Whats your favorite plugin you use to make things sound satisfyingly "analog" ?

[vitocorleone123]

The most thorough way to do this is for me to send it to my fx chain, that has the Acidbox 3 on it, bought in part just for this purpose.

The easiest and fastest stand in for me in plugin form is Kush TWK. I’ll then go back and replace it with other methods down the road as needed.

[Agreed]

To each his own but I'll just never get the desire to go back to a time that was in no way superior to the amazing tools we have at our disposal these days.

Yep, to each his own. I don't like much of it (0.2-0.4% is, you know, really subtle) but the slightest bit of modulation has had some positive effects in tracks I've put together, used in the right spots. I don't consider it being analog - and I too am grateful for the improvements in noise floor and ease of workflow that we've obtained, not eager to toss those - I just consider it an "analog inspired" sound conditioner I enjoy to use where I enjoy to use it. And if others don't, that's their business, not trying to tell anyone how to do their thing. It's good to be making music today.

[plexuss]

I basically agree with Agreed. There are aspects of analogue audio and digital audio that sound nice and that don't sound nice. It's taking a long time for the deficiencies of digital to be acknowledged and taken into account. To me, the whole "analogue thing" with digital audio is about working to bring some of the nice sounding and/or useful aspects of analogue into the digital domain. Outside of the "effect" purpose of some analogue characteristics (eg. wow, flutter, noise, drop outs, crosstalk, etc) there are some that feel these distortions are pleasant sounding. Usually this comes with a lot of caveats because the idea is to use just enough to compliment to music vs becoming front and centre. Some feel opposite. But that's how I look at it. Having worked in both domains and I am happy there are so many good digital tools that attempt to capture some of those analogue sounds. I make the decision, not the plugin, on what sounds good and what doesn't.

[jamcat]

Sounding more analogue doesn't come from a single plugin. It's an entire philosophy and process. The reason you want to sound more "analog" in the first place is to make each part sound more focused and TANGIBLE, and less homogeneous and flat. If you just strap some saturation plugin across your 2buss, you're going to get the opposite effect.

The effect comes from subtle amounts of DYNAMIC distortion introduced at various stages in the signal path. This makes the distortion totally program dependent and unique to each instrument and recording process. Preamp distortion as the first effect gives each part its own unique recording level. Followed by tape emulation that responds to that level dynamically, adding more splatter to harder dynamics, creating more separation between parts. Finally, console emulation/analog summing introduces crosstalk and a sonic fingerprint across the mix that takes all of these disparate parts and puts them in the context of a mix. That's the real "glue." You need all of these elements working together to really sound "like a record."

What I'm using for these are primarily the Waves SSL EV2 for preamps, IK Tape Machine 80 for tape tracks, and Studio One's Retro Mix Legends mix engine FX for console emulation/analog summing. I also use the Brainworx bx consoles for EQ/comp on every channel. TMT really does do something to the mix that makes it sound more open and less congested than other channel strip plugins.

[Teksonik]

The reason you want to sound more "analog" in the first place is to make each part sound more focused and TANGIBLE, and less homogeneous and flat.

My sound doesn't suffer from those problems. To me making something sound more analog would be the antithesis of "focused and TANGIBLE".

The effect comes from subtle amounts of DYNAMIC distortion introduced at various stages in the signal path. This makes the distortion totally program dependent and unique to each instrument

If you think adding distortion all over your tracks makes them sound better then more power you. But I think you're laboring under the misconception that "sounding like a record" is a preferable thing.

Ran across this bit of nostalgia today. It was a giant leap in technology.

[MogwaiBoy]

For an overt "effect":
Fuse Audio TCS-68
NEOLD Warble
VOS Ferric
Arturia MELLO-FI

For subtle: Taipei, Kelvin, PSP Saturator

[jamcat]

If you think adding distortion all over your tracks makes them sound better then more power you. But I think you're laboring under the misconception that "sounding like a record" is a preferable thing.

Adding dynamic harmonic distortion does make a track sound better. I’m not talking about large amounts, and I’m not talking about sounding like vinyl when I say “like a record.” I’m of course talking about sounding like it came out of a studio as opposed to a bedroom.

Digital can’t do distortion, it only does clipping and you don’t want any of that. But what real analog distortion does, not as an effect, but rather as a byproduct of a dynamic performance that pushes the console as the singer hits a high note, conveys energy and excitement. This is what I’m looking for from “analogue.”

I would just point out that when people on this forum talk about really great sounding records, they name check Pink Floyd more than anything else. No one ever mentions stuff from the digital age. So maybe analogue doesn’t sound as bad as you say.

[psynical]

maybe try searching and then reading through any of the other hundred threads asking this same question?

A N A L OG

[scaremony]

Goodhertz Tupe and Valhalla Delay (Tape and BDD modes) scratch the itch for me. Tape/tube saturation and a good delay are really the only "analog" effects I care about. IMO how "analog" things like modulation, eq, comp etc. don't really matter to me.

However, I still don't really think any plugin nails analog high gain. Things like Rift are nice, but if you want "pedal-esque" distortion and fuzz something like the Analog Heat trumps every plugin I've tried (and that's why it's really the only piece of hardware I own)

[BONES]

edit: specificly the natural pitch drifting, the warmth, the lack of digital sharpness. rather than the vinyl crackle and hiss noise etc.

You need to start with a more analogue sound because the whole vibe is the interplay between oscillators and voice cards. Once the sound comes out of the instrument, you've lost your opportunity to give a convincing analogue feel. You can add saturation but that's only going to take you so far, you need to get it right at source.

Klanghelms SDRR is great for saturation and distortion. The tube model warms things up lovely.

That and a million other things. I own SDRR but I've found that, just like most of them, if you turn the level up you'll get the same result. I'm over bothering with all that shit.

I’m of course talking about sounding like it came out of a studio as opposed to a bedroom.

If that's the case, then I'd suggest you get better at what you do because everything that's come out of my bedroom sounds way better than everything that came out of a studio in the decades prior.

Digital can’t do distortion, it only does clipping

... and wave-folding and bit-crushing and a whole heap of other things that analogue doesn't do. It clips hot signals if you leave them hot but it can so easily be made to do many other things.

But what real analog distortion does, not as an effect, but rather as a byproduct of a dynamic performance that pushes the console as the singer hits a high note, conveys energy and excitement. This is what I’m looking for from “analogue.”

I get more of that from digital than I do from anything else. After all, most people's complaint about digital is that it's got too much in the high frequencies, yet you're trying to tell us it's the opposite.

I would just point out that when people on this forum talk about really great sounding records, they name check Pink Floyd more than anything else.

Then they are idiots because I think Pink Floyd sound completely lame. I never understood why anyone listened to them.

No one ever mentions stuff from the digital age.

I do, all the time. The only reason I like bands like The Hives or The Offspring is because they do a style of music I like with modern production values, which makes it sound way better than the original stuff from the 70s, even though the songs themselves tend to be a lot lamer. The problem is that most people can't separate the music they loved in their younger days and the fact the production on it was actually pretty f**king bad by current standards. I feel like I've said this a hundred times already but the 80s covers I've been making for the last couple of years all sound way better than the originals, for the simple reason that I have so many amazing tools at my disposal that I can't help but do a better job than Sir George Martin or Mike Howlett or Trevor Horn did back in the day.

[BONES]

Time for a rant. I can't believe we've had two pages of responses, yet I'm the first person to point out that the magic happens in the instrument, not in the mixing desk. To me it just shows how shallow your understanding of all of this is, how little actual thought you have put into any of it.

Wow & flutter? Crosstalk? f**k me swingin'!! We left that shit behind decades ago for very good reasons - it makes everything sound worse. I cannot believe you are all too deaf to hear that, that you are so blinded by nostalgia that you can't even tell what sounds better. It's pathetic. Imagine if all your icons had thought the same way, they'd have recorded everything live in a big hall, in mono using shitty microphones, just like their icons, and you idiots would all be doing the f**king same. Take it back further and the piano would never have caught on and we'd still be going to harpsichord recitals, never have heard of a piano, and nobody would ever have picked up an electric guitar, so that technology would have failed before it got off the ground. And forget about synthesisers because everyone would still be clamouring for that "classic pipe sound" in their new Oberheim Church Organ.

The whole concept of slavishly copying what those who went before us did is ludicrous. What we should all be doing is standing on the shoulders of those giants and doing what they did - use the best technology you can get your hands on to move everything forward.

[plexuss]

... boring ...

[Agreed]

I do what I want to to get the sounds I want to get, and I don't care who rants about it or why they're ranting. Nothing to do with me. Pursue your happiness, Bones and everybody else, as ever - it's all we can do. The next man will do what he will do.

[BONES]

Sure but see it for what it is, don't be giving people advice that's basically "be stupid like I am". You don't hear me trying to justify the thousands I've spent on hardware synths, do you? No, because I understand that I do it because I'm a f**king idiot with easy access to finance The last thing I'd want is for someone else to think that there is any rational reasoning behind it because there is absolutely no justification for it at all. It's the same with this shit, here.

[Agreed]

I'll give whatever advice I feel is fitting, in whatever context I think is appropriate. I'm not sure why it bothers you in the first place to have such a reaction. That's not my business, frankly speaking; if this is how you feel you need to respond, that's not my business either except to say it doesn't bother me or anything, and it's not crucial we come to consensus. I hope that you're happy making music the way that you do and it feels good to you, man. That's all we can do.

Hey - someone might get something out of your reaction, if so good for them and perhaps that is edifying; someone might get something out of my posts, if so, alright. We aren't here long enough to worry like this, in my view, and there are much bigger things to worry about anyway. Pluck the bird from the cage and see if it feels like true, justified belief; let it fly again if it doesn't, not interested in arguing.