I really like your sense of humor, I watch your videos with real interest, my suggestion for the next test, Mix Bus Compressors especially SSL TYPE... greetings from Poland ! :)
This was a great video and I would love to see more comparisons. I did my own Neve preamp only solo bass gtr test and it was interesting to hear the subtle differences but in the context of the whole mix, the differences become less obvious. Point being plugins are valid tools and people don't need to spend tons of money to get that sound. The other thing is the concept of good music is more important than worrying about minuscule differences in audio plugins.
thanks to you guys. well i learned. i am unable to recognize the real la2a :) that i like the soft tube and that i would not buy a real la2a but rather another kt-2a. the same exercise with eq 1073 would be fun.Merci a vous deux !
This was so great. Thanks buddies! For some reason this ”different sounding” Softube plugin was the most appealing to me with the Bass (I am a bassist) and the real thing too harsh with the drs. 🙄 Absolutely no way to tell these consistently apart. Once again it is proved that the sound is really in your head and not in the equipment - as long as you can produce the imagined sound with the gear at your disposal whether it is software or a hardwired box. Great job! Cheers - Kippis!
Best takeaway from this is: don't waste thousands of £/$ on hardware, that you will also need to rack up, provide clean AC power for, maintain and repair when it malfunctions, etc. I'll just split the difference and use the UA LA2A plugin (IK MM one is good too..).
@@ytnsanw idk man, I just enjoy using hardware when recording. I'm not gonna go spend a k on a one channel comp, but id spend a few hundred bucks. The better the mix in the headphones, the better people perform, and that's worth it for me. I also mess with tape quite a bit for my own music, so it gets used for that too.
They’re all great….i like the LA2A silver and original from UA and I love the Logic compressor….im assuming you’re talking about that blue compressor in Logic with different type of compressors in one?
Great vid! I was listening on a headset at work so couldn't discern differences but what would be interesting to know - you said you 'dialed' them in by ear to sound as similar a possible. I'm wondering what the controls looked like when you were done? were they at pretty similar settings overall? Did one have a more granular, finer tuning to a setting while another was more of a brute? thanks, SC
Mixland and Eric Valentine just dropped their Fairchild plugin, which sounds really good in the audio demos. Might want to give it a try. And complain about the price.
@@-47- If you like the UAD ecosystem. I would save the money and buy the Signature Bundle at $299. Or get a bundle that has those two for like $99. You get more bang for your buck rather than just buying a few at a time.
Loving your work 👊🏻here’s an idea What if you recorded something going through real hardware Then record same using plugin Rather than playback ? Just a thought Cheers 🍻
I only guessed on the vocals and I only guessed which two were the analog gear. The 2 I guessed were both plugins. One of them was the logic compressor. The one I liked least was the Softube. However that was only because I was listening for it and comparing it to the other ones. I never think about what gear was used when I listen to TH-cam music except the occasional thought of what mic they were using. And that’s only because I track and mix vocals. A few years ago everyone I worked with was satisfied with the results using a TLM 102, Audient ID22 pres, mixing everything ITB. Mind you I only track R&B EDM and hip hop vocals. I’ve moved to a TLM 103 (soon to be a u87), a WA73EQ, WA76, and WA-2A and I’ve gotten one comment about it sounding warmer while they were recording. And that’s because everyone is thinking about everything as a song and not as a hardware equation. Honestly I have the gear for fun more than necessity. Blind shootout of the Zulu vs tape emulation plugins would be cool. I always think of a shootout of Neve pres but I think that’s been done to death. This was very entertaining. Subbed
Great shootout ❤ Really enjoyed that most people were all over the place, I just watched a channel that did a shootout between a SM57 and a 15 bucks Behringer clone SL75C and the difference was so tiny that you couldn’t hear the difference in a mix. I got myself better converters I went from older Focusrite to RME and the difference is very hard to tell 😊
Quick question out of curiosity, were the settings exactly the same for all the options or was the goal to match the sound for all the options regardless of the settings positions? Cheers
Pretty interesting, on the drums I definitely liked #1 more than the others because it sounds like it has more low-end, but considering it's the only one sounding significantly different from the others, including the real LA-2A, maybe that's not what you want if you want something that sounds like an actual LA-2A. But if that's what you want, the others all sounded so similar that any one of them could probably do the job.
Hmmm...gold cables are bullshit....another myth....any half decent cable sounds the same....most interfaces made in the last couple of years have better convertors than the market leaders did 5 years ago... Don't get caught up in audiophile mythology... Happy to do an interface shootout soon. 👍
I was so incandescent with rage the moment I realised neither 1 or 5 were ever the real LA-2A that, at that exact moment, all the spots on my back simultaneously emptied like some kind of great puss tsunami. Needless to say after a short time had passed, all of my skin had cleared up lovely. So I must give public thanks to Dan and Sean for giving me such a good emptying. I'll be sleeping on my front no more! In all seriousness, I'm just glad that my majority favourite (alongside the stock Logic plugin which I've never used) was an actual piece of hardware. Thank goodness for that. Dignity saved....
I have to be honest (at the risk of being called an uneducated pleb) but I could barely discern any difference (in the mix) and none of them stood out as significantly better than the others. I use a KT-2A (as well as the UAD LA-2A plugins) and I don't think many people who listen to Detronics' records (that's currently 4 Spotify listeners per month) have any idea what a compressor is, let alone whether it's an original or a cheap clone or a plugin. And they probably care even less! For me, this video was a really good affirmation of this, and justifies me being an utter miser when it comes to gear 🙂. Excellent content, gents. Keep it up. Pultec next? 1176?
Hi. I got everything wrong. But I find these tests and the accompanying human behaviour very interesting. I personally can’t be convinced that an actual LA2A wouldn’t be best for material I would use it on, but how is it that I didn’t pull the LA2A? Well, I felt I was just guessing. I could hear differences, but it didn’t matter to me which was which, nothing stood out. Win for the test? Sort of, perhaps not. I have no affinity with the song, I have no interest in what makes the bass better or worse, perhaps if I was into some sort of speed garage pop hybrid I would have an opinion, truth is I can’t tell you which is better or worse for the song. I thought the drums sounded the most lively through 1, at least I chose an analog box, but on Bass I couldn’t care at all. On vocals, again - what difference could an LA2A make? I already didn’t like the vocal. Heres the second observation, not having any jeopardy. As in, I’m not switched on or invested enough to give it a hyper critical ear, I’m just cruising youtube and rolling with it. Its s very different state of mind to having to deliver something to a time restriction and needing get paid. Here’s where I am. You can definitely use clones and plugins in place of expensive hardware, we all do at sometime or other, but there are occasions when you have a very special performance, typically a bass or a vocal, that the LA2A will make it absolutely pop in away nothing else can. And thats why you own them, or rather pros own them. Sometimes the original reminds us what the fuss is all about. Thanks for the vid, I know these things take alot of work. Best J
It is incredibly easy to fool oneself with any audio issue... guess how I know that? We used to have a producer console at one studio, where only two out of 4 controls were actually connected up, and they were reverse volume trims. I know several studios had similar arrangements...
Thanks for the reveal vid. Sometimes these tests can lead to valuable conclusions by learning about our preferences. (Are any these statements inaccurate? I don't think so...) - I liked #1 because it was phat, and 66% of the time, #1 was KT2A. I also guessed it was the KT2A. Odds of randomly guessing the KT2A twice is 4%. (20% x 20%) - I said that #1 & #4 were analog, which is correct in 4 of 6 cases. IOW, I identified software in 7 of 9 cases. - I said #4 was an all-arounder. 66% of the time #4 was hardware. - My attempt at identifying the three unfamiliar plugins was abysmal. - Conclusion: I am susceptible to being tricked like most humans are, but nonetheless seem to prefer analog, and particularly the KT2A. Maybe I should buy a KT2A?
Ah now I know the LA2A sounds night and day 😂(j/k they are all great) Some argue the investment is better in hardware, I doubt though all my plugins I have bought come to more than one vintage bit of gear.
After checking it looks like I liked the Softube and the Logic on Bass, and I liked the real LA2A and Logic on Drums and Vox, I think I kind of picked up that you were doing different orders, and it did occur to me that you likely would, (I would in the interests of proper blind testing), but I also gave the same answers when the order was the same, so maybe I heard more than I expected It appears I really like the Logic plugin, which is bloody annoying....as I am a poor PC and Reaper user LMAO But overall I think the test was a success, they all sounded good. I use the Black Rooster, T-Racks plugins for LA2A I also really like the BPD Dirty LA which is a great freebie for LA2A
I don't know how or why - but I picked the Analog Obsession LALA for all 3 tests. I've been using the UA Plugin version every time I've wanted an "opto" comp vibe. And I've been giving £4 a month to Ridvan for a couple years now for his stuff - but never even bothered to try the LALA because I was happy with the UA version. I have corrected that mistake. AO does make some really remarkable plugins and you kids make my day with every video.
LOL "Cosmi KJ" ... actually pronounced "Cosmic J" ... When I came up with the 'Whacky' spelling of 'Kozmyk', little did I know that it is a Polish surname ...
I’m feeling smug as hell right now. All the “experts” who jumped on me saying “You clearly don’t have the trained ear or the fancy monitors I have to hear the difference” should be enjoying the humble pie right now. People were doing exactly what I said…convincing themselves there was a difference, making up defining characteristics, and then making an absolute fool of themselves in the comments. There was no night and day difference like I said…and they randomized the order between tests. Most of y’all just made it up. 🤣
I did not say you don't have a trained ear. I said there are people with better trained ears and better monitoring than you who will hear things you don't and same goes for me. It's not a contentious statement. There is always someone better, but hopefully we are also a little better than we were yesterday.
Basically, this settles the analog vs digital, analog is not always better, actually it's not even half of the time better so better save your analog gear money and spend it on monitoring.
If us composers, producers and engineers can't hear the difference much then the public won't hear it.
I really like your sense of humor, I watch your videos with real interest, my suggestion for the next test, Mix Bus Compressors especially SSL TYPE... greetings from Poland ! :)
Great test this really shows the quality of not only plugins but the lesser priced klark units too 🤘
This was a great video and I would love to see more comparisons. I did my own Neve preamp only solo bass gtr test and it was interesting to hear the subtle differences but in the context of the whole mix, the differences become less obvious. Point being plugins are valid tools and people don't need to spend tons of money to get that sound. The other thing is the concept of good music is more important than worrying about minuscule differences in audio plugins.
I actually thought abt getting a KT2A but ended up getting the Lindell Lin 2A because of the T4 black lion opto cell.
thanks to you guys. well i learned. i am unable to recognize the real la2a :) that i like the soft tube and that i would not buy a real la2a but rather another kt-2a. the same exercise with eq 1073 would be fun.Merci a vous deux !
This was so great. Thanks buddies! For some reason this ”different sounding” Softube plugin was the most appealing to me with the Bass (I am a bassist) and the real thing too harsh with the drs. 🙄 Absolutely no way to tell these consistently apart. Once again it is proved that the sound is really in your head and not in the equipment - as long as you can produce the imagined sound with the gear at your disposal whether it is software or a hardwired box. Great job! Cheers - Kippis!
Best takeaway from this is: don't waste thousands of £/$ on hardware, that you will also need to rack up, provide clean AC power for, maintain and repair when it malfunctions, etc. I'll just split the difference and use the UA LA2A plugin (IK MM one is good too..).
@@ytnsanw idk man, I just enjoy using hardware when recording. I'm not gonna go spend a k on a one channel comp, but id spend a few hundred bucks. The better the mix in the headphones, the better people perform, and that's worth it for me. I also mess with tape quite a bit for my own music, so it gets used for that too.
Nice reality check! Thank you, guys!
I would’ve loved to hear the UAD version LA 2A and the CLA2A in this shootout
They’re all great….i like the LA2A silver and original from UA and I love the Logic compressor….im assuming you’re talking about that blue compressor in Logic with different type of compressors in one?
Great vid! I was listening on a headset at work so couldn't discern differences but what would be interesting to know - you said you 'dialed' them in by ear to sound as similar a possible. I'm wondering what the controls looked like when you were done? were they at pretty similar settings overall? Did one have a more granular, finer tuning to a setting while another was more of a brute? thanks, SC
@@SConway-v4x All very similar...slightly different gain settings on the output...matched the gain reduction needles.👍
Remember that your ears are more important then your eyes , Musically speaking 😁
Mixland and Eric Valentine just dropped their Fairchild plugin, which sounds really good in the audio demos. Might want to give it a try. And complain about the price.
@@wouterdesmedt1736 It's on the list...👍
Awesome work guys - a shoot out is a shoot out - like in the westerns..❤
@@AirArtStudiosOfficial 😂👍🔫
I think the problem is, no one knows the original one...and nowadays, you can get a good sound out of anything, if you know how to use it
1176, Fairchild, Pultec,
What he said
The what?
Need the first two before the UAD compressor bundle sale ends
@@-47- If you like the UAD ecosystem. I would save the money and buy the Signature Bundle at $299. Or get a bundle that has those two for like $99. You get more bang for your buck rather than just buying a few at a time.
So I guess I like the logic...love to see a neve 73 comparison,my favorites analog Obsession and the voost eq thing
Brilliant!
Loving your work 👊🏻here’s an idea
What if you recorded something going through real hardware
Then record same using plugin
Rather than playback ?
Just a thought
Cheers 🍻
I only guessed on the vocals and I only guessed which two were the analog gear. The 2 I guessed were both plugins. One of them was the logic compressor. The one I liked least was the Softube. However that was only because I was listening for it and comparing it to the other ones. I never think about what gear was used when I listen to TH-cam music except the occasional thought of what mic they were using. And that’s only because I track and mix vocals. A few years ago everyone I worked with was satisfied with the results using a TLM 102, Audient ID22 pres, mixing everything ITB. Mind you I only track R&B EDM and hip hop vocals. I’ve moved to a TLM 103 (soon to be a u87), a WA73EQ, WA76, and WA-2A and I’ve gotten one comment about it sounding warmer while they were recording. And that’s because everyone is thinking about everything as a song and not as a hardware equation. Honestly I have the gear for fun more than necessity. Blind shootout of the Zulu vs tape emulation plugins would be cool. I always think of a shootout of Neve pres but I think that’s been done to death. This was very entertaining. Subbed
Great episode!! I’ve been hoping for some shoot outs 👍🙏🥳
API 2500s
Neve Pres
SSL EQs
And 1176s
I pick 2 & 5 but I only listened to drums 😂 the transient response give me the best clue
Great shootout ❤
Really enjoyed that most people were all over the place, I just watched a channel that did a shootout between a SM57 and a 15 bucks Behringer clone SL75C and the difference was so tiny that you couldn’t hear the difference in a mix. I got myself better converters I went from older Focusrite to RME and the difference is very hard to tell 😊
I used the Ik Multimedia & UAD LA2A emulations and they really are very similar. I just use whichever one I get to first in a session lol
Quick question out of curiosity, were the settings exactly the same for all the options or was the goal to match the sound for all the options regardless of the settings positions? Cheers
@@gnomerod I matched the gain reduction meter...settings to achieve that varied....but very similar....then level matched. 👍
Pretty interesting, on the drums I definitely liked #1 more than the others because it sounds like it has more low-end, but considering it's the only one sounding significantly different from the others, including the real LA-2A, maybe that's not what you want if you want something that sounds like an actual LA-2A. But if that's what you want, the others all sounded so similar that any one of them could probably do the job.
I think this shows what amazing cheap tools we have these days!
I voted for #2. And I don't care if it's the original. I just like it.
Don´t forget: outboard gear is great, but you have to have good cables, routing etc. to get the difference !
Hmmm...gold cables are bullshit....another myth....any half decent cable sounds the same....most interfaces made in the last couple of years have better convertors than the market leaders did 5 years ago... Don't get caught up in audiophile mythology... Happy to do an interface shootout soon. 👍
@@StudioLife101 my 10 year old orion still sounds better than any current scarlett 😂
@@mirkomarkovic3438 Fair....that's a very good sounding interface...👍
My universal hit was 2 and 4 across the board... bias/preference whatever... i liked the sounds xD
My conclussion is just to get Lala :D
@@DaveChips Yep...it's great. 👍
@@StudioLife101 cant beat price to performance on that one ... xD
I was so incandescent with rage the moment I realised neither 1 or 5 were ever the real LA-2A that, at that exact moment, all the spots on my back simultaneously emptied like some kind of great puss tsunami. Needless to say after a short time had passed, all of my skin had cleared up lovely. So I must give public thanks to Dan and Sean for giving me such a good emptying. I'll be sleeping on my front no more!
In all seriousness, I'm just glad that my majority favourite (alongside the stock Logic plugin which I've never used) was an actual piece of hardware. Thank goodness for that. Dignity saved....
I have to be honest (at the risk of being called an uneducated pleb) but I could barely discern any difference (in the mix) and none of them stood out as significantly better than the others. I use a KT-2A (as well as the UAD LA-2A plugins) and I don't think many people who listen to Detronics' records (that's currently 4 Spotify listeners per month) have any idea what a compressor is, let alone whether it's an original or a cheap clone or a plugin. And they probably care even less! For me, this video was a really good affirmation of this, and justifies me being an utter miser when it comes to gear 🙂. Excellent content, gents. Keep it up. Pultec next? 1176?
@@vitmedia 1176 is coming next...👍
Yank you for this experience. Very interresting!
31425...my order of favorites. Posted on the orignal vid, and here, a full day before premiere.
I think the Logic comp should go native. VST3
You mentioned my guesses. Boy was I all over the place 😂
Do you have a Pultec video shootout?
I could tell u switched them up for each application but I couldn’t tell which was which.
Hi. I got everything wrong. But I find these tests and the accompanying human behaviour very interesting.
I personally can’t be convinced that an actual LA2A wouldn’t be best for material I would use it on, but how is it that I didn’t pull the LA2A?
Well, I felt I was just guessing. I could hear differences, but it didn’t matter to me which was which, nothing stood out. Win for the test?
Sort of, perhaps not.
I have no affinity with the song, I have no interest in what makes the bass better or worse, perhaps if I was into some sort of speed garage pop hybrid I would have an opinion, truth is I can’t tell you which is better or worse for the song. I thought the drums sounded the most lively through 1, at least I chose an analog box, but on Bass I couldn’t care at all. On vocals, again - what difference could an LA2A make? I already didn’t like the vocal.
Heres the second observation, not having any jeopardy. As in, I’m not switched on or invested enough to give it a hyper critical ear, I’m just cruising youtube and rolling with it. Its s very different state of mind to having to deliver something to a time restriction and needing get paid.
Here’s where I am. You can definitely use clones and plugins in place of expensive hardware, we all do at sometime or other, but there are occasions when you have a very special performance, typically a bass or a vocal, that the LA2A will make it absolutely pop in away nothing else can. And thats why you own them, or rather pros own them. Sometimes the original reminds us what the fuss is all about.
Thanks for the vid, I know these things take alot of work. Best J
Next test try out the Lindell channel strip….that thing does some things
@@vektacular Which one?
@@StudioLife101 the channel strip like one….it has the compressor, and EQ is it the X?
@@StudioLife101 gimme one sec
Yes the Lindell channelX
I pick the LA2A plugin I use in my DAW by random because I don't care and can't tell the difference and feel they all do the same thing more or less
It is incredibly easy to fool oneself with any audio issue... guess how I know that? We used to have a producer console at one studio, where only two out of 4 controls were actually connected up, and they were reverse volume trims. I know several studios had similar arrangements...
Thanks for the reveal vid. Sometimes these tests can lead to valuable conclusions by learning about our preferences. (Are any these statements inaccurate? I don't think so...)
- I liked #1 because it was phat, and 66% of the time, #1 was KT2A. I also guessed it was the KT2A. Odds of randomly guessing the KT2A twice is 4%. (20% x 20%)
- I said that #1 & #4 were analog, which is correct in 4 of 6 cases. IOW, I identified software in 7 of 9 cases.
- I said #4 was an all-arounder. 66% of the time #4 was hardware.
- My attempt at identifying the three unfamiliar plugins was abysmal.
- Conclusion: I am susceptible to being tricked like most humans are, but nonetheless seem to prefer analog, and particularly the KT2A. Maybe I should buy a KT2A?
@@sparella You should buy a KT-2A and work for NASA.👍
Ah now I know the LA2A sounds night and day 😂(j/k they are all great)
Some argue the investment is better in hardware, I doubt though all my plugins I have bought come to more than one vintage bit of gear.
After checking it looks like I liked the Softube and the Logic on Bass, and I liked the real LA2A and Logic on Drums and Vox, I think I kind of picked up that you were doing different orders, and it did occur to me that you likely would, (I would in the interests of proper blind testing), but I also gave the same answers when the order was the same, so maybe I heard more than I expected
It appears I really like the Logic plugin, which is bloody annoying....as I am a poor PC and Reaper user LMAO
But overall I think the test was a success, they all sounded good. I use the Black Rooster, T-Racks plugins for LA2A I also really like the BPD Dirty LA which is a great freebie for LA2A
Next time you do one of these shootouts, you should do it game show style, and each of you should try to guess what the other would answer. 😂
I changed my answers for each example and summed them up 😂
maybe test the real 1073 with the vsts
Here we go 😂
I don't know how or why - but I picked the Analog Obsession LALA for all 3 tests. I've been using the UA Plugin version every time I've wanted an "opto" comp vibe. And I've been giving £4 a month to Ridvan for a couple years now for his stuff - but never even bothered to try the LALA because I was happy with the UA version. I have corrected that mistake. AO does make some really remarkable plugins and you kids make my day with every video.
@@JimMoreland Good to hear...cheers.👍 Yes...his stuff is awesome...we love it. 👍
Just a request. Could you maybe do future videos without the New Age-y music bed underneath. I found it very distracting. Thanks.
@@JamesSteeleProjectVideos Haha....no.👍
@@StudioLife101 Suit yourself. It was just a suggestion. I just won’t watch them. I couldn’t make it through the whole thing. Carry on. 👍
@@JamesSteeleProjectVideos Thanks 🤘
LOL "Cosmi KJ" ... actually pronounced "Cosmic J" ...
When I came up with the 'Whacky' spelling of 'Kozmyk', little did I know that it is a Polish surname ...
😂👍
Once I saw the names I could tell the difference haha.
That was cruel Sean and you know it.
Don't go wandering around Bow after dark.
@@manofpaper9446 😂😂
I’m feeling smug as hell right now. All the “experts” who jumped on me saying “You clearly don’t have the trained ear or the fancy monitors I have to hear the difference” should be enjoying the humble pie right now.
People were doing exactly what I said…convincing themselves there was a difference, making up defining characteristics, and then making an absolute fool of themselves in the comments.
There was no night and day difference like I said…and they randomized the order between tests. Most of y’all just made it up. 🤣
I did not say you don't have a trained ear. I said there are people with better trained ears and better monitoring than you who will hear things you don't and same goes for me. It's not a contentious statement. There is always someone better, but hopefully we are also a little better than we were yesterday.
Exactly 😂😂😂
I only got 1 right 🤦🏿😂😂😂
hmm that's not what I said. but sure 🙂
@@bobbyweezer 😂😂
Basically, this settles the analog vs digital, analog is not always better, actually it's not even half of the time better so better save your analog gear money and spend it on monitoring.