Before we go about emulating the quirks of electrical circuits in our DAW, let’s take a look at the original signal path we’re trying to emulate. The diagram on the right shows how such a classic setup works. Let’s start from the top and work down…
A multitrack tape machine would add yet more saturation, and inconsistent tape movement would lead to very slight pitch and timing changes. Analogue mixing desks would introduce saturation and crosstalk (ie, signal bleed between channels). With the number of complex connections made here, electrical noise is a likely addition, and there are plugins designed to replicate this on every channel of a mix, as well as the master bus.