Getting that warmth from my rock tracks

Check out Psp's vintage warmer, its an incredible plug in, i have used it for years never fails to impress ;)
 
http://www.pspaudioware.c...rs/psp_vintagewarmer2/
 
Also check out Nomad factory Magnetic 2, its a decent tape sim, you can sometimes get it on offer
 
http://nomadfactory.com/products/magnetic_II/index.html 

Morvejones
Check out Psp's vintage warmer, its an incredible plug in, i have used it for years never fails to impress ;)
 
http://www.pspaudioware.c...rs/psp_vintagewarmer2/
 
Also check out Nomad factory Magnetic 2, its a decent tape sim, you can sometimes get it on offer
 
http://nomadfactory.com/products/magnetic_II/index.html 

Thanks, these both cost a fair bit

Trust me, you don't need to buy anything if you have Sonar Platinum.
 
First off, use the big Tube knob in the ProChannel on bass, kick/snare/overheads/hat and perhaps even on the guitars. Secondly, use the Tape saturation on the drums, especially on a master buss or on the overheads. It works GREAT for softening harshness. Make sure you don't have too much high end frequency stuff going on (roll off some highs on guitars!). Put a console emulator on individual tracks and busses.
 
If you have some money to spend: get the Cakewalk CA-2A. It's been sad it's not a particularly exact emulation of the LA-2A, but I think it's awesome! For Kicks and Snares it make life so easy. Super warm, nicely controlled...
 
R

Chevy

Morvejones
Check out Psp's vintage warmer, its an incredible plug in, i have used it for years never fails to impress ;)
 
http://www.pspaudioware.c...rs/psp_vintagewarmer2/
 
Also check out Nomad factory Magnetic 2, its a decent tape sim, you can sometimes get it on offer
 
http://nomadfactory.com/products/magnetic_II/index.html 

Thanks, these both cost a fair bit

Check out http://rockindiy.com/free-audio-plugins-analog-recording/ for some freebies

I agree with Eik.The pro channel consoles work well at giving you that "undefined and yet there" softness. I play a lot of contemporary jazz, the conventional wisdom being, the cleaner, the better. Recently, a song of mine was buggin' me because it was sterile and I found the console emulation on all tracks plus the tape module on the master bus still set to pretty clean gave the mix just enough "smear". Need more? Try the softube or tube saturation set for a subtle clip. One caution with the tube sat. emulations. Pick the tracks that need it, not just go global.My particular mix sounded great with just a little on the bass and vocals ( especially, the background)

Reckedtrek
Chevy, at the risk of being painfully simplistic, you said 
 
"I admit approaching the recording aspect from getting the clearest, not the warmest, sound I can. I'm thinking you can warm up a track well enough with the right tools, but you can't clean it up if need be later on.)  And whatever processing I apply to the master mix doesn't seem to have the goodies my ear desires. "
 
The two bold statements make me wonder why you don't experiment with getting warmer sounding tracks to begin with? I understand you're point about not being able to "undo warmth" but if that's the sound you're after maybe it's just question of finding how much warmth to allow on the tracks themselves. Maybe I'm off mark or being overly simplistic, but just thought I'd throw it out there. Hope you find what you're looking for one way or another! 

Yes, certainly did occur to me to just record them warm in the first place, but like a certain really clean guitar part, you can add an amp sim or pedal or whatever and "rock" it up a bit later on... doesn't always work the way I'd like...   But to add that special warmth to an entire mix without it sounding cheezy or something... I dunno, just the way I've approached things so far...  and believe me, I can have it more backwards than anyone. Lots to learn yet! This just made sense, trying different recording takes and picking what seemed the best at the time, and then as I progressed into the next song to record / mix, things may be rebalancing in another direction. 

I fully understand the OPs point of view.
At least in my case, with less than perfect monitoring and not so analytic ears, if I try to make the sounds warm from the beginning, I end up with something foggy, muddy, that lacks sparkle. From there, it's quite hard to move towards
the sparkly side.
If I try to create a clear, distinct soundscape with sparkle, I can soften the clarity and spark little by little.
 

Chevy
Trying to come up with a nice warm tone for some of my rock-ish master mixes. I've just compared a few of my tracks tonally to relatively recent tracks from bands like Aerosmith and Bon Jovi, and those tracks most certainly (to my ears) sound like rock music. Du'h. They are warm, and there is a certain amount of distortion or saturation to them that is warm but not clearly identifiable as specific distortion...  it's just very smooth and sounds sorta like a live band would.
My master mixes, before processing, are too clear and sterile in comparison...  (I admit approaching the recording aspect from getting the clearest, not the warmest, sound I can. I'm thinking you can warm up a track well enough with the right tools, but you can't clean it up if need be later on.)  And whatever processing I apply to the master mix doesn't seem to have the goodies my ear desires. I don't have a good Kramer Tape type plugin, apparently something like that would help...  wondering how you might recommend I get that warmth and the "friendly" distortion in a predictable fashion. 

How are guitars being recorded? If direct, then you're going to need some great amp sims, but if recorded with a mic, here's a few suggestions I have:

1) Ideally, if the guitars are recorded well, they won't need anything done to them, but this is rarely ever the case. But, with that said, I nearly always use a decent tube mic directly in front of a speaker cone along with an SM57, or something like that when tracking, carefully eliminating phase issues.

2) After recording, on the track itself, I normally will drop in Waves NLS Spike, Channel 29, drop off the Noise and Mic buttons, and goose the Gain a bit. You can do this similarly in Platinum's S-Type Console Emulation, although they differ slightly. Something about Channel 29 in the Spike NLS...
 
3) EQ out the very deepest lows and extreme highs. Leaving these in will needlessly over-work any compressors or limiters you may use. However, leave in a little of the 100-200Hz range. You'd be surprised at how this will thicken up the guitar mix, and doesn't really over-shadow the bass as much as some might expect.

4) At this point, I use 'modeled' EQ's, such as Waves SSL E-Channel or the G-EQ, API-550, Kramer HLS to add some 250-500Hz boost (slight) to add some modeled warmth. The HLS does this really well. However, this is the fun of it all. TRY THEM ALL! :)
 
5) Don't over-compress or limit. Some of the warmth comes from edginess.
 
6) Create a Send to a Reverb buss and put a Convolution reverb on that buss, such as Waves L1, Altiverb 7, or EastWest Q-Spaces. They will add some warmth on their own, if you've matched the right impulse settings (chose the right room space for the reverb). Don't overuse this, though, and mix it in slowly. 

7) Bypass often to see how much improvement you've made, or if something's gotten worse.