Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip released

[martinjuenke]

Waves released their Magma Tube Channel Strip
https://www.waves.com/plugins/magma-tub ... trip#image

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In their own words:

Sculpt your tracks with the rich, textured analog tube Magma sound—now available in a full channel strip covering your most crucial mixing needs: compression/gating, EQ and saturation.

The Magma Channel is modeled on the detailed circuit behavior of carefully selected vintage valve tube hardware, using the same Waves True Valve Modeling technology that was utilized to create the massively successful BB Tubes plugin.

Now you can shape your complete tone and dynamics quickly, with the authentic, warm, classic tube sound that defines the Waves Magma family of plugins.

Magma Channel is built for speed: just a few no-nonsense knobs for drive/saturation, EQ lows, mids, and highs, compression and expansion/gating—each knob carefully designed to hit a sweet spot no matter where you turn it.

The Magma Tube Channel Strip is perfect for any vocal, instrument, or bus. As Grammy-winning mix engineer Jacquire King says, “Whatever you run through it, it just sounds better!”

Add depth and dimension to flat digital tracks, with maximum warmth and clarity. Give silky top end and super-fat bottom to any vocal or instrument. Glue your overall mix together with Magma’s combination of warm drive and compression. Magma Channel is also a great vibe plugin for smashing drums, shaping guitars and synths, getting a classic bass tone, or sculpting lofi loops.

Magma Channel includes three channel strip modules:
Input drive/saturation: Going from subtle saturation to full-on harmonic distortion, with a warm, in-your-face, soft clipping sound that jumps out of the speakers.
3-Band musical EQ: Magma’s streamlined EQ section allows quick tone shaping—don’t worry about numbers, just trust your ears. The EQ section includes High and Low shelves, plus a Mid wide bell knob with sweepable frequency control.
Dynamics: The single-knob compressor goes from gentle glue to full aggressive pump. Turn SMASH on for extra explosiveness, with a higher compression ratio and quick attack and release. The expander/gate will help you get a tighter sound with greater focus and clarity.
Magma Channel comes with hundreds of artist presets by dozens of top producers, mixing and mastering engineers, including Jacquire King, Greg Wells, Joe Chiccarelli, Lu Diaz, Neal H Pogue, Richard Chycki, ‘Pooch’ Van Druten, Matt Schaeffer, Jeff Ellis, and dozens more.

With Magma, you can stay focused on your creative vision and nail your sound quickly, with beautiful analog texture and tone on any track.
The rich analog Magma sound, in a full-on channel strip
Tube-based dynamics, EQ, and saturation
Glue your mix together with tube compression and drive
Add creamy tube saturation, from subtle to fully distorted
Add silky top end and super-fat bottom with a musical 3-band EQ
Control dynamics with subtle to aggressive tube compression
Get tighter, cleaner dynamics with Magma’s gate/expander
+450 artist presets by Jacquire King, Greg Wells, Lu Diaz, more

[martinjuenke]

PS: included in Mercury obviously

[martinjuenke]

PPS: the usual 29 bucks and a bit cheaper at the usual suspect dealers

[ghettosynth]

Well the demos certainly sound gooderer with it turned on, and, I'm a sucker for a 50s/60s black crinkle finish.

[martinjuenke]

https://youtu.be/bQ6W1KT8VOM

[pixel85]

https://youtu.be/bQ6W1KT8VOM

It can definitely expose cymbals that are way too loud and out of space (that one in the right channel)

[v1o]

Does it have oversampling?

[Igro]

Is this a game changer?

[Bee_Abney]

Does it have oversampling?

No, it doesn't - according to the chat beneath this video (a reply by White Noise Studio to a comment about oversampling):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-s9RktDnxQ

I don't know if it is generating enough distortion for that to be a major problem; but it is definitely a real failing in so many Waves plugins. They often still sound great, which is the most important thing; but some people's ears are much more sensitive to aliasing than mine and it would be a good option for further sound options anyway.

[Greenstorm33]

Is this a game changer?

Yeah. The Waves execs were playing Monopoly at corporate game night but they've switched to Yahtzee following this release.

[Bee_Abney]

Another helpful walkthrough that I found pretty helpful. Heaven help me, I think I actually really like the sound of this plugin!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Neocae3YkiQ

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

I love the sound of the Tg 12345 strip but 6 instances and i am maxed out. How is the cpu hit.

[simon.a.billington]

I literally just saw the ad on YouTube just 2 minutes before coming across this post!!

Odd they have oversampling on the other plugin, but not on this. Although, aliasing can be another useful distortion in the right context, it can add bite in similar way to transistor distortion, but with its own character.

I work at 96k, though and if I'm ever concerned about it, I just turn down the highs with an eq before distorting it, then tame or lift the highs back up afterwards. Aliasing really hasn't been that big of a deal. I think some people can get too anal about it, without actually trying to work with it, even use it to their advantage.

After all oversampling introduces extra CPU overhead and latency which is the enemy of tracking or live sessions.

[imrae]

Although, aliasing can be another useful distortion in the right context, it can add bite in similar way to transistor distortion, but with its own character.

"Inaudible aliasing doesn't matter" is a reasonable take. (But consider adding ultrasonic filters if running at 96k so it doesn't build up over a plugin chain.)

"Massive aliasing is a useful source of noise" makes sense in e.g. DX-style synthesis.

"Audible aliasing is nice like transistor distortion" is a new one, I think. Do you have any examples?

[escalona]

I haven't tried this plugin, so I am not here to support it or negate its value, I just don't know yet. But when I see the statement "Inaudible aliasing doesn't matter" it makes me somewhat uncomfortable. On principle, it makes sense, absolutely, I agree. But when you are talking about a praxis (mixing music) that usually requires thousands of small adjustments you need to take into account the overall effect. Inaudible aliasing in one track won't be noticeable, unless you're a cat. Nonetheless, the overlapping of a number of tracks with "inaudible" aliasing will potentially be very noticeable (and hard to deal with since the source of the problem may be spread into many different areas). One concrete example: I usually try new plugins with a regular rock session that I know very well (some 30 tracks, usual busses, FX sends, etc...). This one time, after trying out a few new things, I realized the mid range was bloated and I couldn't find a clear reason behind the problem. The culprit was PA's Iron compressor. Track by track, it sounded totally fine, easy to use... the overall effect made the ugly mid range bloom out of proportions. So personally, I would put the "inaudible aliasing" idea between parenthesis. If a plugin clearly creates aliasing, just be careful, no matter how audible it may seem.
My doubt about this plugin is if I'm using it as a quick preamp-kind-of thing for a lot of tracks -seems like a quick and dirty kind of tool-, what's going to be the overall effect of the "inaudible aliasing"?