Making Your Digital Mix Sound Analog with Brian Deck

Even if you only have access to digital gear, producer Brian Deck is here to prove you can still make your record sound analog. Watch along as Brian walks us through some examples of the kind of processing you can do with plug-ins to replicate the collection of electronics of an analog mixer and outboard gear.
Read more on Reverb: bit.ly/3mqTXmx
Featured Music:
Moritat - www.moritatmusic.com / www.moritat.bandcamp.com
Wreath of Hogs: wreathofhogs.bandcamp.com
0:00 - What is Sounding Analog?
11:54 - Example 2

[@toledojavier3619]

I record into a vintage computer hard drive, upload everything to icloud, let it sit a few days so it gets some mojo and then download it and start mixing on my old laptop for that old sound

[@MasteringSound]

That’s freaking funny. Thank you

[@ChristopherHero]

be sure to use vintage ribbon cables too. old dial up modems add grit too

[@woulg]

This is one of those jokes that will hopefully become part of the history of electronic music. Like that forum post about the drum guy who started goat farming

[@bobomark4136]

Or used old 200mb HD also have vintage sound..

[@considercaption]

Come back when you start using floppy disk.

[@josephrasbold2180]

Lots of comments here complaining about the UAD plugins. I just want to say that the concepts demonstrated in this video can be applied in all of your mixes with the plugins you already own. For example: instead of the UAD Neve line amp, you can use the Soundtoys Radiator, Kazrog True Iron, or the Waves NLS summing plugin. (basically, a saturation plugin). Many different plugin companies make the same analog modeled plugins that UAD does. The big takeaway from this video is setting up your DAW to have a signal flow that replicates an analog console, and using plugins to replicate channel saturation, summing, and analog processors. Concept over construct!

[@ChristopherHero]

Amen, lots of bitching, not a lot of love for the techniques shown. Brilliant and straight-to-the--point video

[@dragon-id5uj]

youtube is accessible to anyone with a web connection; expect a few heads to be flown over lol. sometimes being in the upper end of the bell curve is pain

[@lukeGGlee]

Lindell 80 series legit the best alternative

[@basleurs1]

Thanks a lot, son of Butch Vig and Adam Savage. Really interesting!

[@serega0117]

😅😅😅

[@DumboSanchez]

spot on

[@mistertwister4862]

Great video, Brian. Thanks for taking the time to share these mixing tips.

[@djwhit5745]

Thank you for this upload. Excellent and effective demonstration of these pre amp plugins. I especially appreciate how thoughtful your approach is in these mixes.

[@Salantsoundstudios]

im surprised he didnt mention a tape sim! nice sounds all around guys!

[@prodbysimeon]

On the whole, his approach and what he's saying is solid. Pretty useless for people who don't know how to mix yet, but amazing for those of us who just want to add some extra colour and tone to our mixes. After a certain level it's definitely ALL about the gear, doesn't matter what anyone says, all pro's love expensive gear, it sounds amazing and makes the process so much easier. I got a lot from this and started using the UAD Neve preamp (which I never even knew I had) as well as some other UAD console emulations on the busses, which has definitely given me some nice high mid detail and more of that sought after colour and tone that 100% makes digital sounding mixes more 'Analog' Cheers Brian!.

[@hswarth]

Thanks for the feedback! Are using transparent digital EQ’s (either in your DAW or as plug-in) on individual tracks before running the analog modeling plug-ins or are you eq your tracks using the analog EQ modeler?

[@umraansyed]

Yo this is super helpful. Keep up the great content guys.

[@iamantoniofernandez]

Super informative! Thank you so much for this

[@EdWard-qp4zc]

great video

[@charlesandhisworld]

cool tune!!!

[@girolamo5637]

Wonderful!!

[@bluenotesharp]

Just made me nostalgic from when I used all analog hardware. I miss having my grease pencil, tape splices hanging around my neck and mixing with actual racks of tube EQs ...... Pultecs and 1176’s and Harmonizers Oh My!!! and of course my EMT plate reverb.

[@andylatham4277]

Califone love! Also, good info here, thanks!

[@kyleserafin9616]

God, these comments are reductive. Yes, he's using cumulatively expensive hardware emulation plugins, but the overall point still stands when using stock compressors, eqs, saturators, etc.: emulate the signal paths of analog gear for a more cohesive sound. Stock plugins might be difficult to get sounding like Neve gear or the like, but the approach might improve your mixes.

[@mikdu1]

That's just incorrect. The emulation plugins are made to add artificial harmonics, i.e coloring, similar to analog gear. Stock plugins are pretty much always made transparent.

[@kyleserafin9616]

@@mikdu1 We're both correct, imo. Yes, hardware emulations (tend to) add saturation/harmonics to replicate vintage gear which can help you sound like you're using specific models or types of gear. While they help, I'd say the point of the video is less about modeling the saturation profiles of analog boards/compressors/preamps and more about bus processing and signal path emulation, which applies to cleaner stock vsts.

[@billedwards2657]

MORE OF THESE

[@moritatmusic]

Hey everyone, MORITAT is featured but the credits never happened. www.moritatmusic.com & www.moritat.bandcamp.com for more about us. new album, "Vermilion", TBR 2021. Thank you.

[@RocknRollkat]

I've been doing this for a while. I built a 6SN7GT tube preamp complete with tube distortion and selectable 'age' (noise, etc.) Also, I'm developing the heart and soul of these gain stages, a digital transformer in /.out complete with the all important transformer phase shift. Every channel gets these preamps and line amps. Writing my own plugins guarantees what's inside 'em. I like to know what I'm working with. Bill P.

[@KadokiPo]

Superhero again))) analog processed sound and sound in the box are absolutely different.

[@QuiethouseRecording]

Brian Deck is the fucking man.

[@slown3w]

Airwindows Channel 7 for open source plugin fans 👌

[@mrufino1]

Airwindows plugins are excellent, Chris is a genius.

[@SpencerMMusic]

AirWindows totape, tovinyl, tape, groovewear, desk, console7cascade, tubedesk, and interstage are how you get an analoge sound. truthfully. I personally own all the updated the waves, iZotope, and IK TRacks products and nothing comes close to his work recreating an analoge sound. as far as eqs and comps go... I'd rather use the waves/IK/arturia stuff, but when it comes to tape, vinyl, or summing Chris absolutley knocks it out of the park every single time! His totape destroys waves Kramer and J37 tape saturation plugins that I used to rely on religiously!

[@slown3w]

@@SpencerMMusic Indeed, totape and tape all great. A hidden gem is console6buss (if you can find it ;) as 1st on the mix buss and then start boosting. A great free master compressor you should check out too is TDR Kotelnikov. Check that out, been my favorite mastering comp since I found it. I guess it is loosely based on Maag audio comp but I might be wrong... It is super anyway!

[@jacobwendt1901]

Great tips all around! I've been wondering how to get that fat kick sound the second track has at 12:50 - also has such a long decay, is it natural reverb thats going on?

[@planej6315]

I'm guessing some low end (tape-)saturation and a small room reverb with about 1-2 sec decay (bus with 100% wet signal slightly turned up), EQ on the kick sounds like there wasn't taken out much below 50 Hz, probably a little 100 Hz bump. And the kick itself sounds fairly large in diameter, at least 22 inch in medium to low tuning.

[@BenKrisfield]

All the big brand names there.

[@justinbeck8459]

If you have the computing capacity to do the faux summing thing with Acustica plug-ins it gives freaky results. (Coffee, Camel, Sand, Pink are all optimized to do this actually)

[@pjuliano9000]

Send all your tracks throw an eq->a tube di->Burl preamp .... then they won’t sound like plastic ... use the eq to coerce the best tone with the tube inducing some 2nd order harmonics ... then overdrive slightly the transformer preamp to shave off transients and cause hysteresis to occur .... then you’ll be how much easier it will be to gain cohesion with in the box plug ins

[@infamousrecordz]

May I know which Burl preamp ?

[@hippisarecool]

What are they putting in the Chicago weed? These song examples are so strange 😂

[@moritatmusic]

yuhhh for sure!!!! MORITAT! www.moritatmusic.com & www.moritat.bandcamp.com for more about us. new album, "Vermilion", TBR 2021. Thank you.

[@LordStompyHarpLoonyTunes]

Fentanyl by the sound of it.

[@g1id690]

I thought Montreal weed was bad. Sprinkle some child trauma over it and you’ve got yourself some indie Chicago BS. I don’t know man. Music has gotten so bad it’s no wonder AI is taking over.

[@georgedavies7867]

Some lovely flangers on the guitars - did the band use an Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress / Filter Matrix pedal? Would love to know how they created those tones if it was some other flanger. :)

[@cortical1]

Thanks for the concepts. Love all the commenters summing it all up as just buying plugins. Pearls before swine.

[@infamousrecordz]

I have an Apollo twin x Quad core interface and I am thinking to buy Burl B2 ADC. Should I need to buy apollo x8 before that ?

[@javierjanaid]

Great, thanks for that. But please, can you run for us your Rupert Neve 5088 console there? 🙃😬

[@sagesliverpinksage834]

Do the weekend on synth sounds mane

[@lukeGGlee]

Lindell series 80 would be the best alternative to using the high cpu Uad neve preamps

[@Kezzeract]

If you want it to sound analogue...record analogue. There are plenty of good desks out there that don't cost the earth. Tape is still a thing and it's still wonderful.

[@joesinclair8910]

Yeah this would only make sense if you cant afford it or have no space, but the expensive plugins they show contradict this, unless there are free or almost free equivalents

[@s.r.b.4582]

what are the desks you're talking about? I'd like to know :) i'm super interested in this kind of gear

[@Kezzeract]

The "Ghost" and "Spirit" series by Soundcraft always sounded good, to me. Especially for the price. Studiomaster is a good choice. Anything Allen & Heath is worth a look. Solid build. Solid sound. Most of these desks will have been built between early 90's - early 2000's, as digital became more popular after this period and there was less demand for analogue home studio desks. Naturally, these have long been discontinued, so you'll have to shop around the used market, but anyone selling these desks has, usually, kept them in good condition. Anything better than this and you're starting to step in to the (very expensive) world of high-end consoles, e.g. Neve, API, SSL, etc. So, shop around and have some fun. :)

[@s.r.b.4582]

@@Kezzeract thanks !! Very appreciated tips and secret ! Thanks again

[@s.r.b.4582]

@@Kezzeract and do you advocate a specific converter to route the audio signal from the daw to the mixing desk?

[@thebreakfastmenu]

Expensive plugins. There ya go.

[@rhythmjones]

There are free and cheap plugins that do all this stuff very well.

[@ChristopherHero]

@@rhythmjones yep! short-sighted comments only shortchange the commenter! Start with what you can, improve from there. So many cheap/free alternatives on your way to better options.

[@bhaveshtochabbra6853]

@@ChristopherHero :)

[@joechapman8208]

To get the transformer effect, you could get Kazrog's True Iron which is about $40 and sometimes less (or just get the demo, make a chain from your existing plugins that sounds similar, and just use your own chain instead)

[@AnaamSings]

What do people think of the waves line up of plug ins called the 'abbey road' series - I use some of them and they are pretty good imo. any other thoughts about whether they emulate analog sound accurately? not looking for random unhelpful comments on the waves 'subscription' controversy though.

[@yigit_kuru]

I heard from Paul Third that waves are not representing the hardware versions. That abbey roads eq was just an eq not the hardware one. So stay away from waves for that kind of plugins. Softube is good but little expensive. I use neve emulations from NoiseAsh and I can say they sound realistic as hell! Maybe try them. They have neve pres as well.

[@AnaamSings]

@@yigit_kuru ty - helpful reply! will check out Neve

[@yigit_kuru]

@@AnaamSings No problem mate. Softube has just ended a sale on essential plugins bundle which includes british class a(neve console emulation). It was 49$. Noiseash neve emulations have extra mid band for flexibility. It’s too colorful, when you select frequency even though you don’t even boost yet it slightly boosts that freq range. Pres are great too. I love 73 and 84 emulations. It gives analog warmth and 3dness imo.

[@darkozoric4184]

Waves Abbey road is amazing. Their Abbey road mastering plugin is a game changer. I've got all UAD, Slate, IK Multimedia, Waves plugins. Their Abbey road is some of the best. Don't listen to naysayers. Use your ears. Try it out as a demo.

[@DenKulesteSomFins]

He was great in Mad Men. That fake mustache doesn't fool anyone

[@ameer_saban]

Roger Sterling 🤣

[@ecantalk]

Mr. Stark would be proud of his son.

[@beakmann]

What about tape noise

[@loganfinn2728]

I find people usually overestimate how much tape noise there actually was on 1950s-1990s recordings. Granted, there was some, but some people who go for the more analog sound overdo it and make it too in your face.

[@xHeadcleanerx]

It’s just white noise at a really low level.

[@downhill2k013]

You can just layer a .WAV. There’s like... five different samples in every free lofi hip-hop sample pack

[@2112jonr]

@@loganfinn2728 Agreed. Until you've heard Rush's Moving Pictures, from 1981, most folks don't appreciate just how low the noise floor could be on tape. It's virtually non-existant on that album.

[@SpencerMMusic]

google AirWindows plugins. download his TapeHiss vst as well as his ToTape and ToVinyl plugins. you'll thank me later

[@Jobo47]

You're saying if I want an analog sounding mix, use plugins that emulate analog gear... wow! I'm so glad you guys were the first to think of this, congratulations.

[@joeboonmusic4004]

You’re kind of missing the point. You don’t just slap analogue emulations and get an analogue sounding mix. He’s demonstrating how he utilises these plugins in a chain... isn’t that obvious?

[@Jobo47]

@@joeboonmusic4004 I understand but it’s just funny that they act like this is some “secret sauce” or knowledge that no else knows, when all these practices are pretty common amongst myself and every producer I know.

[@joeboonmusic4004]

@@Jobo47 ah fair enough, I get you! I guess it’s good for people at a certain level

[@Jobo47]

@@joeboonmusic4004 I’m glad we can see each other’s point of view. I hope others see that two people can have a conversation about things and not argue like a bunch of school kids lol

[@CS-sf1rz]

Yay Red red meat 🥩🥰

[@mikev7355]

I agree, louder is better.

[@flotopo]

So, you really cannot tell the difference in color if there is a volume change taking place? Volume increase is all you hear?

[@emanuelwhitehead6039]

I don’t have uad plugins so I can’t get that sound.

[@laxr5rs]

Add distortion, screw up your frequency response, add noise, am I on the right track?

[@EpicStuffMan1000]

I mean. Yeah, that's the analog sound. It's great! But so is ultra clean modern sound. It's all useful

[@Avgustovsky]

Yep. They've defeated distortion, fixed frequency response, removed noise and achived the high-fidelity modern digital supersound. In dark ages of producing if you ocasionally managed to take the right parts and to build up in a right manner a piece of gear from them that distorted and screwed signal in a pleasant to the human ear way - you became a legend. Or your gear. Now we have VSTs plugins instead, that are expensive less or more and made by differently skilled programming engineers instead of circuitboard engineers. This guy's are expensive))

[@TheNilobyreach117]

What program is he usin on the pc?

[@chinmeysway]

hmmmm reamp the entire mix through a tape machine? i mean, cuz that music is pretty decent nstuff.

[@thallrudedjentstorm1756]

A daw can't reproduce a analog mixer and or tape machine. This demonstrates it nicely. At no point I thought to myself that this sounds analog. Quite the contrary I thought to myself all the time: THIS SOUNDS DIGITAL. Where is the randomness? Where is the noise? Where is the saturation? Where is the character? Where is the wobble? I simply only hear that digital clarity that I don't like...

[@jf542]

the guitar bit is annoying coz its not gain matched

[@TheMirolab]

I thought it was annoying because the guitars sound annoying.

[@considercaption]

Hm, a professional mixing engineer using professional mixing engineer plugins. Imagine that.

[@joeboonmusic4004]

I don’t understand the problem with that? The same principles apply whether you’re using UAD/Softube or if you’re using something more budget friendly...

[@considercaption]

@@joeboonmusic4004Good, cause there is no problem lol. That’s the point. I was vaguely responding to other comments in the section.

[@largepoodle6036]

maybe she will too

[@Brutuscomedy]

Did UAD pay for this?

[@DigitalChemistryBand]

Just a rant... ITB since 98'...never had 100k to spend on recording gear. Spent my life as a club, and session musician. I have dozens of dx and vst compressors, been "bussing" tracks "forever", and have a 24 track mindset. LESS is always MORE. I've tried to watch these MWM videos with an open mind, but ... a guy with 100 grand worth of studio is NOT the guy with a laptop and headphones in his bedroom. Concepts are useful if you use UAD... with Mac, and Protools... or... if you don't... And I don't... but I know whatever I do on my old Truth2 monitors sound like god when played back through a set of Genlec. Your ears are the best tools. Nothing like someone using tens of thousands of dollars of gear, trying to bring analog excitement to lifeless tracks. Rather listen to Glenn Fricker... mere mortals can afford the plugins he uses, not these cpu cycle sucking ilok protected bloatware. All of these concepts can be accomplished w free vst, as easily as with the plugins he's sponsoring. I'm sure, through his 10k a piece monitors, he can hear the difference between his 1176 clone, and mine... the audience can't, and I'm betting neither can his clients. And since we're really just talking about compression with "color", why are we so stuck with sounds that were created/ captured on gear from the 70s? This is 2020...why do we care if it sounds like an SSL, or API, or.... insert any 70s piece of gear. It either sounds great, or... it doesn't. If it doesn't, the source is to blame, not your choice of compression. Throwing plugins at something does not make better tracks, and "glueing" together crappy tracks sounds like crappy tracks mixed well... and still... garbage. And... if these bands wanted analog, they should have used a portastudio... no comping tracks, mistakes and all... mix that, and then let's talk about mixing, or rather what he'd be really doing... fixing bad performances of lifeless material.

[@joeboonmusic4004]

I’m confused as to why you’re ranting on a video clearly titled to let you know it’s going to be about using plugins to achieve a certain sound...? No you don’t NEED expensive monitors, plugins, hardware. No you don’t NEED an incredible mic locker stocked with old tube mics. Most famous engineers and mix engineers choose to have these tools at their disposal because it fits in with THEIR workflow. You’re criticising the use of said equipment whilst acting as if people are criticising you for using less expensive gear. If you get great results from your gear then congratulations... we all have a different path to our own preferences when it comes to audio. I discovered the power of a few expensive and wonderful microphones and it made my life about 10 times easier... but I’m not about to criticise anyone for using cheaper mics; nor would I expect them to criticise my choices. These people mix every day for a living, of course they’re going to want ATCs, LA2As, U47s and an API console... if it makes life easier for them and 90% of them do it, why are you so mad about it?

[@rhythmjones]

Is this a UAD ad?

[@jeffpapis9474]

The song is still sounds digital and muddled. Why do engineers overuse processing so much? Music is so fatiguing to hear nowadays. Why not just record like the old days and add as little effect as possible?

[@balibuoy1625]

Early birds catch the worm

[@UnstopFooL]

Nothing interesting,just Universal Audio plugins AD

[@goldenlion8123]

MAYBE NOT 'INTERESTING' BUT SOMETHING MORE OF A SOLUTION..

[@illuwe]

The actual idea of it is great, no matter what plugins you are using. Makes sense to emulate a analog signal path in digital, you don't have to use UAD plugins for it to work.

[@zachshipstead5247]

Plugins. The answer is plugins. The answer is always plugins on youtube.

[@illuwe]

What were you expecting then? The idea of trying to emulate analog signal path is what makes this good, not the individual plugins themselves.

[@prodbyluvrboy804]

What else would it be? Pray and hope that changes the sound

[@Birchblaze]

These types of videos are generally geared towards ppl who can't afford a $3-4k outboard compressor, or maybe even a $1k outboard preamp (like me) or maybe you're mixing a project remotely. So, if not plugins, then what?

[@jakejasonread980]

What was you hoping he’d mix it with, a spoon? 😂

[@joeboonmusic4004]

If you tap your computer on the perfect pixel, your computer will magically turn into a Neve desk... Honestly what did you think the alternative was to using plugins...?

[@noahpauley]

So moral of the story is to buy UA's Luna to get all these different plugins built in?

[@mrufino1]

The only thing Luna has built in is the oxide tape plugin, anything else is extra, although some of the Luna extensions are free if you have the corresponding plugin (studer and ampex). I don’t use Luna yet, even though I am using uad, I’m waiting for control surface support.

[@edjefferson9175]

Luna is free. But the (good) plugins are costly. And if you want to use a lot of them you need to buy more hardware DSP. Nothing is free.

[@SonicExplorer]

Sounds too much like a video that was sponsored by UAD

[@markowalski1]

More or less, he's at least explaining the what and why instead of just "Here's what I did"

[@cripesalmighty4744]

Calling autotune. Come in autotune ha

[@GuernB2]

Super awesome video, but man the guitars in that song sound like a jumbled mess from a composition standpoint.

[@DigitalChemistryBand]

Recorded like shit, sound like shit.

[@brendenrobertson]

Step 1: leave a 60hz hum on your video

[@4AMKIRK]

Lol that's the analog energy from him

[@nicolas.grisanti]

"Making Your Digital Mix Sound Analog to people who Listen in Digital Music Players or Streaming in low Quality" XD

[@nicolas.grisanti]

@Eegoal Music Production the "Human feeling" like you said, you make it without autotune, not quantize drums,etc. so is in the recording and editing session. The Analogic emulation is for, obviously, emulate an analogic equipment only, nothing human. And yes, my point make sense, because tha majority of people listen in streaming service in bad quality, so is already digital and not in a good way. The "feeling" only matters to the producers and musicians...and some snobs.

[@ChelloBertora]

No entiendo nada!! Subtitulos al español por favor!!!!!!! 🙏🏼

[@MartinMartin-yi9to]

So the clown cannot define analog and digital sound. Thanks for the chuckles.

[@travisraab]

yeah i must be deaf there is nothing happening lol

[@timithomann]

Way too less saturation man

[@benjaminmarks3366]

I wonder who's advice is worth more... Some guy on the internet called Mick or Brian Decker (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine, Counting Crows)... Hmmmm...

[@timithomann]

@@benjaminmarks3366 mick green, some guy on the internet called mick green.

[@47dark]

@@timithomann lol legend

[@oinkooink]

@@benjaminmarks3366 Mick Green. He's our man on the internet. Godlike insight. Long live Mike Green. We love you Mike Green!

[@jxrx4577]

WTF is this song? 😂😂😂 wow

[@superblondeDotOrg]

Too bad he doesn't know how to draw a signal path diagram. 🙄