Analogue Summing test --> With files!

crillemannen

crillemannen

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Jun 20, 2007
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www.studiohaga.net
Hi,

So i got a Crane Song spider which has analogue summing. Never actually used it. I remember i did a shootout a couple of years ago and thought the difference was neglectable. This time i really measured the volumes so everything is 100% equally loud.

3 stereo outs going through the crane song and DAW. Drums, guitars and Bass. One is a clean summing through the spider and one is with the gain on 18db on the preamps.

My own personal impression is that the Spider really added something. It was not a huge difference but more like 2-4%. Better stereo image, more depth, more punch and it added some openness to the mix. Pretty much what I'vecome to experience when I've done other shootouts with my other HW comps against ITB plugin.

It's blind test and i will post results in a couple of days:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/29auyb123xrip88/Serious Summing BLIND.rar

Cheers / christian
 
i would guess A is the DAW, B is the spider and C is the cranked spider but i could easily be wrong. to me A has the most difference in sonics. B and C have a bit of a midrange/lowmidrange gnarl to the guitars/bassguitar that A doesn't have to my ears. the kick also does have a bit more top end smack on A so thats why i think its the DAW. its also a bit less compressed... still all very subtle to my ears. i can't even decide which i like best cause they are so similar to me.

very interested in the results. thanks for sharing!
 
Please excuse my lack of knowledge but could you explain this a bit more? I really just don't have my head wrapped around analog summing. It seems like you are running the tracks through the spider at 0db,at 18db and also just through your daw. Is that correct? Also, if your run through your spider the do the tracks go through the daw afterward? Thanks.
 
FarBeyondMetal said:
Please excuse my lack of knowledge but could you explain this a bit more? I really just don't have my head wrapped around analog summing. It seems like you are running the tracks through the spider at 0db,at 18db and also just through your daw. Is that correct? Also, if your run through your spider the do the tracks go through the daw afterward? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yeah sure.

I first bounced 3 stems from my DAW from the mixing session. Then i send those 3 stems out through the spider and then recorded them back in the DAW. The 18db example is done so that i crank the preamps on the Spider (the unit is a preamp, summing mixer with DA) for some more dirt/saturation.

So after this i got a total of 3x3 tracks --> 3tracks from original mix-session bounce. 3 tracks from clean Spider summing and 3 tracks from the preamp cranked at 18db.

Then i bounce those 3x3 into one stereo file each. With some masterbus compression/limiting etc.
 
crillemannen said:
Yeah sure.

I first bounced 3 stems from my DAW from the mixing session. Then i send those 3 stems out through the spider and then recorded them back in the DAW. The 18db example is done so that i crank the preamps on the Spider (the unit is a preamp, summing mixer with DA) for some more dirt/saturation.

So after this i got a total of 3x3 tracks --> 3tracks from original mix-session bounce. 3 tracks from clean Spider summing and 3 tracks from the preamp cranked at 18db.

Then i bounce those 3x3 into one stereo file each. With some masterbus compression/limiting etc.
Click to expand...



this confused me a bit... are you running the tracks through the spider and then summing in the daw? because you said you get 3 tracks back from the spider which would mean your not summing in the spider unit? correct?
 
The differences are so subtle that they're negligible IMO. I'm guessing that C is the ITB one, and A and B were summed? B fattens out the bass a bit more nicely, and A seems more honest to the original balance though maybe with a touch more glue and sub. Those are my first impressions.
 
B definitely has the fat thing going on most. For me the wisp and the hair of the high end is sequentially being tamed throughout. In this order A, C, B
where A is daw and C is clean spider.
 
Listening on my KRK headphones. I think the imaging or perceived width is extremely similar / the same, maybe it would be more apparent on my monitors. Im hearing the biggest difference in the low end for sure. B is more glued sounding and the click from the kick drum that seems a little annoying in C sounds good here and the bass guitar feels more stable over all. A seems like a cross between B and C. My guess is A is clean summing, B is driven summing, and C is DAW only. Do you have VCC ?, I would love to hear how that stacks up since you have everything in place to shoot it out proper.
 
prefer B too... but i think B and C are really similar. A has a more "digital" hi-end to me, so i guess thats the ITB one.
 
Manicompression said:
Do you have VCC ?, I would love to hear how that stacks up since you have everything in place to shoot it out proper.
Click to expand...

Yes i have. But I've been using it less and less. Think the last mix i did i didn't use it at all. The thing with VCC is that yes it adds some nice glue and makes the mix bigger in some ways but... It also add allot of shit like say the 4k channel which adds a bunch of lowmids and make the normal mids a bit ugly sounding. And the BritN which is my favorite makes the lowend big and punchy but add some ugly highs which really makes guitars sound bad.

But the Spider in my mind just shaves off a bit of the digital highs and makes everything a tad fatter. Nothing mindblowing but if I would integrate it with my workflow i can definitely hear it adding something nice to the mix. Oppose too VCC which gives some positive affects but a bunch of negatives.
 
Wasn't able to hear you files until now, but the neve summing mixer(in wide mode) was the only one I was impressed by now. Thanks for sharing your files, will listen to it when I am back in the studio.
 
Wow, you would think driving it harder would result in more sonic smear. Straight summing for the win. Im going to have another good listen when I get home. Cool test.
 
Very nice test! Thanks for the effort!

Although I liked B better, it's only for a very insignificant margin.
 
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