their 1176 and LA2A emulations.

It gets you there faster (instead of adding stock compressor and saturator with thousands of parameters you just have an output and a peak reduction knob) and, since you are right, there are good compromises like DMG TrackComp where you have visual markers to tell you where the Envelope range of the original hardware was and allows you to over/undershoot.

Non-linearity is a factor, but compressor topology is another one.
I'd agree with you to the point where I'd like to see a compressor plugin that let's you change topology as well as transformer saturation, that would be even more versatile than TrackComp, but in the end you can add Kazrog True Iron after your Compressor and it does the same job.

 

Last edited: Jan 11, 2023

How can you capitalize on nostalgia if they give you plugins for free? Steven...

Oh no, Analog Obsession, what a fucking nightmare!

 

For me is simple as it should be: to break the linearity of a digital signal

You may say "you can break the linearity with digital saturators/waveshapers"

Yes. And it's very cool BTW. But sometimes you want to replicate the nonlinearities of an especific gear, the clipping effects, the impedance (on plugins that have it) and for me no better way than (good) analog emulation. Just DON'T overdo it, because it wont give you any analog mojo, only cluttering.

 

And THAT is where the problem lies.
In that "secret sauce".
It may not be nostalgia or mythical, but even worse: Secret. Magic.
No, it's not secret nor magic.
It is specific effects of known interactions of components, and those effects CAN be simulated in digital form, with varying success, measured by consensus of human hearing.
Analogue emulations will never be exactly the same, and no two analogue units were ever exactly the same. - End of story.
-------
Oh, and Bunford, you might try using a spoiler for parts of your long signature. you are taking up the page....

For example:

"Nobody can steal the things that are in my head / Does neb yn gallu dwyn beth sydd yn fy mhen"

Ruining silence since the mid 90s!

Songwriter, producer, DJ, synth nerd, drum machine enthusiast, guitarist, bassist, drummer, pianist, and general audio enthusiast, amongst other things!

Spoiler: Equipment

STUDIO GEAR: Steinberg Cubase Pro 12, Ableton Live Suite 11, Reason Studios Reason 12, Steinberg Dorico 4, Steinberg WaveLab Pro 11, Native Instruments Kontakt 7, Ableton Push 2, Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol M32, Behringer Motor 49 Keyboard Controller, 88 key weighted digital piano, Manson MB1 guitar, Fender Stratocaster Mexican guitar, Rickenbacker 4003 bass custom clone, a random selection of soft synths, sample libraries, the odd piece of rack gear with M-Audio BX5a monitors and Audio Technica ATH-M50X headphones, custom PC with Windows 11 Pro 64 bit.

DJ GEAR: Pioneer DJ Rekordbox, Pioneer DJ DDJ-1000, Aiaiai TMA-2 DJ Profile Headphones, Asus ROG GL503GE laptop

 

Last edited: Jan 11, 2023

Virus isn't shit. Nord isn't shit. Blofeld isn't shit. Kemper Profiler isn't shit. People have been willing to pay $10k for the DS1-MK3 hardware mastering compressor and guess what, it's digital.

It's funny to me how many people think hardware automatically means analog when some of the best sounding gear is digital.

 

Any suggestions on digital saturators that are better than analog emus? The only one i know that is on that level is Kelvin.

 

Yes that is where there is potential for the closest replication of the sound, but there is still a problem as they are hardware units, and have analog outputs. So there is an analog element to complicate, but most people could never tell the difference.
MANY would CLAIM to tell the difference, but probably NONE COULD in a blinded test.

 

Last edited: Jan 11, 2023

Because... you pay lots of money to feel like the better Beatles producer... because... they can make money of it...

The reason I don't use any of that BS is, that most of the times old crap is just old crap. I don't want to sound "vintage". But... there are obviously lots and lots and lots of (stupid) people, that think if manage to produce a shitty 60s or 70s vinyl sound you are hero. Disgustingly stupid.

So the "industry" goes on and sells the stupid things to stupid people because... they can. As long as there are paying customers they will go on with that. It takes always two persons for a fraud.

BTW: the same BS goes on for hardware: have a look at gearspace.com. Facepalm.

 

not an answer to your question, but MPE controllers like Haken Fingerboard or ROLI Seaboard offer very special "hands on" control (pun intended) so when used as plugin parameter controller, you can adjust saturation or any other sound manipulation parameters by your hands pressure+glide+slide+wobble etc... all adding very unique movement to the sound, not really possible with analog gear where you still have only two hands to twist two knobs simultaneously

aand another reason I so much prefer community here at AudioSex forum over GearSpace

 

Even one only if you play the keyboard with one hand.

Clever controllers are the key.
IMO Seaboard is the nearest to a perfect controller I know.
However I reached satisfactory results with TouchOsc creating two adjacent XY controllers, varied with middle and index fingers, it means 4 params in realtime, not too bad for most instruments.
Still not as powerful as Seabord.

 

Technically, all analog instruments are digital. It's all 0 and 1; be it hardware or software. Analog is an illusion.

 

any vsts that can do this?

 

it would be really interesting if more developers made hardware outboard gear with proper versatile open-sourced remote control,
but, to make it perfect, we'd need mixer/matrix capable audio interfaces (closest I can think is RME with TotalMix, or AVID with DadMan managed MTRX) which could recall outboard gear routing state from saved DAW project layout,

years back Lexicon PCM96 rack offered dedicated control via plugin into DAW,
nowadays Tegeler Audio Manufaktur produce some rack hardware units with DAW control,
I guess manufacturers don't really bother with such added layer of complexity at higher costs?

 

The sound of music is mostly analog, and the digital tools are a representation of their analog counterparts.