smoothing out digital harshness?

[g_worroll]

What are some good effects plugins to smooth out the digital harsheness of some VSTs and digital hardware?

I've got some great toys here, but sometimes the digital sounds from my JD800 or from various VSTi's just sound too artificial. I'm not expecting a plugin to work miracles and make it sound exactly like an analog equivalent, but getting a little closer would be very welcome.

If any of the effects that come with the EMU1820 would be good for this, I'd prefer those. Save my CPU for more interesting things rather than simply correcting a sound.

[Coolredguitar]

There are quite a few out there that perform what you mention. I personally use Voxengo Tapebus and am satisfied with the results form this plugin.

[The Chase]

Baxxpander by Elogoxa
Comprimere by Xeet street more of a soft curve distortion
are my favorites for such a job

[The Chase]

Oh yea, voxengo tube amp: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/446.html

more for overdrive distortion, but the "tube" knob does some great warming

[Henke]

Try using these saturation plugs together with some preamp (or speaker) impulses, to achieve both nonlinearity and some "analog" frequency response.

[olafmol]

i love using a studer impulse with voxengo's impulse plugin from the analogsuite

[aallvor]

Why not use hardware?

Running single tracks or submixes through a guitar pedal or tube preamp can completely transform a mix.


I don't know if using hardware is a viable option, but check this out for inspiration anyway.

http://www.creativesynth.com/BESTOF/Bee ... ingup.html


Regards

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Using the latest Marquis Compressor ( http://www.voxengo.com/marquiscomp/ ) may help as well. It was one of my goals - to make compressor sound less digital (and I know a couple of reasons why we get that 'digital' sound).

[aallvor]

and I know a couple of reasons why we get that 'digital' sound.

Do tell

[Aleksey Vaneev]

No, these are secret. OK, one obvious thing is that L and R channel electronics differ a little - components can't be 100% identical. This is especially true for valve and coil electronics.

[omo]

that's cheating

to original question: only analog gear can get you beautiful high-end smooth highs. at least I never heard anything good enough done digitally. There's a processor from Crane Song I never heard, tho

[Aleksey Vaneev]

omo, I guess if analog gear was not so 'unique' in its smooth highs, all studio analog hardware companies would go bankrupt. So, this 'smooth highs' element is probably a 'market balancing' thing (something very unconscious).

[Kingston]

It could be something going on in intersample level. Something that heavy over sampling doesn't quite remedy. Though analog gear doesn't see samples so the analogy doesn't quite work. Naturally, in analog gear things are slightly distorting on such many levels that we haven't got the DSP muscle to simulate all that. And hence we lose some of the "smooth highs".

I don't think it such a big deal anymore as long as the preamps and AD/DA are good.

Well, until you take into account the +60 years of accumulated tape material. Most reasonable well recorded taped music distorts in way that sounds "better" to us. It's much more forgiving in a way.

[Soulbrother]

Probably the single greatest crime against warmth is using, large fake sounding digital reverbs. The warmth provided by tubes and tape is barely perceptible to most people. Reverb, is however. When you hear records from the 70's theres usually nothing but short plate reverbs in em. Then the 80's came along and eveything had to be slathered in Lexicon (damn their oily hides). That, in my opinion is 70% of the problem. I've never come across an analog warmth processor that actually did anything perceptible to the sound, apart from having a funky looking GUI, that fools you into thinking it's doing something.

[jens]

Oh yea, voxengo tube amp: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/446.html

more for overdrive distortion, but the "tube" knob does some great warming

will this thing ever stop to pop-up over and over again?

Yup, it's Voxengo, and yup, it has tube written on it, but nope, it doesn't sound like tube-distortion but rather like generic digital waveshaping nonetheless - it doesn't sound analog at all!

Jeez - use your ears...