Can you ever "warm" something up with digital?

[El°HYM]

Yepp, we are talking about the undesirable effect of 'digital' - aliasing here and if it is really a good Idea to stack up 10 or more non - linear Devices building up exponential and then being printed to a static Audio - file. I totally agree that if you want to add some 'real' Warmth, just run it through a Deluxe Memory Man or a similar Device and accept some extra Noise, or another 'analog' piece of Gear which suits your Music & Workflow.

[SamDi]

We should start talking about Shannon Nyquist Sampling Theorem now.

Yes, and also about the true fact, that it makes no sense to talk about a single analog gear, when you have a digital component later in the production or reproduction chain.

Because you might know - when you have a digital compenent, it destroys inrecoverable all the analog warmth in the signal chain, but that is normally swept under the carpet from the digital lobby, trying to flood us with cheap digital components from Asia.

[Erisian]

Noise (saturation, distortion, etc,), instability (resembling pseudorandom modulation), compression, EQ (notably filtering). There is your “warmth”.

These are all available tools in the digital realm, not surprisingly.

Utter tripe!

[Ploki]

We should start talking about Shannon Nyquist Sampling Theorem now.

Yes, and also about the true fact, that it makes no sense to talk about a single analog gear, when you have a digital component later in the production or reproduction chain.

Because you might know - when you have a digital compenent, it destroys inrecoverable all the analog warmth in the signal chain, but that is normally swept under the carpet from the digital lobby, trying to flood us with cheap digital components from Asia.

it's becoming increasingly hard to discern between satire and serious posts here

[SeBaer]

it's becoming increasingly hard to discern between satire and serious posts here

Oh, I don't know. The OP placed the thread quite certainly in the realm of satire.

[SamDi]

We should start talking about Shannon Nyquist Sampling Theorem now.

Yes, and also about the true fact, that it makes no sense to talk about a single analog gear, when you have a digital component later in the production or reproduction chain.

Because you might know - when you have a digital compenent, it destroys inrecoverable all the analog warmth in the signal chain, but that is normally swept under the carpet from the digital lobby, trying to flood us with cheap digital components from Asia.

it's becoming increasingly hard to discern between satire and serious posts here

But I guess it's not because the satiric posts are so dry ...

[Ah_Dziz]

I was going to write a whole thing, but instead I'll just say "yes you can". It's not complicated and If you can't do this then it is your own failing. In most cases it's easier with digital tools than with analog tools.

[Ah_Dziz]

Bbd circuits are simple sampling circuits implemented with a large amount of clocked S/H on a single chip. The "warmth" in them is due to extreme filtering caused by each sample's (or "bucket's" the chosen name for a stored sample value in this application) capacitance combined with the resistance that controls the sampling speed. This causes low pass RC filtering which acts as simple interpolation and is an inherent part of any process that is sampling analog values.
The point being that a large amount of aliasing can be perceived as a "warm" sound much like how people describe the sound of certain lofi ADCs as warm when they are filled with distortion, aliasing and extreme high frequency roll off.

[Etienne1973]

So it's basically (great extent) a frequency thing?

[Leo1999]

Warmth, depth, 3D, drive, color etc is associated with analog sound and I always add some plugins especially to electric piano sound to spice it up.
Pianoteq's Rhodes emus sound a bit lifeless and superclean, add some saturation or Acousticsamples emus sound a bit thin imo, add some amp sim or...

My fav plugin for this purpose is Audiothing Valves, I have created tons of presets.

I ve also made a video on my yt channel called "Spice up your electric piano plugins" with 20 different plugins. Maybe you will get some inspiration to test some plugin...
Most of these plugins will also work on synths,
clavinets or organs.

I even forgot I have Valves, so thanks for the reminder ha ha ha
Modern Apophis compressor is 32bit only?

[martinjuenke]

My microwave works fantastic when I need to warm things up. Quite digital thing this is.

[sQeetz]

My microwave works fantastic when I need to warm things up. Quite digital thing this is.

The One-Bit Warmer!

[foosnark]

Bbd circuits are simple sampling circuits implemented with a large amount of clocked S/H on a single chip. The "warmth" in them is due to extreme filtering caused by each sample's (or "bucket's" the chosen name for a stored sample value in this application) capacitance combined with the resistance that controls the sampling speed.

Really the main reason they are "warm" is pre- and post-filtering though (mostly the post-filtering). The filter before the delay is to reduce aliasing, and after is mostly to remove the clock whine.

Most BBD pedals and rack effects have those filters. Doepfer's Eurorack BBDs don't, and I've heard a few other Eurorack and semi-modular BBDs where the post-filter cutoff is too high for as slow as the clock can go (Erica Pico BBD, Behringer Neutron for instance).

It's not 100% the pre and post filters -- the Doepfer BBDs do have kind of a neat, "softer" sound to them even when aliasing, if you don't drive them into distortion -- but they play the main part in "warmth." In fact a lot of cheap pedals labeled "analog delay" aren't using MN30xx BBDs but digital delay chips, they just have the same aggressive filters before and after them.

[_leras]

So much bro science in this thread.

[SoftSynthLover99]

I was going to write a whole thing, but instead I'll just say "yes you can". It's not complicated and If you can't do this then it is your own failing. In most cases it's easier with digital tools than with analog tools.

I’ll have to disagree with you here. You can make a pretty great digital mix that is warm, punchy and great to listen to of course (not arguing that) but the analog world is a different beast. I have a hybrid workflow where a lot of surgical mixing is done in the digital domain (it’s great for that) but when it comes to bringing “life/vibe/warmth” back into the mix, I’ve never heard a digital plugin accomplish what the Neve MBP Portico II, SSL Fusion, Silver bullet or any quality master processor can do. And it’s not even close when you compare the sonic differences. Digital only mixes sound really flat and smothered, but when you run software instruments through analog gear, it adds back that vibe everyone wants and a lot of times within seconds of turning a few knobs. Much quicker than opening 5-6 different plugins and having to tweak them individually.

You get what you pay for really applies to music gear. People who disagree will probably have zero or limited experience with analog gear, but as someone who has been mixing music well over a decade professionally, analog is far superior in the sound department. Slower workflow, but worth it for the end result