https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnsvvgjxtdA
I watched this video a few hours ago and I know about some free plugins that cover some of those steps. Could you people help me find free plugins to cover them all? The more plugins the better.
Free plugins for Analog-like Workflow?
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heavymetalmixer heavymetalmixer https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=391539
- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 692 posts since 8 Jan, 2017
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- KVRian
- 1030 posts since 26 Feb, 2018
What makes things have an "analog" sound is typically:
1. Saturation - Most hardware things struggle to effect the signal without adding some color. This used to be a problem that hardware makers fought hard against, and now a bit of it is still useful.
2. Distortion - in the vein of saturation, anything touching the signal can produce distortion of many kinds. Again, hardware makers fought hard against this, but now in the DSP world it's much easier to not cause unwanted distortion.
3. Noise - You are starting to see the theme. The noise floor of hardware is much higher up, and things connected to the electrical grid can do hum/hiss. Again, hardware makers fought really hard against noise and the best and most expensive units are typically revered for being able to process signals without adding a truckload of noise. DSP can do that in its sleep.
4. Crosstalk - when you have thing sitting on channels that are touching each other through busing pathways, some signal flow can filter through in the wrong direction. Analog consoles tend to have some unwanted crosstalk between channels. Again, some of the most revered and most expensive hardware worked extra hard to minimize this (look up the Focusrite console). In DSP unwanted crosstalk is not even a thing.
5. Wide tolerances. Hardware struggled to maintain consistency across everything it does, day in and day out. A knob that points at a number might be slightly off in either direction. A tube that imparts a certain color today may be giving off a different color tomorrow. When you run audio through multiple pieces of kit you end up with something similar to a randomized effect with all knobs and settings doing something a little bit off from what they are supposed to.
All this stuff adds up to the typical magic words "sounds deep, sounds 3d".
If you want something that sounds "analog", look for plugins that do these things. Some do one thing well. Some do many of them. Any analog emulation plugins are basically doing most of this.
The easiest and fastest way to add "analog mojo" to any track for free is to use AirWindows BussColors 4.
https://www.airwindows.com/busscolors-4/
The short rundown is that I've compared it to my paid plugins and found its coloring to be up there. Easily worth any $$ contribution to his Patreon. The sound has the analog characteristics of many well known hardware units, the effect feels dynamic/program dependent, and the CPU footprint is minimal (better than most paid plugins). if you want to read more I spoke about it here.
Save yourself some time and start with that plugin. Learn to use it to add a little subtle mojo here and there. Being subtle is important.
The second thing would be to get your hands on some saturation plugins because in my opinion that has the most impact and the easiest way to add obvious mojo to any tracks, very useful stuff in mixing. Play with this stuff
https://blog.landr.com/8-free-vst-plugins-warm-sound/
I don't know these free plugins too well, but I would start with the One Knob and the Voxengo.
1. Saturation - Most hardware things struggle to effect the signal without adding some color. This used to be a problem that hardware makers fought hard against, and now a bit of it is still useful.
2. Distortion - in the vein of saturation, anything touching the signal can produce distortion of many kinds. Again, hardware makers fought hard against this, but now in the DSP world it's much easier to not cause unwanted distortion.
3. Noise - You are starting to see the theme. The noise floor of hardware is much higher up, and things connected to the electrical grid can do hum/hiss. Again, hardware makers fought really hard against noise and the best and most expensive units are typically revered for being able to process signals without adding a truckload of noise. DSP can do that in its sleep.
4. Crosstalk - when you have thing sitting on channels that are touching each other through busing pathways, some signal flow can filter through in the wrong direction. Analog consoles tend to have some unwanted crosstalk between channels. Again, some of the most revered and most expensive hardware worked extra hard to minimize this (look up the Focusrite console). In DSP unwanted crosstalk is not even a thing.
5. Wide tolerances. Hardware struggled to maintain consistency across everything it does, day in and day out. A knob that points at a number might be slightly off in either direction. A tube that imparts a certain color today may be giving off a different color tomorrow. When you run audio through multiple pieces of kit you end up with something similar to a randomized effect with all knobs and settings doing something a little bit off from what they are supposed to.
All this stuff adds up to the typical magic words "sounds deep, sounds 3d".
If you want something that sounds "analog", look for plugins that do these things. Some do one thing well. Some do many of them. Any analog emulation plugins are basically doing most of this.
The easiest and fastest way to add "analog mojo" to any track for free is to use AirWindows BussColors 4.
https://www.airwindows.com/busscolors-4/
The short rundown is that I've compared it to my paid plugins and found its coloring to be up there. Easily worth any $$ contribution to his Patreon. The sound has the analog characteristics of many well known hardware units, the effect feels dynamic/program dependent, and the CPU footprint is minimal (better than most paid plugins). if you want to read more I spoke about it here.
Save yourself some time and start with that plugin. Learn to use it to add a little subtle mojo here and there. Being subtle is important.
The second thing would be to get your hands on some saturation plugins because in my opinion that has the most impact and the easiest way to add obvious mojo to any tracks, very useful stuff in mixing. Play with this stuff
https://blog.landr.com/8-free-vst-plugins-warm-sound/
I don't know these free plugins too well, but I would start with the One Knob and the Voxengo.
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heavymetalmixer heavymetalmixer https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=391539
- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 692 posts since 8 Jan, 2017
Sorry if this sounds "cocky", but I already knew more-or-less what saturation plugins do. What I'm asking for is specific kinds of saturation plugins for each of the "emulation steps" in the video.
Btw, thanks for reminding me about BussColors 4, it's been a while since the last time I used it.
Btw, thanks for reminding me about BussColors 4, it's been a while since the last time I used it.
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- KVRist
- 210 posts since 5 Jul, 2019
Not quite free but if you buy an issue of Computer Music Magazine online ($10ish) you get their file vault download - many of the effects I noticed in there last time I downloaded it were analog-focused compressors/saturators/preamps/etc..
There's about 2GB of plugins just in the effects file, so there's a lot to sort out.
There's about 2GB of plugins just in the effects file, so there's a lot to sort out.
