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Forum Post: Getting A Warm Sound (or, What is Warm?)

March 6th, 2009 | Author:

how do i get warm sound using vsts? what is warm sound?

You’ll hear a lot of mixing/recording guys (and even some music lovers) talk about music sounding “warm.” The conversation usually goes like this:

Guy A: I don’t know, man. MP3s just don’t sound that good.
Guy B: I know what you mean. They’re just not as warm as vinyl.

Guy A: I hate that new Digidesign desk.
Guy B: Yeah, it really lacks the warmness of an SSL 4000.

Does this kind of banter really mean anything? Well, yes and no.

The “warmness” most people talk about comes from when all music was recorded onto tape. Whether it be 2″ or 1/2″, tape is essentially tape and carries the same pros and cons that you may or may not know.

Tape naturally compresses whatever you put on to it. Its just how tape works. Its the reason many engineers still track drums and other percussion onto tape while recording vocals, guitar, and other instruments straight into the digital domain.

Tape can also distort, just like anything else audio related. If you hit the tape hard enough, you’ll create some harmonic distortion (usually). This distortion, at non-obscene levels, can actually create a little “grit,” “edge,” or “warmness” to your sound.

Tape also naturally rounds off transients (to an extent) giving the signal a much “rounder” property (again, “round” is a subjective term).

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So how do you get your productions/recordings sounding “warm” in the digital realm? One very popular way is with tape saturation plug-ins that do just as you might think: they make your digital signal sound like its been thru a tape machine. Some popular plug-ins for this are:

PSP VintageWarmer 2 – VST/RTAS/AU – Usable in just about any DAW you can think of. I personally use this and enjoy it.

Digidesign Reel Tape Saturation – RTAS/TDM – Useable only in ProTools, but man does this thing sound great. They offer a “Reel Tape” package with a tape delay plug-in, too.

Cakewalk FX2 Tape Sim – VST – Cheap and should accomplish what you need it to do. Haven’t used it, but its worth checking out because of the price.

Voxengo Analogflux TapeBus – vST – I’ve used Voxengo stuff in the past and have been pretty happy with it. I would personally give it a try, but you should look into it, too.

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Try those plug-ins out. You’ll never get your signal “warm” like you would running it thru some tube/good solid-state gear into a tape machine, but with today’s tape saturation plug-ins, you can get it pretty close.

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