Heat, VCC, Phoenix, VCM etc, etc

[Rickard Bengtsso]

I have Heat and been trying it out a bit not sure yet how much I Will use it! Anyone been working with Heat a lot to chime in with some experience?

Just upgrading to Phoenix 2 and are looking into VCC and VTM.

[Brentley Womac]

I use VCC on everything I mix now and I love it. The ability to use different consoles on different instruments is great. I'll use the Neve setting on drums, piano, acoustic guitars, the API on electric guitars and organs, the RC Tube on vocals and bass etc... At first you think its effect is subtle but when you use it across the mix and begin stacking tracks it really changes the sound of things. Its very nice. I also tried the Waves NLS but wasn't as pleased. I love Waves plugins but the VCC won over all. I also use SoundToys Decapitator. Have you tried it? Its a very nice sounding plugin! I love it on drums and guitar.

[Rickard Bengtsso]

Great, thanks:/)
What is your experience with signallevels feeding the VCC and how much drive you tend to use on specific instruments ?
I will try this on my own for sure, It is good to gather some impressions.
I have decapitator and been playing with it a bit. Sometimes it works nice but sometimes to drastic.

[zvukofor]

Man, at last we have a good clean way to mix in digital domain, and someone is trying to bring all those stuff that greatest engineers tried to avoid all those years - noise, nonlinearities, saturation... Indeed, people are strange.

Anyhow, when a client wants a bit of sound of old nasty HW i use SKnote and Airwindows plugins and custom chain of pure harmonic generators and EQs. As for noise - you can even get a real one recorded from any needed source - tape or whatever.

[donpakka]

I've been using VCC for 6 months now. Love it. Just picked up VTM today from my GCPro guy. I can't tell you my price, but it was unbelievable. I love it, but it's a bit of a CPU hog.

[Brentley Womac]

Originally Posted by Rickard Bengtsso

Great, thanks:/)
What is your experience with signallevels feeding the VCC and how much drive you tend to use on specific instruments ?
I will try this on my own for sure, It is good to gather some impressions.
I have decapitator and been playing with it a bit. Sometimes it works nice but sometimes to drastic.

Yes, the Decapitator can get out of control pretty easy. As for the VCC... I find that if you place it first in the chain, it seems to work best. One exception though...if you put it before an amp plugin (Waves GTR, Ampiltube etc...), it will cause unwanted noise. It needs to be placed after. As for signal level/clipping issues...I've never really had a problem. Even in times where the needle is pegged, the plugin is hard to distort. You can attenuate the gain by 6db & that will usually keep things under control. The drive knob adds or takes away the harmonic distortion. You will hear it's effect more on the Neve, API & RCA settings. The SSL and Trident have a much cleaner, transparent sound. To my ears, I hear the following:

SSL: Transparent & clean with a slight top end smoothness, very little, if any change in low frequencies. Drive at 0.

API: Mids are pushed forward and the upper mids bite more. Tight lows. Drive between 0 & +3. I use it on guitars, bass, snare, organ, rhodes.

Neve: Very big bottom end. Almost heavy compared to the other settings. Smooth top end and mids.
Drive between 0 & +6. I use it on all tracks at times. It just sounds good. Awesome on drums.

Trident: Clean like the SSL. Transparent with a slight top end boost.
Drive a 0. I use it on strings, piano, vocals.

RCA: Warm all the way around. Similar to the Neve but not as much low end punch.
Drive between 0 & +3 or -3. I use it a lot on vocals, pianos, bass, strings, horns, acoustic guitars.

Each setting has its place and I just try to find what works for each track. It's always a little different. Its a great mixing tool though!

I hope this helps!

[ExNihilo]

You should try LSR audio TUBEnhance for subtle tube warming / drive.

[jeronimo]

I own VCC, Satson, Stripbus, Nebula and tried NLS...
Nebula still the best by FAR, but, "good workflow" can't be used on the same sentence as the word Nebula...

[work2do]

Since it's release there hasn't been a project I worked on where Heat has not been used. Simplicity of use is a big factor but I love the sound as well. I had VCC and sold it. Waves NLS can get drastic and have more of a "sound" than VCC but if you don't have your gain structure correct it will get "nasty". Phoenix is something I use on every buss. It's one of those plugins that just makes things sound good without over processing it. VTM I have been using on the master and sometimes on drum buss - amazing!! UA Ampex is amazing as well. Decapitator is great for kik & snare drums. The mix dial comes in handy. UBK1 does some nice saturation among other things.

Let us not forget that you should mix into these plugins. They shape the mix, the amount of eq, and the amount of compression used. If you just slap them on afterwards...

[Rickard Bengtsso]

Thanks for your inputs:-)
Been a long time analog guy and have always felt ITB mixing has not been giving anyting back more than what you give, or less!
Heat seems cool and Phoenix and VTM is cool. Harisson mixbus are interesting.
I actually miss the sound my old Paris system had. They had someting going on there:-)
Would like to see the DAWs to have more saturation and nonliniarity integrated in the future!