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Tube Amp Emulation: Anybody Using Nick Crow's Donation-Ware TubeDriver Plugin?


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Hi All,

Having become "Tube-Curious," but glued to my Dynaudio speakers, a tube pre seemed like the smartest first step. And, I believe my class D amp to be dang-near totally transparent. But, since a tube stage really could only add even-order distortion and a craptastically high noise floor, both of which are quantifiable and therefore modellable in software, I figured that Mr. Google could turn up a free way to test the waters using Foobar2000 in Windows. Sure enough...

 

Step 1, the VST plugin adaptor plugin:

foo_vst: VST 2.4 adapter - Hydrogenaudio Forums

 

Step 2, the Nick Crow TubeDriver VST plugin:

Nick Crow Lab

 

Step 3: Turn it on. And... I get it. Distorted edges of notes and vocals? Check. Like it? Yeah. Deeper sound stage? Check. Floating instruments? Uh-huh. Not too shabby for a free plugin.

 

Problem 1: I can hear that it's distortion, and I can hear that the depth is the result of a decomposition or decay in the frequency response that, ultimately, makes everything sound like it was recorded in a dark barn the music is being sucked into. I'd like to scale it back a bit.

 

Problem 2: I'm blind and can't adjust any of the plugin settings. So, I'm wondering if any of you gents have any handy presets to post that I can play with.

 

Also welcome in this thread will be any reflections on software emulition of tubes, pro or cons. Just doing it for fun, really, since I'm not at all dissatisfied with my gear. Very interesting result so far, though.

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