James’ favourite analogue-aping plugins

UAD Thermionic Culture Vulture

“I’ve got the Super 15 hardware, but this software emulation is great. It’s a famous valve distortion box that brings magic and weight to lifeless signals, especially drums. Play with the bias to find a sweet spot, then bring the wet/dry mix back to regain transients.” www.universalaudio.com

Black Box Analog Designs HG-2

“Another fantastic valve saturator from Plugin Alliance. There are a couple of great extra controls such as density… again, you can go to town with it, then pull the mix amount back. It just shows you how far DSP has come in the last five years.” www.plugin-alliance.com

Fielding DSP Reviver

“It’s dead simple – input, output and harmonics. You add second harmonics – which I don’t ever bother with – but adding third harmonics is something special; it adds this magic. I’ve never found a kick or bass that doesn’t sound better once it’s gone through this thing.” www.fieldingdsp.com

Ploytec Aroma

“From the makers of Bazzism. Aroma has multiple, oddly-named functions – it’s great to see people use obtuse terminology so you can focus purely on the sound. I like the ‘Sugar’ tape emulation… just grab things and turn them up!” www.ploytec.com

u-he Satin

“This is one of my favourite tape emulations – it’s just so controllable. All of the physical processes of tape have an effect on the signal, and this replicates most of them. My favourite is the ‘head bump’ – a well-known tape response that adds low-end ‘oomph’. www.u-he.com