Trying to emulate the old analog world, I’ve put the j37 first and then the nls on each channel. In the groups nothing. And in the Master nls before and at the end j37.
Has anyone used j37 and nls together? How do you use it?
1 Like
I’m seeing this late but I’ll respond anyway.
NLS is quite incredible. It is unlike any other console emulation in that Waves modeled everything - even the imperfections - of those 3 consoles. The EMI console “MIKE” actually has some channels with phase irregularities, but that’s how that old console was so they included it. It’s very interesting to use.
As far as how to use it in conjunction with J37 - that’s ultimately up to you.
If you put J37 as the first plugin on each track, and NLS after, it would be like your tracks were already recorded and they’re coming off tape and going into a console for mixing.
Or you could reverse that and put J37 at the end.
Personally, I would probably use NLS on the channels and then put J37 after the NLS Bus plugin on the master. That would reduce the total number of J37 instances, which is probably a good idea because it’s higher in CPU usage and has a little bit of latency. In that case it would be like J37 was capturing your output to tape, which probably makes sense because it’s an emulation of the Studer J37 which only had 4 tracks.
Remember that gain staging is very important when working with analog emulation plugins. Ignore the forum people who say “gain staging doesn’t matter in digital!” – it matters with analog emulation plugins because in order to simulate ‘going into the red’ they have to declare some level lower than 0 as 0VU. I believe 0VU in Waves (and most) plugins is -18dB… So when calibrated that way, it allows for going 18dB past 0.
But that means if you run your mixes hot, you will get excess cumulative distortion from your analog emulation plugins.
A good rule of thumb is to set your initial track level to around -18dB average, or -12dB peaks. You can do that in the NLS channel plugin.
The NLS Channels actually have their own drive options separate from level, and I personally like to set that from the NLS Bus plugin. The bus plugin has its own drive setting, but down below you can add or reduce drive globally or per-bucket if you have it set up that way.
And again, how hard you mix into J37 will affect the saturation, density and transient smoothing of the tape effect. If you want a subtle effect, hit J37 at a lower level… But if you want heavy, by all means hit it hard. But your peaks hitting 0VU to +1 VU is probably a good amount if you want to hear the tape but not go overboard with it.
Also be sure to try Kramer Master Tape, which is another great plugin.
Since you’re interested in this setup, you could also try using NLS as discussed, but Kramer Master Tape on each channel and J37 on the master bus.
Or if you use submix busses, you could use Kramer Master Tape there.
Just be mindful of your levels, because each stage passing through plugins like this will add harmonic distortion, and then the next stage will multiply it, etc. It can really add up, depending on your gain structure.
1 Like