REVIEW: SPL TwinTube

I was excited when I heard SPL was making TwinTube as the next Analog Code plug-in. Not because I have any experience with the hardware, but because I felt I need a new “gritirator”.

To better understand my point of view, I think I should first explain to you why I feel I need a new dirty wingman. While I’m a fan of all the tape emulators out there (and yes, I think all that are available in RTAS and TDM are very useable!), sometimes I’ll want another flavor – overdriven tape and overdriven tube does not sound at all the same, and neither does the emulations of it. Most tape emulators also have a problem getting shitty enough sometimes. True, Massey Tapehead is at least getting close to what I’m looking at in terms of amount of grit, but we could do with more!

McDSP AC1 doesn’t really emulate tube and is too pretty sometimes. While I still use it in almost every session, I think this is a field where new competitors can battle. DUY Valve is of course out there, but like McDSP, I think it could be healthy with some fresh blood. There are some others out there (like URS and Antares) but I think you get the point.

Technicalities

First let’s have a look at the basics of TwinTube. TwinTube is based on one of SPL’s hardware processors. The original device has two tubes to help you gritify. The plug-in does of course not have any tubes, but what SPL describes as “Analog code” emulation of them. This can be written of as marketing bullshit, but according to SPL their analog code phase out with the hardware most of the time.

The plug-in has four preset slots to which you can save your settings. You can automate these to make automations of the plug-in quicker and easier. TwinTube also has buttons for harmonics, for bypassing the harmonic and the saturation part, and of course two huge knobs controlling the harmonic and the saturation.

Toob or tube?

So what does SPL TwinTube sound like? Driving the harmonics stage gives you a brighter, more apparent distortion. If you start turning the saturation knob it will get a little more fluffy, round and dark, closer to what I often want personally. In the beginning you’ll probably need to take some time to understand how they react to each other. There’s a big difference of setting both two half up, or just one of them all the way up. When they’re both all the way up you’ll get some real badass distortion. If you – for some reason – don’t like descriptions like “fluffy, round and dark”, and are interested in the technical aspect of it, you can read more about it at SPL’s website.

Before I going any further with TwinTube, let me tell you that I don’t believe the sound we perceive as “tube” is such a defined color compared to many other things, like many today appears to believe. First, tubes do not sound the same. Second, there are other components in gear that color the sound. Third, depending what you put the tube in it will sound different. There’s more, but I think you understand my point of view. In my book, a Neve is often way more colored than much tube gear. When it’s more heavily overdriven it perhaps becomes more obvious if it’s tube or not, but before that there are so many other things that help color the sound. In other words, “the tube sound”, is not one sound.

With this said, my immediate reaction was that SPL had indeed nailed a sound that I thought was tubeish. After having used it many times I still feel that way. TwinTube is even pleasing at full blown distortion, where it takes almost the form of a tube guitar amp. I would be very interested in trying the original hardware because the software is supposedly very close. You can decide for yourself if you like it or not, because I took the time to do some recordings with it on both drums and a synth.

Drum samples
Synth samples

The drum samples are short, but I think you should import them into Pro Tools (or your sequencer of choice) where you can loop them anyway. It’s easier to compare that way.

There are a bunch of files in there. I wasn’t looking for the most pleasing sound for the instruments, rather I just cranked TwinTube to show you what happens. The files name explain what they are… Or maybe they don’t.

• The ‘wee’ files are TwinTube used at fairly moderate settings (but it can do cleaner).
• The ‘sat’ and ‘harm’ files is either the saturation or the harmonic control cranked a bit more.
• The ‘fuckit’ files are both cranked all the way up.

What does it work on? Pretty much anything. At low settings it’s a sweetener, and despite being a very simple design, thanks to the buttons you can actually tweak it to sound right for pretty much any source.

There’s one more thing we need to talk about regarding the sound. When I first inserted it I noticed a pleasing quality added to the sound, even with all the knobs at zero! I was very happy to discover this until I realized what it was. It’s a bump in the levels. Almost a little like cheating some might say.

Native limitations

When it comes to the technical side of the plug-in we discover some things that are never fun to discover. CPU useage isn’t high, but it seems to be higher than most other saturators out there (tape, tube or other color maker), save of course the insane VTAPE Saturator. Furthermore it will cause some delay, around 35 samples, which, as you know, is a problem to many LE users.

I wouldn’t necessarily call these two things showstoppers for native toolers, but it should of course be taken into consideration when you go hunting for your new gritboy.

Another thing that bugs me is the lack of a output control. It makes it really hard to compare with the bypassed signal. When you tweak it you will raise the level, and as you probably know, this can easily fool you to think it’s better than the clean signal (louder=better to most ears).

Conclusion

While I’m of the opinion that one tube sounds different from another, and it will sound different depending on where it’s mounted as well, TwinTube seems to be among the most faithful tube emulation I’ve heard in the software world. But TwinTube does have it’s flaws. The lack of an output control makes A/B’ing really hard. It’s not exactly CPU friendly, but on the other hand it’s not a hog so it isn’t a huge deal. It’s really too bad it causes delay, however. SPL is missing out on a big native market here. For HD users party is on. It’s not a must in the plug-in folder, but if you’re looking to emulate pure tube saturation, grit and distortion, you must check it out.

SPL

PS: Don’t miss the interview with Dirk of SPL.

PS 2: Reviews of the rest of the SPL plug-ins is coming this week.