Chregg
ahh the nice cool scottish air, take deep breaths lads lol

I'm jelli. You're women are gorgeous too. The dudes are a little frightening though. ;-)

" You're women are gorgeous too." lol don't know about that, I could show you a horror or 20 lol

People pay good money to bake in a sauna Beep.

 
 
 
 

@John... Maybe I could charge a cover.
 
@AT... I'm a Canuck. We get nailed in the summer AND winter. Never been to TX but I was in Florida for a couple weeks in the middle of summer. That shiz was CRAZY. Mind you I think my apartment is getting just about as swampy at the moment.
 
And just for TOS purposes... something something Concrete Limiter something something.

AT ever been to Fort Bliss Tex. in the summer. I hear its rather nice. A friend of mine says its great around noon. They could cook breakfast without need of a stove. 

Danny,
 
I'm with you on the CE stuff.  I just can't get into it.  It seems to put a haze over stuff - not much, but not something I want.  After 10 years of coming to gripes w/ the clarity and high-end of digital and now I'm supposed to muck it up for faux analog?  No thanks.  I'll try to get the saturation etc. coming in through the hardware.
 
@

If you notice I have not said anything about the CE. Not here or anywhere. All I did say is that Mr. Anderton like it. 
 
My view is much as Danny's is. But I am wiling to try it. So far I'm not that impressed. 
 
I particularly like how AT put it. "After 10 years of coming to gripes w/ the clarity and high-end of digital and now I'm supposed to muck it up for faux analog? No thanks."

Have to agree on the Console Emulators, I mean I think I'm supposed to like them but I just don't get them, On the other hand I put a PC4K-S type bus compressor on many of my tracks...I just like the results. Hey, what do I know?
 
Re: The heat. I lived in Saudi Arabia for a few years. Maybe Texas wins but I'm thinking Hofuf in summer could, actually, kill ya. 
 
Regards,

When I lived in Miami and bicycled everywhere I learned where every shade tree and small piece of woods was located. Here in the Carolina apparently hot salsa is banned as you can't buy it in the stores.

There certainly are lots of really experienced guys here that I truly respect, not having much love for the CE's.  The only Console Emulator that I have ever tried is the one that came with X2.  
 
Well, I am no pro.  I sometimes wonder if I even know what I am doing.  I have never worked in real tape or on a real console.  To find a good tone on my amps, I start turning knobs until I think they sound good.  I pretty much do the same thing within Sonar.  After a while, it seems to take less knob turning to get to the sound you hear in your head, so I guess I am making progress.
 
When the Console Emulator came out with X2, I had no expectations other than to say...hey, lets give this a try.  I liked the sound I was getting so I have stuck with it.  I guess someday, I need to do 2 different mixes of the same song, one mixed with and one mixed without.  See if I can pick out which is which.  I just never have gotten around to it because I have like the mixes that I am getting now better.  For all I know, it could just be that I am getting better.

@jb101 I've neverheard of them actually, did you's export any records to europe (uk,holland, germany) any you tube links mate, cheers by the way

I would definitely prefer hardware solutions to get my "lo-fi" stain on things but I don't have the money, room or patience for much of that. I could probably get better results recording everything through my old Mackie console but I don't think it would have the same effect as the pres and consoles being discussed here. Next big round of actual tracking I do I will likely be doing just that but then what of my soft synths and stuff? I'm certainly not going to route out and back in again (I tried this on my old set up and... well that did not work very well, lol).
 
I guess it depends on the type of music I'm doing too. Like if I'm doing some kind of dance groove or industrial synthy stuff I'd go for the ultra clarity and leave the CEs out of it. If I'm mixing my old punk/metal bands... well then that's where the "haze" starts becoming appealing to me (and likely the other band members and/or listeners). One of my favorite old bands was the Dead Kennedies. Their earlier work was recorded HORRENDOUSLY but there is just something about the feel of those albums that's just awesome to me. Once they started dumping more money into production I lost interest. Too cold sounding. Or look at Iggy Pop's Raw Power... Raw indeed. Old rock/blues recordings from the sixties. Love that sound.
 
I totally get what you guys are saying that after chasing the clarity dragon for so many years that after you finally get him by the tail you don't understand wanting to let go. I don't have that because I've mainly been a listener and a live player so the grit on the recordings and the overloud and distorted sound coming out of subpar club boards is what I'm used to and like. Add to that I just really don't listen to or like much modern music. I mean there are some great metal bands that I dig but the kick being reduced to a little "click", the solos sounding like they came out of a some kind of tone generator, everything completely isolated, EQd and squashed so there's no interaction of the instruments and don't even get me started on the vocals (those are vocals... lol). Now not every band is doing this. The stuff I've heard from Nile seems to avoid all that crap while still sounding ultra clear. Not sure who produced that stuff but he earned his money. Another band that has taken advantage of the newer clarity available without losing the warmth is Slayer (RIP Jeff).
 
It's that raw edge/warmth I'm after. The saturation plug option that was mentioned is something I've been using even back on Nuendo but those plugs only seem to go so far without crapping out like the signal is being ripped apart. On one of the Groove3 vids about production the guy is running things through the fancy big studio pre amps and he did an example of "smashing" the pre on some signals and it was the same kind of effect and totally undesirable (which he pointed out). So once that limit is hit on the saturation there isn't really anywhere else to go. The CA2A was a great purchase for me because it gets some more of that warmth/edge. Don't ask me how but it does but again it starts being undesirable after a certain level.
 
So in comes the CE. If I'm having a hard time getting where I want with those other options I try the CE on the track and start again. It seems that the CE will respond to those sat knobs and compressors and give me more of what I want from them. I rarely even tough the drive knob on the CEs. I just let them sit or I'll even turn the drive knob down more often than not. Sometimes I'll mix and match the different CE types on different channels so it's like using a different board for different instruments. That's pretty cool. Then I'll try it out on some of the busses where I think it's sounding a little too sterile. Less often I'll put it on the master because there are some things that I just don't think benefit from the CE like my BFD drum samples.
 
As always definitely not arguing and I totally get what you guys mean by reintroducing something that you spent ages trying to get rid of but I think it's a neat tool if you don't have any hardware or want an older kind of sound. I've had complaints from band members and fans about some of my earlier works (before Sonar) that it was just too clean and polished sounding. Gutter punks and pit monsters, as with many other things in their lives, seem to prefer a thin layer of grime and grit on their music. When I'm in that headspace I tend to agree.
 
Just some morning blathering to start the day but that's why I like having them around over not having them at all. I doubt I'll use them on the jazz stuff I intend to put together soon but they do serve me well in certain situations. Cheers.

I hardly use the fx bin anymore. I just insert an fxchain and add whatever fx I want in there wherever I want it in the signal chain.
 
I like the idea posted earlier about consolidating the PC into the track instead of beside the track. I think we should make that a feature request.

Tom Riggs
I hardly use the fx bin anymore. I just insert an fxchain and add whatever fx I want in there wherever I want it in the signal chain.
 
I like the idea posted earlier about consolidating the PC into the track instead of beside the track. I think we should make that a feature request.

I did request the feature, but I feel it will be as well received as being the only person attempting to convince a Senator to change a policy he wrote. Unless everyone overwhelmingly demands it... 

MakeShift
There certainly are lots of really experienced guys here that I truly respect, not having much love for the CE's.  The only Console Emulator that I have ever tried is the one that came with X2.  
 
Well, I am no pro.  I sometimes wonder if I even know what I am doing.  I have never worked in real tape or on a real console.  To find a good tone on my amps, I start turning knobs until I think they sound good.  I pretty much do the same thing within Sonar.  After a while, it seems to take less knob turning to get to the sound you hear in your head, so I guess I am making progress.
 
When the Console Emulator came out with X2, I had no expectations other than to say...hey, lets give this a try.  I liked the sound I was getting so I have stuck with it.  I guess someday, I need to do 2 different mixes of the same song, one mixed with and one mixed without.  See if I can pick out which is which.  I just never have gotten around to it because I have like the mixes that I am getting now better.  For all I know, it could just be that I am getting better.

+1 Mike.
 
I think this speaks for the way that most of us non-pros would approach things.
 
Twist & tweak - live & learn.