VINTAGE EFFECTS

Recreate the sound of history’s greatest signal processors,

Eccentric, often cantankerous, and bursting with character, vintage effects processors are – like everything old in the music world – all the rage at the moment. It might be easy to dismiss this affection for ancient outboard gear as yet another example of empty nostalgia, but to do so would be to ignore the euphonic character imparted by these old circuits. Maybe it comes from the quality (or lack thereof) of the components used to build them, or maybe it comes from the aging tubes and transformers that push and pull the electrons through their innards, but the fact is that some old effects boxes have a special sound that was lost on the road to digital perfection.

Software developers know it, and some of them have taken up the challenge of reproducing these elusive qualities in their products. Many popular DAWs come chock full of retro-styled widgets intended to add just the right amount of desirable degradation to any signal plumbed through them, and there are numerous plugins to take up the slack when one DAW falls short. In fact, a few developers have dedicated themselves almost exclusively to the task of recreating famous effects processors, even as manufacturers of some of the most desirable hardware have reproduced their most famous designs in virtual form.

Over the next 19 pages, we’re going to take a look at some of the most important hardware effects processors in history. We’ll learn what made those devices sound as good as they did, and how they helped to shape the sound of the music we love. More importantly, we’ll show you how to recreate their sounds inside your DAW of choice. In the process we’ll try out the best of the commercial emulations, and clue you in to some amazing free alternatives, too.