Join the channel to get access all the videos: bit.ly/2SNX8bx API 5500: imp.i114863.net/OXe1Q WAVES 550: waves.alzt.net/Vq5Y3 Bella Kelly's Single/Video Throat: bit.ly/3dxeJOf After Extensive testing, this: bit.ly/2HSsA5U would be the best overall API Emulation plugin
Best mixing channel on youtube!! I’d be very interested to see someone do this with the Acustica stuff. I know Acqua/Nebula plug-ins serve more of a niche crowd but putting the idea of Acustica stuff being comparable to hardware to a test would be awesome
@@claudianreyn4529 IKR I wish I could sell most of mine and get my money back and purchase some Plugin Alliance or UAD plugins instead or better yet analog gear lol
@@DocKaosBeats if you subscribe to plugin alliance on their mix and master plan they start sending vouchers all the time and most of their plugins can be had for around 29.99 lol you also get 200 back in a voucher at the end of the year and after a year or 2 you won't need to subscribe anymore. It's a pretty good deal imo
Unless my ears are fooling me, it sounds like the hardware adds some depth, especially on the drums. It's like he highs and lows don't sound pushed, but lifted, more 3 dimentional in a classy way. And I didn't have to pay attention to hear it, it was really obvious. I'm actually having a "Bingo!" moment: that particular high and low lift, I've heard it many times, Now I know what it was. Thanks David!
I have to say i really enjoy your videos. hope more ppl are as generous as you in contribution to this community! Love the hardware, but i think plugin sounds close too which is great!
@@DavidDiMuzio Lol listenning on $600 monitors with no treated room and crashed ears : i don't hesitate neither... Guitar & Kick not the same with the plugin..
@@seenbelow And for David Gnozzi of MixBusTv who is a size in the field, WE should go on work with this plugin because it is still widely used at high level. ( by high grade engineers )
@@seenbelow I noticed a difference on the kick, but honestly on the drums I didn't notice a positive enough direction towards the hardware for it to matter much. The major difference when I feel like it would have made enough difference to really matter to a listener in the way the song felt was the guitars and the whole mix examples.
Greetings, This is an amazing video, but I have a question? Is the API 5500 your goto for mix/master bus? Also with did you have to swap out parts in your 5500?
No it sits on my drum bus along with one of my fatso's and I didn't "have" to swap things but I did prefer the scott liber opamps both for the sound and because they don't blow up. I do use it in mastering tho', probably 3 songs out of 10 (and mind you when I mean mastering I mean mastering, meaning client's mixes)
Thanks for the video Dave, most of the people here saying that the hardware is way much better and bashing the plugins wouldn't even realize which is the software and which is the hardware if they blind tested the 2 units. In the end you can achieve the same results on the plugin because its not only about the tools, its about how you use them! 👌
The hw *is* better, now that doesn't take away that the plugin is good and it's a different tool that sometimes might be working even better on some things. The same? No you can't. Not the same, different, sure, there's not one way to mix a song, but never the same
Appreciate the solo bus examples in addition to full mix examples. I haven't delved into hardware acquisition just yet, but API pre's and processing are at the top of the list if I manage to make recording/mixing a bigger chunk of my overall income. Curious where you would start with outboard if you were just now starting to make your living in this realm? Right now mine is almost all made in live sound and backline. Recording/mixing work is and always has been the dream though. Thanks for your work, David.
It was especially noticeable on that last example, the plugin was definitely sort of floppy by comparison. But my question to you is: if you had to go in blind, do you think you would be able to tell which is which? And while little differences obviously stack up to make bigger differences at the end, is using analog gear going to make it sound better, or just different?
Better. Plugin will always sound the same it terms how "saturation" affect every sample of a given sound. Plugins are mostly code by C# or Python... You can double it and reverse polarity, you will get perfect NULL because plugins are generaly "01010011 01001000 01001001 01010100" (use online binary to text converter to see what i wrote ;) ) On the other side, the real hardware has non-linearity. Just imagine all that components inside affecting each other by magnetic field, temperature, voltage changes etc... All that special transformers and other components inside make a better sound, or lets say "More Listenable", pleasant to ears. And now, time for answer: * Yes, using the analog gear will make your mix sound better { if you know what you doing :D } Kind regards!
On the majority of the examples the hardware was definitely better, but what surprised me is that on a few of them, I marginally preferred the emulation, only on a couple though
Like I said in the video, I love their API suite, and yes, on electronic music there have been cases in which I preferred the plugin. The hw is irreplaceable tho', one of those pieces
That's because the sound of the plugin vs the hw is just different. Not better not worse objectively. Some material will work better on one unit than the other
that's explain why we spend so much money in hardwares (for sure much more expensive) vs. plugins considering that high gap so amazing result in comparison with VSTs in the box treatments
@@ac7diffusion_mastering Of course. And what David teach me precisely , that is : yes we can obtain the same results ( some goods engineers do it ) with plugins for some treatments but he must use 3 or 4 treatments where he would use only one with a ( good ) hardware. So it is a choice of simplicity too .
@@ac7diffusion_mastering And some brands should be sanctioned because they use of false advertising to sell their plugins !! NO you don't have the same sound with a genuine API or SSL or NEVE hardwares than with their plugins !!
Great piece of gear, it's on my list of gears to get. There's an openness to it that is very cool! Does it seem like the stereo image gets slightly wider as well? Given the fact that the Waves plug-in is a fraction of a cost and the ease of use of a digital plug-in, it's doing pretty well considering. As another commenter mentioned he was listening in a treated room with $4000 monitors. I think most of us here use pro eqiupment to listen to these comparions, but the vast majority of listeners (99%) will not be in a treated room with $$$$ equipment and the difference would not be noticed. And they are definitely Not side-by-side comparing the music, so there is no point of refernce. But the fact is that this is a tool for the engineer to make good sounding records. The better the tool, the better sounding audio/music we will get.
Other than the gain divider, is there any difference between the API 5500 and a set of two hardware 550B's? I've heard that its the same but from your unboxing video, the 5500 seemed to have a lot more heft than what two 500 series units would have.
Wow! Man you keep on selling gear to me. This is such a good comparison. I’m looking for a vocal eq for hip hop that could also be used for mixbus or drum bus with 4K-5k budget. Is this the best choice for that?
In my humble opinion, no comparison between the two. The hardware makes the source sound alive and the plugin boosts a frequency. Was really noticeable on the piano. Thanks for the demo. Pretty sure the 5500 will be my next splurge.
API is my favorite EQ. OOOH but sometimes it's a tie with Neve. I've never gotten a better bass guitar sound than I can with an API. Forget graphic eq's if you're not notching. Get the API.
David, i was all day trying the API 5500 thru the web Access Analog and after that i don't want more plugins.. The question is: What about the API560? would you recommend me buying? I don't have 4000 dollars for the 5500 :_/
The 560 is one of the finest eq's ever made, more of a tracking eq but amazing for mixing as well, different from the 550's and the 5500 (mostly for recalls) but amazing eq
@@mixbustv Thanks man! it would be my first eq. I'm looking also the 550A... I'm becoming member just in 5 days man, i'm getting a lot out of this channel. Thanks David!
While analog hardware may still have an edge on software (for now), I think it’s important for people to remember, the decisions an engineer makes are FAR more important than the gear they use.
@@mixbustv How so? Maybe you missed my point? My comment was directed at any new producers/mixers that think that the only thing stopping them from getting great mixes is the budget to have a lot of expensive outboard gear. I think you if you were to mix a song and completely restricted yourself to software, you would still get better results than an amateur mixer that had access to all the analog equipment they wanted. Do you disagree?
@@mixbustv Maybe I'm the only idiot out there. But I know when I first started it wasn't that obvious. It always felt the like there was another bit of hardware or software I needed in order to create a professional sounding mix. Just thought it was worth making that point. Anyway... enjoy your videos, keep at it.
This is night and day through all examples. Probably due to my simple brain I find myself more often using the 5500 than the SPL PQ - I love the API. Thanks for -almost- proper level matching! I see oh so many "hardware vs plugin" videos where the level is always higher on the hardware when paid by the hardware industry, and vice versa when paid by the plugin developers. RUclips should have an algorithm for that. For me as a customer it's so easy: EQ, saturation/distortion and compression are not subject to be done by plugins, all the rest is. Okay, except for Eventide where digital outboard beats digital ITB, but that's all.
It doesn't have to be Acustica, but comparing to something released at least in the last five years would certainly make a difference in terms of emulation technology and quality. This gap has been closing year after year, and for some recent emus I have been having a hard time picking the best between plugins and hardware. Softube stuff has done an amazing job in that sense.
They are actually impossible to really be sampled. 100 positions of each knob will be 100^8 combinations which have to be sampled - it will take hundred years to do this
Hardware objectively sounds better but, I ain't got multi g's to drop on the hardware unfortunately. Gotta stick to mixing in the box for now. - Thanks for the comparison vid.
Thank you. Difference is obvious! I want to know... If i use this analog eq and then after in chain other many vsts.. for instance blackbox vst, maximizer..would vst eat the charm of this analog? Or it would be better to use analog only last in chain to feel magic?)
I have trouble with this EQ for mastering or even 2-bus cause 0.5 dB increments are too big... I need something with 0.2 dB at least. I wish it had a x .1 range setting. I was hardly using this API now I am hardly using the Curve Bender cause the 0.5 dB increments are too big. The gain knobs are useless, I rarely use any other +/- gain value except 0.5 dB on these units and often that setting does not work. Some of these EQs would be so cool if you could sculpt the sound with 0.1 dB increments.
Hi David, thanks for an inspiring video... once again!!! I own MAAG eq4s, and I am looking for a parametric EQ (all analog). But as usual, I am following your advice, and also comparing plugins back to back. I am hesitating between an elysia Museq, and an API 5500. And after playing around with the plugins, I found both virtual units sound totally different. It's almost like the API5500 is a hybrid between a parametric EQ and a MAAG eq4! (the way it sounds) Or did I miss something major? I am talking about just how it sounds, not what the buttons' labels read. Is it because of its relatively wide Q, or because I'm just a lost newbie? ;-)
Nothing sounds like the API, the museq is a bit too sterile for me, definitely two completely different units. While I use all my eqs equally, the API I feel is the one making the most difference pretty much always.
@@mixbustv I just read from the designer of this unit it's actually more of a 550A dual setup. That almost certainly explains why this is so dramatically different. The 550A is consider considerably superior to the B. You could try this test again with the IKM 550A, they offer one.
@@mixbustv Museq has a mix version and a master version. The master version has the power, and the warmth with the warm button on. The mix version isn't so good.
I have the IKmultimedia version of this. It has the half db steps and their stuff sounds better then the wave stuff IMO. Less...tame and woolly. Also their LA2A and 1176 sound way better then the ones from waves .
Please understand that that's a preamp. You CANNOT compare an analog preamp connected to your mic affecting the very same track that you'd then compare. Even worse if you'd compare tracking with a different preamp. You cannot track with plugins
Nope. The only gear that sounds different is VERY old gear, as in 60's and 70's. This is in production the units sound exactly the same with 0.001% of difference
Hi David.Thanks again for great review. I watched your another video where you mention a issue with API 5500 ( it had hum 60 Hz). How did you solve that? Can you share that story? I have the same issue with my API 5500) Thank you so much
The hardware doesn't hype the treble as much, so with the plugin you really need to use something after to tame the highs back to be more in line with the hardware. But yeah the hardware feels like its a compressor, very nice!
wow im surprised by how well does the waves plugin reacts to drums.... obiously hardware sounds way more real and transparent, but not bad for being an emulation
The dynamics on the hardware is what you have to focus on, not the boost in freq's. The hardware is punchy and has a great punch. Its like SSL but there is some meat on the bone. The plug in does not have this. It does boost the same freq;s and is more smooth and polite.
Acustica is literally vectorized impulse samples of actual hardware units so the results are literally like running audio through hardware. It would be a much better comparison than 15 year old static modeling. I moved on from Waves years ago.
@@autodidacticprofessor869 the size of the latest Pink update though... I have Pink but didn't download the new version because there's just no way I am dedicating that much hard drive space to a few plug-ins. Not to mention how poorly they still run in some DAW's. I wish they would spend time optimizing them. You're right though their emulations are next level and should be used vs hardware for comparisons.
Hardware wins hand down but the question is a difference of x40 in price makes a difference of x40 in sound. I guess that could be a long debate. On the other side, the Waves 550 emulation is far inferior from the one from UAD... it would be fair to compare the real thing with the best soft emulation... and waves it's not actually. Thanks David for the test !
No of course the x40 price difference is not x40 sound difference, but this goes for EVERYTHING, as the price goes up there's diminished return, but if you do this for a living and you want to be up there in the game, yes, it's more than worth it. And again, if one piece of gear won't make a night and day difference in a mix (altho' it can), try 32. Professional engineers and home studios are different things, they need different tools because they have different standards, simple as that. You don't see any professional in any profession (if he/she's good) aiming for mediocrity because they don't want to invest in their craft.
@@mixbustv you're right my friend, as a professionals we need to get such equipment. I continue investing in hardware outboard even if there is fantastic software counterparts... my beloved UA LA-2A cannot be beat by any soft emulation to date, the same for my Distressors or my UA-1176 or my Chandler outboard or my real guitar tube amps collection... happy mixing !
The hardware sounds much better to me. The plugin sounds brighter/harsh, and hardware sounds warmer/ richer. The plugin sounds fine though, and the average listener will never know anyways.
The average listener won't even do A/B, moot point. The mix will move them or not. And if one eq won't make much of a difference (which does) try 32ch of hw
@@mixbustv ya, avg. listener may not hear it, but they will feel it. I use to buy Fat Wreck Chords albums until around 2000. I loved all the records prior, and the ones after were good, but I was never as passionate about them. I recently learned Fat went digital at that time. I guess I just love analog.
As usual... analog is a bit better and nicer and smother adding that rich tone in the background... it's a difference you have to notice and the difference isn't much with the price difference... analog is for when your craft becomes a very well-paid career. There's no point getting a full analog setup until you really know how to mix, as you don't want this difference to delude you that it already sounds good... The most important thing is your monitoring, and you need to be putting a lot of that money into your room treatment. Spend £3000 on monitors, spend £3000 on acoustics... Lower budgets are often best to obtain a very high-grade headphone monitoring setup... £1000 on headphones... £0 on acoustics. I'll be starting soon and I have no idea what budget I will be starting with... could be £30,000... could be £5,000. There is no analog vs digital war, there simply an individual skill, knowledge, and money war and no one is judging, that has any relevant judgments to make. People like this give you insight for future ideas, where your setup might be taken if you get to take off in this as a career.
David if you compare that plastic sounding plugin from waves with that classic api 5500 I'll slap you the harmonic and 3d openness of the hardware sounds so expensive and rich I Vann afford though thanks to acoustica audio to really rob that hardware of its natural Ness with nebula I don't need that 5500
No worries, I doubt anyone care if you do or don't need that 5500 lol The plastic sounding plugins as you call em, are used by professionals daily on charting mixes btw.
plugins always win on the fact you can have many many of them, but hardware is always sonically more satisfying, elecricity truly is shocking but so is the price lol, i need one great outboard eq though, the api the curvebender or the affordable drawmer, or pultec rubber bands style
Yeah and too much processing is also one of the reasons people screw mixes up, another good aspects of hardware: when you have limitations, you HAVE to focus on what's important instead of applying everything everywhere
@@mixbustv so true the hard truth for me was overcooking trying to bring out more transient detail, using some great reference source material is key, i love soundgardens king animal always sounds great in the car and in the studio and my real world i buds, so happy days, a good solid clear balance then the end listener can actually use a treble control without getting the ears shredded by cymbals or hi hats, that said im happy with saturation plugins, the overloud tapedesk has that nice crispy sat and low end babump, i think drawmer got the bang for the buck though tbh, api and neve are mystical and from a time when sonic giants and consoles ruled the earth, companys need to look at pricing to really get into the modern landscape, love the mixbus :) i found drawmer here
Analog is never perfectly linear and any L/R-processing "widens" it because the channels differ just a little bit, and the difference does not stay constant but varies even on sub-atomic level. I don't think there's any other magic behind it.
oh.. there is A LOT more than that, and there's no "sub-atomic" anything, not even sure where you fished that. If it was just that, it would be extremely, emphasis on extremely, easy to replicate. Fortunately there's "thinking" and science.
Man this is what I hear, they are kinda close but the bass just sounds harder on the hardware and there is this live quality to it I don't know, airy. The software sounds like I'm listing to something reproducing a sound and the hardware sounds like I'm in the room with the band, if that makes any sense.
about the 5500 and 550... what a differences! waves lost too much lowend. the hardwares muck focused on punch, and more opened. waves sound is not so good like others emu. but u know better than me :). waves don t have good algoritm for its tools... the best Api u can find is fromm Acustica Audio. PINK4.
I really like this sound, but need some answers. If i use this analog eq and then after in chain other many vsts.. for instance blackbox vst, maximizer..would vst eat the charm of this analog? Or it would be better to use analog only last in chain to feel magic? Is it normally if use this eq after all vst, after limiter also?
@@alexmagnifica HI ... i use mostly analog for mastering and a plugin limiter to finish it off ...you can use plugins after without pushing them to hard and get a good result ...but the sound will be different than using analog gear .............i would not recommend you use this eq after a limiter........BTW i have the Black box hardware ..it is a great sounding piece of gear....cheers !!
@@suharasp I know somebody who tested the plugin Bax and hardware Bax , and guess what? The results weren't really able to tell apart, here's the thing : he used his mastering converters for both the HW and software, what many people don't realise is some of the sound that people get is from conveters too and not just HW And SW, I love and use both, hybrid is the way to go imo, but that being said, there's many plugins these days which come extremely close to the point which you cant tell apart consistently in a blind test (not all, but some)
The Waves stuff is so old. The Acustica API stuff and UAD Vision would be a much better comparison. Waves needs to improve their algorithms or stop charging customers for “upgrades”.
Some 15+ years old Waves plugins are still the best and used in top charting records all day still. I promise you you'll hear difference with any plugin.
@@mixbustv I have tried loads of plugins and seen tons of people slag off Waves and I still like waves best overall (although the compressors don't come near Plugin Alliance for quality and variety). I'm curious, are the ones you see heavily used in the industry in the Renaissance bundle? I still find the Waves R..... are superb and go to them loads. My mixes are full of Waves R.
Join the channel to get access all the videos:
bit.ly/2SNX8bx
API 5500: imp.i114863.net/OXe1Q
WAVES 550: waves.alzt.net/Vq5Y3
Bella Kelly's Single/Video Throat: bit.ly/3dxeJOf
After Extensive testing, this: bit.ly/2HSsA5U would be the best overall API Emulation plugin
Best mixing channel on youtube!! I’d be very interested to see someone do this with the Acustica stuff. I know Acqua/Nebula plug-ins serve more of a niche crowd but putting the idea of Acustica stuff being comparable to hardware to a test would be awesome
streaky has a video comparing the maselec with the acustica version if you haven't seen it
Surprisingly the analog eq gave the piano a whole other feel, it seems more real even though it is probably a plugin.
API 5500 just sounds better. More open, more clear, is just perfect. OMG.
This plugin is not good. I knew it from the beginning. Waves in general are crap. Just few are good.
@@claudianreyn4529 IKR I wish I could sell most of mine and get my money back and purchase some Plugin Alliance or UAD plugins instead or better yet analog gear lol
@@DocKaosBeats if you subscribe to plugin alliance on their mix and master plan they start sending vouchers all the time and most of their plugins can be had for around 29.99 lol you also get 200 back in a voucher at the end of the year and after a year or 2 you won't need to subscribe anymore. It's a pretty good deal imo
@@fich1111 Yeah it's an amazing deal but the problem I have is not personally knowing what plugin to get or what I need
@@claudianreyn4529 i agree, AA PINK 4 is way better
David please no more hardware!!!!!!! My wife will divorce me dude!!!!!
Anyway another super video, please keep up the good work!!
Mine have already goes ... And i will exchange easily a comeback for this beast ! Lol !
A wife for an api swap sounds like a great deal for me
@@superhadouken You speak wise!!!
Feed your need for hardware by using services like Access Analog and MixAnalog!
@@RealHomeRecording Thank you so much ! I visit a site some days ago but it was not good as these ones !! Fantastic !
Unless my ears are fooling me, it sounds like the hardware adds some depth, especially on the drums. It's like he highs and lows don't sound pushed, but lifted, more 3 dimentional in a classy way.
And I didn't have to pay attention to hear it, it was really obvious.
I'm actually having a "Bingo!" moment: that particular high and low lift, I've heard it many times, Now I know what it was. Thanks David!
I have to say i really enjoy your videos. hope more ppl are as generous as you in contribution to this community! Love the hardware, but i think plugin sounds close too which is great!
The difference at the beginning on those electric guitars was just shocking.
@@RonnieVaiArovo I'm listening on $4,000 monitors in a treated Studio. The difference seemed pretty massive to me.
@@DavidDiMuzio Lol listenning on $600 monitors with no treated room and crashed ears : i don't hesitate neither... Guitar & Kick not the same with the plugin..
What did you think of the drums? Plugin sounded pretty good to my ears there.
@@seenbelow And for David Gnozzi of MixBusTv who is a size in the field, WE should go on work with this plugin because it is still widely used at high level. ( by high grade engineers )
@@seenbelow I noticed a difference on the kick, but honestly on the drums I didn't notice a positive enough direction towards the hardware for it to matter much. The major difference when I feel like it would have made enough difference to really matter to a listener in the way the song felt was the guitars and the whole mix examples.
I have mine 12 years. Still going strong. There is no master I did without it
Donate your API 5500 to a starving brother 🙏
Greetings,
This is an amazing video, but I have a question? Is the API 5500 your goto for mix/master bus? Also with did you have to swap out parts in your 5500?
No it sits on my drum bus along with one of my fatso's and I didn't "have" to swap things but I did prefer the scott liber opamps both for the sound and because they don't blow up. I do use it in mastering tho', probably 3 songs out of 10 (and mind you when I mean mastering I mean mastering, meaning client's mixes)
Thanks for the video Dave, most of the people here saying that the hardware is way much better and bashing the plugins wouldn't even realize which is the software and which is the hardware if they blind tested the 2 units. In the end you can achieve the same results on the plugin because its not only about the tools, its about how you use them! 👌
The hw *is* better, now that doesn't take away that the plugin is good and it's a different tool that sometimes might be working even better on some things. The same? No you can't. Not the same, different, sure, there's not one way to mix a song, but never the same
I could hear the difference, but only sometimes. I think the hw sounded better too.
Appreciate the solo bus examples in addition to full mix examples. I haven't delved into hardware acquisition just yet, but API pre's and processing are at the top of the list if I manage to make recording/mixing a bigger chunk of my overall income. Curious where you would start with outboard if you were just now starting to make your living in this realm? Right now mine is almost all made in live sound and backline. Recording/mixing work is and always has been the dream though. Thanks for your work, David.
I would love to see how the test would compare with UAD API plug ins which are modeled better than the very old Waves API
It was especially noticeable on that last example, the plugin was definitely sort of floppy by comparison. But my question to you is: if you had to go in blind, do you think you would be able to tell which is which?
And while little differences obviously stack up to make bigger differences at the end, is using analog gear going to make it sound better, or just different?
Better.
Plugin will always sound the same it terms how "saturation" affect every sample of a given sound. Plugins are mostly code by C# or Python...
You can double it and reverse polarity, you will get perfect NULL because plugins are generaly "01010011 01001000 01001001 01010100" (use online binary to text converter to see what i wrote ;) )
On the other side, the real hardware has non-linearity. Just imagine all that components inside affecting each other by magnetic field, temperature, voltage changes etc...
All that special transformers and other components inside make a better sound, or lets say "More Listenable", pleasant to ears.
And now, time for answer:
* Yes, using the analog gear will make your mix sound better { if you know what you doing :D }
Kind regards!
@@entrancemusicofficial8550 except AA Pink
On the majority of the examples the hardware was definitely better, but what surprised me is that on a few of them, I marginally preferred the emulation, only on a couple though
Like I said in the video, I love their API suite, and yes, on electronic music there have been cases in which I preferred the plugin. The hw is irreplaceable tho', one of those pieces
That's because the sound of the plugin vs the hw is just different. Not better not worse objectively. Some material will work better on one unit than the other
Every time hardware wins , but waves API 500 is doing just fine ....thnx !
Hello:-) Do you still have the API 5500? Or did you replaced it with the SPL PQ?
I have em all
Waves did a surprisingly good job on this, but I'm still sold on the real thing.
It looks like a Waves funeral for me...
that's explain why we spend so much money in hardwares (for sure much more expensive) vs. plugins considering that high gap so amazing result in comparison with VSTs in the box treatments
@@ac7diffusion_mastering Of course. And what David teach me precisely , that is : yes we can obtain the same results ( some goods engineers do it ) with plugins for some treatments but he must use 3 or 4 treatments where he would use only one with a ( good ) hardware. So it is a choice of simplicity too .
@@ac7diffusion_mastering And some brands should be sanctioned because they use of false advertising to sell their plugins !! NO you don't have the same sound with a genuine API or SSL or NEVE hardwares than with their plugins !!
Great piece of gear, it's on my list of gears to get. There's an openness to it that is very cool! Does it seem like the stereo image gets slightly wider as well?
Given the fact that the Waves plug-in is a fraction of a cost and the ease of use of a digital plug-in, it's doing pretty well considering. As another commenter mentioned he was listening in a treated room with $4000 monitors. I think most of us here use pro eqiupment to listen to these comparions, but the vast majority of listeners (99%) will not be in a treated room with $$$$ equipment and the difference would not be noticed. And they are definitely Not side-by-side comparing the music, so there is no point of refernce. But the fact is that this is a tool for the engineer to make good sounding records. The better the tool, the better sounding audio/music we will get.
Here I was thinking : "I won't ear the difference"
Well, it's huge, especially on the hi-freqs. :O
no look at the lowssss too . . . the plugins sounds like a 4wkin joke and not even . . .
Other than the gain divider, is there any difference between the API 5500 and a set of two hardware 550B's? I've heard that its the same but from your unboxing video, the 5500 seemed to have a lot more heft than what two 500 series units would have.
5500 has balanced inputs, and of course the power supply
Wow! Man you keep on selling gear to me. This is such a good comparison. I’m looking for a vocal eq for hip hop that could also be used for mixbus or drum bus with 4K-5k budget. Is this the best choice for that?
I think the 5500 is pretty perfect for what you just described 👍
Amazing comparison thank you so much David
Wow on drums it was striking. Crisp and open at the same time. One more item to add to the gear list.
Excited to see a good comparison of these because I know just how good the 5500 sounds compared to emulations. Awesome!
In my humble opinion, no comparison between the two. The hardware makes the source sound alive and the plugin boosts a frequency. Was really noticeable on the piano. Thanks for the demo. Pretty sure the 5500 will be my next splurge.
🙌 the 5500 is an amazing EQ
If I could only buy one stereo EQ in this price range for mainly mixing and mastering purposes, would this be it?
Well, this one :D
API is my favorite EQ. OOOH but sometimes it's a tie with Neve. I've never gotten a better bass guitar sound than I can with an API. Forget graphic eq's if you're not notching. Get the API.
Acustica has a 5500 software emulation with Pink4, I'm surprised you didn't use that to compare
Thanks for this video!! Really helpful for me!
David, i was all day trying the API 5500 thru the web Access Analog and after that i don't want more plugins.. The question is: What about the API560? would you recommend me buying? I don't have 4000 dollars for the 5500 :_/
The 560 is one of the finest eq's ever made, more of a tracking eq but amazing for mixing as well, different from the 550's and the 5500 (mostly for recalls) but amazing eq
@@mixbustv Thanks man! it would be my first eq. I'm looking also the 550A... I'm becoming member just in 5 days man, i'm getting a lot out of this channel. Thanks David!
well, i'm member right now XD
Waves did better than expected! The first example not so much. But the rest was ok. Not as much depth though. The hardware sounds best.
While analog hardware may still have an edge on software (for now), I think it’s important for people to remember, the decisions an engineer makes are FAR more important than the gear they use.
Point missed..
@@mixbustv How so? Maybe you missed my point?
My comment was directed at any new producers/mixers that think that the only thing stopping them from getting great mixes is the budget to have a lot of expensive outboard gear.
I think you if you were to mix a song and completely restricted yourself to software, you would still get better results than an amateur mixer that had access to all the analog equipment they wanted.
Do you disagree?
@@TjMoon91 I don't disagree, quite the opposite, it's kind of stating the obvious. We got said there's a reason as to why we use hardware
@@mixbustv Maybe I'm the only idiot out there. But I know when I first started it wasn't that obvious. It always felt the like there was another bit of hardware or software I needed in order to create a professional sounding mix. Just thought it was worth making that point.
Anyway... enjoy your videos, keep at it.
@Abhishek Srivastava Is it?? Sorry I had another window open with a review of the Ferrari Roma and I thought I was commenting on that. Apologies.
Good one! Thanks David! ✌🏼❤️
Okay the recordings already sounds really good before mastering :D what was the signal chain for he second song?
Not sure what you mean with signal chain. That's a full mix and master I did, there's 60 chains 😅
@@mixbustvAaaah, so it is a 60 channel project where each channel has their distinct chains.. uff 😂 good sounding mix already nonetheless🤙
@@mixbustv in this please let me ask you what is your go to tracking signal chain?
This is night and day through all examples. Probably due to my simple brain I find myself more often using the 5500 than the SPL PQ - I love the API.
Thanks for -almost- proper level matching! I see oh so many "hardware vs plugin" videos where the level is always higher on the hardware when paid by the hardware industry, and vice versa when paid by the plugin developers. RUclips should have an algorithm for that. For me as a customer it's so easy: EQ, saturation/distortion and compression are not subject to be done by plugins, all the rest is. Okay, except for Eventide where digital outboard beats digital ITB, but that's all.
Why don't you compare Acustica's sampled emulations instead of that outdated one from Waves?
David got to step up is game and try some new acustica stuff.
I have hardware, I don't think plugins will "step up my game" :D
It doesn't have to be Acustica, but comparing to something released at least in the last five years would certainly make a difference in terms of emulation technology and quality. This gap has been closing year after year, and for some recent emus I have been having a hard time picking the best between plugins and hardware. Softube stuff has done an amazing job in that sense.
They are actually impossible to really be sampled. 100 positions of each knob will be 100^8 combinations which have to be sampled - it will take hundred years to do this
Hardware objectively sounds better but, I ain't got multi g's to drop on the hardware unfortunately. Gotta stick to mixing in the box for now. - Thanks for the comparison vid.
I live this plugin my mix sounds clearer and more punchy!!!
Would the API be a good choice for someone who needs an first EQ for mixing/Mastering?
Sure, as long as you know it's quite colored and it's not gonna fit every song
Great video 👍👍 how does one compensate the gain difference in the pluggin ? Like matching the input level with the output.
The plug-in has an output, with the hw, with whatever comee next
u can even hear it on smartphone speakers
I am curious if compare to Analog Obsesion Merica. Love the silky sound of it and happy boosting on it. Hope you have a time to compare it to us 🙏
Thank you. Difference is obvious! I want to know... If i use this analog eq and then after in chain other many vsts.. for instance blackbox vst, maximizer..would vst eat the charm of this analog? Or it would be better to use analog only last in chain to feel magic?)
No they won't "eat the charm", what it adds will still be there, altho' I'd probably limit fake coloring boxes like blackbox (especially on the 2bus)
@@mixbustv cool!!! will try access analog for this. 2bus is master bus?
Me dream eq...what are you gonna put it on?
Really off topic but... Where can I get some of those responsive lights you got on your monitors man
I have the SSL and API collection.. Absolutely love them...
Kick show really difference in this comparison. Thanks for sharing!
More sizzle on digital, more airy on analog. Think this one is the most felt
I also really like the Waves plug-ins but this video shows how big the differences between hw and digital really is!
Depends on which digital one chooses to use...
In the guitar example, the boosts and cuts are not the same between the software and hardware eq's. Maybe that's the reason why they sound different?
Hardware is the winner for sure. Hearing the difference through youtube is proof of that.
I have trouble with this EQ for mastering or even 2-bus cause 0.5 dB increments are too big... I need something with 0.2 dB at least. I wish it had a x .1 range setting.
I was hardly using this API now I am hardly using the Curve Bender cause the 0.5 dB increments are too big.
The gain knobs are useless, I rarely use any other +/- gain value except 0.5 dB on these units and often that setting does not work.
Some of these EQs would be so cool if you could sculpt the sound with 0.1 dB increments.
Hi David, thanks for an inspiring video... once again!!!
I own MAAG eq4s, and I am looking for a parametric EQ (all analog). But as usual, I am following your advice, and also comparing plugins back to back.
I am hesitating between an elysia Museq, and an API 5500. And after playing around with the plugins, I found both virtual units sound totally different. It's almost like the API5500 is a hybrid between a parametric EQ and a MAAG eq4! (the way it sounds) Or did I miss something major? I am talking about just how it sounds, not what the buttons' labels read. Is it because of its relatively wide Q, or because I'm just a lost newbie? ;-)
Nothing sounds like the API, the museq is a bit too sterile for me, definitely two completely different units. While I use all my eqs equally, the API I feel is the one making the most difference pretty much always.
@@mixbustv Thanks for the honest answer, and congrats to the new fiances ;-)
@@mixbustv I just read from the designer of this unit it's actually more of a 550A dual setup. That almost certainly explains why this is so dramatically different. The 550A is consider considerably superior to the B. You could try this test again with the IKM 550A, they offer one.
@@mixbustv Museq has a mix version and a master version. The master version has the power, and the warmth with the warm button on. The mix version isn't so good.
Even in electronic music the HW just adds depth and doesn't kill the kicks.
Richard Kaplan is the go to on how to use the API, he's the man !!
I have the IKmultimedia version of this. It has the half db steps and their stuff sounds better then the wave stuff IMO. Less...tame and woolly. Also their LA2A and 1176 sound way better then the ones from waves .
I’m curious how much closer the UAD plug-in is...I’ve never found the Waves version of any of the ones I’ve tried as good as the UAD.
👏🏻Great as always David👍🏻
Could you possibly do this same comparison with a Neve (or BAE) 1073 and the Waves Schoeps 1073?
Please understand that that's a preamp. You CANNOT compare an analog preamp connected to your mic affecting the very same track that you'd then compare. Even worse if you'd compare tracking with a different preamp. You cannot track with plugins
@@mixbustv Ah yes! That went right past me. Got it!
Grazie Signore!
Could the amount of sound be because of which unit they emulated? All analog gear have different but similar sounds right?
Nope. The only gear that sounds different is VERY old gear, as in 60's and 70's. This is in production the units sound exactly the same with 0.001% of difference
@MixbusTv okay I didn't know just go off what I hear people say online
Hi
The reference track that is played begins with ‘heal me’ {rock} who is this please?
Kaos India "Burning", mixed and mastered their album some time ago
Hi. Very interesting video. Thanks.
I'm not audio engineer but I may hear a huge difference between hardware vs plugin. 100% hardware team
Hi David.Thanks again for great review. I watched your another video where you mention a issue with API 5500 ( it had hum 60 Hz). How did you solve that? Can you share that story? I have the same issue with my API 5500) Thank you so much
I have a video coming up on that
api rulez, the king of puncky drums!
The hardware doesn't hype the treble as much, so with the plugin you really need to use something after to tame the highs back to be more in line with the hardware. But yeah the hardware feels like its a compressor, very nice!
Thanks David!
wow im surprised by how well does the waves plugin reacts to drums.... obiously hardware sounds way more real and transparent, but not bad for being an emulation
In a dream world with a thousand of members on this channel maybe we could have a giveaway like this !
A giveaway of an API 5500? Lol
@@pacman_pol_pl_polska Gluttonous ! .... Yep i'm a dreamer ... but hope brings life .
@@mixbustv But one in two members will have the plugin .... ! Lol
And one in three members will have just the box !
How does UAD's vision compare? They're close enough for me. I'm glad I have the Waves API.
This would be the best API emulation to date: bit.ly/2HSsA5U
@@mixbustv awesome. Thanks you
Waves APi sound better then any other company I live with that plugin... my next option is SSL for Clarity.
Thanks for sharing. For your API HW insert, how do you lower the signal coming back into the daw after boosting different frequencies?
with anything, trim plugin or any other with an input knob
@@mixbustv thank you
The dynamics on the hardware is what you have to focus on, not the boost in freq's. The hardware is punchy and has a great punch. Its like SSL but there is some meat on the bone. The plug in does not have this. It does boost the same freq;s and is more smooth and polite.
Massive difference BTW soft and hard.... Obviously Hardware is the winner by far !
Please do plugin doctor analyses when testing gear. Check the harmonic distortion, phase and curves in an objective way.
ruclips.net/video/evPK_liEK2k/видео.html
why someone says api550b is not good for mastering while 5500 is called mastering eq? cause of 2db step in vst?
Who says that?
Wow Amazing device
Api Apology Whets you Appetite Or Happy Harpoon to surf the Wave ?
Pink4 from Acustica Audio have the best emulation of API, in my personal experience. Waves is definitely fine too.
Slate have a version too. I think that one sounds better. I use Slate tho', I may be subjective. :))
Acustica is literally vectorized impulse samples of actual hardware units so the results are literally like running audio through hardware. It would be a much better comparison than 15 year old static modeling. I moved on from Waves years ago.
@@autodidacticprofessor869 the size of the latest Pink update though... I have Pink but didn't download the new version because there's just no way I am dedicating that much hard drive space to a few plug-ins. Not to mention how poorly they still run in some DAW's. I wish they would spend time optimizing them. You're right though their emulations are next level and should be used vs hardware for comparisons.
@@davidbmixing @Autodidactic Professor Interesting advices .
Overloud did the api emulation too and it's really close to the hardware
The hardware 5500 is a beast, comes with quite a price tag, though...
Hardware wins hand down but the question is a difference of x40 in price makes a difference of x40 in sound. I guess that could be a long debate. On the other side, the Waves 550 emulation is far inferior from the one from UAD... it would be fair to compare the real thing with the best soft emulation... and waves it's not actually. Thanks David for the test !
No of course the x40 price difference is not x40 sound difference, but this goes for EVERYTHING, as the price goes up there's diminished return, but if you do this for a living and you want to be up there in the game, yes, it's more than worth it. And again, if one piece of gear won't make a night and day difference in a mix (altho' it can), try 32.
Professional engineers and home studios are different things, they need different tools because they have different standards, simple as that. You don't see any professional in any profession (if he/she's good) aiming for mediocrity because they don't want to invest in their craft.
@@mixbustv you're right my friend, as a professionals we need to get such equipment. I continue investing in hardware outboard even if there is fantastic software counterparts... my beloved UA LA-2A cannot be beat by any soft emulation to date, the same for my Distressors or my UA-1176 or my Chandler outboard or my real guitar tube amps collection... happy mixing !
@@PereRevert then you know what's up 😄👍
The hardware sounds much better to me. The plugin sounds brighter/harsh, and hardware sounds warmer/ richer. The plugin sounds fine though, and the average listener will never know anyways.
The average listener won't even do A/B, moot point. The mix will move them or not. And if one eq won't make much of a difference (which does) try 32ch of hw
@@mixbustv ya, avg. listener may not hear it, but they will feel it. I use to buy Fat Wreck Chords albums until around 2000. I loved all the records prior, and the ones after were good, but I was never as passionate about them. I recently learned Fat went digital at that time. I guess I just love analog.
API hardware just eats up live instruments period. nom nom nom delish
suprisingly, I liked the plugin more times thant the hardware
As usual... analog is a bit better and nicer and smother adding that rich tone in the background... it's a difference you have to notice and the difference isn't much with the price difference... analog is for when your craft becomes a very well-paid career.
There's no point getting a full analog setup until you really know how to mix, as you don't want this difference to delude you that it already sounds good...
The most important thing is your monitoring, and you need to be putting a lot of that money into your room treatment.
Spend £3000 on monitors, spend £3000 on acoustics...
Lower budgets are often best to obtain a very high-grade headphone monitoring setup... £1000 on headphones... £0 on acoustics.
I'll be starting soon and I have no idea what budget I will be starting with... could be £30,000... could be £5,000.
There is no analog vs digital war, there simply an individual skill, knowledge, and money war and no one is judging, that has any relevant judgments to make.
People like this give you insight for future ideas, where your setup might be taken if you get to take off in this as a career.
David if you compare that plastic sounding plugin from waves with that classic api 5500 I'll slap you the harmonic and 3d openness of the hardware sounds so expensive and rich I Vann afford though thanks to acoustica audio to really rob that hardware of its natural Ness with nebula I don't need that 5500
No worries, I doubt anyone care if you do or don't need that 5500 lol
The plastic sounding plugins as you call em, are used by professionals daily on charting mixes btw.
plugins always win on the fact you can have many many of them, but hardware is always sonically more satisfying, elecricity truly is shocking but so is the price lol, i need one great outboard eq though, the api the curvebender or the affordable drawmer, or pultec rubber bands style
Yeah and too much processing is also one of the reasons people screw mixes up, another good aspects of hardware: when you have limitations, you HAVE to focus on what's important instead of applying everything everywhere
@@mixbustv so true the hard truth for me was overcooking trying to bring out more transient detail, using some great reference source material is key, i love soundgardens king animal always sounds great in the car and in the studio and my real world i buds, so happy days, a good solid clear balance then the end listener can actually use a treble control without getting the ears shredded by cymbals or hi hats, that said im happy with saturation plugins, the overloud tapedesk has that nice crispy sat and low end babump, i think drawmer got the bang for the buck though tbh, api and neve are mystical and from a time when sonic giants and consoles ruled the earth, companys need to look at pricing to really get into the modern landscape, love the mixbus :) i found drawmer here
fuck!! now i want one!!
The analog version not surprisingly sounds more open and clear and more "3D"
Analog is never perfectly linear and any L/R-processing "widens" it because the channels differ just a little bit, and the difference does not stay constant but varies even on sub-atomic level. I don't think there's any other magic behind it.
oh.. there is A LOT more than that, and there's no "sub-atomic" anything, not even sure where you fished that. If it was just that, it would be extremely, emphasis on extremely, easy to replicate. Fortunately there's "thinking" and science.
Feels like the plugin compresses the audio
Man this is what I hear, they are kinda close but the bass just sounds harder on the hardware and there is this live quality to it I don't know, airy. The software sounds like I'm listing to something reproducing a sound and the hardware sounds like I'm in the room with the band, if that makes any sense.
Oh it does, very much so
7:21 track ID in background?
Burning by Kaos India, mixed and mastered that record few years ago, cool guys
@@mixbustv thanks fam for replay, hope you doing well
about the 5500 and 550... what a differences! waves lost too much lowend. the hardwares muck focused on punch, and more opened. waves sound is not so good like others emu. but u know better than me :). waves don t have good algoritm for its tools... the best Api u can find is fromm Acustica Audio. PINK4.
ffs now i want one..
Hi David ..i have the hardware and from my experience ....no plugin can do what this thing does ....great video as always ...thank you
I really like this sound, but need some answers. If i use this analog eq and then after in chain other many vsts.. for instance blackbox vst, maximizer..would vst eat the charm of this analog? Or it would be better to use analog only last in chain to feel magic? Is it normally if use this eq after all vst, after limiter also?
@@alexmagnifica HI ... i use mostly analog for mastering and a plugin limiter to finish it off ...you can use plugins after without pushing them to hard and get a good result ...but the sound will be different than using analog gear .............i would not recommend you use this eq after a limiter........BTW i have the Black box hardware ..it is a great sounding piece of gear....cheers !!
do this test with UAD please..
Analog ♥️
Only a few Waves plugin are good. Not the emulations. UAD, Softube and Acoustica plugins are good in emulating hardware according to what I felt.
Brainworx too... Their BAX EQ is hard to tell apart in a blind test
@@joshsmith7812 TRUE
@@suharasp I know somebody who tested the plugin Bax and hardware Bax , and guess what? The results weren't really able to tell apart, here's the thing : he used his mastering converters for both the HW and software, what many people don't realise is some of the sound that people get is from conveters too and not just HW And SW, I love and use both, hybrid is the way to go imo, but that being said, there's many plugins these days which come extremely close to the point which you cant tell apart consistently in a blind test (not all, but some)
hardware 200% plus
The Waves stuff is so old. The Acustica API stuff and UAD Vision would be a much better comparison. Waves needs to improve their algorithms or stop charging customers for “upgrades”.
Really the comparison is ruthless . And i have no good ears... If there is good plugins i would like to ear .
Some 15+ years old Waves plugins are still the best and used in top charting records all day still. I promise you you'll hear difference with any plugin.
@@mixbustv I have tried loads of plugins and seen tons of people slag off Waves and I still like waves best overall (although the compressors don't come near Plugin Alliance for quality and variety). I'm curious, are the ones you see heavily used in the industry in the Renaissance bundle? I still find the Waves R..... are superb and go to them loads. My mixes are full of Waves R.
@@buddhabinaural definitely Ren are everywhere
#givethanks bro good looking out