The ProChannel Console Emulator is one of the new features available exclusively in SONAR X2 Producer. Over the past year, the use of console emulation has become very popular with producers and engineers. A Console Emulator plug-in emulates some important analog console characteristics. While these effects are subtle, they’re noticeable; and now thanks to the Console Emulator, they’re controllable as well.
 
Industry expert Craig Anderton gives you an in-depth look at understanding and applying the Console Emulator to your mix. For even more tips from Craig Anderton, you can also check out his monthly SONAR X2 column in Sound on Sound magazine.
 
Watch the video
 
Try it out for yourself: The Console Emulator is available on the SONAR X2 Producer trial so once you watch the video, you can try out some of the techniques on your mixes.

  I've been using it a lot and think it's great. N-Type for rock stuff and A-type for old timey acoustic stuff.  

Sticky?

Thank you, Andrew, and thank you, Craig.
 
Very informative video, on a contentious subject.
 
Who would have thought putting them last in the chain, and adding them before mixing, and mixing "through" them, was a good idea? 
 
Thanks again.  I've been using them like this and really appreciating their sound.
 
 

Nice vid but what the heck do the Tolerance dealymadoodles do?

Kept waiting for that.

I read once that on the old "real" consoles, there was tolerance or a slight dynamic  difference on each track due to the analog nature of the components. I think the switch lets us decide if we want that....Am I right?

  I generally just turn tolerance on.

...edited because this was a separate blathering...

I don't know if my ears are just ultra sensitive or I'm completely bat shizzle crazy but I can hear the difference the CE makes on a single track. I actually don't even use it on every track because sometimes I don't like what it did to something specific so I exclude that element.  

Beepster


Nice vid but what the heck do the Tolerance dealymadoodles do?

Kept waiting for that.

This has been discussed at length by me, and others, on this forum.
 
The tolerance switch models the individual components in an analog signal chain.  Even though two resistors may be rated at 0.1 ohm, one may be 0.12 ohm, the other 0.09 ohm.  Random numbers used here as an example.  The tolerance switch adds that random element to the emulation.
 
Craig has stated before on here "Why would you want that?"  I can see both sides.  An analog desk would vary from channel to channel, but in this digital age do we want that randomness?
 
At least if the sound of a desk varied from channel to channel, it would be consistent - e.g. Channel 1 sounds nice on drums, Channel 2 sounds "Quite warm", Channel 3 adds a little saturation. Whether adding it randomly has any use, you decide..

@jb... Ha. That's weird. So if I'm reading that correctly someone sat down and wrote an algorithm to randomize something that at one point people were trying to eliminate.

What a werld... what a werld...

I still like it though. But I'm kind of random by nature. 

I am however going to be able to set up my old US Mackie console again so I'll actually have access to at least one representation of the real thing.

It's a pretty sweet old board.

I think engineers like to try and eliminate what was not intended or what was an inherent limitation/issue/restriction to the "ideal design".  However, sometimes those very things are what we got used to hearing or added "character" in a pleasing and familiar way.

Those random elements might be enough to trick us into hearing those things again in a convincing way.  It all depends on how good the modeling is and how easily tricked we are or our inability to discern a difference.

Here's my take on it....
As we focus on DAW and the transition from analog to digital consoles, it's easy to overlook that we've dealt with this issue in the past.  At one time the goal of a guitar amp might have been to produce a louder, yet clean version of the input signal.  But once we got a taste for distortion, the designers set about creating amps that provide more of it.  Similarly some digital recording studios might play the tracks through an analog console or tape and record it back in again to get some "warmth".  The funny thing I suppose is that now we're trying to emulate analog behavior totally within a digital domain.

Just some "random" thoughts...