Analogue Mixing In The Box - Pt 1 Tracking

The Tracking Stage

 In these days of digital recording and with, nearly every other day, some manufacturer introducing their latest, 'Get that analogue warmth', 'This is what your mix has been missing', plugin, I would like to take you back in time to how exactly analogue recordings were done. Knowing the workflow of how an analogue recording session took place will give you a better idea of how, when or whether to add 'analogue sounding' plugins to your mix.

 Firstly its important to define analogue recording. This was audio tracked (recorded) through outboard gear to a console and captured onto a multi track 2" tape machine. The tape was then played back through the console and mixed back to ½" two track tape machine. The tape was then mastered onto tape and finally that tape was pressed onto vinyl. That is 100% true analogue recording. Anything other than this doesn't really merit the hassle and inconvenience of adopting any of these steps if the recording is going into a DAW or being pressed onto compact disc or squashed and compressed to an mp3 file, then there's little point. That being said when tracking there is still great advantages to using classic preamps, Eq's and compressors, on the way in so to speak, The way audio sounds through classic hardware transformers, valves, tubes and how it adds saturation and harmonic overtones, added to the fact that all those classic albums, we love so dearly. were created this way, adds to creating a familiarity of sound that is still pleasing to the human ear today.

 Now when it came to tracking, both API and Neve consoles were favored for the task. It wasn't that SSL's and others couldn't do the job but more engineers loved the mic pre's on these consoles favouring the sound they created.

Analogue Tracking

In the modern studio of today a tracking session has a completely different ideology than how a band laid down a track in the analogue era. Nowadays the band doesn't even have to be in the same Country let alone all playing the song at the same time anymore and overdubs are but a few mouse clicks to complete. But back in the analogue era, before the 'Pro Tools' age, things weren't so easy or straight forward.

Back in the golden age of recording when budgets were huge, the band all had to turn up together at the same studio, all assemble in the same isolation room and all lay down the song in one take while everything was recorded live to tape. Also while it was being laid down you rode those faders trying to automate things live and you made the recording there and then. 

 Sure multiple takes were done but the track was played live and recorded live. Any overdubs meant a painstaking process of cueing up the tape machine and punching in and out by hitting the play and record and stop buttons on the tape machine. Edits involved literal slicing of the tape with a razor and re-joining it again to make any corrections. What a nightmare. Then there was the dreaded noise floor to worry about, gain staging, was literal make or break of a tracking session. If only those people who have never experienced analogue tracking and mixing knew what a nightmare it really was they would be scratching their head, as I do many times, as to why all this emphasis on recreating it all over again in the digital realm. So if you really must romanticise the whole experience and feel your pristine digital recording is 'Too perfect', clean, clear and noiseless all the things we would have died for back then, then read on as I explain how to recreate a setting for an analogue tracking session in your DAW.

Let's Address Signal Flow

 Instruments and Vocalists were traditionally mic'd or direct line level (i.e. plugged directly into the console, as was the case for most keyboards). From there the signal passed into pre-amps (API 212, Nev 1073 or using the onboard Console pre's). Next up the dynamics section (either onboard Console or outboard EQ & Compression). Next through the console circuit itself and finally all outputted, captured and recorded onto a multi channel ½" tape machine.
 So how on earth can we mimic all of that in the digital domain within our DAW? Well truth be told there's still quite a lot of this outboard gear used when tracking, probably the last bastion of relevance for using analogue in a digital age. But what I want to hit on is creating this signal flow by solely using plugins. Well, as already said above, manufacturers, rightly or wrongly, are falling over themselves to offer us a different plugin everyday, that emulates all that classic analogue equipment. So lets try to give an example of following the same analogue signal path digitally.

Pre-Amps

To this day there are two main pre-amps that are extensively used in tracking. These are the API 212 and Neve 1073.

 Now plugin wise the only API 212 emulation that I could find is included on UAD's API vision channel strip. That unfortunately requires purchasing some UAD card or hardware to be able to use it. That's an expensive option but unless someone can offer an alternative, it's our only option.
 As for the Neve 1073 there are endless emulations available to us but my personal favourite is the Waves® Scheps 1073.

Dynamics Stage

Next the signal flows into the dynamics (Eq & Compressor) section of the console or alternatively outboard hardware versions would be patched in instead.
 For us to mimic this stage of signal flow I personally would turn to a 'Channel Strip' as it would most accurately keep us true to the original hardware. Again many manufacturers have made emulations and with all plugins this comes down to the individuals preference. 

 The Waves® API series giving us the classic 550 & 560 Eq and 2500 compressor is excellent for capturing the classic API sound. LSRaudio also offer a VLB525 Comp plugin that is superb too. As for the Neve side of things the Scheps has you covered for Eq purposes too but there are many other manufacturers offering their versions.

Console Circuitry

This is were the Console used added harmonics, saturation, crosstalk and other non linear effects to the audio passing through it. Thankfully with this section we are spoiled for choice. Studio One 3 Pro has the excellent built in Console Shaper but it's rumoured to be based on an SSL board so other offerings for API and Neve would be Slate Digital's VCC and Waves NLS. The idea of these is to insert one instance on every channel and the master bus. This helps emulate the console and all the things it does to audio travelling through it.

2" Multi Channel Tape Machine

This is the final destination for are audio signal and again you'll find many 'Tape Emulators' out there but for me and what I remember that tape does to the audio signal it receives there are two main contenders for simulating exactly that. They are McDSP's Analogue Channel and Slate Digital's VTM which specifically offers the two tape machine types used for both tracking and mixing stages. UAD also gets a big mention on the net for it's tape emulators but not having any of their hardware to try them out and make an honest comment, I'll leave those to the side for now.

Summary

That concludes our signal path for the tracking stage from pre-amp through API/NEVE console to tape. But what about latency or CPU resources being overwhelmed and making your poor old PC fall over and die? Well watch the video below as I demonstrate how I track things while trying to emulate millions of dollars worth of classic studio equipment.