'Why I don't buy "Analog" EQ Plugins'

[Gswitz]

I recorded direct and reamped. I sent the same signal to both thu and the amp.  I used a passive reamp box i soldered from a kit. The amp sounded great. Then I just had to match it. I adjusted gain in. I adjusted adjusted knobs for a long time. I think i made a video of it. 

 

[mettelus]

Take a quick spectrogram comparison between the live mic setups and the TH3 bounces, it sounds like there is significantly more high end from TH3 (artificial content) than the live mic captures. An EQ matching algorithm can sometimes assist with a post-FX-chain EQ, but they are definitely useful to visualize the frequency differences (the curve required to get the "match"). I suspect that what you are seeing may be more than just the mic shift, but the fact that TH3 is exposing and processing more harmonic content than the live setup does. I have not used TH3 in a while but thought that had more control over mic placement and orientation, but I may be confusing that with another sim.

[Gswitz]

You can move the mics around in thu/th3.

I guess just the differences in mic types showed the how far emulators are from the real thing. . A real ribbon sounds obviously different than a sm57. In th3/thu, it's almost hard to tell which is which. 

All this is to say, I definitely started reamping after late night headphone sessions. I might record in thu, but I'm likely to use a real recording of my amp in the end. The real amp with real mics is just cool. 

Edited November 25 by Gswitz

[Brian Walton]

On 11/25/2025 at 8:21 AM, Gswitz said:

You can move the mics around in thu/th3.

I guess just the differences in mic types showed the how far emulators are from the real thing. . A real ribbon sounds obviously different than a sm57. In th3/thu, it's almost hard to tell which is which. 

All this is to say, I definitely started reamping after late night headphone sessions. I might record in thu, but I'm likely to use a real recording of my amp in the end. The real amp with real mics is just cool. 

I agree the THU is going to have some real limitations especially in the mic realism as you move them around and select different ones.

That said, I think if you capture your Amp with Tonex using your high end mics, if done right, you will be able to get insanely close.  But, you would need to turn the amp reverb off and use a different reverb on both for the comparison.  Having a mic pick up the reverb from the amp does create something different than simply adding in post.  The "v2" update with Tonex does bring more life and dimensionality to the capture, and it was already pretty good to begin with.

[Rain]

I entertain zero pretense of being remotely competent but I really don't have much use at all for EQ's other than the main one in Logic. Back in Sonar, it was the Sonitus one almost exclusively (same thing for delay, reverb, compression to a vast extent). So I do not really get the craze.

When I want to EQ something, it rarely ever crosses my mind to even try something other than Logic's main EQ. It's as if all the other ones were an approximation of what I really need, no matter how fancy or expensive. Logic comes bundled with its own emulations of API, Pultec, and other classics, but I've never even bothered to try them. At my level, they really do not accomplish anything more or beneficial. 

Compressors I do understand to an extent, I guess. Although I tend to rely almost exclusively on the Waves Renaissance ones, because they're so easy to use. Logic's own compressor is so comprehensive now, with the various modes and matching GUIs. It's a very fancy tool, and I'm not really worthy of it. Just like all those UAD plugs.

I do like to have options but it all boils down to my own shortcomings. Sometimes the way the plug-in is laid out or its idiosyncrasies will give me a nudge in the right direction.  Like for vocals, I seem to have a bit more luck with certain channel strips, like the UAD API. Because, really, I have no idea what I am doing. I guess the channel strip limits my options and gives me a nudge. 

That being said, I do not think I've ever mixed a good sounding vocal track. But it’s probably the only context that I can think of where EQ really makes a difference to me, and it all boils down to ergonomics. In fact, one of my hobbies is to try to reproduce whatever results I get with the fancy tools using my regular plugs..

To this day however, the mix I'm the most proud of was completed using only Logic's stock plugs, and I don't think it was really intentional. It just sort of happened..

 

[Shane_B.]

16 hours ago, Rain said:

... I really don't have much use at all for EQ's other than the main one in Logic. Back in Sonar, it was the Sonitus one almost exclusively (same thing for delay, reverb, compression to a vast extent). So I do not really get the craze.

Same here. I loved the Sonitus plugins. There were a few others that were really good too. There was a clean amp sim that was just a basic screen with a few knobs that sounded great to me. I think it was a dx plugin.

The only eq I ever purchased stand alone was the melda dynamic eq because of its dynamic capabilities which does help a lot, especially with bad recordings and as a de-esser. There's a lot of hidden features in that eq as well that can makes things sound better like saturation and filtering. 

All that said ... I started using all the stuff that came with Ozone Advanced, and now I don't think I'll ever use anything else. I got it for its mastering assistance, but tried out everything that came with the Advanced package and it has everything I could ever possibly need.

But I think you and I are alike in that stock works great for us. I was more than happy with Sonitus and then the stock stuff that came with S1. Especially their stock reverb. The controls are mislabelled imo on S1's stock reverb. I don't get the results I expect based on the knob displays, but if you just start tinkering you get what everything does and it sounds fantastic, to me. I remember getting into a discussion about it on their forum one time. Maybe they laid it out differently by now. I'm 3 versions behind iirc.

[T Boog]

21 hours ago, Rain said:

When I want to EQ something, it rarely ever crosses my mind to even try something other than Logic's main EQ

I think that's a good thing. When u have one tool that works great and u know how to use it, u can focus more on ur work and less on ur tool box.

Unless I find something that clearly sounds better or speeds up my workflow, I try to stick with the 'less is more' approach.

This guy knows what I'm talking about...

 

[mettelus]

That video rocks... the quote at 0:45 sorta sums up the sentiment of this thread (and others too)... "You don't need expensive tools to do good work, you need skill!" That comment alone is the nemesis of a large portion of the marketing industry these days (especially now that "AI" is in the picture). People never gain skill being lazy  

[Shane_B.]

14 hours ago, T Boog said:

This guy knows what I'm talking about...

What they didn't think about back then was ... wood swells and contracts and those nails eventually come out. 

I've seen that video too and its amazing watching that guy. 

I do a lot of drywall repair. 99% of what I do is caused by nails popping out, mostly on the ceilings.

Only at the coffee house can we go from digital eq's to 1950's drywall. Love it.

[57Gregy]

23 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

Only at the coffee house can we go from digital eq's to 1950's drywall. Love it.

They both cover the structure.

[Quick Math]

I don't think analog emulations are worthless but at the same time, I am curious how I can potentially reproduce such sounds out of any other tools available.

For example, saturations can be created with tools like waveshaper and Chebyshev filter. You can compare what an analog plugin adds to sine wave. Similar level of saturation can be made easily with these tools.

And for EQ curve, any digital EQ plugin can kinda mimic the curve of an analog plugin.

And then some analog plugins have weird noises or randomness to it, maybe I can add compressor or something and makes some sort of fluctuation for subsequent process like waveshaper?

Or maybe I can add tiniest reverb with EQ and exaggerate the side of it to make it more stereo? Or maybe noise with EQ.

I tried to replace pc2a and pc76 with sonitus compressior. It was of course, impossible with just one sonitus comp but I tried and put one EQ with a bell shape boost or cut before the comp and put another EQ with opposite(negative ) curve to reverse the EQ. This was to change the sound that is fed to the compressor so that compressor react differently etc...

The sound was kinda okay or powerful enough for the drum I was testing on.

But like this level of procedure is too much... so analog plugin is way easier to achieve it, if you think about that.

But anyway I like exploring these kinds of things...