Best Plug-Ins for Exciters/Tape Saturation/"Color"

[royceg]

Wondering what some of the users here have found to add some nice color to their mixes in ProTools LE. I see ALOT of different Plug-Ins for Tape Saturation emulation and Exciters that all sound good. I really liked the Crane Song Phoenix stuff but thats in HD. Any input? I dig the BBE rack stuff so i'm looking at getting that Bundled Suite.

I really am trying to give my mixes sonic depth and pretty much match the ability of the Crane Song plug-ins or something close. .

[elicious]

already many threads about this,
so i'll repeat myself...
most analoggy- oxford inflator
b.o.l.
e

[marcpardon]

I have great results with:

oxford inflator - on stereo buss but also on grand pianos, hammond and keys
oxford dynamics - there is a warmth section - great on vocals!
spl twintube - great on bass and acoustic gitars
massey tapehead - nice distortion - works great on snares

I don't like exciters, they enhance very different and sometimes unnatural ....

I also bought anaolog channel from McDsp but i am not satisfied with the results so far ...... but i have to take some more time for testing .....

[notrude55]

If you have a Mac with PCI expansion bays or PCIe expansion bays you might want to look into the UAD1 or UAD2 powered plugins. They just released a vesion of the Empirical Labs Fatso that really works

[djejNYC]

I second the Fatso plugin on the UAD card, it's really cool and flexible, much more than tape emulation, it also does transformer emulation and some complex and subtle compression if you want. Also the Digi Tape Saturator is actually pretty damn good! I like it better than the McDSP Analog Channel, although is isn't as flexible.

[mdo9]

heard the psp vintage warmer the other day and was really impressed by that. i liked the quality of that a bit better than my mcdsp analog channel. however, the mcdsp has its place and time. it was on my buddy's HD rig tho, so not sure if it works on LE...

[RiF]

Sounds like McDSP Analog Channel (AC1 for analog console emulation and AC2 for tape saturation) may be what you're searching for.
McDSP has promotion this month where some plugins (like analog channel) are a bit cheaper. I am using AC2 LE (reduced tweakability, but same sound) which I got cheap for $69.
+1 for Massey Tape Head.
As both AC and Tape Head are not very subtle, I am using the Fairchild and Pultec emulations from T-Racks for adding some nice analog grit.

[windsongstudios]

Duy's TAPE works well for me...just my two cents:)

[mindnoise]

if you have an iLok get line6´ PodFarm for free, usually $99.

best