So Who Actually Knows How To Use Console and Tape Emulators??

Hi Guys...I've been going through my archives...Jimmy Page style and am really please about my progress...I get what everyone has been saying to me over the years...about my mixes ;) Now that I've got a couple more years under my belt, I've taken tracks which in all honestly sounded like crap when I would post them over the years and turned them into...I think great works of art...note the use of the word art...not entertainment...not even music possibly...not in the traditional sense...but hey apparently I'm a fine artist these days...starting my Phd next week...sorry can't help boosting my ego somewhat lol...doesn't mean I know everything...maybe I don't know anything...amazing what ADHD medication and a well rounded education can do for ones self-awareness...maybe even middle age ;)
 
Anyway my point...after a year and a half of screwing around with Sonar's console and tape emulator and Eddie Krammer's Master Tape emulator-which I highly recommend-it's fantastic on the master buss just before the brickwall limiter-I think I've mastered them.  I'm interested if anybody else has cracked the code.
 
For me last night...whilst focusing furiously (ADHD medication) I finally understood what was happening with the console emulator-I had been having some great results whilst still not fully appreciating what was quite going on.  I was trying to tighten a mix last night...the bass which was a bit whooly-was struggling to cut through...I wanted each note to be present.  Whilst I understood that the console emulators could be used as tone control...very subtle, what I realized last night was the console emulator could also be used as a very subtle transient shaper too-this is on top of the obvious use of soft-clip too.  When I realized that I could use the console emulator in this way...I was able to shape the tone of my mix in ways I never thought possible.  Along with the use of the tape emulator as a subtle compressor...I believe my mixes are very warm and fat...here is the result for anyone interested https://soundcloud.com/aaudiomystiks/dont-mean-maybe this track was recorded in 2007 or 8 using a behringer ultra-gain for the vocals and bass...the rest is all virtual instruments.
 
My workflow is console emulator last on the track, with no tape emulator, unless it's very minor compression I'm after.  Whilst on the buss's I use the tape emulator for gain staging, this is fed into the console emulator.  All effects are before both emulators.  Finally it's amazing what changing the pan law does-depending on the sort of tracks you are mixing.
 
Anyway anybody else got any opinions on this topic, please chime in...sorry about the waffling!!   
 
Ben

synkrotron
Not me Ben... I'd go so far to say that I have stopped using them altogether as I just cannot hear the benefit, at least not on my own music...
 
Funny song that... Made me giggle 

It's subtle Andy...you've got to train your ears...it helps that I have ADHD medication;) yea Don't Mean Maybe is one of my favorite's...it's about unrequited love...she was French oh la la...
 
Ben

I can really see where synkrotron is coming from. (after all he loves Tangerine Dream so that says it all for me! )
 
I produce a lot of electronic music too and these things just don't play well in that situation. In fact there are many situations where it does not play well.
 
If it is so subtle that you cannot hear it then you could argue that it may not be necessary.
 
I have got SDRR from Klanghelm and it sounds rather cool. ie console emulation. (hardly use it much though) I have got real tape machines Ben and I don't often transfer stuff to them and back either. I do sometimes put SDRR on a stem though not a whole mix.

Hey michael,
 
How hard do you drive the CE? I remember when I first started using it, I drove the N-Type to max. It colors the sound in a noticeable way. I found that it was harder to deal with the high-mids later on in the mix. Needless to say, I learned my lesson. I find the A-Type to be a nice compromise between coloration and subtlety.

Oh I am painfully aware that there are no formulas, just wanted to get more perspective. I appreciate the reply.

There are really two varieties of console-emulation plugin.
 
Cakewalks, and third party ones like Waves' NLS, which put simply emulate the changes made to audio by passing it through a high-quality mixer channel with flat eq, tend to be subtle. To really hear them make a difference it's best to have lots of tracks and busses using them. Which isn't surprising really as they are based round consoles like the SSL and Neve ones which were designed from the off to be as "pure" as the technology of the time could manage. Ironically, it's their lack of purity that's ended up making them and their sound so sought after. A bit like when CBS decided to modify the Fender amp designs to get rid of the "nasty distortion" only to find out audiences and guitarists alike actually liked and wanted the distortion.
 
If you want to find out what such emulations are doing, load a project with a lot of audio tracks, add the CE to each channel and bus, group all the CEs (or have them as the only effect) then bypass them all either by clicking on a group member or hitting "E" to bypass all effects.
 
The other kind of console emulator are plugins like Waves' Abbey Road REDD and TG12345 which, like the vintage consoles they're modelled on, have a pretty obvious and distinctive effect on audio.

Tape emulations have their uses I find, particularly if I'm trying to capture the sound of a time period when tape was used. Again, the tape recorder designers and manufacturers put a great deal of effort into making their products as hi-fi as possible so unless you crank the emulated wow and flutter and push the gain and saturation hard you won't hear them making much difference until you've quite a few channels using them.
 
Taking a track with a tape emulator, bouncing it, inserting another tape emulator on that track, bouncing that and repeat a couple of times is a way to emulate the old practice of repeatedly bouncing sub-mixes down because the tape deck was only four or eight channels in the first place. If you want recordings that sound like the 1960s repeated bouncing can give you the Beatles/Stones etc. sound in a DAW.
 
Ironic really. Back in the pre-DAW days engineers would have loved to be rid of the "negative" side of noisy consoles with less than flexible eq and tape machines with all their problems. Now we seem to want the "defects" back because they actually sound pretty good.

Thanks for all the answers guys...whilst everyone was answering I was actually mixing lol...I've opened up the links that have been posted will digest what has been written.
 
After experimenting last night...I found them even more useful.
 
Cheers Ben

Oh I forget to mention that last night whilst experimenting with the console emulator...I discovered that changing from peak to rms actually changed the tone too...as you would expect the peak was faster when it kicked in and rms was slower...very cool!
 
Ben 

My tinkering has confirmed to me that the console and tape emulations are simply distortion engines with attractive user interfaces. I have several to experiment with and they all colour the sound in different ways. It seems that humans like sound that is less than pristine but I've no explanation.
 
The emulations in Sonar are not as heavy handed as some others out there but all I can say for sure is that they add distortion. I don't use them because they are so subtle and when I want to smear the sound, I want something more intense. 

I have referenced this video by Craig Anderton to better understand the Console Emulator.  He did a better  job explaining it than the Bakers did,
 
Sonar Console Emulator demonstration by Craig Anderton

Starise
Just a suggestion to anyone who may be also trying to make a decision to use console emulation or not- 
 
If you happen to be using Sonar Platinum the mix scene save is very useful. Simply save a mix scene before you add the emulation and then add console emulation to all channels. The save another mix scene with the emulation...you can try this with all three emulations to see which you like best and easily A/B between them.
 
I think the best results are cumulative as Dan Cumpian mentioned not long ago. I was on the fence with using the emulations until I heard the results all added together on each track. Now I generally add consiole emulation to each track and Tape emulation on the master.Makes a nice glue and adds some pleasant harmonics.

Exactly. It really is amazing how they...the emulators glue the mix together.

Ben.