comparison FET76 from DP9 and others ?

[lito]

Hi,
who made a comparison between the FET76 from DP9 and other providers ?
I have only the comparison with the FET76 from Softube: for me the 76 from DP has a little more sweetness and the attacks/releases reacts a little bit with less harshness for my ears. So I can say, thanks to MOTU for this nice gift

[monkey man]

Phil O posted his impressions here:

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... &start=360

I for one really appreciated it.

EDIT: Robert Randolph chimed in too.

[David Polich]

If you dont have other 1176-emulating plugs, then comparisons are worthless. Personally I
think comparisons are worthless, period. It's up to you to decide whether you like the way
something sounds. Everyone's ears are different.

[musicman691]

If you dont have other 1176-emulating plugs, then comparisons are worthless. Personally I
think comparisons are worthless, period. It's up to you to decide whether you like the way
something sounds. Everyone's ears are different.

It's not only sounds but functionality - like how does it compare to other emulations? Can you work in one the same as you can in another? For that reason alone (and others) I think comparisons are NOT worthless. For me I like the Black 76 emulation IK Multimedia does a lot better than the DP9 version.

[mikeka]

[quote=It's not only sounds but functionality - like how does it compare to other emulations? Can you work in one the same as you can in another? For that reason alone (and others) I think comparisons are NOT worthless. For me I like the Black 76 emulation IK Multimedia does a lot better than the DP9 version.[/quote]

Big +1 here. The IK is a great 1176 emu. I recently did an 1176 shootout with many of the usual suspects, some of which I own, others demoed. I also have extensive experience with the hardware.
To my ears the IK is head and shoulders above the rest. Not a big fan of the DP emu.

[Robert Randolph]

If you dont have other 1176-emulating plugs, then comparisons are worthless. Personally I
think comparisons are worthless, period. It's up to you to decide whether you like the way
something sounds. Everyone's ears are different.

It's not only sounds but functionality - like how does it compare to other emulations? Can you work in one the same as you can in another? For that reason alone (and others) I think comparisons are NOT worthless. For me I like the Black 76 emulation IK Multimedia does a lot better than the DP9 version.

The IK Black 76 was/is my personal favorite emulation of my favorite piece of hardware. I've found that the FET-76 performs at least on par with it, but some knob settings are slightly different.

I will say though that I still prefer the 'hardware' UI in other emulations. Motu has this fetish with small knobs that I can't get on board with.

Still, I sold all my 1176 emulations except the Black 76 because I'm very happy with the FET-76.

[mhschmieder]

I own most of them (except UAD), but IK Black gets the most use from me. It's just so easy to tweak and get to a musical setting that works.

It may be that Softube's sounds better, but I haven't had as much time with it and found it too easy to get bad settings (possibly like the original hardware, which I've never used?).

As I was already almost done with my top priority album project when I upgraded to DP9 a couple of weeks ago, I haven't had a chance to use that one yet.

What I can say though, is that for the applications I am using the IK Black for in this current heavy metal project (a narrow application, for sure), it does not leave me wanting or seeing a need to compare (it replaced other plugs when I bought it). I might consider other emu's in other projects as I come to them.

Where the IK plug-in really shines for me, so far, is on big Marshall guitar amps, specifically on the room mic channel. I'm using other compressors, limiters, and levelers on other tracks, but Black 76 was the one that helped me get some poorly recorded guitar tracks that I inherited from another engineer, to where they sounded like they were recorded properly.

If the new one from MOTU really is the best (by some measures), maybe I'll start using 1176 type processing for more tasks than I currently am. I've put a lot of time into this though, and always end up preferring something else to the 1176, except for the case mentioned above. Yet I deeply respect and appreciate the classic albums that made heavy use of that processor.

I should point out that on this particular project, the singer was so good (including his mic technique) and the gear and recording chain so superior, that I used zero processing on the vocals for this album (except some plate reverb).

I know the 1176 is loved for vocals especially, as well as certain drum contexts, so maybe I'll find myself using the new MOTU 1176 emulation the next time I work with less-than-perfect vocals.

[mhschmieder]

I see the "DP9 is now shipping" topic has some in-depth discussion of 1176 emus, but probably it is best to continue discussion in this more focused topic than to respond there.

For those who may make a DP9 purchase decision partially on the quality of the 1176 emu, could you tell me which sorts of roles you are primarily interested in?

I am finishing off a long-running album project this weekend, so it is a good time to take a breather and re-tool for the next project (which begins immediately).

Also, if you have presets you'd like to send me from other 1176's, feel free, and I can try to recreate them in the MOTU plug-in and compare.

I personally don't use factory presets on any of my 1176's, but I can also port my personal project settings from IK Black 76 to MOTU sometime in the next few days, if anyone cares specifically about how it handles distances mics on a Marshall 4x12 stack (1960A).

[mhschmieder]

I went through my project annotation while remixing today and found that I am using the Softube FET plug-in more than I thought.

Specifically, I found it WAY more transparent and effective for glueing drums and percussion together. So I apply it to most percussion stems.

Starting with this project, I diverged from my historical pattern of combining percussion and drum set tracks into one final percussion stem. Instead, I keep drum set separate, and even include effected drums like gated snare (when only during a fill) and echoed toms (when used for intros etc.) in the percussion stem vs. the drum set stem.

It's a bit harder to get level balances this way due to more steps, but it's worth the extra effort, and using Softube FET is the magic ingredient that gets the completely differently processed percussion elements to sit well with a cohesive traditional drum set mix.

[EMRR]

Does anyone feel the Stillwell Rocket fits in this discussion? I have hardware 1176/1178 experience, but no unit currently and no 1176 emulations.

[Robert Randolph]

Does anyone feel the Stillwell Rocket fits in this discussion? I have hardware 1176/1178 experience, but no unit currently and no 1176 emulations.

I tried it multiple times, and if it's an 1176 emulation I feel like it's a poor one. It certainly tries to look/feel like one. It is a decent compressor outside of the emulation aspect, but it was never any thing I felt like I needed to own.

[musicman691]

I went through my project annotation while remixing today and found that I am using the Softube FET plug-in more than I thought.

Specifically, I found it WAY more transparent and effective for glueing drums and percussion together. So I apply it to most percussion stems.

Starting with this project, I diverged from my historical pattern of combining percussion and drum set tracks into one final percussion stem. Instead, I keep drum set separate, and even include effected drums like gated snare (when only during a fill) and echoed toms (when used for intros etc.) in the percussion stem vs. the drum set stem.

It's a bit harder to get level balances this way due to more steps, but it's worth the extra effort, and using Softube FET is the magic ingredient that gets the completely differently processed percussion elements to sit well with a cohesive traditional drum set mix.

Got a couple of questions on the Softube FET:
First: is the compression ratio knob truly variable or does it just do the fixed points as notated on the front panel?
Second: does the look ahead control in the Detector really help/make a difference?

[Phil O]

...if it's an 1176 emulation I feel like it's a poor one...

I don't think it's meant to be, although I could be wrong. I use the rocket frequently and it's character is quite different IMO. Rocket's side chain feature is what I use it for mainly. Great for ducking.

Phil

[mhschmieder]

Well, I'm at the office now so can't check, but I think Softube just does the fixed points, as that rings a bell now that you bring it up and I think it was why I didn't find it as easy to work with on guitar as some other emulations -- whereas I didn't need as fine-grained detail on percussion so the superior acoustics of that plug-in came out ahead for that purpose.

[Gravity Jim]

If you dont have other 1176-emulating plugs, then comparisons are worthless. Personally I
think comparisons are worthless, period. It's up to you to decide whether you like the way
something sounds. Everyone's ears are different.

If only we all took this approach, all the time, with everything.

You know why those old-timers used an 1176? Because it was what they had.

Does it work or not? Does it sound good or not? That's the only question worth asking.