Quote:
Originally Posted by Glenn Bucci  Though the UAD plug ins are good, they still don't touch a candle to a real LA2 A or 1176. High end Hardware just adds a biggness and clarity no plug ins can't yet replicate. I found this also to be true when I was reviewing the Langevin Mini Massive EQ and comparing it very closely with all my Waves and UAD EQ's. |
I must say that I respect this opinion, but I really don't agree with it. In my own hybrid analog/digital setup I sometimes find that plugins actually sound bigger and have more clarity because they don't subject audio to ADDA conversion, and more importantly many feet of cable, which can cloud the audio and change the tonality. Running audio through 30 feet of Mogami, a handful of Neutrik connectors, and a patchbay doesn't give me the same sound out that I put in. This is something I can duplicate every time.
And to address FossilTooth's comment about programmers not being able to model the saturation accurately... I don't think it has anything to do with creating a cleaner sounding plugin to make things idiot proof. I think it has more to do with the algorithms being very processor intensive to adequately model the non-linearities and trade-offs being made so that people will actually buy the hardware. Who wants to buy a DSP card that will only run one instance of a plugin if it's only 3% better? Most people would rather run 10 instances. Engineering is all about compromises. At a certain point you reach diminishing returns.
Brad