Use A Hardware Tube PreAmp to Warm Up Soft Synths?

[Boy Wonder]

Part of the reason I'd wanted to buy a KingKorg is because of its built-in tube amp. I've never heard the synth in person but I'm guessing that the natural saturation of the tubes must make the string patches sound even warmer and silkier? And if so, would it be beneficial to output the audio of my soft synths from Cubase to a tube preamp and bring the affected signal back into Cubase?

[cryophonik]

While I’m all for hardware, that’s a pretty extreme workaround just to get a little tube saturation. Have you tried just using a tube saturation plugin first? Unless you already have a tube preamp, then the best answer is to just try and see if it does what you want.

[Uncle E]

A good tube preamp like the Universal Audio 2-610 is great for this. The more common low voltage tube preamps not so much, it'll just sound like ragged and cheap.

With that said, you'd probably get more of the "warmer and silkier" from a good analog synth that has an external audio input, such as the Roland SE-02.

[Boy Wonder]

The UA 2-610 has been discontinued and the Roland SE-02 is a monosynth. I'd need at least five or six of them just to play a pad! Still, I was eyeing a used Roland SH-32 on Ebay. The price is right, too.

[Uncle E]

I mean use the analog synth's external input to process your soft synths. You would need at most 2 for stereo. There are also standalone stereo filter boxes like the Jomox T-Resonator.

Universal Audio still makes the Solo 610. You could get 2 of those.

[christian f.]

I do this all the time, but how good it sounds all depends on the quality of your preamp and the amount of color the pre amp adds to the signal.
I also like what the Sequential Pro 3 does to plug ins. You'll get 3 different flavors of filters, distortion, filter drive and tuned feedback.
You can also make a little Eurorack with all kinds of different modules like Erica Synths fusion series.

[zerocrossing]

Part of the reason I'd wanted to buy a KingKorg is because of its built-in tube amp. I've never heard the synth in person but I'm guessing that the natural saturation of the tubes must make the string patches sound even warmer and silkier? And if so, would it be beneficial to output the audio of my soft synths from Cubase to a tube preamp and bring the affected signal back into Cubase?

The truth is, the KingKORG sounds good, but there are better software instruments available. Even Diva aliased a bit less, and Diva’s been superseded by RePro and others.

So, before you start doing round trips out of your DAW, think like a chef. Start with the best ingredients you can. From a man who’s got a room full of hardware synths, they can give you a different experience, but we’re past the days when they can’t hold their own next to even the better hardware synths. I was blown away at how close Prophet 5 V sounds like my Prophet 6. Legend and Model 72 sound like my ATC (Moog clone). Anything from U-He, Arturia (the newer stuff), Synapse Audio and Softube are going to be great.

Tube saturation is the same story. 5 years ago I was spouting off about how distortion was the one place where software had a problem. That’s not even true anymore. There’s a whole crop of processors out there that do an amazing job. My two favorites at the moment are Goodhertz’s Tupe and Arturia’s DIST TUBE CULTURE. So good. In fact, snag the entire FX collection now, while it’s on sale.

https://www.arturia.com/products/softwa ... ollection/

So that’s where I’d start. The cost of Arturia’s V Collection and FX Collection are going to be less than the cost of a good tube saturation device, and easier to work with.

[Boy Wonder]

Tres cool. I like that you give Arturia's FX a glowing review. I sure have seen my share of Arturia bashing on this and other forums. Thanks for the tips.