PA Blackbox - can you explain me what's special?

[midi_transmission]

I want to share my experience.

HG-2 is a very good thing to have!

Sometimes it emphasises the punch and weight perfectly on the drum bus in a way that I can't recreate easily with other saturators I have. Not saying impossible, but after 15 min of trying and tweaking other plugins I gave up.

HG-2 shines imho when used before hearing noticable distortion. There are better ones for that range. But as a subtle effect it can be great.

[4damind]

There is no magic, a good saturation plugin that tries to emulate hardware. I use it very rarely. You don't really need it, but some people swear by the hardware and from some of these people you also hear very positive comments about the plugin (but quite possible that some money was paid so that the comments turn out especially good^^).
In the context of the constant offers of PA, quite cheap. For the normal price (HG-2MS costs over $300! probably hardly anyone would buy it).

[Aloysius]

Probably better to mix into it, rather than sticking it on top of a finished recording.

[midi_transmission]

Actually, in my experiance it's often better to put it on an almost finished mix or buss and try if it makes it better, not driving it hot - sometimes it does sometimes not. I got my best results when considering it as an enhancer and not as a typical saturator.

May be dependend on the music of course.

[MogwaiBoy]

It's not super special.

Big Al, however, is very special.

[Aloysius]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Big Aloysius

[kPere]

It's not super special.

Big Al, however, is very special.

Oh yeah! True gem!

[acYm]

we were able to follow along the development of the black box prototypes on this old place called The Grid, well you wouldn't know about it if you're a normal person, anyway the hardware enjoys its lofty status because its conception was basically a hunt for THE best components - for everything - in existence that can be sourced in reasonable numbers for production. so the unit is the end result of an epic quest that lasted a number of years and gave quite an artful product, I'd sure like to have one. access-analog have one for hire if you want to hear it for yourself or compare with the vst.
note that it's very much just a preamp, only it's the preamp of this guy who set out to make the ultimate analog preamp in the late 2000s.

[legendCNCD]

Try for giggles, split M/S (fex. with Voxengo MSED), on M use the preset Master-Midrange Glow, on S use Master-Lid Lifter preset.
Put M to taste (note this preset will flatten if overly mixed) and S to taste (somewhere between 1-20% )

- on mix masterbus. Just maybe to hear some potential.. might work, might not work for the material you have for testing.