frequency 'circuit soaking',

Care to explain what you mean by this.

rabeach

frequency 'circuit soaking',

Care to explain what you mean by this.

Hiya rabeach,


It's just my dumb lol descriptive way of expressing the high peak responses of frequencies that are affected running through a particular circuit. It could also be the effect of the interplay of the components that lends itself to gear having "a sound" or character if you will. Slew rate could be considered part of this category such as tube pres which are a good example of manipulating slew rate to create euphonic distortion and limited ("soaked") high frequency. Here's another good analogy: like how the magnetism in tape creates soft limiting effects on transients that sound pleasing to us. This aspect relating to high end frequencies and how a processor or circuit affects them are a dead give away in emulated stuff. In these X2 emu's the high end to me sounds hyped. Where as let's say on another emu mentioned in this thread the high end is clear but not in a obvious "EQ'ed" sense but more along the lines of these circuit interactions. Incidentally, the UAD 1176 updated versions, they friggin nailed the high frequency pleasantry of its analog counterpart. 

Transcending Music

rabeach

frequency 'circuit soaking',

Care to explain what you mean by this.

Hiya rabeach,


It's just my dumb lol descriptive way of expressing the high peak responses of frequencies that are affected running through a particular circuit. It could also be the effect of the interplay of the components that lends itself to gear having "a sound" or character if you will. Slew rate could be considered part of this category such as tube pres which are a good example of manipulating slew rate to create euphonic distortion and limited ("soaked") high frequency. Here's another good analogy: like how the magnetism in tape creates soft limiting effects on transients that sound pleasing to us. This aspect relating to high end frequencies and how a processor or circuit affects them are a dead give away in emulated stuff. In these X2 emu's the high end to me sounds hyped. Where as let's say on another emu mentioned in this thread the high end is clear but not in a obvious "EQ'ed" sense but more along the lines of these circuit interactions. Incidentally, the UAD 1176 updated versions, they friggin nailed the high frequency pleasantry of its analog counterpart. 

Thanks. Maybe the cakewalk emulation is based on signal modeling and the others are based on physical modeling. I would guess that a combination would yield the best results. 

Hi Mike (and others),
Here's a quick comparison I threw together on a mix I'm working on. The mix itself isn't done yet, so don't necessarily listen for production mastery :). 

There are three files, one raw, on ITB with Sonars console emu, one OTB through my SSL. It's kinda big...didn't want to do dithering or MP3 encoding.

http://www.fade.net/Somewhere_God_SSL.zip


Oh, also didn't have time to volume match...I think the OTB file is a bit quieter...bump it up a db or two.

Dean


EDIT: fixed the link...yeesh... embarrassing...thanks rabeach

Razorwit


Hi Mike (and others),
Here's a quick comparison I threw together on a mix I'm working on. The mix itself isn't done yet, so don't necessarily listen for production mastery :). 

There are three files, one raw, on ITB with Sonars console emu, one OTB through my SSL. It's kinda big...didn't want to do dithering or MP3 encoding.

www.fade.net/Somewhere_God_SSL.zip


Oh, also didn't have time to volume match...I think the OTB file is a bit quieter...bump it up a db or two.

Dean

I think your link is messed up maybe this will work


http://www.fade.net/Somewhere_God_SSL.zip

Cool, thanks Dean...

I want to say right off the bat, the OTB version needs about +2.3 dB
And the X2 Console emu version needs about -.15 dB 

Using of course RMS level matching.

I prefer the "ITB" version for this particular song. The "Cake SSL" one had the thing going on with the high's that I experienced in my own comparison sessions. But oddly, here I heard a closing off of clarity on top of it. But I don't dislike it here as much as I did on the metal and rock examples I've tested. Go figure. I'm sure it has a lot to do with there being more high energy in metal and rock genres. The OTB sounds cool, but it is so different; so affected. The drums sound nice, but compressed and altered. Like more "pang" coming off of them and less "stick". It definitely sounds cool. Did you use outboard on that one as well? So I preferred the ITB one for the control. But the OTB did have a cool thing going on. But the ITB, every time I go back to it, has the most open sound. I did find it interesting that the phase responses of the transient hits of "Cake SSL" and "OTB" were very similiar (with the "Cake SSL" transient being limited however). Almost like the "SSL Cake" one went the same route through your DAC! Odd but may be it is part of what Cake was trying to do in some respects. 

Transcending Music


Cool, thanks Dean...

I want to say right off the bat, the OTB version needs about +2.3 dB
And the X2 Console emu version needs about -.15 dB 

Using of course RMS level matching.

I prefer the "ITB" version for this particular song. The "Cake SSL" one had the thing going on with the high's that I experienced in my own comparison sessions. But oddly, here I heard a closing off of clarity on top of it. But I don't dislike it here as much as I did on the metal and rock examples I've tested. Go figure. I'm sure it has a lot to do with there being more high energy in metal and rock genres. The OTB sounds cool, but it is so different; so affected. The drums sound nice, but compressed and altered. Like more "pang" coming off of them and less "stick". It definitely sounds cool. Did you use outboard on that one as well? So I preferred the ITB one for the control. But the OTB did have a cool thing going on. But the ITB, every time I go back to it, has the most open sound. I did find it interesting that the phase responses of the transient hits of "Cake SSL" and "OTB" were very similiar (with the "Cake SSL" transient being limited however). Almost like the "SSL Cake" one went the same route through your DAC! Odd but may be it is part of what Cake was trying to do in some respects. 

Hi Transcending,
re: levels, yeah, I had a singer coming in and didn't have time to level match. Regarding the OTB stuff, I didn't use any effects on it, but the SSL bus comp and EQ are in so it traversed those modules, but the EQ was flat and the compressors threshold was all the way down so there shouldn't have been any gain reduction or frequency manipulation going on. Certainly it'll affect things a bit just going through them (the docs do say that the main VCA is permanently in) but it shouldn't be too much change just from that....OTOH, we are dealing with pretty subtle differences.


I hear what you mean about being a bit more open in the ITB mixdown...different tools for different genre's (and songs) I guess. This whole country western thing is new for me (this is the first country song I've written) so I'll probably go through a few iterations before settling on something.

Dean

Hi Dean,
 I'm on the road today but look forward to listening to the compraison you prepared when I return.

 Thanks!

 best regards,
mike

Hi Dean,

Thanks for the files I look forward to comparing them!

I don't have access to any outboard gear so this is really helpful.

Regards,

Stephen

I gave this a listen. Thanks for taking the time to share these and let us without hardware compare. 

The OTB sounded very good. Maybe a touch too much of a smoothing effect, but that would be hard to not use!!

The ITB emulation was good I thought. Open with a little smoothing. Probably better suited for my type of mixing given the buildup of track after track.

I just finished mixing a Christian song using the new emulation across the tracks and a few buses - the final mix sounds so good. I'm a happy X2 customer.


Thanks Again