ANTARES Tube (MAC/WIN)

Aug 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Michael Cooper

           

Antares Tube ($129) is an inexpensive cross-platform plug-in designed to add the sonic characteristics of analog tube preamps to DAW tracks. For a Mac running OS 9.x, Tube is available in MAS, RTAS, and VST formats; for OS X, it's currently available in RTAS (for Digidesign Pro Tools 6) and VST formats. (Antares says that a MAS version for OS X is in the works.) For Windows 98, 2000, ME, NT, and XP, Tube supports RTAS, VST, and DirectX formats.

Tube can be instantiated in mono or stereo, and because it's so efficient, you can use it on many tracks at once. The plug-in's user interface is simple and intuitive. Two virtual knobs adjust input and output levels; each control affects the left and right I/O channels equally in the stereo version. Level and clip meters for the inputs help you set levels so that Tube's modeled tube-saturation effect will affect more or less of your input signal's upper dynamic range. Level and clip meters are also provided for Tube's outputs, and a Drive control provides increased “tube” saturation as you crank it up.

You Devil, You

Tube allows you to switch between two different tube models to process your audio. The “heavenly blue tube” (accompanied by an amusing graphic of a blue-tinted tube topped with a halo) purports to model a “classic high-quality tube preamp.” The “fiery orange tube” (with its devilish horns) models an overdriven tube amp.

You can also switch an OmniTube function on or off with either tube model. With OmniTube switched off, harmonic distortion is added only to signal peaks, the way real tube circuits saturate. With OmniTube switched on, harmonic distortion is added to the input signal across its entire dynamic range. Tube accomplishes this feat by compressing the input signal and applying makeup gain before the tube processing and then restoring the signal's dynamics after harmonic distortion has been added. However, I found that the OmniTube effect squashed tracks a bit too much, making them sound two-dimensional and lifeless.

Warm Me Up!

I got mixed results using Tube on various instrumental and vocal tracks. In general, I liked Tube better on “steady-state” sources as opposed to those with pronounced transient peaks. The orange tube in particular (and to a much lesser degree the blue tube) rounded off transient detail on acoustic-guitar, kick-drum, and snare-drum tracks. Tube's slurring effect on transient peaks was much more pronounced than that of real tube circuits, which generally are also relatively slow to respond to transients compared with solid-state devices (although there are exceptions). Because of the way it degrades transient content, I found that Tube was too compromising to use on entire mixes.

Electric bass guitar was an entirely different matter. The blue-tube algorithm transformed a dry, wooden, dimensionless bass recorded via a DI box into a lush, round, big bad boy. On electric rhythm-guitar tracks, the blue tube lent a creamy sustain and increased presence that sounded downright awesome. Used at moderate settings, the blue tube added a subtle warmth and sweetness to vocal tracks. Anything more than light processing made vocals sound too dirty, but a little bit of Tube produced a nice enhancement. In general, the blue-tube algorithm sounded a lot like the tube-saturation effect included with Antares's Mic Modeler plug-in, although as mentioned earlier, Tube can process stereo as well as mono tracks.

In most applications, Tube's orange tube sounded too gravelly for my tastes. The orange tube also adds fizzy high-frequency distortion, the kind that is produced by a fuzz box. The one application for which I loved the orange tube was processing a hard-rock electric-guitar solo. The solo had already been tracked with hefty amounts of distortion, but adding some orange-tube processing put the sound over the top, creating a wonderfully outrageous effect. Nothing else in my extensive collection of MAS plug-ins could give me that particular sound.

Tube won't deliver the sound of a high-quality tube-mic preamp, but in all fairness, I don't know of a plug-in that could. That's why high-end tube preamps are still in demand. But that doesn't diminish Tube's usefulness in studio productions. Used with discretion (and sometimes without), Tube can provide excellent enhancement of nonpercussive sound sources.

Overall EM Rating (1 through 5): 3.5

Antares Audio Technologies; tel. (831) 461-7800; e-mail info@antarestech.com; Web www.antarestech.com