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  #1  
Old 08-06-2020, 12:01 PM
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Default Plug-in (preferably free or inexpensive) to warm up recording

No vocals, just guitar. Any recommendations? The simpler the better. Thanks.
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Old 08-06-2020, 01:18 PM
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I find the right reverb does a lot to warm up the sound. Narrow band equalization sweeps can be useful to cut harsh frequencies.

Just bought Gullfoss. Will report back if this plugin is valuable for solo guitar.
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Old 08-06-2020, 01:59 PM
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"Warm up" is a bit vague. You might just need some EQ - more low end? Cut some highs? I haven't noticed that warmth is an issue with your recordings.

The Oeksound Soothe plugin is really nice for taming edginess, not free, but there's a free trial. Sometimes what people add for "warmth" is saturation. Here's a free one (haven't used it myself) https://www.softube.com/saturationknob
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Old 08-06-2020, 02:22 PM
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Thanks Rick and Doug. I'm waiting for support from Softube to get back to me. I downloaded 4 freebies and I'm playing around with them.
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Old 08-10-2020, 11:31 PM
Trent in WA Trent in WA is offline
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Which DAW are you using? Many of them have a native plugins that might work for you.
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Old 08-11-2020, 08:17 PM
robj144 robj144 is offline
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I just got Coffee The Pun for free and it's very good:

https://www.acustica-audio.com/store/t/acqua/free

At the bottom of the page.
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Old 08-18-2020, 08:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by robj144 View Post
I just got Coffee The Pun for free and it's very good:

https://www.acustica-audio.com/store/t/acqua/free

At the bottom of the page.
I got that, thanks. I have to figure it out now,
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Old 08-18-2020, 09:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
...Sometimes what people add for "warmth" is saturation. Here's a free one (haven't used it myself) https://www.softube.com/saturationknob
I'm gonna have to check out this one for sure. I use Softube's "Tape" plugin and have been digging it.
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Old 08-24-2020, 01:43 AM
Andy Howell Andy Howell is offline
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Sometimes when people use 'warmth' they are talking about harmonic distortion/Saturation. True Iron from Kazrog can male a massive difference and works from subtle to dramatic!
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Old 08-24-2020, 08:54 AM
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Usually in a solo guitar recording that has issues it is either harshness in the treble (the bass is virtually always ok in this aspect)
and/or congestion in the lower midrange. Plugins that are basically designed to "warm" things up don't deal with either of these
issues and in fact can add congestion. Harshness needs to be dealt with (if possible at all) on a very narrow frequency band basis.
If you just lower the high frequencies in a broad band way you suck out the air and detail in the sound. I don't consider these type
of mainly additive versus subtractive warmth plugins to be saviors in regards to sprucing up a solo guitar recording that has these
issues. If you have a thin bass sound perhaps of some use but I would go about it differently or just re-record.
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Last edited by rick-slo; 08-24-2020 at 10:10 AM. Reason: typo
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Old 08-24-2020, 12:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rick-slo View Post
Usually in a solo guitar recording that has issues it is either harshness in the treble (the bass is virtually always ok in this aspect)
and/or congestion in the lower midrange. Plugins that are basically designed to "warm" things up don't deal with either of these
issues and in fact can add congestion. Harshness needs to be dealt with (if possible at all) on a very narrow frequency band basis.
If you just lower the high frequencies in a broad band way you suck out the air and detail in the sound. I don't consider these type
of mainly additive versus subtractive warmth plugins to be saviors in regards to sprucing up a solo guitar recording that has these
issues. If you have a thin bass sound perhaps of some use but I would go about it differently or just re-record.
I think the question is a bit ambiguous, tho I agree with this in general. To me, the opposite of warm isn't harsh, it's bright or clean to the point of being sterile or cold. (I don't hear this in Barry's recordings) Those are things that, while best dealt with in the recording, can be helped with various plugins that add saturation of various kinds. I think of those as addressing the situation where some people will claim a recording sounds "digital".

Harsh is a different issue, and I don't think you can fix that by adding "warmth". For home recordings, my number #1 suspect for harsh would be room acoustics. Short reflections and hard surfaces make things sound harsh. The guitar, strings, and playing technique (attack) would be next up on my suspect list, followed by mics. Cheap mics can have harsh sounding highs, for example. The soothe plugin can help with a little harshness - it seems to be basically a many-band compressor that can tame very narrow frequencies on demand, but it's fairly subtle, it's not going to fix a bad room, for example. I recently had good luck using it to smooth out a violin, which can be pretty harsh and nasally when close mic'd.

I'd address both harshness and lack of "warmth" with room acoustics, mic choice and placement, and guitar/strings/technique. The various plugins are useful for making fine tweaks once the basic recording is good and you're just trying to fine-tune it.
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Old 08-24-2020, 12:42 PM
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Often hard to separate out the bright versus harsh continuum. Harsh has an abundance of transients that are fighting each other
in their overtone sequences (say from a rough fingernail) though a really bright sound can be harsh in its own way. High frequencies
are very directional and why mikes out in front of the guitar pick up so much more of that than does the guitar player.

Speaking of directionality I do listen to recordings with headphones most of the time. Perhaps a softer experience for many using speakers to listen to recordings (depending on where they are sitting).
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Last edited by rick-slo; 08-24-2020 at 12:56 PM.
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  #13  
Old 08-25-2020, 06:53 PM
Fran Guidry Fran Guidry is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
No vocals, just guitar. Any recommendations? The simpler the better. Thanks.
Don't take this too seriously, but the coders at Toneboosters have heard your request and created a plugin that specifically provides "warm" or if you need it or "tinny" or "bright" or "dark" or anywhere in between: https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_free.html#tabs-2

It's scientific:

Quote:
TB EZQ combines machine learning, artificial intelligence and signal processing in a simple but powerful plug-in. TB EZQ is based on the work from Andrew Sabin and Bryan Pardo from the interactive audio lab at Northwestern University, IL, USA. They developed a method to automatically map common equalization manipulations involving multiple equalizer controls onto descriptive terms such as ‘warm’, ‘dark’ and ‘bright’. These descriptive labels can subsequently be placed onto a 2-dimensional space, in which each point represents a certain amount of ‘warmth’, ‘darkness’, and ‘brightness’.
And it's free!

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Old 08-27-2020, 07:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fran Guidry View Post
Don't take this too seriously, but the coders at Toneboosters have heard your request and created a plugin that specifically provides "warm" or if you need it or "tinny" or "bright" or "dark" or anywhere in between: https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_free.html#tabs-2

It's scientific:



And it's free!

Fran
The plug-ins I downloaded from them weren't exactly free forever, but thanks anyway.
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Old 08-28-2020, 07:17 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
The plug-ins I downloaded from them weren't exactly free forever, but thanks anyway.
Not to mention that music is in the end, art not science. While there is certainly math and science involved in the reproduction of sound, ultimately it is artistic decisions that bring a recording to life.

BUT if you going to consider science ? CONSIDER that as Rick and Doug have both mentioned.
The science of room acoustics, will most likely do much more to "warm" up your recordings than any digital mathematical algorithm
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