Is Digital Catching Up To Analog? - Mixwave VLC vs Hazelrigg VLC
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- I got a rare opportunity to shoot out a plugin against the actual exact hardware unit it was modeled after. Let's see how close they really are!
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The Hazelrigg Industries VLC is one of the best available preamp + EQ on the market. The MixWave VLC is a clone of this very unit.
Wonderful video Matt!! Always happy for you to come by and use our studio! We love what you do! Great plug in and of course great hardware!!
Thanks Warren!
Both sound great but I can definitely tell the real unit stands out .
I used this on my recent tracks vocal chain and its magic. Sounds so good, brings the vocal forwards in a really nice way.
oh shit matt is the man! I learned about summing from one of his videos YEARS ago.
long live matty weiss.... he is a good egg
Interesting and great to hear a comparison where it's almost exclusively down to digital vs analog.
The plugin does what most plugins do and adds a kind of compression in a relatively narrow range that stands out - in this case and on this vocal around 1.2kHz.
Once I heard it it was pretty easy to pick it out, even scrolling the video down and doing it blind. It is even more pronounced when played in the track, as now that compressed midrange stands out in a penetrant way, overshadowing the details in the instruments in the side channel, as if a Masterbuss compressor had been added, which reacts to the vocal and pushes the instrumental back.
The hardware made the vocal sit better with the rest of the music and didn't take away anything from the background track. This behaviour has been my biggest pet peeve with all plugins in the last 10 years while mixing: they all create subtle new problems while solving the main issues and the more you use the more it stacks up.
I'm ITB (apart from a TAM Creme RC) as recall is a PITA and plan on staying there, but it would be nice if some developer could finally figure out why this happens and how to prevent it (and please spare me the "it measures the same" talk. I listen with my ears and not my eyes and if it sounds different it sounds different.)
😮
I think you are so right just realizing now
I hear a clear difference. Analog has. Low mid bump almost muddy. The plugin has a digital overlay type sheen. in the upper mid and high end
I would also like to add the hardware version, to my ears, sounds a bit more "compressed". Maybe due to the natural saturation that occurs from the analog components. However, in this context, I would have to say that I actually prefer the more natural sounding with extended high-end from the plugin. But this is really just nitpicking and they sound so similar to where it really doesn't matter. I'd imagine there could be more difference in sound between different hardware of the same unit compared to this.
I think running multiple analog units into each other is where analog can be better than multiple digital devices. Would be cool to see a comparison of that
Groovy!
Hardware top end is so much smoother and the sound is more realistic like positioned in a space hate to say 3D. The plugin is very close but sharp in the top end at those settings. I really wish you had pulled back some top end a bit on the plugin just to compare. The plugin didn't sound very good to me until the low end was brought up, Im hoping the same would apply to backing off the top end a bit.
im hearing wayy more highs on the plugin idk if it sounds crazy close but it doesnt sound bad
Hey Matt - very cool. Where was this taken? Have you settled into Miami nicely? Cool to see Warren picked up a Vari Mu. Little tip: if you ever want to match up a plugin and its corresponding hardware in terms of EQ (or really any two EQ processors) - the free Bertrom Curve Analyzer plugin is incredibly useful. You just sandwich the plugin between the insert, and the plugin - and then you can superimpose the frequency response graphs on top of each other. As Im sure you know, nulling is difficult in the analog domain - and this makes it almost trivially easy to match up curves
That would be kinda unfair for comparison purposes…. Right?
Great idea I think this should be a thing for every emulation plugin for the endusers…
@@SuperIZL It wouldnt be unfair; if anything it would allow for a better comparison, isolating the variable that we are testing: sound, by eliminating the fluctuations in actual parameter values due to component tolerance differences
@@Rhuggins 🙏🏽
Good to know, thank you!
To me the hardware sounds more alive more 3d
That’s so weird… I can clearly hear the difference the hardware (at least here on my iPhone speaker) has more highfreq compression saturation going on and is more pronounced and smoother … in my perception….
Great video… I didn’t know about the hardware the plugin has that sound although not identical
I want both😅
One thing about videos that compare analog to digital. Any analog equipment goes through a line amp or mic pre and some ad/da converters while plugin is sitting there completely dry. No one is taking that into consideration.
true that, but imo with good transparent conversion its often sooo subtle almost inaduble, and I don't think it adds anything special, more like takes something away.
@@MariJu1ce 💁🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
When you send something out from your DAW and into an analog unit, you are only going through a DA and an AD conversion, no mic or line amp involved.
low mid range sounds way nice and fuller on hardware
excellent video subject thanks! love shootouts
that shirt though I'm not so sure of
Mmmm... true, I kinda phoned this shirt in.
we forgive you 🫡
Digital will never become analog, analog will never become digital.
Use the same analog gear a year later, there will be differences in sound cause parts get older… some parts go off, but that’s part of the magic.
Digital will sound the same a century later.
Not exactly true, digital has changed a lot due to smart development and sound different than let's say 20 years ago...and we might get more compute power to be able to record mix and master in much higher resolutions. But I understand your statement. To me the hardware still has the upperhand in this test, but this time it was very close. The hardware is still rounder or warmer, for lack of better words.
We need component drift modeling 😂
@@mayzter8765 we are humen... We like inconsistencies... We are not robots... In our ears analogue has that natural warm sound... Digital can get close... But will never be there... It's the nature of things...
@@dimoscondos Stop... typing... like... this.... it's..... painful to..... read.
@@WeissAdvice omg
The hard tuned vocal is what makes this track sound not interesting to me. I’m not against tuning or using it as an effect, but it’s so audible it takes all the vibe out. Saturation and air won’t bring that back.
thats always an interesting thing to me when i see people say something similar because the amount of tuning has zero effect on if its interesting or its emotion for me. so im always like huh?
You need to boost over 12 o clock with the high boost on the hardware, below that it’s actually not boosting anything (measured on two different units and also got it confirmed by Geoff at hazelrig. No idea how the plugin works but might work the same. Either way you’re not hearing any high frequency boost in the hardware example here… don’t just look at knobs, always trust your ears. Wouldn’t you expect quite a bit of top with that kind of boost? :) it’s a lovely unit and the high boost is the best part of it
Uh… there’s clearly a high boost happening. Maybe use your ears?
Hey! I’m one of the owners of Mixwave and I helped model this plugin. There absolutely is boost happening the whole range of the pot. Noon is not zero - all the way counterclockwise is zero. As soon as you start turning up the pot, you begin to boost. The plugin behaves the exact same way. When creating this plugin we of course measured the exact behavior of the hardware. The plugin behaves the exact same way as the hardware. You can measure it in plugin doctor. This is a very musical and *relatively* subtle EQ that is not as aggressive as many others on the market. Hope that’s helpful! Thanks
I just listened to "Fall Out Of Love". I'm going to hazard a guess that your monitors are not telling you the truth. The high end is way out of whack.
@@DistrictSoundLab Hi,
As for the plugin, I haven't tried it but it sounds great either way in this audio example! But it's not correct regarding the hardware units high boost. When I got my first unit I thought something was broken with the high boost since it didnt seem to add anything until past 12 o clock (not even a dB until noon). I've then measured 2 units against noise and the actual boost starts around noon. As I mentioned I also actually brought this up with the hardware designer Geoff Hazelrigg, here's his answer for anyone interested:
"Thanks for your enthusiasm for our products!
That is correct with the VLC - that the high boost doesn’t really kick in until the knob is around the 12 mark (or more).
That’s because the exact pot with the optimal curve isn’t readily available . We use what we can get.
Anyhow, it’s most likely operating correctly."
@@WeissAdvice Hey, really didnt mean to offend you at all, love your channel and tutorials. Using my ears is how I noticed the way it worked (see my other reply). I just think it's a cool little quirk in the hardware that people should know :)