Can the Black Box HG-2 plug-in deliver the same analogue-tube magic of the original hardware unit? Alex Holmes loads up a mix and prepares to put on some weight…
Details
Manufacturer Plugin Alliance/Black Box Analog Design
Price $249
Contact via website
Web www.plugin-alliance.com
Minimum system requirements Windows 7, Intel-compatible CPU with SSE2 instruction set (P4-compatible or higher, min 2GHz recommended), 2GB RAM, OS X 10.8, Intel CPU only (min 2GHz recommended), 2GB RAM
Can the Black Box HG-2 plug-in deliver the same analogue-tube magic of the original hardware unit? Alex Holmes loads up a mix and prepares to put on some weight Details Manufacturer Plugin Alliance/Black Box Analog Design Price $249 Contact via website Web www.plugin-alliance.com.
Released under two years ago, the HG-2 hardware box quickly became a mix-buss favourite for many engineers around the world. It is praised for its ability to add subtle harmonic colouration and sparkle without compromising quality, and to make tracks sound richer, fuller, louder, bigger and punchier at the same peak level. Black Box Analog Design has now teamed up with Brainworx and Plugin Alliance to produce a plug-in version, so you can enjoy its analogue loveliness from the comfort of your favourite DAW.
Series link
The plug-in emulates the input and output transformers, plus the four different vacuum-tube stages of the original unit including the main 6U8A pentode and triode tubes that run in series. You have two large dials to control how hard you hit these tubes, plus a parallel saturation path where you can alternate between two other, differently voiced 12AX7 tubes. This parallel circuit has a low, flat and high frequency selector, so you can feed some focussed crunch back into the main signal path. There’s also an Air button and Air Amount dial, that can be used to add some beautiful sheen above 10kHz. In addition to the original hardware controls, you also have a Mix dial for parallel processing; an Input control; a Density dial that balances the input and output at the same time, so you can drive the tubes harder while keeping the volume the same; and an internal trim calibration that modifies the frequency response to Dark, Normal or Bright colouration.
Weight gain
It’s quite a lot to take in at first, and the signal flow and gain staging take some getting used to, but experimentation on different material can help you understand the kinds of sounds that the HG-2 is capable of. Whether you’re using it on a specific kick drum or vocal track, on a whole drum buss or on the entire mix, the HG-2 can add subtle warmth and shimmer, or aggressive analogue-sounding distortion.
One of our favourite things to do was to set the filter to high and add some air, then set the mix to 50 per cent and volume-match it with the original. This actually opened out the top end while clearing out some resonant mid- and low-midrange frequencies. Similarly, we placed the HG-2 on a drum mix that lacked weight, and set the saturation to Low, then tweaked parameters to add some tube weight, while leaving the top end relatively untouched.
Although the wet/dry mix control is a fantastic addition for parallel processing, it would have also been useful to have a final volume control so you can accurately volume-match when bypassed. Considering how much is going on under the hood, it’s been well optimised for CPU usage, and we were able to get over 30 instances running on a 2011 Mac Book Pro.
Je ne sais quoi
The HG-2 may not be the most versatile plug-in for full-on sound design, but as an overall sound-and-mix shaper it’s surprisingly flexible and the sound quality is exceptional. With a bit of tweaking, everything we put through it we managed to make sound better. Possibly the best praise we can give is that it’s arguably the closest we’ve come to date to adding analogue-sounding mojo in the box, and it’s definitely found a permanent home on our mix buss. It’s not especially cheap, but if you can snap it up in one of Plugin Alliance’s regular sales, then it’s a no-brainer.
Alternatives
There’s no shortage of saturation plug-ins including Wave Arts’ Tube Saturator 2 ($99), which is an excellent emulation but with a smaller sound palette; or for more extreme sounds, there’s SoundToys’ Decapitator ($199). PA also have the Vertigo Sound VSM-3 ($299) which generates different flavours of harmonics and also has M/S.
Key Features
- Hardware- modelled tube saturation
- Pentode and Triode tubes, plus parallel tube saturation path
- Air, dry/wet, Density, and internal calibration controls
- Adds warmth, punch, sheen and increased RMS
- AAX DSP, AAX Native, AU, VST2, VST3
There's good reason why celebrated mix engineers like Dave Pensado, Bob Horn, and Jack Douglas use the high-end Black Box Analog Design HG-2 tube processor on their mixes. The boutique stereo processor's multiple, diverse tube circuits not only make tracks sound richer and fuller, they also make them sound louder, bigger and punchier at the same peak level. Much more than a mere distortion box, the HG-2 can impart subtle harmonic coloration and sparkle without compromising fidelity, or add brilliant saturation that totally changes the character of a sound.
Now you can have that lush and vibrant sound in the Black Box HG-2 plugin. Brainworx collaborated with Black Box to model the HG-2's sweet tubes and creamy-sounding transformers, and then added a host of powerful digital mods to greatly expand the processor's tonal palette and range of saturation-based compression.
Paint Tracks with Different Colors
A smorgasbord of assorted tube flavors, HG-2 emulates four different vacuum tube stages combined in series and parallel circuits to color your mix and individual tracks with a wide range of rich and varied harmonics. Separate gain controls for emulated 6U8A pentode and triode tubes are placed in series between buttery virtual transformers warming the plugin's input and output.
Dial in the perfect blend of pentode and triode tube sweetness, then adjust the Density control to drive both tubes harder without changing their relative balance or the plugin's output level, adding more girth and mass. The Calibration menu emulates the effect of an internal trim adjustment in the original hardware unit, instantly modifying the HG-2's high-frequency response to produce Dark, Normal or Bright coloration.
An added Air knob lets you control how much high-frequency fairy dust you sprinkle on vocal tracks, string instruments, piano and full mixes. Turning down the Mix control adds back dry signal at the plugin's output, combining HG-2's beautiful tube softness and luster with your mix's perfectly preserved detail and punch.
It Gets Nasty, Too!
Two virtual 12AX7 tubes—each voiced differently—can be alternately driven in a parallel Saturation circuit to add tube sheen or blistering overdrive distortion to just low or high frequencies or across the entire frequency spectrum—great for shaping individual tracks, creative sound design and adding energy to full mixes.
The Saturation circuit's output feeds the pentode and triode tubes, giving you a massive combined effect that transforms thin, digital tracks into fat analog beasts. Drench just the bass and low-midrange frequencies in the Saturation circuit to grow a beard on a sterile bass track or add massive body and weight to a kick drum.
Crank the pentode gain and dial in some crunchy AX7 tube saturation to make rock guitars sound bigger, louder, richer and in-your-face. Broaden a thin-sounding singer's low-midrange band with extra pentode gain, and push the triode tube and Air boost to make their track sparkle and shimmer.
Every type of tube colors sound differently. Every track and mix needs different coloration. HG-2 lets you create the perfect blend of tubes for the best-sounding mixes and individual tracks. Color your world.
Team R2R Note:(v1.3)
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Q) Did Plugin Alliance change the protection?
A) The first big change happened between All Bundle v3.0 and v3.1. Before
v3.1, there are no antidebug, antitamper, antirebuild things. There were
just C&R protection using SHA256/RSA2048/RC4/BASE64.
From v3.1, PA adopted protector which we call PA-Layer. (To be honest we
don't know the actual name of that protector. It looks different from the
popular cross platfrom protectors like VMProtect).
PA-Layer function :
* Packer (Section Encryption)
* Code Obfuscation + Virtualization
* Anti Debugging
* Anti Tampering
We developed custom loader for the Anti PA-Layer and released in short
term (v3.1, last PA full bundle for public till now). But PA updated
the protection immediately for Anti-Anti PA-Layer. Anyway, it is just a
small change. Maybe they would update the protection again after a while.
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Q) Why did some plugins continue to be cracked?
A) PA-Layer is adopted to the plugins developed by Plugin Alliance
(Brainworx) self. 3rd party plugins like Lindell, Unfiltered are not
protected by PA-Layer.
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Q) What the bad point of PA-Layer? Is it removed from R2R release?
A) Slow loading time, performance affection. If you want to compare the
performance, compare the latest one with the one from PA All Bundle v3.0.
Load many plugins -> Save Project -> Close DAW -> Reload It!
You can notice the big difference between them.
Unlike our full rebuilt iLok releases, PA-Layer is still there in our
releases and you will have any bad points of PA plugins.
Enjoy the unprofessional behavior of the professional plugins!
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Q) Why AAX got cracked and appeared beside the VST version?
Is AAX protected weaker than other plugin platform?
A) Yes, AAX is protected much weaker. While core protection (C&R and related
crypto) is still obfuscated/virtualized in AAX. We guess this is because
AAX needs digital signature by Avid, and some integrations of PA-Layer
conflict with it.
NOTE : AAX Crack by VR will crash randomly due to the bad bomb dealing.
It delays the crashing but it still crashes by some random seeds
(time64) and working time.
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Q) How long does it take to crack all plugins?
A) Just imagine yourself -
Generate, Test custom loaders for VST2/VST3/x86/x64, for 90 products.
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Q) I thought R2R was paid by Plugin Alliance to stop cracking.
A) We thought you were paid to complain R2R.
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