# Console emulations - Do they really make a difference?



## Dan Mott (Jul 1, 2012)

I am currently trying the plugin from Slate Digital called - Virtual Console Collection

I am A/Bing a mix and maybe my ears aren't any good, but I can only hear the most subtle differences, or maybe I'm imagining it.

What do you guys think of these type of plugins? WAVES do one aswell called NSL.

Is this all markerting, or is there really something going on...

Dan


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## Theseus (Jul 1, 2012)

Hi Dan,

Here are my views on the topic :

- First of all, yes, those plugins work, and they work great for the most part. The best I can think of being Slate VCC, Sonimus Satson and Waves NLS.

- Second, if you just slap those plugins on all your channels AFTER you mixed your track, that's pointless and you miss the show. You need to mix IN the plugins, just like you would on a real console. It helps make better decisions and do less editing with plugins since the console saturation and harmonic content added smoothen already a lot of the things you would need to get rid of otherwise.

- Third, that's not a magic trick to make poor mixes (talking in general not yours of course !) sound great. Those console emulations just bring the 5 % extra that is missing from digital recording. So yes, it's extremely subtle, and that's the way it should be. But when you take it of a mix you just did with the plugin engaged from the beginning, you'll feel (and hear if you have good listening skills and know what to concentrate on) it missing.

- Fourth, as always with any sound processing, gain staging is crucial for those plugins. Depending on wether you hit it hard or not, you'll get very different results, just like you would with tape.

From the bunch, VCC is the best to me, specifically because it's the most subtle. Waves NLS can be very nice on individual channel, but slapped across the entire mix, it gets extremely colorful (especially with the EMI desk, which sounds huge on the bottom, or with the SSL that breaks and distorts very easily, the Neve being the reasonable choice for a more neutral yet nice sound). Satson is pretty cool, got very nice filters, but just one console emulation.

In a nutshell, those plugins are extremely useful and do something quite unique that you'll grow to appreciate with proper use of them.


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## DynamicK (Jul 1, 2012)

Do you get the same effect using channel strip emulations? I'm thinking of the SSL E channel from Waves, URS Classic Console Strip, Nomad SC226 etc?


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## Theseus (Jul 1, 2012)

DynamicK, no, it's a totally different beast. What you might find on a channel strip sometimes might be the preamp emulation, but that's it. The console is more about the non linearities of different channels and the summing effect.


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## dannthr (Jul 1, 2012)

Here's a nice shootout to prove to you that Waves is total BS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrdwcl30_E4

If the E and G series EQs were properly emulating the E and G series consoles, then they wouldn't phase cancel.


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## zacnelson (Jul 1, 2012)

Dan, I regularly use the Slate VCC. I initially thought the same as you, until I realised you have to really push the input for it to begin displaying coloration. If your source tracks are quite low level, you can go into the settings and reduce the calibration to -24db. Of course increasing the `drive' setting on the plugin helps also. I normally do rock and I find the VCC plugins to be particularly effective with tracks that include a lot of transients, such as drums and percussion, vocals and acoustic guitar/piano. I don't like to color the sound too much if it is overdriven guitar or strings or something which has a lot of sustained sound. Also the RC-tube console is my favourite for bass guitar. I will usually stick the Brit-N console on my master buss, it adds a lovely warm low-end, which it is best to mix into because you don't want too much bottom end. I just find it adds a certain glue and the way it enhances the bottom end is far more pleasing than using EQ, because it feels softer and rounder.

On Saturday I downloaded the demo the Slate VTM, which is remarkable. I had previously tried all the other competing tape emulations and was totally unimpressed (eg Waves MPX), but the VTM is something that could be a genuinely helpful tool. I can't wait to mix drums with it, to really soften the transients on sampled snare and tom hits, and fatten them up. It just gives the mix a lovely gooey warmth which is so appealing.


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## RiffWraith (Jul 1, 2012)

Some good points here.

Dan - if 2 files made with E and G series EQs (1 each) completely nulled, then either the user made a mistake (nothing wrong there; we are all human), or Waves is not marketing those EQs as 'console emulation'. Which would actually make sense - why would they? EQs are not console emulators...doesn't Waves have a console emulator plug that is seperate from the E & G EQs?

Kays (midphase) brought up a good point in a thread some time ago.



> Whenever I hear of these types of plugins which aim to emulate real hardware I feel that they are primarily designed for people who have no clue as to what a real console is supposed to sound like.



And I have to agree. I installed the VCC demo a while ago, and I have to say - it was good. But does it emulate an analogue desk? Mmmm.....nope. Zeros and ones can not emulate electrical impulses flowing through a circuit. They just can't. Regardless of what anyone "who knows what they are talking about" will tell you. That's not to day you can't improve your mix with a console emulator, like the VCC - because you can. Just do it with the understanding that you are not actually _emulating a console_.

Another point: I noticed that with the VCC engaged, there was a decent amount of low end that was added to my mix. Lows are generally thought of as "warmth"; as in _adding lows will give you more warmth_. As my mixes tend to have a decent amount of lows to begin with, I now had too much. So I backed off on some lows with an eq, cutting several freqs and also playing with the width of the Q. No matter what I did, I always kept coming back to my mix without the lows cut, and without the VCC. It just sounded better that way. I guess if my mix was lacking low end to begin with, the VCC might have helped. But I already have a lot of lows; backing off those lows and adding the VCC was not as good as leaving the lows and not inserting the VCC. Which basically tells me that there is nothing that you can achieve with the VCC that you can't with proper (and maybe surgical) eq use.

Cheers.


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## david robinson (Jul 1, 2012)

i agree that these emu's don't sound like the real deal.
i've used most of the real ones many times and it really is the person/ears behind the console.
but these emu's do put one in the ball park.
j.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jul 1, 2012)

This is when I pretend I'm Jay Asher and say I don't care whether it sounds realistic, I care whether it sounds good.



I like the SSL Duende quite a lot. And among other things I like the more subtle distortion processing built into Metric Halo's interfaces, and also The Glue compressor (that thing is just great).


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## dannthr (Jul 1, 2012)

RiffWraith @ Sun Jul 01 said:


> Dan - if 2 files made with E and G series EQs (1 each) completely nulled, then either the user made a mistake (nothing wrong there; we are all human), or Waves is not marketing those EQs as 'console emulation'. Which would actually make sense - why would they? EQs are not console emulators...doesn't Waves have a console emulator plug that is seperate from the E & G EQs?



Actually, E and G series refer specifically to two very different SSL channel strip EQs.

We have an SSL AWS 900+ at Pinnacle which actually has both. I don't recall the exact genesis of the two consoles, but the G-series is more blunt and often considered more musical, the E series is more surgical and harder to use.

The curves should be shaped differently.

The fact that you can set the knobs the same and then phase cancel them shows that there is no proper emulation happening, and the software is BS.

At the same knob positions, the two EQs sound different on the hardware.


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## KEnK (Jul 2, 2012)

dannthr @ Sun Jul 01 said:


> The fact that you can set the knobs the same and then phase cancel them shows that there is no proper emulation happening, and the software is BS.
> 
> At the same knob positions, the two EQs sound different on the hardware.


The Wave E/G channels do sound different.
Are you basing your conclusion on this yt vid?

Q: How often would you be using both a G and an E desk in the real world?

I don't have one of these desks now to a/b the soft/hard, 
but I used them a lot back in the day.

I was amazed by how much the Waves E and G reminded me of what the real thing was like. 
(Yes, it is memory, not a realtime comparison, but so what... :wink: )

Personally, I don't care if it's _exactly_ like the thing it's emulating.
I'm happy when they get as amazingly close as they do.

Kind'a like samples in general.

These are really good tools.
They definitely don't suck.

k


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## Dan Mott (Jul 2, 2012)

Thanks for the info everyone


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