Best way to 'analogify' using AW plugins?

I've been getting into AW stuff lately. I'm really liking channel 9.

1) I was wondering what would be the best way to setup my ITB "analog studio" using AW plugins. My usual mix setup is Tracks->~8 Busses(drums, gtrs, etc.) -> MixBuss
2) There seem to be plugins to doing the same(?) kinda job - desk/busscolors/channel - some of them are even interchangeable with ConsoleChannel. which one to go with?
3) In realtion to 2: desk/busscolors and console channel are interchangeable but desk4/busscolors4 are older than Console7 so are they really interchangeable?
4) I liked channel9 but Console7 effect is barely audible - am I missing smthng? I'm pretty sure I set it up correctly with faders at 0...
5) Would this be a 'proper' way to use console?:
Track X -> Inserts - ->ConsoleChannel7
Buss X -> ConsoleBuss7 -> Inserts -> ConsoleChannel7
MixBuss -> ConsoleBuss7
Thanks all for any info, cheers

BTW - I know one cannot really setup an analog studio ITB - I'm just asking about what's considered the 'proper' way to use this plugs and/or what ppl find benefitial.

Th best result is giving you this:
Strip3 by Sknote for console summing & Big Al from Brainworx for distortion.

Strip3 setup on channels Desk1
(choose one to taste, i mostly go for British Rock SSL Character )

Put in as last plugin in your chain
- Link Channels on Desk1
- HQ on
- Noise low
- Crosstalk Low Aligned or Med Aligned.

On Busses

First Plugin in chain
Desk2 Emphasis Rock (More driven character than British Rock)

- Link Channels on Desk2 (use gain for driving input on all linked Desk plugins & increase headroom with headroom knob on all plugins simultaneously, its brilliant! )
- HQ on
- Noise low
- Crosstalk Low Aligned.

On Master Bus

First plugin in chain
Desk3 (Character)
- HQ on
- Noise low
- No Crosstalk


Plus, brilliant compressor built in with low & high freq sensitive compression incl., Gate & Exppander a great sounding 3 band shaping eq. A detailed Metering what´s happening inside each model, RMS, Peak, VU, MIDSide, GR


The only Con is the cluttered interface but you'll get used to it, he works on an update it will take some time I guess.
This one beats every console system out there , period!
No other delivering such an anologish feel of a wide deep soundstage.

No demo but if you don't like it you'll get a refund without any hustle.
Its only 29.99 US it's a NoBrainer!


I´ve gone through almost all of them, Airwindows, Slate VCC, Waves NLS, Brainworx Channelstrips, Lindell 50 & 80, UAD Neve Channels, Uad SSl, AnalogObsession, Sonimus, Various Nebula AlexB Consoles

The problem with Airwindows, no metering, no db scale on faders, non existing visual feedback. Console system setup is complicated, no fader use of the DAW mixer. Lacking in soundstage compared to my 2 above alternative options.

sorry .. i don't know 'owt re A.W. plugins ..

but .. do check these 2 freebees out ..

https://www.voxengo.com/product/overtonegeq/

https://klanghelm.com/contents/products/IVGI.php

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.. :-)

a.t.b.

` s `

Hey Slipper, could you explain this again.. I don't get. So do you use a combination of channel from aw and strip3 or is this the way you set up only aw?

Are you using channel9 and desk without the bus plugins?

Are you putting Strip3 just on every channel as first plugin to get the sound of it?

I also don't have those options like HQ, Noise low and Crosstalk in channel nor desk.

Would be super nice if you could explain your best practice again. I am trying to achieve the depth and separation of analog for a while now and haven't accomplished it yet in my mixes.

Grüße aus Berlin!

He's not using any AW plugins. Everything he mentions is part of SKnote Strip.

oh ok i understand. Thanks!

Are you using Strip3 also?

I feel like there are a thousand options and its a job it self to a/b all of those to find what does the job best..

Yes, the effect from AW Console is subtle. Try also Console6 and Console5 and PurestConsole in place of Console7. You get the most effect from it when the peaks hitting ConsoleBus are up near (but not over) 0dBFS, and the less submixing you do, the more effect you get as well (I think...)

Beyond that, you should really use Dark on your 24-bit output/print. Even more subtle than Console though.

Play around with Desk4 when you want some drastic distortion or subtle character. That one sounds like no other distortion plug-in to me. Good for 'rough' analog. For 'pristine' analog, maybe Spiral2 or Tape. Tape can also be driven ('slammed') for some strong saturation. And Interstage is good sometimes, another super subtle one.

And the most subtle of all--you could swap out your gain plug-ins for AW gain utilities like BitShiftGain and EveryTrim. The difference is almost totally inaudible, but it's there, at least when stacked 30x: you get the very subtle absence of brightening that would otherwise be caused by truncation distortion on the 32-bit floating point output of stock gain/trim plug-ins.

Not a plugin but Harrison Mixbus is well worth checking out

To be honest part of the appeal of working with his plugins is that they're so minimalist. I only really feel that compressors need some visual feedback (to me), at least a "light" that shows that it is actually compressing, not necessarily a meter. But they're open source, maybe it's not that hard to add one.

Anyway, as I understand it, Console plugins (especially the newer ones) are to be used as you said, at the end of the chain on tracks and at the start on buses (and if you have a sub-bus, both places) and their only effect is to somewhat change the way tracks are summed (a slight effect). I'm unsure whether it does replicate the way analog consoles work, and whether Chris is actually right about the way they should work (by saturating more upfront tracks and less the ones at the back; I'd say it's actually the other way round, because if you use Console as intended, you'll get the louder tracks in a place where fewer tracks are going to be summed, so the nonlinearities should be weaker once anti-saturated, since anti-saturation should restore the original content more or less, therefore louder tracks are going to be cleaner and softer tracks will be more saturated, and you get his intended effect if you use the DAW's faders, because you end up with louder tracks being anti-saturated more than they should, therefore ending up being "expanded" which, especially due to the instantaneous speed of the expansion, will still act as a distortion and add harmonics) (actually, now that I think about it, it does ultimately work as intended but the effect will basically be that of expanding the softer tracks so that they go further back into the mix, making it easier to make other stuff stand out - but the background stuff should still be more affected by nonlinearity than the upfront stuff, simply because background stuff will share "levels" with more tracks, causing the compansion to be more non-linear at lower levels), but if you like the quality it imparts you shouldn't care. It's a colour all right.

The Channel, Desk, Busscolors should be colour plugins that you use at the beginning of the chain as you would use a preamp basically. There is a lot of overlap with AW's plugins. The problem is that he didn't use to code his plugins so that they could be used at all sample rates, but many of his plugins are only functional at 44.1kHz, and only his most recent ones are sample rate naive. So there's that. I work at 44.1kHz so it doesn't impact me that much, but you do lose the option to work at 44.1kHz and export at 88.2/96/192kHz and get the expected result, that is, the same sound but with less aliasing (really, he should clearly mark which of his plugins can work like that and which can't).

front daw and true iron are also looking promising for achieving the analog vibe.. did someone compared them against aw or strip yet?

Feel like its a full research job to find the best plugin for analog vibe..
Michael Brauers ssl strip looks promising too