Tube/Tape emulation

[Pirate Post]

Can anyone recommend a plugin that really sounds like tubes or tape? Everyone that I have auditioned doesn't even come close.

[sirpucho]

The warmth function on the dynamics of Sony Oxford seems to introduce a pleasent "tape like" fatness although it isnt the same as does the Inflator (a kind of bigger elaboration on the warmth) The Sony Dynamics is great and with this extra feature is indespensible to me when mixing.

I have heard very good things about Cranesong Pheonix as well from people I respect but haven't tried it myself yet.

Cheers

[sirpucho]

The warmth function on the dynamics of Sony Oxford seems to introduce a pleasent "tape like" fatness although it isnt the same as does the Inflator (a kind of bigger elaboration on the warmth) The Sony Dynamics is great and with this extra feature is indespensible to me when mixing.

I have heard very good things about Cranesong Pheonix as well from people I respect but haven't tried it myself yet.

Cheers

[AudioOIART]

McDSP Analog Channel

Doesn't get much better than that. (Well, Maybe Cranesong Phoenix).

[GeneOuse]

CraneSong Phoenix all the way! IMO better than Analog channel with more saturation choices.

[Hive Guy]

I've used Analog Channel extensively (I also own CompressorBank and FilterBank and use them everyday). But, I've got to say that Pheonix is significantly better to my ears. It's made a very significant difference on my mixes since I got it.

[BigBadBill]

Phoenix beats Analog Channel as well as DUY Tape. I own all three, and hardly use the latter two.

[Ben B]

I was discussing convolution processing in another thread, but it bears mentioning here that you can impulse tube gear at various levels of overdrive, and use the IR's on any tracks you want with plugins like Altiverb, IR-1, TL Space, etc. Convolution can be utterly convincing, and is not limited to reverb.

Ben B

[minister]

hey pirate!

i want to echo the cries of SONY DYNAMIC's WARMTH and D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y! C R A N E S O N G'S P H O E N I X plug! great for girth! i use it in post and in sound design.

AC was too subtle for me. is this on? testing teasting... 1, 2. hmmm, doesn't seem to be doing much.

[dub3000]

convolution only "works" on linear systems (time-invariant? it's been a long time since uni) - so the effect of a dynamic system (like the natural compression effects of overdriven tubes) will be lost. all that's being captured is the EQ fingerprint of the overdrive, not the saturation effects. sometimes that sounds pretty cool, though, but it's not a complete model.

that restriction is the reason why you can't use convolution to model a phaser, chorus, doppler effects or certain types of weird space (like if you had a room with walls that were moving during the reverb tail). works great on spaces, reverbs, and eqs though.

you could probably fake some of those effects with some clever software (eg, taking multiple impulses at different input levels and at different times and letting the software morph between impulses - i wonder if this has been patented yet?)

for what it's worth, there's a free voxengo tube overdrive VST plugin that does some nice things to drum tracks. not 100% convincing but still very cool.

--dan http://remaincalm.org