The cm Suite
Over the years we’ve given away many plugins with Computer Music. The best, though, aren’t just given away with one issue of the magazine but reside in the ‘mighty’ Computer Music Plugin Suite. This now comprises more than 80 free instruments and effects for PC and Mac (plus the odd Linux offering). Within the suite are some excellent vintage emulations and we’ll include some of these in our tutorials to lessen the need to pay out on new plugins to enjoy our classic techniques. What are some of the highlights of the vintage side of our suite? Well, Ignite VST Vice One’s compressor is not necessarily modelled on any particular vintage hardware but will deliver similar results; and eaReckon’s CM-COMP 87 will also deliver a decent analogue, punchy sound. For EQs we have OverTone DSP’s Program EQ CM which will give you a Pultec flavour; and Acustica Audio’s Pink CM has an API-inspired classic sound. PSP Audioware’s cmDelay and Ignite VST Areena deliver some classic delays and reverbs between them. And finally Shattered Glass Audio’s Inferno CM, Sonimus’ Satson CM and Mercuriall U530 CM are preamps that all feature some satisfying analogue saturation.
Really, it’s the wealth of tools at our disposal that has made 21st century producers perhaps a bit too complacent. Getting back to that synth analogy, why bother recreating a sound when there are literally hundreds of presets done for you? It’s the same with mixing. We have perhaps lost the ‘how’ and ‘why’ in favour of ‘just load another plugin’. This feature is about paring things back, looking at classic production techniques and vintage gear, and going back to basics. But first, why that gear was so vital in the first place…
Musical mishaps
There’s a big argument that some of the classic gear used in the production techniques that we’re going to discuss became famous through misuse, happy accidents or their own idiosyncratic sonic character.
Starting with EQs and compressors, they were both intended to do fairly simple jobs. Compressors were initially designed to bring some evenness to recordings back in the ’50s and ’60s, to tame erratic vocals or other instruments. EQs would be designed to boost or cut certain frequency ranges, and that’s it. But a lot of vintage EQs and compressors imparted a special colouration or sound on a track, not something that was particularly asked for at the time, but that the electronic circuitry naturally generated. Before long these old pieces started to be used just for the sound and not necessarily their original intended purpose.
The UREI 1176 compressor is a case in point. It delivered a bright, energetic sound and was used by producers including Bruce Swedien when recording Michael Jackson. The same compressor also has a famous ‘all buttons in’ mode, an almost accidental find which results in more distortion for bass and guitar. Some producers even used this unit, and other pieces of vintage gear with its original function – in this case compression – disabled, just to get the crispy sound of the hardware.