Who Cares If It Emulates The Real Thing?

Have you noticed just how much attention is placed on plugins and other software trying to perfectly emulate their hardware counterparts? The idea is sound: try to re-create the analog world with the power of the digital domain. The best of both worlds right? But in reality it seems to me things have gotten way off track and we as studio owners fall for the marketing hype big time.

Via Dennis AB Flickr

Is Older Really Better?

Generally in the modern audio world, companies are trying to emulate older vintage gear that was used before things went digital. We have emulations of compressors, EQs, reverb units, consoles, tape machines, preamps, you name it. But why do we need to emulate the older stuff? What’s wrong with the new plugins that were created from the ground up in this digital age?
 
The three reasons, I believe,we like to emulate the older hardware units are because either we’re personally familiar with them, we’ve heard them used on so many hit records, or we’ve read that the pros use them, so we think we should. The only valid reason of those three that I see is that you may have used the hardware versions like how they sound/operate.

What Matters Is How It Sounds

And even if we do want to emulate some older units, does it really matter that the plugins perfectly sound and behave the same? Doesn’t it matter in the end that the plugin or software simply sounds good? A recent article by Sound On Sound Editor In Chief Paul White talks about this exact issue and he sums this up well:

What [an engineer] really needs to know is: will this tool do the job as effectively as possible? Is it musical? Does it achieve the sonic result I’m after? Does it really matter if it performs exactly like a specific piece of hardware that, in all likelihood, was designed at a time when technical compromises were inevitable because of cost and the technology available at the time? – Paul White, SOS

What Paul is saying is critical for us to understand. It matters little to your mix how close of an emulation your plugin is. It matters more that the plugin sounds great and does the job you need it to do.

The New “Real” Thing

You want to hear something crazy? I would submit to you that the current offerings of plugins and gear should stop being compared to the “classic” stuff, and instead be labled and accepted as the new “real” thing. Whether it’s a plugin like the L2 from Waves, or Izotope’s Ozone, or even your stock EQs and compressors, these are the tools of the current “Pro Tools” Generation and we shouldn’t be ashamed of them.

In fact, I believe some of these plugins (and preamps and microphones as well) are becoming a new standard in the industry as many top engineers reach for them to get the job done. Now, is there anything wrong with emulating the old stuff? Heck no! It’s a lot of fun for the fans of classic gear and honestly some of the emulations that I’ve used simply sound great, period. I just don’t care how close it emulates something, only that it sounds great and is useable.

Invent The Future

I think Paul White says it well when he reflects on this “blinding” nostalgia of needing to emulate old gear:

We are all susceptible to a touch of nostalgia when it comes to music and the way it should sound, but sometimes I worry that the more we cling on to the past, the longer it will take to invent the future. – Paul White, SOS