Analogue effects units

[technicsman1]

Ok so I'm noticing that when using effects plug ins on audio I've recorded from my hardware it is making a big difference in warmth to my tracks, therefore, I want to get some decent analogue effects units to prevent this from happening. I like the look of the Moogerfoogers but they're way above my budget atm. Can anyone recommend any others? Or multiple effects units? Cheers

[Psy_Free]

For cheapish analogue effects it's worth checking out some older Boss pedals IMO. Things like :

BF-2 Flanger
CE-2/CE-3 Chorus (I would recommend a CE-1 but that's more than the Moogers)
PH-1/PH-2 Phaser/Super Phaser
OD-1/SD-1/DS-1 Overdrive/Super-Overdrive/Distortion (if you want a bit or a lot of drive/distortion etc)
DM-2/DM-3 Delay (pretty pricey these days as everyone wants analog delay, but can be picked up occasionally for a decent price

There are plenty of other options/makes available, but typically, 'analogue' effects are quite expensive.

[Carey M]

Dynacord VRS-23. Analogue bbd modulation delay/reverb. I love them so much I have two. Other vintage Dynacord analogue racks are top quality as well.

There are a lot of options for great and relatively cheap analogue fx, but the VRS-23 is a piece I always recommend to others.

- CM

[garranimal]

Another option is to stay with plugins as there are some absolutely superb analog emulations being made right now. I've got two older Universal Audio UAD-1 add-on cards running some really sweet compressors, eq, Dimension-D clone, and more. They are oozing with analog warmth all around. I've heard really good things about WAVES clones of SSL components.

[Jinsai]

The guitar pedal route is not bad, but guitar pedals are designed for a different signal level and impedance, so you'll need DIs or something around it.

Also make sure you're not confusing "more noise" and "high end attenuation" and "distortion" with "warmer". Or maybe they are the same thing.

[GuyaGuy]

There are dozens of effects types, thousands and thousands of models and huge ranges of price.
Might help to know what you're looking for at what budget. Or just type in "analog pedal" in eBay.

[nathanscribe]

The guitar pedal route is not bad, but guitar pedals are designed for a different signal level and impedance, so you'll need DIs or something around it.

Not necessarily.

[KrEaTiV]

Dynacord VRS-23. Analogue bbd modulation delay/reverb. I love them so much I have two. Other vintage Dynacord analogue racks are top quality as well.

There are a lot of options for great and relatively cheap analogue fx, but the VRS-23 is a piece I always recommend to others.

- CM

I absolutely agree with mr. CM ..... those DYNACORD VRS-23´s are amazing and worth every penny .....

[cryabetes]

Other analog delays:
MXR 163 Carbon Copy - a modern classic? iunno but it's getting a good rep from a lot of people lately and they do sound quite good.
DOD FX90 - my personal favorite.
EHX Memory Toy/Memory Boy/Deluxe Memory Boy/Deluxe Memory Man/Deluxe Memory Man with Tap Tempo/Deluxe Memory Man 550 with Tap Tempo - all different flavors of the same design, the bigger ones being digitally controlled analog with subdividing and effects loops and all kinds of useful things in that regard. There've been a few issues with the Memory Toy power jacks lately (bad batch?) but haven't heard anything detrimental about the larger ones.
One thing to watch out for with "analog" delays is that a lot of them are PT329x chips, which sound like s**t. The ones listed above use MN 300x or MN 320x chips.
As far as terrific analog phasers, the Small Stone and the MXR Phase 90 are both ace.
Analog Choroflanger units? The Small Clone and the Boss HF-2 are my favorites that can be had relatively cheaply. Others are the DOD 565B (two speeds, awesome footswitch, but a bizarre/hard to find power supply) or the Ibanez AF2 (which was just reissued, i think), and the EHX Polychorus.

Otherwise, are you sure the sound you like isn't just the compressor from the analog delays? I mean, depending on how many broke Trey Anastasio wannabes you have in your area, you can pick up MXR dynacomps for cheap and it'll give you the squashed sound that so much of the analog delay sound is reliant on.

[Scories]

On this forum, Aeon has recommended me the Lovetone Doppelganger (dual tremolo/phaser) for this kind of duty. She was absolutely right, it's the best device to make any sound comes alive with subtle settings. With drastic settings, it can sound quite psychedelic. I already told how good it sound on DCO polysynths.

I also tried the Boss DC-2 Dimension C and I found it pretty boring on synths. At least, you can get stereo panning with the Doppelganger (with the rev.2), but the input is mono. It's not cheap at all though...

[garranimal]

I also tried the Boss DC-2 Dimension C and I found it pretty boring on synths.

I've got one and find synthesizers make it clip very easy, in agreement with what Jinsai said. I would also expand it is maybe too subtle an effect for most uses.

As Psi_Free suggested, the CE-1 can sound pretty amazing if keeping the level down.

[Stab Frenzy]

Ok so I'm noticing that when using effects plug ins on audio I've recorded from my hardware it is making a big difference in warmth to my tracks, therefore, I want to get some decent analogue effects units to prevent this from happening.

It's not the fact that plugins are digital, it's the ones you're using and what you're doing with them. If I want to warm up a track plugins are often my first port of call, despite owning a lot of analogue outboard.

Buying cheap analogue effects isn't going to be a silver bullet to make things sound better, if you're on a budget you'll get much better results from plugins like the McDSP Project Studio bundle, particularly AC-2.

[Scories]

Or you could also try this device :
http://www.grantfidelity.com/site/node/75

[garranimal]

Thanks a lot for the GAS! I am irresistibly drawn to 'magic box' voodoo.

[Stab Frenzy]

Thanks a lot for the GAS! I am irresistibly drawn to 'magic box' voodoo.

Yes, gotta love a device that "restores natural harmonics that livens up your music". One wonders what happened to those natural harmonics that made them go away in the first place?