DAC - the example of Korg Trinity VST

[VariKusBrainZ]

[Danilo Villanova]

So, what's a good DAC plugin? Only know of TAL-DAC.

[IvyBirds]

So, what's a good DAC plugin? Only know of TAL-DAC.

If you are trying to emulate mid to late 1990s digital hardware synths the DAC itself was transparent as they were using off the shelf DACs which were being cranked out by the tens of millions in Asia and could be purchased in bulk on the cheap

What you really need/want to do is emulate the analog signal path after the DAC

So you need to roll off high frequencies starting at 16-18kHz and have them all gone by 20 to emulate the reconstitution filter

You need to add some very subtle saturation to add just a touch of low and mid harmonics. You don't want audible distortion just a touch of saturation this gives them "warm" sound which was from low cost Op-Amps from the 1990s era especially if you listen to vintage hardware in 2026 as those op amps have degraded

You need to use a bit crusher in a very subtle way that has a 44.1 or higher sample rate at 16 bits

And finally there were often inconsistencies between the right and left channel that caused a slight perceived widening of the stereo image so you can use a stereo imaging plugin to add just an ever so slight boost

You probably already have plugins that can do these things and you can find free versions of such things or use the ones that probably came with your DAW

If you are looking for an all in one plugin the excellent "Lo-Fi-AF" from Unfiltered Audio is awesome. It can do extreme crazy things but can also be used subtlety for things like this

It's currently on sale for $20 down from the normal $75 at Sweetwater and Plugin Boutique

[ampetrosillo]

Well, sometimes the DAC (or the output stage in general) does do something less subtle. Compare the Waldorf Blofeld with Largo. Basically the same processing, some slight differences here and there but almost a 1:1 match. The Blofeld has a different sound character (and, of course, it's also a lot noisier). By memory, it had some perceived boost in the upper mids and lower treble, and less upper treble. The Blofeld was a cheap unit though. I'm assuming they used bottom-of-the-barrel chips and opamps.

[Mr Arkadin]

So, what's a good DAC plugin? Only know of TAL-DAC.

Don't know how good it is, but there's Inphonik's RX950:

https://www.inphonik.com/products/rx950 ... converter/

[Danilo Villanova]

Thanks for the recommendations! I actually have the Inphonik one lol

[ere2learn]

Chipcrusher is pretty good at dac

https://www.plogue.com/products/chipcrusher.html

[VariKusBrainZ]

https://d16.pl/decimort2

[bk]

You need to add some very subtle saturation to add just a touch of low and mid harmonics. You don't want audible distortion just a touch of saturation this gives them "warm" sound which was from low cost Op-Amps from the 1990s era especially if you listen to vintage hardware in 2026 as those op amps have degraded

Op amps don't typically degrade. They aren't vacuum tubes. If placed in a well designed circuit, they will continue working until they don't. Can't say I've ever seen one go bad in a way that affected the quality of the sound. Usually they either work or they don't. Any changes to the sound of the circuit would more likely be aging capacitors, and in some cases resistors.

[IvyBirds]

You need to add some very subtle saturation to add just a touch of low and mid harmonics. You don't want audible distortion just a touch of saturation this gives them "warm" sound which was from low cost Op-Amps from the 1990s era especially if you listen to vintage hardware in 2026 as those op amps have degraded

Op amps don't typically degrade. They aren't vacuum tubes. If placed in a well designed circuit, they will continue working until they don't. Can't say I've ever seen one go bad in a way that affected the quality of the sound. Usually they either work or they don't. Any changes to the sound of the circuit would more likely be aging capacitors, and in some cases resistors.

Op Amps absolutely do degrade, they can suffer from slow metallurgical changes, such as metal migration, especially at high temperatures. While this is a slow process we are talking about components that are now many decades old

Beyond that over time, the input offset voltage can slowly drift over time, it's subtle but again we are talking about decades here.

Op Amps are also subject to damage from voltage irregularities and/or heat caused by failures in the power supply and/or various capacitors

I am specifically talking about issues that when placed in the Analog Audio Output path that can cause increased noise floors and subtle saturation in low and mid frequencies

Often times replacing Opamps will cause a noticable improvement in sound even if they appear to be working and have failed

[bk]

I agree they can be forced to degrade in a sub-standard circuit which allows them to be damaged by input voltage, output current and possibly heat or ESD, but if well protected in a well designed circuit, then "no".

You can choose to believe what you want, even if it's wrong. I'll believe what I've seen and heard with my own eyes and ears.
Here's a quote from John Roberts, a very well respected electronic design engineer, where he agrees with me:
"Generally ICs work until they don't. ICs can go bad but generally not very gracefully."
This was in response to the question: "Do op-amps degrade with age?"

[rafa1981]

Should an emulation emulate the brand new out of the box device sounding as the manufacturer intended or one of the million ways an analog path can degrade with age?

[Deisss]

So, what's a good DAC plugin? Only know of TAL-DAC.

Don't know how good it is, but there's Inphonik's RX950:

https://www.inphonik.com/products/rx950 ... converter/

Owner of s950 here: excellent emulation, pretty much impossible to differentiate with actual hardware. Don't forget you are not limited to one instance: chain 2 of them with very hard pushed settings, that will give you what kind of crunch the actual s950 can go when you hot input dat thing.

The only thing it misses, and why I keep the hardware, I love the time stretch algo, shitty time stretch, but gives so much weird character (you could tho, get a bit close by setting up a very short delay searching for a metallic tone - so very very short -, that's because the s950 is a very "dumb" algorithm, it's a sliding-window algorithm, which, by it's nature, will produce a similar tone to a metallic effect/very short delay).

Should an emulation emulate the brand new out of the box device sounding as the manufacturer intended or one of the million ways an analog path can degrade with age?

Degrade with age. I tend to prefer my hardware when the caps are getting old and drifting is frequent, it gives uniqueness that I don't find into VST yet (a bit from Acustica Audio though). And that's actually a problem, when to recap because the PCB is in danger, when not to

This is precisely why I don't like using DSP56300 emulators in projects. They don't feel like real instruments. Virus TI becomes an ordinary VSTi.

All DSP56300 I've tried (Waldorf XT, Nord 2, Virus TI and JP 8080) I used, or still have, the actual hardware. Perfectly accurate, there is just no discussion here, as much as you want to push that story, it's just plain wrong.

Then it's preference, I still prefer to work with my hardware TI2, I instead prefer the DSP software when it comes to the Waldorf XT. For the JP 8080, more or less equal, so I'm considering to sold my JP 8080 right now. All those 3 sounds for sure absolutely the same, as I got them right now to compare.

Remains the Nord 2, I always got a weird relationship with the hardware, it's a very good sounding synth that, somehow, I never reach for. So I got rid of it many years ago. Sound wise, sound pretty the same to what I recall, and the various tips and trick I still got from when I owned the hardware, works well on it (those tricks for example, where giving different sound on DiscoDSP last time I checked).

And if you want a crunchy path: keep the VST, get out of the box into an old mackie mixer, back to the box, you got what you're looking for.

Why does synth discussion attract so many pompous twats?

After many years in the business, you realize there is basically people talking about music and people doing music. Very few that do music are in those forums in general, that's why I personally like a lot EvilDragon, I often found one or more comment there and there when I look for something specific and usually technical (for repair or improvements for example). He often has very valuable and quite accurate comment.

As someone who can build those software and machine: it's rare and I value that a lot, because it's not many people I can say that here or on gearspace. Most are pretending things more related to perception (often biased) rather than actual technical knowledge that can be proven.

Just here: saying the Arturia is a better emulation than a bit perfect one, is laughable. The OP might not have consider he simply don't like the original hardware after-all and prefer software VST, which is understandable, they are different but as good as hardware sound-wise nowadays. But, comparing both, the Arturia isn't far away, but it's not the quality of the 8086 that is matching absolutely perfectly my hardware chain, with all DACs and so on. Which means my hardware chain is transparent, as it should be.

[IvyBirds]

I agree they can be forced to degrade in a sub-standard circuit which allows them to be damaged by input voltage, output current and possibly heat or ESD, but if well protected in a well designed circuit, then "no".

You can choose to believe what you want, even if it's wrong. I'll believe what I've seen and heard with my own eyes and ears.
Here's a quote from John Roberts, a very well respected electronic design engineer, where he agrees with me:
"Generally ICs work until they don't. ICs can go bad but generally not very gracefully."
This was in response to the question: "Do op-amps degrade with age?"

You can also choose to believe what you want even if it's wrong. I'll believe what I've seen and heard with my own eyes and ears and see on a scope

[Seluvis]

You can also choose to believe what you want even if it's wrong. I'll believe what I've seen and heard with my own eyes and ears and see on a scope

Hard to refute. In your Universe you are 100% correct. The hard problem being are we all aligned to the same Universe?