Throughout the history of recording, most everything was done on some kind of analog equipment. This equipment would add many non-linearities to the music that sounded good, such as odd and even harmonics. When someone records digitally for the first time, they are often shocked at how flat, sterile, squeaky clean, and ordinary the music sounds. So, many companies have tried to emulate analog devices in the digital realm, not unlike how you can emulate a 1980s video game system on your computer.

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The most important thing to know is that analog modeled software aliases. That means the plug-in will generate frequencies above 44 khz and higher. If your DAW session is set at 44 kHz, those frequencies above 44 khz will pop up as artifacts at frequencies below 44 kHz. The work around for this is to upsample to higher sample rates within the plug-in. Setting your sessions at higher rates will fix the aliasing but create intermodulation distortion (IMD). So we recommend using 44 khz. Note that the real analog hardware does not alias because it is does not have frequency constraints.

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There is a lot you can do with emulations. Some are so good that experienced people on audio forums have not been able to tell the difference in blind tests. Steven Slate routinely challenges people to spot the difference and so far no one has taken him up on this challenge. Other times, the difference is easily spotted like with the Waves API2500 video on Mixbus tv's youtube. That's not to say the Waves version is bad, it's just different.

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Mixing consoles are a very important part of the sound and for software you have several to choose from. Slate's VCC, Waves NLS, Sonimus's Satson and Britson, Hornet's Analog Stage, Softube's Console 1, Brainworx bx_console, and Sknote's Strip. Airwindows also makes a free console plug-in that sounds like it enables one to get the benefits of working at 88.2 kHz in a 44.1 kHz session. All of these emulations are quality products.

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With console plug-ins, you generally want them to be the first insert in your chain. Waves NLS can also be used as a last insert if you want to use it as more of an analog summer. Sknote Strip is the exception here, it must be inserted last. I insert it before Quiet Arts's Waverider though. Strip is the most comprehensive of them all, and you really need to know how to use it.

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Strip offers ducking busses. If you have a music track that you want to move out of the way for a vocal track, then set the ducking buss on the music track to say 1 and select in and then select 1 and out on the vocal track. Turning the ducking knob to 10 creates the most space between tracks. I've also read the external headroom should be set close to 10. If you're using strip on busses/aux tracks, you need to choose a separate desk.

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Driving consoles is an important part of the effect. But remember that it all adds up. In a 4-6 track session, might want to set the drive at 6 or higher on an NLS instance. But in a 50 track session, you might want to barely turn the drive up because you can oversaturate a mix. The drive function makes things sound bigger and fuller. I believe on other emulations, increasing the input does the same as NLS's drive. Also with NLS, you want the NLS channel on aux fx tracks and the NLS Buss on the master fader and any aux tracks that you're routing tracks into.

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Tape is the next big thing and there are a ton of tape plug-ins. U-he Satin is probably the most comprehensive and versatile. Most of the others are much simpler. You'd be looking at Waves J37, Waves Kramer master tape, Slate Virtual Tape Machine, Cranesong Phoenix II, Toneboosters Reelbus, Avid Reel Tape, Sknote roundtone, MCDsp Analog Channel, Hornet Tape, Softube Tape, Overloud Tapedesk, Airwindows ToTape5, and the HEAT function in Pro Tools HD-also made by the Cranesong developer. Note that Analog Channel includes two plug-ins: a tape and console.

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More general saturation plug-ins include SDRR by Klanghelm, Cranesong/Dave Hill RA II, Stillwell's Bad Buss Mojo, Plug-in Alliance Vertigo VSM-3, IK Multimedia's Saturator X, SSL's X-Saturator, Wave Art's Tube Saturator, Fabfilter's Saturn, Izotope Trash 2, Soundtoys's Decapitator/Radiator/Devil-loc, and Voxengo's Voxformer. There's more, these are just the ones most commonly talked about.

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Compressors also generate analog non-linearities and offer saturation. It's best to cover them in their own section, as there are many more compressor emulations out there than consoles, tapes, and tubes.

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There are great options here at every price point. On a slim budget you could get Satson or Britson or Analog Channel for a console. Reelbus, Hornet Tape, or Roundtone for tape. Or Analog Channel for both tape and console. Then get SDRR or Bad Buss Mojo for other saturation. A bundle of these could cost you less than $100. The Dave Hill/Cranesong stuff is the most expensive at $450-$500 per plug-in. However, one reviewer found Phoenix to be very close in measurement to NLS's Mike console.

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Overloud Tapedesk is an interesting and innovative plugin because it combines several console emulations working in conjunction with tape. The N80(Neve) emulation is particularly powerful. It's sort of like strapping a rocket to the track. Overloud plugins also use among the smallest amounts of cpu resources. Hornet Tape is very high quality and our usual go to for a tape plugin to compliment Tapedesk. Cost is 19.99 Euros.

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The Distressor is a legendary piece of hardware that combines different types of compression and saturation. Right now there are Distressor-like plugins out there but no direct emulation(although Slate Digital is working on one). You could try Arouser by Empirical Labs or Deflector by Sly-Fi. We personally love Disto by Sknote for mastering. It can really pump up and smooth out a sound while adding excitement. The price tag is a low $39.99.

 

The big thing to remember is to be conservative with them, it's easy to muck up your mix by going overboard when you don't realize it. You don't need a console on every track in a 50 track mix. You will need quite a powerful computer to emulate a real analog workflow at 88 kHz, where every channel is getting tape and console plug-ins. The more comprehensive the emulation and the bigger the graphics, the more cpu it is going to use.