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

[PHLENDO]

Hey there,

Yea, I have both the Vintage Warmer and the Analog Sig. Pack. Both are excellent and "must haves" in the arsenal of FX. All of the music I create has that retro/vintage rock thing going on. The sound I need is very particular, and would be very expensive to recreate using hardware.

That being said, I've been using the VW for about 2+ years, and the Sig. Pack only a few days. Here's the lowdown:

The VW does an excellent job of recreating all the warmth, and saturation of the hardware units it was based on (Fairchild limiters, etc..). The presets are amazing, and ideally, I would use the VW on every track as well as the master chain to get "that" sound. Unfortuately, it's a CPU HOG, and I'm running a very fast machine- P4, with 3 gigs of RAM. The VW just makes my machine crawl if I apply more than 4 or 5 instances of it. So lately I've been just using it as a tape saturation simulator in my master chain. Also worth mentioning is the Cakewalk Tape Saturator plugin. It's in their FX2 package for about $100.

The Analog Sig. Pack is absolutely UNBELIEVABLE!

(BTW, I don't work for Nomad Factory or this website, so I have nothing to lose or gain by applauding this piece of software).

The LM-662 is fantastic, the Pultec-like EQ-4 is great too. I'm still on the fence about the 226 strip. The thing that I like about these is that not only do I have more control over the sound I get, but they are so light on the CPU that I can literally run all three plugins on every single track of audio, plus the master chain without so much as a hiccup (and I'm talking about 15 tracks of audio with full drums, guitars, vocals, etc.)!

However... the sound you get from the Analog Signature PRESETS are just AWFUL. I mean really, really bad. So bad in fact, that it's worth it to Init your own, start with a default and dial in your sound from there. The controls are so well laid out that you can't fail to find something that will satisfy your ears. Also the dials respond better than the VW dials, and the GUI is just gorgeus and stable.

You also might want to check out the VST plugins made by Antress, as well as Kajearhus' Classic plugins. They are all freeware, and lend a helping hand in providing good vintage compression, etc..

Oh yea, two more things:

1. Buy the RTB book. It's called Recording the Beatles, and at 549 pages (and $100) I guarantee you will walk away with your head chock full of new and interesting ways to record your tracks.

2. Chandler is a company that makes the EMI Abbey Road TG12345 mixing desk plug in. FYI that's the desk used to record Dark Side of the Moon, and Abbey Road, and those albums still sound better than 99.9% of the garbage that's being passed off as music nowadays.

So there you have it. I hope that helps.

This post has been edited by PHLENDO: Apr 15 2007, 01:28 AM