We live in the days where laptops come standard with Digital Audio Workstations. Even mobile phones are capable of capturing musical ideas, or working through composition.
The quality and ease of modern digital audio is at an all time high; and with analog modeling a now booming market. Digital Audio boasts much truer conversion. 24 bit depth resolution provides a massive amount of head room.
Why then are many engineers lamenting over the analog gear of the past? What can we do to inject a bit of this special character into digital tracks? What is it about digital audio that can sound sterile?
Consider the differences between the two methods.
Digital Signal Path
A Digital signal is binary; absolute. The computer takes the information it’s given after recording and gives you back exactly what you put in.
Something in -> Same Something out
On paper, this sounds fantastic. It’s when we listen back that it feels like something isn’t right. The playback of a digital signal path often sound weak and brittle when compared to vintage recordings.
Analog Signal Path
An analog signal has many variables depending on its signal path; It’s path is changing and variable. A tube allows for a wider range of possibilities due to physical characteristics.
Something in -> Something slightly different out
The type of color that the physical components add to a signal in a piece of high end audio gear is quite desirable.
Engineers have gravitated towards gear that works for their projects. The next generation grew up with those sounds as familiar. Our ears have been conditioned to accept these sounds as pleasant. It makes sense that we like the sound of Neve 1073s on drums, or a Neumann microphone on a Vocal. Its not only that this particular gear sounds great, the cultural use of these standards have become the norm for a lot of commercial music. This is evidence to why recording through this gear sounds special or expensive.
Using Gear to Saturate an Audio Track
The Beatles would run their vocal tracks through a Fairchild 670 compressor. Often, they didn’t use the unit to compress the signal, but for the saturation that all those tubes could add. The Fairchild compressor added a rich, colored sound that proved to be quite desirable (60,000USD desirable)
Plug-in manufacturer’s have been creating algorithms that model the variability of vintage equipment. There is a market full of these “Analog Legends” that replicate the behavior of Classic gear.
Plug-ins can be a more affordable way of owning a virtual studio full of gear. They can give us reference about how some top shelf gear behaves. Having a variety of gear available to add color to dull recordings can be great for developing a diverse and inclusive sonic palate.
Many experienced producers have ‘go-to’ compressors for certain instruments. They might have a signature signal chain that they love to use for vocals. It is important to remember that this preference came after getting to know that gear, how it behaves, and when best to use it.
Mixing engineer, Michael Brauer thinks of each Compressor as a unique color that can add shape to the sound, just as each Microphone has a unique frequency pickup.
These colors are added by the gear as Saturation. Saturation enhances the harmonic content of the recorded sound, and adds upper harmonic frequencies. This added content is often modeled from different Tape, Tube, or Transformer ‘colors’.
Saturation can thicken drum tracks and give them more of an aggressive punch. It works great on bass to bring out higher frequencies, helping to cut through the mix. Saturation can range from hardly noticeable warmth, to a bold crushing distortion.
Plugin Recommendations
Here are some Saturation plugins that I use:
(with links)
SoftTube Saturation Knob – Free
A very simple, ‘one knob’ plugin. Dial in the amount of saturation and then set the 3-way bias to determine the number of overtones.
URS Saturation64 – 100 USD
My favorite Saturator as of late. This plugin features many different tube, tape, and transformer algorithms.
The URS Saturation64 has independent input and output balancing. It features a knob for the amount of saturation, and a wet/dry mix of the saturated signal.
I love blending in a bit of the tape deck setting, it has the most harmonics of all presets.
The 15 ips Tape Setting is great for adding a bump of low end to bass instruments.
iZotope Trash 2 – 30 USD
This plugin appears to have the most depth of the three, though I have not explored all its features. I love what this software can do so far. It has hundreds of pre sets to filter and blend right it the plugin itself. This one has a great range of possibilities from extreme distortion and fuzz, to adding a touch of grit to a track.
Workload Differences between Analog and Digital Path ways:
The physical limitation of a hardware unit means that it can only be used for one job at a time (2 if stereo). Engineers had to use this gear to get the appropriate sound. They would have to commit to the idea to be able to use the unit for another task.
A Digital Plug-in can be copied onto each track, which can be a huge burden on the CPU. This can weigh down your Buffer Rate on larger sessions. Having a plugin of an expensive compressor is nice, but do you really want to put it on everything?
The days of tape recording and analog gear wasn’t very ‘bedroom studio’ friendly. The gear was big, it was hot, and most important it was expensive as heck to own. If you did save up for a compressor or reverb unit you learned to make the most of it!
To mix effectively we’ll need to use a smarter approach.
Getting to know a few pieces of gear is better than owning a lot of plugins and not forming an opinion on any of them.
Many modern studios use a combination of digital tracking with outboard gear to help color the sound. Some shaping of the sound can be done during the tracking phase while the engineer is getting sounds. It’s likely anything used to add character is added before the mixing stage, often as a part of the production. All these sounds should be committed to so that no plugins are present at the start of mixing.
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