I’ll tell you in a couple weeks! I’ve been wanting one for years and I finally ordered one today
Personally, the envelope follower is a feature that attracted me to it over other stereo distortion units. Of course, the filter, LFO, EQ, and distortion circuits are also reasons, but many other units have those.
I don’t normally work in the box, but I also like the idea of having the choice of running sounds from the computer through those distortion circuits. I mostly use Renoise on the computer, so I’m not sure how well it will work with Overbridge. I guess I’ll find out soon enough
Just the value it presents is pretty high. 8 analog distortion units, 7 mode stereo filter with its own distortion, two band EQ, LFO and envelope follower, controllable by MIDI, works as an audio interface, and the entire thing is stereo. Theres not a combination of gear that is gonna tick all those boxes.
It sounds really good, the LFO and Envelope followers are great for unique effects on busses and I like to use it on the master before a compressor, EQ, and limiter to help glue the mix together.
You could use it to give a digital synth some analog character as, again, with an envelope follower directed at the filter you essentially have the most important part of the analog synth in one box.
Its a great unit. Its also not necessarily needed. Most people would be better off just getting Fabfilter Saturn 2 which does most of the same stuff but also has a multi-band workflow and far more automation sources but even though I can get saturn 2 to sound close it doesn’t quite get to that analog mojo that the Heat has.
I see it as an audio toolbox of sorts. Mix sounds a little flat? Hit with some saturation or clean boost, then tweak eq to taste. Need to filter something? Cool it does that too with plenty of options. And it’s all in stereo. I’ve seen people use it on their mix and mastering bus. You can process tracks through it. It’s got overbridge so you can do it all over USB. These types of boxes are useful, and Heat is one of the cheaper ones. In a way it is in a class with boxes like the Culture Vulture, Overstayer MAS, Silver Bullet, and SSL Fusion. They all don’t sound the same or have the same features, but the goal is often the same when using them. Try to warm up a mix or a track, get something to sit better or pop more, get a little analog glue, enhance the sound. The Heat can definitely do some of these things. It can also be cranked to smash and destroy.
Even though it is cheaper than the other devices I mentioned, it is still an expensive box. If you don’t think it is for you, then no big deal.
Had a mk2 for a few years and enjoyed using it. Sold it, don’t really miss it. Lots of distortion circuits but I only ever used the first 2-3 on actual tracks. Damned if I could get comfortable with the envelope follower, kudos to those that figured it out. It’s a good unit.
I got an Analog Heat mk2 a couple of weeks back, had a bit of a play around with it mainly as an Overbridge plugin in Ableton, then I put it to one side.
Over the weekend I rejigged my studio.
I have my Allen and Heath MixWizard that I’m sending my main synths into, the MW outputs go into my Ferrofish Pulse 16 interface.
I decided to put the Heat directly in between, so it goes MixWizard>Heat>Ferrofish, and I can’t believe a) how much I like it, and b) how useful it is to me in that spot!
Having it on my main synth rack, close to hand, where I can quickly dial in sounds is amazing.
It’s SOOO fast for tweaking sounds and making them instantly ‘sit’.
I feel like it’s going to play a big part in my studio from now on.
As it is on sale at the moment the analog heat is really tempting, but I was wondering if it would be worth it for my workflow where currently all my effects are itb and everything is recorded directly into my daw. It would never be used live or anything. How are people liking the sound compared to saturation plugins (Saturn II etc etc). None of the demos have really grabbed me, especially for subtle.
I use it for beefing up my masters with Clean Boost or the saturation circuits, random cut ups with the LFO’s, for hifi distortion if I need it (excellent EQ and filter means you have a lot of control over the distortion, but even the high gain circuit is quite tame compared to many high gain pedals) and just gentle saturation for pads and such. Excellent device if you want a swiss army knife of distortion, boost and saturation and you’re to put 500 euros down for one.
Mine has probably been my favourite/Best Buy of the year, and I’ve bought a lot of gear.
It’s one of those devices that until you have it and use it you don’t appreciate how good it is.
So I thought I’d use it mainly as a buss mix tool, but I never really use it like that in reality.
I figured a way to be able to re-route all my synths/samplers/instruments through it (I set it up on its own buss/grp send on my mixer) and I use it mainly as a recording input tool to spice sounds up on the way into being recorded.
It’s subtle, but the difference is huge when you switch it in and out, and I find the controls it has to hand are perfect and intuitive to quickly tweak and improve sounds.
I don’t think I could be without mine now.
This is pretty much exactly how I would use it too. Might be worth getting on sale now and if it doesn’t click hopefully I wouldn’t lose too much money selling it again…
You can use it as a VST, control everything ITB. I’m not terribly familiar with saturation VST’s but generally analog circuitry beats all digital distortion. And AH is very versatile and has a great sound as far as distortion circuits go.
Seriously one of the funnest ways I use it is for cut ups. Have the LFO on random affecting master volume in full depth, so either 0 or 127 (full volume). You can get some really cool mangled sounds that way, especially if you have the second LFO doing something else. And you can program this to a step on your OT, AR or whatever you use. DT or DN or even Ableton. Really cool chopped breaks for example, or a fucked up fill or a breakdown.
I pulled the trigger on one today due to a good 20% sale and will use in my end of signal chain with my Elektrons and synths. Mainly to beef up the drums from my Roland TR-08 that lack oomph and to beef up the Digitone bass sounds. But will be great end of chain tool and can use with my guitars as well. Now to save for the Rytm or Perkons then I have my synth arrangement for live performances maxxed out.
I sold mine because i was mainly using it for subtle saturation and it was too expensive for me to keep it just for that. And imo it isn’t outstanding for that. It’s a very great device but not for my needs. Just trying to help your gas a little bit.
Thanks! I think I have decided to pass for now, I just don’t feel like adding more hardware to my setup right now, and I never fell in love with the sound no matter how hard I tried.
I had AH for a while and I got bored of the color it add on everything.
On the master, it’s too expensive to use it at subtle value.
I much prefer vst plugins for distortion, compression, eq, enhancer, etc… on the master.
