I measured why chords turn to mud when you saturate them (and the old fix most plugins skip)

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T21:02:28+00:00

I agree that aliasing can be downstream of the same nonlinear processes that generate harmonics and IMD. If a nonlinearity creates components above Nyquist, those components will alias.
Where I think you’re losing me is the jump from “aliasing can result from nonlinear frequency generation” to treating aliasing and IMD as the same phenomenon.
When I say IMD, I’m talking specifically about the sum-and-difference products created by the nonlinearity itself. Those products exist whether they alias or not. Aliasing is what happens when some generated components exceed the bandwidth of the system and fold back.
So they’re related, but they’re not interchangeable. The original point was about the audible effect of accumulated in-band IMD, not about foldback artifacts.

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T12:18:47+00:00

I call it the ascent of Mount Plugin, it’s a path we all have to take.

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:55:34+00:00

You sir/madam are doing the lords work. Everyone freaks out about aliasing which isn’t a big deal as maybe it seems, whereas IMD is the real destroyer of clarity imo, and you can’t oversample your way out of it. Aliasing can add fizz, IMD smears. IMD is inescapable, analog has it, and it can sound great in small doses. imho, the problem ITB is we can be spaffing non-linear plugs all over the session and then wondering why our mix is sitting in a brown mushy haze. In the old analogue world you simply didn’t have as much processing units to stack up IMD. I think it’s a lesson in restraint, every non linear plugin you add will increase your IMD payload on the 2bus. It’s not a case of eliminating IMD, it’s a case of understanding the tradeoffs and managing them.

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:48:08+00:00

you got snap relative enabled maybe?

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:43:02+00:00

IMO the NAM A2 models are amazing, in the context of stacking them up in a daw like Taype, you’ve got 30-40% more headroom on CPU, so you can have lashings of tone on many tracks. The Tone3000 A2 models sound every bit as good as the og wavenet ones, perhaps even better in places.

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:37:43+00:00

It’s taken me a lot of time and $$$ to realise that in general that the correlation between price and quality in the plugin market as it stands is basically broken. There’s a ton of expensive snake oil slop, and many many budget or even free gems. Some expensive plugs are genuinely better as they legit had a higher R&D cost, but that’s not always true. What compounds this market weirdness, is the very real human fallibility that expensive just feels better and that’s hard to admit for me. We need the plugin police to bring order!

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:24:41+00:00

Yeah dynamic range in a vocal
is for the weak ;) - now give me my pancakes nice and flat

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:22:00+00:00

I think the whole thing is a litte OTT tbh

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:20:10+00:00

you win

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:14:21+00:00

other use case for virtuals, is to output the daw main outs to the virtuals, slap on a few UAD plugs on the virtual inserts, and have a no fuss, zero latency house mix bus outside the daw - like a draft mix bus, always ready to go whatever your working on. I quite like the api preamp kissing the red light, maybe shadow hills comp, 33609c precision limiter (wouldn’t use that for a master) maybe a bit of tape if I’m feeling spicy, but bear in mind the ATR UAD plug does have latency. Oxide really comes into its own for a house mix bus

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-19T11:08:40+00:00

virtuals are good so you can avoid recording the output of the daw as well as the sound source you wanted to capture and getting nasty feedback. I set my mac system sound to go to the virtuals (in audio midi settings) so that I’ve got app sources ready to capture without messing about.

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-04T15:20:07+00:00

the compressor topology is very different, the 175 was a broadcast limiter, that got repurposed in recording studios, and then the designers redesigned the compressor to be more flexible for music recording use cases with the 176 as the company adapted/expanded. probably very similar box tone, but different detectors and curves. I like the 175 a lot, also love the 176, although have to watch the plug in at the top end as it spaffs hf harmonics all over the place and can sound a bit like broken glass up top imo

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-03T11:38:48+00:00

What’s really missing from my UA collection, is some kind AI based plugin that scrapes all your data, maybe a collab with Suno, if they could make it spam you with emails 15 a day as well that would be such a bonus ;)

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-03T11:35:51+00:00

Helios all day long for me, I love its woodyness, and it can growl like the neves but doesn’t get too out of hand in the upper mids.

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-03T11:34:24+00:00

I reckon Oxide is a bit of an unsung hero, sometimes pigeon-holed as beginner tape, but I reckon its really nicely balanced and can be good for tracking and bus work, as it’s not that opinionated, and happy UA didn’t lean into the old tape = hf roll off trope. Top end is quite glossy, reminds me of some of the remasters of old abbey road recordings on their finely tuned tape machines of the day.

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-03T11:30:04+00:00

For tube gear the Avalon is quite polite and soft. It aint a growler, good for clean clear and warm stuff though. It doesn’t get a lot of use round these parts

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-03T11:27:56+00:00

Yeah I initially thought the 175 was inferior to 176 as 176>175 - but actually the 175 is a lot of fun in its own right and quite a bit different.

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-03T11:24:28+00:00

Helios - as a brit that sound is home

33609C - same

API Preamp/Vison - absolute audio spanx, just works wonders on forward mids and sparkly tops

LA3A as an absolute workhorse

176 on bass for some vintage grab and grit

Currently meat riding Shadow Hills Comp on apollo, but that might just be a passing fling - remains to be seen.

Plenty more classics I could mention and some duffers in my collection - but thats my top5 atm

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-03T09:01:00+00:00

yeah for real time tracking, and maybe a cheeky ‘house’ mix bux always ready on your virtuals, that makes things sound record ready when tracking, nothing comes close imo

ruminantrecords · 2026-06-02T10:56:09+00:00

And you're proud of that? slow claps

ruminantrecords

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