On Thursday, October 16, 2003, at 01:03  PM, Lee Elliott wrote:

>> My experience w/ ProTools has been primarily for MIXING & 
>> MASTERING...not
>> necessarily recording. All the finessing in the
>> world of digital technology will NEVER replicate the sounds analog
>> tape can capture...but I can certainly vouch for the ease of mixing 
>> and
>
> Never say never - we'll get a plug-in some day, only a matter of time. 
>  Who
> knows how long, but many many smart people are probably working on it 
> right
> now.

The guys at Universal Audio (formerly their dad's UREI) are taking a 
logical approach to this. As well as continuing to build their fathers 
famous analog component designs, they are working on emulating these 
same components in plug-in form. They do this by going through each and 
every aspect of the design and emulating the sound and effect of each 
resistor, capacitor, etc. in the chain. So far, it has resulted in some 
pretty amazing results. Their 1176 and LA-2A compressor/limiter plugins 
are very realistic sounding, and are heads above the Bombfactory 
versions (which aren't half bad themselves).

The McDSP "Analog Channel" is pretty cool as well. I was very skeptical 
of their analog emulation, but it does a decent job of mimicking bias 
and a variety of tape compression. It's not quite realistic, but I was 
quite surprised by how far it has come along. What I am waiting for is 
someone to develop a plugin that allows for emulation of various tape 
formats, CCIR EQ curves, etc. This would be especially nice if 
emulation were included for vintage tape formulations which are no 
longer made... particularly Scotch 250. 250 was used on most of the 
60's and early 70's recording, and it had a wonderful, unmistakable 
sound. And eventually, I fear most analog tape will no longer be 
manufactured, so it would be nice to have an accurate emulation for it. 
I can't imagine getting the guitar sounds I now get without plowing the 
signals into 456 at ridiculous levels... or getting the smooth bass 
guitar sound you can get from hitting Emtec 911 with a little force. 
Maybe one day, they will get it right.

Ryan