Nomad Factory Analog Signature Pack Vs. Psp Vintage Warmer, Please--unbiased views from those who have used both Options

[DISFrontman]

Hey Don'tCrackers,

I am posting the same thread here that I have on the PSP forum site:

I am ready to make a purchase and I have narrowed the choices down to these two:

PSP Vintage Warmer

or

Nomad Factory's Analog Signature Pack

(including Limiting Amplifier LM-662, Program Equalizer EQP-4, and Studio Channel SC-226)


I know this is a biased forum, so I'll factor that in. I have seen that while some reviewers consider them comparable, overall I see a clear tilt in the direction of PSP by working engineers, at least the original version of VW. There have been complaints about the UB version of VW, but over time people are realizing how to get their old tones back on the new plug--and as I am new to it, I do not have a backlog of projects that used the old one.

Does anyone here have experience with both plugs and can offer a reasonably unbased comparison/recommendation? Keep in mind that I am not a professional studio engineer--I am a DIY recording artist. I only need the technology that will make my OWN stuff sound good, not sounds for every recording scenario.

My sound is an updated version of that fat, fat, fat old-school classic rock sound, like the album Spilt Milk by Jellyfish, or vintage Queen, DSOTM Floyd, Hemispheres/Permanent Waves Rush, and Allan Holdsworth I.O.U., which are among my favorites.

I welcome any insights. Have any of you A/B'ed these against VW2?

Thanks,
Bart of DIS

[thebends]

Look, I would say both but the truth is that Nomad stuff is actually AMAZING. I have been using it now for months.. I have all of them and they are more important to me now thatn the WAVES stuff! I mean it!

The PSP stuff is good... I have a LOT of their plug ins... BUT... the things you can do with the nomad plugins are truly like no other. AND IT SOUNDS WARM!

[DISFrontman]

Look, I would say both but the truth is that Nomad stuff is actually AMAZING. I have been using it now for months.. I have all of them and they are more important to me now thatn the WAVES stuff! I mean it!

The PSP stuff is good... I have a LOT of their plug ins... BUT... the things you can do with the nomad plugins are truly like no other. AND IT SOUNDS WARM!

Thanks for your input.

I thought the GUI for the Nomad stuff seemed a lot more straightforward, compared to the PSP VW (with settings on the back, etc.). But you don't really buy a plug-in for its interface--you buy it for the sound.

I think I will have to demo both when I get some time off and make a decision. I don't know if enough people have worked the Nomad stuff into their workflow to give me the right kind of comparison feedback to help me decide. I am an artist and a musician, not an engineer. I don't have the bat ears that they have. That is why I am soliciting opinions online.

Anyone else out there that can give me knowlegeable feedback regarding the PSP/Nomad head to head?

This post has been edited by DISFrontman: Mar 21 2007, 12:17 PM

[DISFrontman]

Well, I have spent a few hours demoing PSP Vintage Warmer and the Nomad Factory Analog Signature Pack. Here are my first impressions:

1) The Nomad interfaces do actually make more sense to me. I still have not figured out how to get to the back panel of the PSP VW yet, although I didn’t really “research” the issue much.

2) I found that the Nomad’s analog overdriven distortion sounded very realistic. I liked the EQs, both the stand-alone and the channel strip versions. I had a goofy drum machine patch that I looped and tried these plugs on, and the EQ found life and realism in the patch that I did not think was even there.

Having said all that, I was even more impressed with the PSP Vintage Warmer:

3) The presets were 100x better. In fact, on the drum loop I was demoing with, EVERY preset sounded good, and better than the Nomad presets, even the clearly inappropriate ones!

4) Instead of modeling the buzziness of overdriven tubes, the PSP seems to do better at replicating the richer and more subtle warmth of tape saturation.

5) The PSP VW seemed to have a LOT more headroom and a LOT more depth. Things got analog fat in a hurry without tons of overdrive distortion break-up. I quickly tried it on other things, like vocals, rock guitars, B3, and bass, and found it to be extremely well-mannered, no matter what the input signal.

I can see how most fans of Vintage Warmer claim they use it on every track. You absolutely can’t screw the thing up, even if you have no real expertise in final mixing and mastering (like me), and if you actually DO have the knowledge and bat-ears to tweak this plug, I’m sure it delivers even more.

I still have more testing to do. My verdict is certainly not a final one, but right now my money (literally) might be on the PSP Vintage Warmer. I am using Logic, and the included EQ is great—I don’t need another, less “tweakable” one, even if it looks “vintage cool.” What I do need, however, is a plug that subtly saturates and warms the signal so that it sounds like I loaded a 2” tape 24-track Studer in a big-time expensive studio and tracked there. PSP’s Vintage Warmer nails that. With more study and experience, I might even be able to master with it, something I doubt could be done with the Analog Signature Pack.

Please give me you opinions and feel free to smack mine down, so long as your contentions are instructive and well-informed. Thanks!

Bart of DIS