These other options add enhancements that play to the tastes of certain engineers, but most listeners can't tell the difference after the mix has been squashed for commercial consumption. These are minor limitations though, and you can get great sounding tracks and mixes just using the tools that Sonar provides and working entirely in the DAW. It can work as a front end preamp emulator, with API, Avalon, console, etc emulation in it - and it sounds pretty good, and it's pretty checp for the UX2 at 200, the UX1 at 129.
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Another caveat is that you really can't place it on multiple tracks without a bus send and an additional A/D to D/A conversion. RE: VST Console Emulator 1 14:43:39 ( ) You could check out the Line6 Toneport UX2 (or the new one they have coming out). I use the UAD LA-610, and even though it isn't contained in the DAW, it does provide a flexible, high quality input with lots of warmth and depth, and I haven't experience the problem of additive noise or coloration, though that is one of the caveats with using an outboard channel strip. Comprised of three separate units, the passive tube-driven PE 1C and ME 1B ‘Pultec’-style. The VS is one of the first synthesizers to work with four oscillator wavetables and the V is a subtractive synthesizer with 2 oscillators. Tastefully warming and saturating any sound source with its tube-stages, and gently levelling them with its slow, smooth compression, the Tube-Tech Classic Channel is not a typical strip. Guitars: Besides the eq and a bit compression noted above, the acoustics and the solo send a bit to the EMT 250. Decapitator is my go-to saturator when I’m trying to get a bass to sound really dirty and give it some hard, raw flavor. There is also a SSL type comp (Acustica Audio SAND) on drums group. Best for Bass Saturation: Decapitator by Soundtoys (199) The Decapitator is a classic for a reason, and worth every penny. Soothe VST dynamic eq for snare and Egg track. It has 3 different emulations, the VS / 5 or hybrid (mix between them). The kick, snare and OHs send to the parallel compression (dbx 160 style).
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I still think you would be better off with a really good outboard pre-amp or channel strip. The Prophet V is the best emulation of the classic Prophet synthesizer, the audio quality is unmatched with any other plugin. You could also build a custom plug using QuantumFX and their Workbench which would be pretty close. Decapitator is an Analog Saturation Modeler. It has long been the magic mojo that engineers have used as their swiss army knife of mixing. Something like Voxengo Voxiformer is pretty close although you don't get the preamp part of the channel strip, and the same with Wave Arts TrackPlug, and Waves Renaissance Channel. Soundtoys Vst Decapitator Vst From SoundToys: Decapitator Soundtoys.