Analog Obsession – Five Plugins/Bundles Worth Checking Out

Analog Obsession – Five Plugins/Bundles Worth Checking Out

Producers and audio engineers have been on a never-ending search for the ‘analogue sound’, ever since the advent of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), and in-the-box (ITB) production. The whistle clean, pristine, distortion-free sound of the digital realm, while having its fair share of advantages, features one major drawback – the lack of interesting and unpredictable non-linearities in their processing units.

Several plug-in manufacturers have attempted, in various ways, to tackle this problem, by intentionally introducing harmonic saturation and distortion in products that emulate vintage and modern analogue units. Though this solution sounds simple and uncomplicated, deliberately creating complex and musical harmonics is an extraordinarily complicated task. Besides, the nature of digital audio capture and reproduction leads to the creation of non-harmonic saturation and distortion, known as aliasing, that has the potential to introduce a lot of unwanted clutter and harshness into the audio path.

Oversampling

Oversampling is a process in which a plug-in raises the sample rate (the rate at which audio is captured) internally to a multiple of the project sample rate, resulting in significantly lower aliasing distortion while retaining the musical, harmonic distortion in the audio path. This process is typically followed by a filter that removes everything above 20kHz (the upper limit of human hearing) from the audio path. The plug-in then downsamples the signal back to the project sample rate. This process solves most of the problems that arise due to the addition of harmonics and distortion in the digital realm, but its execution is a bit of an art form. Different plug-in manufacturers do this differently, and you are very likely to hear varying results from various plug-in emulations of the same hardware unit. We must keep in mind, however, that the oversampling process increases CPU usage, which could be a disadvantage for producers and engineers who do not possess very powerful systems, and plug-ins that feature oversampling options are generally quite premium as well, and therefore, financially out of reach for a few. A few premium plug-in developers ignore oversampling completely, and still end up with good sounding plug-ins.

While this has been the general trend in the audio plug-in world, one company that stands out from the group is Analog Obsession, a one-man-operated company that creates plug-ins with beautiful, ‘analogue sounding’ signal paths and tasteful oversampling and filtering, for free.

About Analog Obsession

Rıdvan Küçük, a musician, hardware designer, and plug-in developer from Tunca, Turkey, claims to love ‘bringing the classic sound of analogue hardware into DAWs’, and his plug-ins are available on patreon.com/analogobsession for free. There is, of course, an option to become a Patron (which I would personally highly recommend, going by the quality of his plug-ins), which places his creations in the ‘donationware’ category. Today, we will take a brief look at five plug-ins or bundles from Analog Obsession that are worth incorporating into your workflow.

1. PreBOX

PreBOX is a preamp emulator plug-in that emulates eleven different vintage preamplifiers. This plug-in would ideally be the first plug-in in our signal chain, emulating the first ‘colour’ stage an audio signal would have to pass through when recording through vintage hardware. The eleven vintage preamps have been modelled meticulously, and they all add musical sounding harmonics to the signal.

The PreBOX features:

• A preamp selection knob that lets you choose the colour you want to impart to your signal.

• A gain-compensated input control that lets you decide how much saturation and colour you would like to add to your signal. Use this subtly and gently to mimic real analogue hardware, or take it to its limits for interesting sound design applications.

• The output knob, that is linear, and completely free of colour, to help you balance the level of the audio signal relative to the rest of the tracks in your project.

• Selectable high pass and low pass filters to remove potentially unwanted frequencies from your signal.

• A bypass switch that switches the effect on and off.

PreBOX is available in VST, VST3, and AU formats for Windows, and Mac.

2. SSQ

The SSQ is a plug-in that emulates the equalization section of a famous British console (the Solid State Logic 4000E) that has been used on multiple award-winning singles and albums. The console is known for its characteristic coloration of the mid frequencies, and has become a staple, in hardware or plug-in form, of pretty much every single audio engineer’s toolbox. This plug-in beautifully emulates the characteristic parametric EQ curves and harmonic color imparted by the console, and features a 4x oversampling option, in case you would like to push the signal very hard through it.

The SSQ features:

• +/- 15dB of gain for each frequency band

• The famous ‘brown knob’ low frequency section with broad, musical sounding EQ curves

• Bell and shelf options for the low frequency and high frequency bands

• Fully parametric lower and upper mid bands with selectable frequency, gain and bandwidth

• A gain-compensated input drive control to emulate the non-linearities of the console EQ

• A clean, linear output control to help set the overall level of the plug-in

• A bypass switch (labelled ‘IN’) to switch the effect on and off, and

• 4x oversampling, activated by clicking the ‘Analog Obsession’ logo in the centre of the plugin. When activated, the logo turns red, and a notification appears to indicate that oversampling has been activated.

The current version (v6.0) includes the following updates:

• The 4x oversampling option

• An alphanumeric readout for every control on the plug-in

• A sleek, redesigned GUI, created by Garry Stautmeister

• M1 support for Apple systems

The SSQ is available in VST, VST3 and AU formats for Windows, and Mac.

3. LALA

LALA is the emulation of a vintage, almost legendary optical compressor/limiter, the Teletronix LA2A. Known for its unique, leisurely attack and release times, and smooth, soft knee dynamic control, this compressor quickly became a favourite for vocals, bass, and even tom toms and guitar, in some cases. The new LALA update brings us some useful and exciting features, including the option to choose from three GUI options, designed by Eugene Reznik.

The LALA features:

• A Peak Reduction control, that sets the threshold for the compressor

• A Gain control to compensate for level drops due to compression

• A Mix control that lets you blend the dry (uncompressed) and compressed signal together in parallel

• The LIMIT switch, that turns the compressor into a limiter when activated

• The EXT switch, which enables an external sidechain, letting an external audio signal trigger compression

• Sidechain EQ controls with a semi-parametric mid frequency control, to alter the sensitivity of the compressor to certain frequencies (the High Frequency control is based on the R37 setting of the original hardware)

• A power button to engage and disengage the effect, and

• 4x oversampling, activated by clicking the ‘Analog Obsession’ logo.

The current version (v2.1) includes the following updates:

• Improved DSP

• 4x oversampling

• Alphanumeric readout for knobs

• Retina/HiDPI support

• Bug fixes

The LALA is available in VST, VST3, and AU formats for Windows, and Mac.

4. The FET Bundle

The FET bundle comprises three useful tools that emulate circuits that use Field-effect Transistors (FETs) in the audio signal path. The three tools are:

• Fetish: This is an emulation of the legendary Universal Audio Devices 1176 compressor/limiter, with a few tweaks to make it more useful in the digital domain. This effect works extremely well on transient-heavy material suck as drums and acoustic guitar, and can also be an extremely fast vocal compressor. The plug-in features a gain-compensated input control, an output control, four ratios with progressively harder knees, a ‘SLAM’ button to engage fast and aggressive limiting, sidechain EQ options to adjust the sensitivity of the compressor to certain frequencies, 4x oversampling, and a power button to engage or disengage he effect.

• FetDrive: This is an original Analog Obsession plug-in that emulates saturation and distortion characteristics of FETs. It features a gain-compensated drive control to add a suitable amount of harmonics to your signal, a tone control to sound brighter or darker, an output control to adjust the overall level of the effect, a mix control to blend in the dry signal with the saturated one, 4x oversampling when you click the ‘Analog Obsession’ logo, and a bypass switch that engages or disengages the effect when you click on the plug-in label.

• FetSnap: This is another AO original, featuring transient enhancement from classic FET compressors. It features a Snap control, that enhances the transient and reduces the sustain of a signal, a pre-saturation tone control that adjusts the sensitivity of the saturation stage to certain frequencies, an output control to adjust overall levels, a mix control to blend in the dry signal, 4x oversampling, activated by clicking the Analog Obsession logo, and a bypass function that engages or disengages the effect when you click the plug-in label.

The FET bundle is available in VST, VST3, and AU formats for Windows, and MAC.

5. The BritBundle

The BritBundle comprises three effects based on classic hardware designed by Rupert Neve. Rupert Neve Designs has become a household name in the recording industry, and their consoles are widely used, and fondly dubbed the world’s favourite tracking consoles. The plug-ins included in this bundle are:

• BritPre: This is based on an RND 1073 preamp, with level-compensated gain, output control to set levels, a selectable high pass and low pass filter to remove unwanted frequencies, phase reversal switch, mic and line level options, 4x oversampling and a power button to engage or disengage the effect.

• BritChannel: This is an equalisation plug-in based on the RND 1073 EQ, with a level-compensated gain control, an output trim, high and low shelf filters, a semi-parametric mid band bell, a high pass filter, mic and line level options, 4x oversampling, and a bypass button to engage and disengage the effect.

• BritPressor: This is plug-in that features an RND compressor and a limiter in series. Both the compressor and limiter have fixed attack times, adjustable threshold and release controls, and the compressor features a ratio control as well. The plug-in has a mix control to blend the dry signal into the audio path, a sidechain EQ, an external sidechain option, 4x oversampling and a bypass switch to engage or disengage the effect.

The BritBundle is available in VST, VST3, and AU formats for Windows and Mac.