inexpensive ways to introduce analog warmth to your sound

[nowaysj]

Again, how much was that?

[paradigm_x]

Going thru a real 'paradigm shift' at the moment (groan) it seems a bit perverse buying plugins to add analogue warmth. A cheap mixer/tape deck will give ten times more genuine analogue warmth for less...

Depends if you want analogue grunge (boss distortion pedals/overloaded mixer inputs) or pristine albeit subtle Neve etc analogue niceness.

Having said that the UAD2 fatso is very nice.

Im with noways at this point, just not buying anymore software in the near-mid term future.

[JBE]

I would suggest the Stillwell plugins as well, both Bad Buss Mojo and Event Horizon are very nice, but if you don't want to pay then I guess those are really out of the question.

If it's free you are looking for, maybe try out one of these:
Ohm Force Frohmage - http://www.ohmforce.com/ViewProduct.do?p=Frohmage
Whisper Tube - http://www.acmebargig.com/whisper-tube/
Voxengo Tube Amp - http://www.voxengo.com/product/tubeamp/
or
Voxengo Boogex - http://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/

[oli90]

Sometimes it's just a case of not using sounds that are obviously produced digitally. Synths which use bandlimited oscillators sound more analog than those which don't, some low end or freeware vsts may not impliment this. What it bassically does is prevent the alliasing you get when using digitally produced waveforms by "rejecting" those harmonics which exceed the nyquist frequency of your project (sampling rate/2).

There are plently of plugins which promise an analog sound, but if there being applied to sources which have alliasing distortion and other digtial artefacts they're not going to be very effective. Also if your using effects which accentuate these digital artefacts(such as bitcrushing), it'll be more difficult to make the track have an overall analog feel later on.

[genderM]

recording to tape? as in cassette tape? how might a noobie go about this (my interface is the focusrite saffire 6 usb)

[hifi]

I can highly recommend Magnetic by nomad factory... Its got plenty of controls and a few tape style emulations...
I purchased it at a steal when it first came out, not sure how much it costs now.

http://www.nomadfactory.com/products/ma ... index.html



But it definitely colours the sound in a pleasing way, even if all the controls are bypassed, it adds something. (just dont use the 'boost', control, its a limiter, and sounds shite)

not AU supported

[nowaysj]

olioliolioxenfree, are massive's oscs bandlimited?

There are plently of plugins which promise an analog sound, but if there being applied to sources which have alliasing distortion and other digtial artefacts they're not going to be very effective.

Why is that, though?

[Sirius]

easy & inexpensive...

record ya track, sample.. wateva, to a new cassette tape

then record its output again.

then layer it behind ya original track!!

!!chea

[macc]

^ That's asking for all kinds of phasing problems due to tape drift. Anything that goes to tape will need to be re-chopped to be tight, and even then you'll have small variations causing phasing, even in the space of, say, a snare hit. Tape-d tracks are practically obliged to be run alone (ie, not layered with themselves).

The only way around it is if you have a tape deck with a monitor head, that lets you monitor the audio from the tape while it records.


Anyway, to answer the OP - as someone almost said.... strategic low pass filtering.

[Sirius]

mmmm... phasing probs & tape drift,

ya just reminded me to start mucking around with the reel to reel.

any tips/tracks to use on on old tascam 1/2" 8track? talking about effects here.

!!chea

[Depone]

I can highly recommend Magnetic by nomad factory... Its got plenty of controls and a few tape style emulations...
I purchased it at a steal when it first came out, not sure how much it costs now.

http://www.nomadfactory.com/products/ma ... index.html



But it definitely colours the sound in a pleasing way, even if all the controls are bypassed, it adds something. (just dont use the 'boost', control, its a limiter, and sounds shite)

not AU supported

Oh yes it is mate. All of them are!

[staticcast]

olioliolioxenfree, are massive's oscs bandlimited?

yes. any decent digital synth should; it sounds pretty disgusting when they don't. massive actually oversamples everything to 132kHz (that's why it's so CPU hungry) in order that any aliasing happens outside the audible range. FWIW, i wouldn't say that massive is a particularly 'analog' sounding synth, though of course that depends on your definition of analog sounding.

There are plently of plugins which promise an analog sound, but if there being applied to sources which have alliasing distortion and other digtial artefacts they're not going to be very effective.

Why is that, though?

well, if you run a bitcrushed FM synth through a reel-to-reel then it'll still sound like a digital synth. in other words, you won't turn something that's clearly VERY VERY DIGITAL into something that sounds like it could have been analog.

[Sirius]

hmmm... what about reamping ya bass lines & tweaking the amps EQ...
it def adds alot of colour!

!!chea

[hifi]

!

[macc]

mmmm... phasing probs & tape drift,

ya just reminded me to start mucking around with the reel to reel.

any tips/tracks to use on on old tascam 1/2" 8track? talking about effects here.

!!chea

Get drums
Shelf down lows a lot
Give it a healthy spanking to tape
Record back into computer
Put lows back (might not be the same amount, just do whatever sounds good)
Change trousers

[Sirius]

mean bro!! will have a play in the weekend.

!!chea

[macc]

I'd like to thank you Sirius - having had a really shit day for various reasons, I felt inspired by this little chat.

So I abandoned work and spent the afternoon playing drums (with earplugs in!) directly to cassette. The purest, simplest pleasures... I'm not quite but at least I'm not any more.

I'm about to run it all into the mastering rig for more BEEF. That might get me

Thanks!

[Ongelegen]

mmmm... phasing probs & tape drift,

ya just reminded me to start mucking around with the reel to reel.

any tips/tracks to use on on old tascam 1/2" 8track? talking about effects here.

!!chea

Get drums
Shelf down lows a lot
Give it a healthy spanking to tape
Record back into computer
Put lows back (might not be the same amount, just do whatever sounds good)
Change trousers

So about putting the lows back. Layering the low end from the original or just shelf it back up?

[oli90]

olioliolioxenfree, are massive's oscs bandlimited?

yes. any decent digital synth should; it sounds pretty disgusting when they don't. massive actually oversamples everything to 132kHz (that's why it's so CPU hungry) in order that any aliasing happens outside the audible range. FWIW, i wouldn't say that massive is a particularly 'analog' sounding synth, though of course that depends on your definition of analog sounding.

There are plently of plugins which promise an analog sound, but if there being applied to sources which have alliasing distortion and other digtial artefacts they're not going to be very effective.

Why is that, though?

well, if you run a bitcrushed FM synth through a reel-to-reel then it'll still sound like a digital synth. in other words, you won't turn something that's clearly VERY VERY DIGITAL into something that sounds like it could have been analog.

Pretty much. Analog emulation isn't something that's easy to pull off well with out a fairly decent knowledge of they way both analog and digital sound processing works. You need to know exactly what analog gear does with sound and try and emulate it using digital technology, and what the undesirable artefacts of processing a sound digitally are and attempt to remove them from the signal.

[skwiggo]

mmmm... phasing probs & tape drift,

ya just reminded me to start mucking around with the reel to reel.

any tips/tracks to use on on old tascam 1/2" 8track? talking about effects here.

!!chea

Get drums
Shelf down lows a lot
Give it a healthy spanking to tape
Record back into computer
Put lows back (might not be the same amount, just do whatever sounds good)
Change trousers

i would really like to try this but to a whole song. im going for a lo-fi cassette sort of sound...would that be worthwhile? also how do you put the lows back in once you have shelved them out? the song in question has an 808 hit bassline and I dont want to lose any low end haha