Never tried the Waves J37 but they really got something right with the REDD strips... I tried a few others that were trying to do "that thing" and they didn't quite do it. Actually, the closest I've found is Decapitator on the EMI setting (unsurprisingly, I suppose) – it's pretty damn nice and very similar!
Wow, interesting! The Redd strips are probably one of the few Waves stuff I don't own, which means I have no clue what I'm doing.
However, the other thing that sated my lust was a bit more involved... and expensive. At the time I was using the REDD.37-51 strip, I was using it to gently boost high end (as well as some saturation warmth), and the mic I was using at the time was my humble but awesome 3U Audio Warbler MKID. That's a cheap but nice LDC modeled after the original U87 of the 1970s and early '80s. When I got my modern U87ai, the need to boost high end disappeared, needless to say!
I used to stand at the mic case in Manny's on 48th St in NYC back in the mid 80s and stare at the U87, and go "some day... some day...". That day never came but in 2012 I hit a killer price on an AKG C414 XLS, $758 brand new, and that LDC has not disappointed in acoustic guitar and Yamaha C5 Grand recordings. Then two years ago, the other Neumann I wanted fort ACC GTR was the KM 184 of course, and Amazon dropped it to $628 so I leaped on THAT deal, and now I put that through a Great River ME-1NV Pre before hitting my interface, and now my Taylor acoustic makes me sound better than I am, lol! Lately I've been super happy with the SSL DynEQ and the UAD Distressor on the guitar channel, but I recently got the SSL MB comp and I'm starting to play with that, to try and tame the three big acoustic guitar hotspots of boomy bottom, hard mids and shrilly top (which TBH is not a huge issue on my Taylor, it records well with the KM 184 at the 12th fret and the C414 to the right aimed behind the bridge).
My signal flow is not even in the same zip code as what you work with, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I might need to rent a U87 for a week just to have that bliss.
(My personal favorite mic overall, aside from the mighty Neumann M49, which is several times more expensive...)
Drool. Right there with you. Hard to justify nine grand for a mic but if I COULD, that'd be it. Well, $18K, I'd want the stereo pair.
So what I used after that, for years, was a combination of two NEOLD plugins, the V76U73 (preamp/comp emulator of the old Telefunken units) and Big Al (saturation and high/low EQ). I still love those things, probably my two most-used plugins for "analog mojo" of the past several years. NEOLD is absolutely tops in my book, every one of their plugins is among the best in the industry. (And they're guys who developed some of the UA plugins in the past!)
I keep hearing about NEOLD, I'm going to look them up. Someone mentioned them just the other day, and I'm wondering what rock I'm living under that I've not heard of them.
Lately I haven't even been using those as much because I added a phenomenal stereo preamp, Phoenix Audio Ascent-2EQ, so my naked recordings are everything I could hope for in a home studio environment.
Oh man... I mentioned that I use the Great River on the KM 184, plus I use a Warm Audio WA12 MKII on the C414 (preamp makes a mic shine IMO), but if I were to ever upgrade, I'd replace those with
exactly what you bought.
Ultimately, I replaced the REDD channel strips with... well... almost $6k worth of analog gear. But hey, at least I won't have to pay to update those when I need a new OS!
Relab just released this beauty and I watched a very good comparison between the plugin and the hardware, and while the plugin is probably 98% there, there is something special about the hardware. I'm nearly all in the box but there are some segment of the signal chain that need the real thing IMO. Totally with you on that one. UGH, you've got me looking at the Phoenix now... stinker.
www.uaudio.com
