Channel strips that you actually use

[.jon]

Super interesting thread, thanks jamcat and Agreed! I record most of my tracks instead of mousing them in on the piano roll, even plugin instruments, but for some reason I havent thought of putting preamp or tape plugins already in that stage. I believe this method will definitely get me closer to the results Ive been trying to achieve in the mixing stage.

I dont have or use any channel strip plugins (hardware and guitar I record through a mixer), but would I benefit from adding one for the preamp functionality? Next would come SlickEQ GE followed by tape (Reelbus 4 or Chow, havent properly A/Bed them yet). SlickEQ has a flexible output saturation section which I really like, but obviously in a real desk the preamp is the first stage. I guess I could also try replacing SlickEQ with SDRR in Desk mode since I only need very basic eq for tracking.

Tl,dr; how useful dedicated preamps actually are?

[FapFilter]

chances are that your mixer already is a channel strip (several in fact), as channel strips basically are one channel of a console or mixer.

and it's imo questionable how really needed dedicated preamps are nowadays, since standards are so high that even entry level ones inside cheap mixers or audio interfaces can be great and good enough for professional results.
unless you are unhappy with the noise floor of your current ones, of course

[nanostream]

Splet - https://soundcloud.com/spletechosplet - dub/filth/something

Btw, fantastic stuff!! I certainly don’t want to discourage you from getting a better sound, but it sounds pretty fat, even on my iPad speakers.

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

Does anyone have experience/impressions of the Fuse VCS-1? Using channel strips is a very new concept to me for working in the box, but after picking up the white/black channels in the IKM Group Buy, and then upgrading to the PA 9000 J soon after, this work flow is really a revelation for me. I've been enjoying Ray's code a great deal via the PA and NEOLD stuff so really interested in the VCS-1. Is it attempting to emulate any classic gear specifically?

Also, thanks to jamcat for your earlier informative post, I found that very interesting and a great insight into a far different workflow to my own. It's a shame that discussion like this can devolve so quickly on here. As you can see, I'm an infrequent poster, but have been a member/reader here for a long, long time. It never used to be like this.

As channel strips go I think it's one of the best. Balancing features, sound, looks, workflow and low cpu.

[kevingham]

Splet - https://soundcloud.com/spletechosplet - dub/filth/something

Btw, fantastic stuff!! I certainly don’t want to discourage you from getting a better sound, but it sounds pretty fat, even on my iPad speakers.

Thank you nanostream, that's very kind It has been a fun 20 year journey so far and I'm still learning all the time, and this community has always been a fantastic wealth of experience, support and education.

[kevingham]

Does anyone have experience/impressions of the Fuse VCS-1? Using channel strips is a very new concept to me for working in the box, but after picking up the white/black channels in the IKM Group Buy, and then upgrading to the PA 9000 J soon after, this work flow is really a revelation for me. I've been enjoying Ray's code a great deal via the PA and NEOLD stuff so really interested in the VCS-1. Is it attempting to emulate any classic gear specifically?

As channel strips go I think it's one of the best. Balancing features, sound, looks, workflow and low cpu.

That's great to hear, thank you. I'm definitely going to be giving it a try while Fuse have their half price sale on this week.

[Bodhisan]

So I set up at least 2 console views in Studio One. One console view is 'Tape' the other is 'Mix'. Tape channels get sent to a companion Mix channel in the other console view.

Maybe because I use Logic, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this, as I'm a visual learner. Does anyone know how I would do this in Logic? Maybe I'm already doing it and don't know it...but what I'm visualizing is if I've got 14 tracks with my "tape" plugins, then where would my 14 mix tracks be? Busses? Send each track to its own mix bus? 99% of my tracks go through their own bus, anyway, so would I route that tape bus to its own mix bus?

[aMUSEd]

So is the SSL Native one worth getting?

[.jon]

chances are that your mixer already is a channel strip (several in fact), as channel strips basically are one channel of a console or mixer.

and it's imo questionable how really needed dedicated preamps are nowadays, since standards are so high that even entry level ones inside cheap mixers or audio interfaces can be great and good enough for professional results.
unless you are unhappy with the noise floor of your current ones, of course

Yeah maybe I should have specified that my question was for the VSTis, my mixer is Mackie VLZ4-series one, plenty good enough for all my uses - plugging in mics and connecting my hw synths to my audio interface.

[jamcat]

chances are that your mixer already is a channel strip (several in fact), as channel strips basically are one channel of a console or mixer.

and it's imo questionable how really needed dedicated preamps are nowadays, since standards are so high that even entry level ones inside cheap mixers or audio interfaces can be great and good enough for professional results.
unless you are unhappy with the noise floor of your current ones, of course

Are you talking about hardware or software?

[FapFilter]

hardware, as i thought he was asking about HW

[jamcat]

So I set up at least 2 console views in Studio One. One console view is 'Tape' the other is 'Mix'. Tape channels get sent to a companion Mix channel in the other console view.

Maybe because I use Logic, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this, as I'm a visual learner. Does anyone know how I would do this in Logic? Maybe I'm already doing it and don't know it...but what I'm visualizing is if I've got 14 tracks with my "tape" plugins, then where would my 14 mix tracks be? Busses? Send each track to its own mix bus? 99% of my tracks go through their own bus, anyway, so would I route that tape bus to its own mix bus?

Yes. Create a Bus (or Group) channel, and send your Tape track to it, treating it like a single return channel on a mixer. If your DAW lets you create different “mixer scenes” make one scene with only all your Tape channels, and another with your Mixer return channels, if you want.

Another useful aspect of splitting like this is it splits your processing over 2 threads which in Studio One, at least, is more CPU efficient.

[jamcat]

I started doing this out of necessity, actually, because I use the Studio One Mix Engine FX (CTC-1 or Retro Mix Legends) on the master buss. To prevent crosstalk on a channel, it needs to terminate at an FX channel as its destination (because crosstalk doesn’t get passed through from FX channels with Passthrough enabled.)

So I started putting ampsims on their own track and used the send slots to send the amped guitar out to a group channel and set the ampsim track’s destination to a muted FX channel. That kept other tracks from bleeding into my guitar amps. From there it started evolving into 2 separate mixers, with the tape tracks all having a muted FX channel as their destination and sending to a mix console with crosstalk between all the channels.

[El°HYM]

+1 for Fuse TCS 68

Yet, also more into a modular approach to this, so lets also not forget the Kush Omegas here, since BRA Vpre73 was already mentioned.

[Julien Unison]

Splet - https://soundcloud.com/spletechosplet - dub/filth/something

Btw, fantastic stuff!! I certainly don’t want to discourage you from getting a better sound, but it sounds pretty fat, even on my iPad speakers.

Thank you nanostream, that's very kind It has been a fun 20 year journey so far and I'm still learning all the time, and this community has always been a fantastic wealth of experience, support and education.

I second that, your music is really very good.