NIOA VS-880 TIP 295-0005:

PHAT ANALOG sound patch

Virtual Suite Part 1

This, the first installment in the "Virtual Suite" series, covers one way of getting that PHAT ANALOG sound out of your digital VS-880.

What's one method? Amp simulations. Roland's Composite Object Sound Modelling effectively simulates the tonal coloration of various guitar heads. Big deal? Yeah, it is, because those amp sims can be used for a *lot* more than just guitar work.

Take, for example, the Clean Twin or JC-120 preamps. Both preamps contain tubes. Tubes = warmth. Warmth = good. Because you can simulate these preamps, you can simulate tube warmth. And it's good.

The basic technique is to take a stereo track pair that you want to fatten and to run each of the 2 tracks through its own guitar amp sim. This works great for conditioning your inputs- not only do the sims warm up a nasty digital synth, they also add a dab of their own compression-- mm good. Hey, you could even throw out your newfangled JP-8000, or the Yamaha equivalent-- unless you like the knobs.

The technique doesn't only work for inputs-- with the right settings, the guitar amp sims are clear enough from artifacts that you can route partial mixes, or even complete mixes, through them for added character. What you gain is a punchy low end (especially using the Clean Twin amp sim), a beautiful warmth, a bit of "tapish" saturation at high levels. What you loose is a bit of high end "sparkle" (above 12 kHz basically). But hey, that's analog (simulation).

So, what do I do to get these analogifying patches working? Simple. Choose the two tracks you want to condition. If they are coupled with CHANNEL LINK, uncouple them. If they are a stereo pair, pan one left and one right. Set their levels to match. Now, choose one of the ANALOGIFY patches I've listed below. INSERT it onto the first track. Using the other FX processor, select the same ANALOGIFY patch. INSERT it onto the second track. You must use both FX processors, since the amp sims work in MONO and you should have the parallel tube path for the real phat sound.

To control the compression, saturation and level of your tracks, use the FADER or EFFECT SEND LEVEL. Moving the fader changes the level that is sent to the amp sims-- but since the amp sims respond differently to low & high volumes, fading in and out is no longer just making something louder or softer-- it actually colors the sound in an analog way-- so if you push your fader way up, you will be saturating the virtual "tape" and you will eventually get break up and distortion-- that is, assuming that your PRE fader levels don't digitally clip before they hit the FX processor.

Mmm.. a virtual analog console.

Correction to virtual suite From: J Pekau 31 Jan 1998

The above is crap. Moving the fader controls the level returned from the FX processors, so it is identical to messing with the FX return when you have just one effect inserted per track. The way to change the level sent to the amp sim is to change the EFFECT SEND LEVEL, as I mentioned above. So, you still have a virtual analog console, you just can't control the coloration and saturation from the faders. Instead, you have to play around in the menus.

It's a shame you can't assign those faders to change any parameter. But with sufficient midi-age, you could conceivably have faders for all sorts of goodies (check out the Peavey fader box, that sounds like a great companion to the VS).

Now, what if you want to control the volume without changing the coloration? Don't move the faders!! Use the EFFECT RETURN LEVEL- this controls the level of the amp sim that is returned to the track. Fiddling with the effect return simply changes volume (in a very clinical, digital way).

The above description of EFFECT SEND and EFFECT RETURN apply to many FX patches. For example, if you pull down the fader for a track which you have routed through a compressor, you will actually reduce the amount of compression because less of the signal will pass over the threshold.

Anyways, enough babble. Here are some funky "ANALOGIFY" patches. Remember to insert the same patch on both tracks, unless you want a really funky stereo spread. And feel free to tweak these. The nice thing about the amp sims is that the preamps have BASS, MID & TREBLE tone controls which respond non-linearly just like a real preamp, so you get an analog EQ built right in. The presence control is also brilliant as a sort of pseudo-enhancer to bring elements of your mix (or the whole thing) into the foreground.

PATCH: Analogify1
BASED ON: Guitar Amp Sim algorithm (not guitar multi)
NS: ON Treshold: 10 Release: 30
PREAMP: ON Clean Twin Vol: 40 Master: 100 Gain: Low Bass: 10 Mid: 60
Treble: 18 Presence: 16 Bright: OFF 
SPEAKER: OFF
PATCH: Analogify2
NS: As above 
PREAMP: ON Clean Twin Vol: 40 Master: 100 Gain: Low Bass: 10 Mid: 100
Treble: 7 Presence: 60 Bright: OFF
SPEAKER: OFF
PATCH: Analogify3
NS: As above 
PREAMP: ON Clean Twin Vol: 40 Master: 100 Gain: Low Bass: 10 Mid: 90
Treble: 8 Presence: 16 Bright: OFF
SPEAKER: OFF
PATCH: Analogify4
NS: As above 
PREAMP: ON Clean Twin Vol: 40 Master: 100 Gain: Low Bass: 10 Mid: 80
Treble: 7 Presence: 6 Bright: OFF
SPEAKER: OFF
PATCH: Analogify5
NS: As above 
PREAMP: ON Clean Twin Vol: 40 Master: 100 Gain: Low Bass: 10 Mid: 92
Treble: 9 Presence: 10 Bright: OFF
SPEAKER: OFF
PATCH: Analogify6 ** this one saturates quickly, but is phatt
NS: As above 
PREAMP: ON Clean Twin Vol: 55 Master: 100 Gain: Low Bass: 20 Mid: 85
Treble: 10 Presence: 14 Bright: OFF
SPEAKER: OFF
PATCH: Analogify7 ** a different kind of analog coloration, warmer perhaps
NS: As above 
PREAMP: ON JC-120 Vol: 25 Master: 100 Gain: High Bass: 30 Mid: 33
Treble: 3 Presence: 10 Bright: OFF
SPEAKER: OFF
PATCH: Analogify8
NS: As above 
PREAMP: ON JC-120 Vol: 28 Master: 97 Gain: Mid Bass: 43 Mid: 93
Treble: 20 Presence: 0 Bright: OFF
SPEAKER: OFF
PATCH: Analogify9
NS: As above 
PREAMP: ON JC-120 Vol: 55 Master: 97 Gain: Low Bass: 35 Mid: 100
Treble: 15 Presence: 47 Bright: OFF
SPEAKER: OFF

ENJOY! Stay tuned for more of the virtual suite!

Ian (J Pekau)

jipekau@engmail.uwaterloo.ca

16 Jan 1998

1998/02


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