Going through effect circuitry, without effecting.

[theblue1]

I came up in the era of old gear. Since the early 60s, I've been struggling for higher fidelity in playback and, since the 80s, in both personal and professional music production. I've got puhlenty of old electronics gear I could run signal through. There are times I've gone for a 'dirty' sound but, mostly, I find that sort of willful-mangling approach gimmicky and artificial. (Sometimes, gimmicky and artificial is exactly what's called for, of course.) But for my tastes, I typically find the effects I'm looking for on the subtle end of the mangling spectrum, a little compression, the right EQ.

Others, though, who have only known the supposedly 'too clean' sound of cheap digital, seem to think that the answer to their less-than-pleasing recordings and mixes is to go to the other end of the fidelity spectrum, indulging in willful degradation of the signal -- even going past 'warm' distortion of saturated analog gear into the ear-grating, disharmonic crackle and grit of intentional digital overload (as opposed to the peculiarly unsatisfying and unresponsive but not necessarily ear-grinding saturation effects often supplied by DSP). Sometimes that is what is called for. I guess.

[John Suitcase]

You could try it, of course!

My biggest improvement when recording electric guitars came from using good mic preamps, with transformer inputs. I'm talking mostly about distorted guitars, in this case.

Of course, there are about a million variables to consider, everything from the instrument and amp to mics, room, etc.

[Go Nigel Go]

Before I run a signal through any additional gear or processing I find it useful to ask the question; "What am I trying to accomplish here?"

The answer can be as simple as just wanting to experiment with something to see what it can do, but I always ask it. When working on a project the answer is almost always much more specific than that. What about your recorded sound bothers you, and what do you think could be done to the signal that would solve that problem? Most of the stuff I bought for "mojo" has turned out to be far less useful than your average DAW eq section for fixing problems with the sound. Sometimes it can help, but more often it just adds noise and creates another layer of trouble unless I have a specific reason in advance for using it.

My short answer would be "Yes, but..."

[theblue1]

^^

Good posts and points from John and Nigel.


Of course, a lot of times you might not have access to gear you'd like to experiment with -- but when one already has the gear, the easiest most direct way to figure out if it might be of any use to you in given contexts is simply to dig in and explore its capabilities and performance aspects.

Others may have interesting parallel experiences, but it's not necessarily likely they will have the same gear and gear context as you, the same approach to recording, or the be seeking the same desired results.

That's why, with so many questions of this type, the answer for any given individual and gear set up is to experiment and explore.

[nst7]

Some newer plugins simulate this as well. For example, the Waves CLA76 has a setting that has the compressor off, but still simulates the signal going through the transformers, etc. the Slate Digital VCC can be used this way as well. So this is another option to try if you don't want to hook up cables and stuff.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by mikoo69

I've heard about running signals through older outboard gear to effect the sound, without actually "effecting" it; for example, running a signal through a compressor, but not actually compressing the signal,just sending the signal through the old electronics.

Does anyone do this? I'm looking to improve my electric guitar recordings right now. While I never use compression when i record e-guitar, i wonder if i should send the signal through my 1178 anyway. Will do some experimenting later, though curious to know others experience with this.

I have some old tube EQs that I sometimes use without EQing anything. I once reamped a whole jazz mix through them with no EQ, just the tubes and the transformers.

There is a price to be paid for this. Noise, fuzz, lack of clarity. Sometimes it is well worth it, sometimes it is not. The trick, IMO is to be honest with yourself.

Just don't be seduced by the 'mojo' without also considering the alternative.