Universal Audio is in the business of sound design. Their catalog of plug-ins, interfaces, effects, and more offer artists around the world the opportunity to indulge in a nearly endless amount of tones, effects, and workflow types without the need for the literal (mostly vintage) gear their products pull tones from.
Their Verve Analog Machines plug-in offers 10 colorful UA-designed effects with tweak-able settings that level up your mixes with options from analog warmth all the way to off-the-wall distortion. Diving into the context of a studio mix, the Verve Analog Machines gives the engineer a ton of options when processing anything from vocals to drums, synth and bass, all within one, easy-to-use plug-in. Today we’ll take a few of the Verve Analog Machines for a spin within a track on vocals and drums, seeing just how much it levels up the mix! Stick around — at the end we’ll hear a full mix with the Verve Analog Machines plug-in.
Vocals Shine Through
Most of the best vocal takes of all time have been through fully analog signal chains. Think Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, or Robert Plant. That’s why analog processing emulation is so crucial these days to the (mostly) all-digital home studios most of us are recording in. Those same analog signal paths are either inaccessible or just too expensive to use for the majority of studio engineers.
The Verve starts out with a nice hi-fi tape emulation called “Sweeten”. This has been super handy for just gluing a vocal take together and tweaking the “drive” knob until that sweet tape saturation creates a vocal you might hear on your local Top 40 radio station.
It’s just as the name states: sweet. And with modern ways to automate your tracks (we’re using Ableton Live today) you can spike the “drive” knob to that sweet spot when the song hits the chorus or during a particular section where you really want the vocal to shine through.
Hi-Fi sounds are cool and all, but Verve really shows off its signal processing prowess when you pop some extra distortion on. Like in the Vocal Megaphone preset under the “Vintagize” effect. This crams your vocals into a tiny, over-compressed, distorted mess and showcases just how analog-sounding this digital software can be. Because what’s more analog than distorted vocals?
Saturating Drums
On vocals, Verve Analog Machines feel right at home. So far, we’ve heard how they make vocals warmer, glued together, and even distort…
…but what about at the opposite end of the spectrum, on drums? Starting with the kick drum, Verve Analog Machines have a great preset browser to get you started.
Searching for “Kick” will bring up a host of UA-tailored effects from the 10 machines to choose from. Today we’ll be throwing “Kick Warmer” on our Kick Group in Ableton Live. This kick group features two channels, one being a Shure Beta 52A placed inside the kick drum, and an AKG C214 placed about 6 inches out front of the kick drum resonant head to capture all that great DW maple warmth.
The dry signal doesn’t sound bad at all, especially with a little EQ and compression on it. But adding in Verve’s “Kick Warmer” preset under the “Glow” effect truly lets the mic placement shine and gives the kick some place to sit in the mix.
For our snare processing, this track is a rock tune that needs a big, cutting drum sound. So a bit of drive and saturation will go a long way.
The snare (a DW Collector’s Series Pure Purpleheart 14″x6.5″) is mic’d up with a Lauten Audio Snare Mic on the batter side, and a Beyerdynamic TG I51 on the snare side.
To get started, we selected the “Snare Snap” preset and immediately heard the snare booming through the mix. With a slight adjustment to the “drive” knob, you can really hear just how much potential is on tap for each effect.
Gluing it All Together
Now that we’ve added the Verve Analog Machines plug-in to multiple tracks, you can hear just how far a little saturation goes when mixing a song. The vocals are shinier, the drums are blasting through the mix during this big chorus, and overall, all the pieces we’ve touched are sitting better in the mix.
Verve Analog Machines software is not only easy to use and understand, but provides 10 potent effects that prove useful in a variety of use cases. We can consider this mix leveled up!
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