Dr Bill's Magic "Make Digital Sound Like Analog" Technique

I totally expected that part too. I just wanted to ask since he’s on here from time to time. Even it’s not something he still uses, I’m still curious about what his ITB process was like back then.

I am in the middle of mastering the last 375 or so Chad .

That thread that bossanova mentioned sounds like a LOT longer than 10 years ago.

I can safely say that my workflow, my ears, my gear selection choices, and the intent and direction of the music I write / produce has changed a lot since then. Back then I was mostly mixing for feature films, and brightness was certainly the enemy. Mid focused tracks - but with open HF / Air -had the biggest chance of success. These days I'm mixing more for human consumption, so brighter / more open gets me more into the mainstream. I can probably make some comments, but if bossanova has a link to what I actually said back in the day, that would pull me back into the mindset of where I was at at that point in time.

The Missing Link low pass filters were a big part of what I was doing at one point in time and I still use them frequently. That era was before the Silver Bullet, where Brad helped me codify, realize my feelings on LPF, HPF, Saturation, Air EQ, etc. and bring into reality what eventually became the SB and now the SBmk2.

Low passing audio appropriately (the Missing Link - appropriately named - is a FANTASTIC tool for that), and adding a degree of saturation to de-cleanse (the SB is a FANTASTIC tool for that) has become a large part of what I do these days. Although I'm gradually moving towards brighter "less analog" (a BIT less) sounding masters these days.

15 years ago, I was still making that transition from analog over to digital and trying to bend Digital into Analog. These days, I have mostly (MOSTLY) come to grips with the digital DAW sound as that's really (effectively) the only thing we have left to work with.  Although tape is hard to find/work with in 2023, Analog gear is still going strong, and that's where I've been focusing my gear efforts.  The Silver Bullet has made a huge impact for me, and the very large hybrid setup I'm running (including the Missing Links) has really picked up the rest of the slack to get me where I want / need to be.  Some new and exciting things on that front that we hope to bring to the world soon....

I could talk about this for quite awhile, but if you have specific things I can address I'd be happy to chime in - as appropriate.....

OK, now I remember....

THAT thread.

I didn't re-read all 277 pages and thousands of posts this morning, but I scanned some of my thoughts.

At that point in time, the Silver Bullet was just germinating in the back of my mind. I had been using the Missing Links into VP26's (hit the ML LPF filters, then use the ML gain staging to pull levels down to mic level, then into the VP26's to get them back up to line level - I think Jeff thought I was cray cray for awhile) then into AML 1073's (line amps only) into LiLPEQr's to create my "analog mix buss processing". A lot of people followed that workflow that (I believe) I popularized, and many are still using that combo to this day.  I know some here swear by it.

I moved on though. The ML into VP26's were eventually replaced with VP28's for a more streamlined workflow. Although in retrospect, I think I liked the ML>VP26 a bit better as it was more defined and less cloudy with the same rolloff's / gain staging. But even then - experimentation and switching signal flows around was very clunky and tedious with that workflow.

Enter my (now) good friend Brad McGowan and the research / development we did together that was to become the germination of my/our dreams / fantasies / wishlists of an analog sound and workflow into the DAW world - the Silver Bullet.  

Quick and fast bottom line - the SB fixed my 2 buss "console" needs and made my workflow faster, more elegant and good for my every day session life.

But.....to the LPF workflow that I intimated about in my initial post on that thread. Yes, LPF's are a big secret. Yes, they are almost feared by many (most?) engineers. Yes, there were digital console designers who put them into the internal circuitry whose products were hailed as "the most analog sounding digital console you can buy". Yes, you can destroy your audio (more on that below). And yes, they can certainly be abused.

To use them successfully, you must not follow "rules". You should have to have some experience, and follow your ears. Unexperienced users can seriously F up their mixes / audio by following internet / hero mixer "rules". Here's an example :

I mastered an album by one of my local churches. The mix engineer was a HUUUUUUUGE fan of one of the "Three Initials" mixer "heroes" out there. The hero said on the Internet : "to make your DAW productions sound like they were recorded on tape, all you have to do is LPF everything at 12k, and voila, instant tape". Or at least that's how his advice was portrayed to me. So....I get the album, and there is zero HF on it. ZERO. Did I say ZERO? I actually meant ZEEEEEERRRRRROOOOOOOO!!!!!!  

So I called the guy up and asked him to remove all 2 buss processing plugins.  He said "I already did".  I mentioned there was no HF on the mixes.  He said "I know.  "XYZ" recommends to do that as it makes mixes sound like "tape" and he says that's what he does.  So I LPF'd everything with a high slope filter at 12K WHEN I RECORDED IT."  I mentioned that my tape machines only started to "roll off" audio at 30k +.  He looked at me like I didn't know $#@! cause "XYZ" said the above and I was just a local guy.    LOL. He knew my credits, but I still wasn't mixing for his favorite alt rock bands, so evidently I knew nothing.  I knew we were doomed at that point.  LPF was our nemesis on that project.  An excellent example of following "rules" instead of using them for inspiration.

At that point, there was little I could do.  I used every trick in the book, but the album is still muddy and somewhat lifeless although significantly better than what I was delivered with.  That's a BAD example of using LPF's.

To articulate the RIGHT way - you have to USE YOUR EARS.  If you have no experience in this, then start at 20k and start to pull down slowly with a gentle slope, when you hear the HF start to disappear, then go back up a bit.  Work your way across the tracks.  Don't go TOO far - especially when tracking as you can't go back.  

Then, think about your mix.  This is where the experience factor comes in.  Whatever you want big and upfront gets LESS LPF'ing.  Things you want further back or more obscured in the mix get MORE LPF'ing.  Takes some experimentation.  If you are not intimate with LPFing and the potential issues it introduces into the equation, please do not do it while tracking - do it in the mix.

Again, true analog tools like the Missing Links and Silver Bullets (I'm rocking 8 of them currently) and Chop Shops (cleaner than the ML's) really help out vs. plugins.

Hopefully this will reveal a bit more about the process I was eluding too in that thread.  

Next up, we could talk about saturation as an analog accentuator and pseudo EQ and gain staging to achieve texture and analog life....


Cheers,  bp

So how many are left?
Chris

First step is to eliminate digital artifacts. So 95% of highly praised digital tools, throw them in the trash can and set it on fire.

That is one of the creepiest images I've ever seen, and I've seen some.

The Black Box plug-in gives me around 30% of what analogue processing would on my 2 bus. It's a huge help, if not the final solution.

what settings do you mostly use? i try it but it never made a final mix. mainly i start with the preset „more balls“ or something like that and have it like 30-40% wet. i make rock music for older kids … ;-)

black box is nothing compared to a console with inserts, multichannel tape deck, and stereo tape.
www.diyrecordingequipment.com/blogs/news/sonic-varnish

Even without those obviously colored pieces he names in the article like chandler and tube tech, the signal is still passing through a bunch of circuits with different distortions in their relatively linear regions. Yeah there will come a point when it makes the sound worse and not different, cooler, or better but when you’re on a board you don’t have a choice! Now itb, you can overdo it with distortion plugins and hardware inserts until your machine starts stuttering or you run out of hardware inserts. You can build up your own distorted to hell sound and usually it sounds awful. There’s a ton of plastic crappy sounding distorted gear and plugins now. The distressor was only the beginning!

I change them for every song. These settings are a little hotter than what I typically use.

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