TransDesk
TL:DW; More of a transistory, rock desk tone coloring.
Continue the look into classic Airwindows analog modeling with TransDesk!
There’s a famous analog console known for rock mixes. It might not have the preamplifiers to hang with the APIs and Neves of the world, but it’s been a watchword for mixdowns, both for the sound and for the extreme flexibility it offers (automation, effective EQ, compression). I’m not going to name it, but I was tuning TransDesk to get into a similar area: in particular, I wanted to get a comparable aggressiveness into the highs. This isn’t a plugin for making things soft and sweet, it’s for rocking out.
That said, there are many paths to this ocean of sonic mayhem, and what distinguishes TransDesk is that it gets its sound with very little processing. You don’t lose much mojo just to get that coat of sonic paint. In some ways the immediacy of this approach is closer to the analog truth. In other ways, it’s less a would-be clone of a classic big console, more a way to get some of that energy. (Technically, I’m doing it by trying to match the overload characteristics, including power supply idiosyncrasies that affect the way energy can be drawn for the highs.)
The result is another Desk-style plugin, with a completely different sound. It’s not calibrated to work with Console (that’s the for-pay version of Desk that consolidated these and calibrated them all) and it doesn’t have special requirements for where it should go. Place it where you want that style of tone coloring: like Desk, you can use it on auxes and submixes (including ones ‘inside’ Console) to better emulate running through a lot of circuitry.
And please support my Patreon. This is just scratching the surface.
Please just tell us which console is it.
I mentioned it a couple times in the video ;) it’s SSL I was shooting for. Just the general category of tone, rather than specific models.
Awesome. Thanks, Chris! Keep doing what you’re doing. What would you say is the “sweet spot” as you mentioned in the video? I’m looking to get some nice, subtle saturation for use on all tracks.
A question regarding input level.
You say that it’s not calibrated to work with Console, does that mean TransDesk (and desk as well I guess) have to be driven past 0dBFS for the effect to be pronounced?
Yes, none of the Desk plugins are supposed to be pronounced all by themselves. You do have to drive them beyond 0dBFS to make the effect pronounced.
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This colours the signal almost the exact same amount as Mixbus (DAW) busses do. So, if you do not feel, like buying another DAW, but you like how MB sounds, this will deliver.