MixWave Coil CA-70 Plugin: Can It Replace the Hardware?

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Coil Audio makes the best preamps I've come across in my almost 20 years of recording professionally (Make sure to watch my two part review on the Coil Hardware Preamps). When MixWave said they were modeling a plugin version of the CA-70 at a component level, I couldn't wait to try it out!
I'll share a cool story and some thoughts at the beginning, followed by a full song where I split each source out the my hardware CA-70 preamp, as well as the clean preamps on my Universal Audio Apollo. I then applied the MixWave CA-70 plugin to all of the tracks recorded through the Apollo preamps and matched them to the Hardware settings. I'll do a back and forth between the hardware and software for each source, as well as a full mix of the song at the end to compare everything in a finished context.
Make sure to download the full session files below to do your own comparisons, as well as links to my review of the Coil Hardware preamps!
Full Session Files:
drive.google.com/file/d/1oQXa...
Coil Audio Hardware Review Part 1:
• Coil Audio Review Part 1
Coil Audio Hardware Review Part 2:
• Coil Audio Review Part 2
Dave Matthews #40 "Yoshi's" Recording:
/ 40-dave-matthews-band-...
Time Stamps:
00:00 Story time! (Talking...)
05:17 Hardware Preamps vs Plugins (Talking)
09:30 How I've set up the test (More talking...)
10:55 Acoustic Guitar Compare
12:26 Vocal Compare
16:04 U-Bass Compare
18:34 Percussion Compare
21:02 Wrapping Up (Talking)
24:28 Full Song Mixed (Montage)
27:40 Addendum (Line Level Hardware Passes)
32:06 Montage 2 (UA Preamp Files Line Level into Hardware)

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3 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 47

@JRod37 4 дня назад

This is great! I have both the hardware CA-70S and the plugin too - had been thinking about doing a similar video, but you've done it way better than I would! I definitely notice more chunk and a slightly (very very slightly) smoother top when recording - the mixbus was much harder to seperate! I'd been thinking about getting a second CA70S, but the plugin might be stopping me doing that - at least it makes it trickier to get the wallet out.

@lumenloraine Месяц назад

love your channel, thanks for doing what you do!

@s.r.b.4582 4 месяца назад

I'm so glad i found your channel : it's the kind of reviews i love : simple, honest, doesn't try to sell you stuff by all cost, calm and giving nice informations everybody can understand ! thanks ! Mixwave is making nice plugins, their Benson one is cooool!

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Their Benson stuff is amazing, I'm hoping to take a deeper look at all of that at some point.

@timotheaus90 4 месяца назад

Wow you have a great voice. Really thanks for the great video where I can hear both A/B. I don't want to know how much time you put into putting out a video like this for us. I really appreciate it, lots of thumbs up. 👍👍👍....

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Too much time 😂

@seersound1 4 месяца назад

im just listening through my macbook speakers...comparing them as straight up preamps it was no comparison really...hardwares natural compression made the recording sit just right to my ears. Lovely to listen to.... Im glad you hit up the coil and mixwave folks. Their reasoning seems perfectly sound. Brought them a lot closer but yet the hardware mojo is no less desirable. Thx for the test!

@SeemoreDunkan 4 месяца назад

Love the channel..!!!

@CLdwyer 24 дня назад

Honestly, montage 2 had a cohesive sound b/w the hardware & plug-in. The difference is hardly discernible. Definitely a worthy purchase.

@MillSounds 24 дня назад

They're definitely close a lot of times. Regardless, the plugin sounds amazing and is definitely worth getting. MixWave just did a new plugin of the Hazelrigg VLC preamp (DW Fearn based), I'm sure it's amazing as well.

@astrarivm 4 месяца назад

Such a great channel! Thank you, sir! Can you please film your studio tour? Very interesting.

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Thanks, glad you liked it. I might do a studio tour soon, as a lot of things are about to change. It will be good for posterities sake!

@astrarivm 4 месяца назад

@@MillSounds great news!

@JonManness 4 месяца назад

Whoa! The line level comparison at the end was the same! Of course, I would love to own a physical pre or two, especially because of how beautiful the guitars sounded when you ran it as a mic pre, but the plugin is an incredible emulation as a line level insert. I've been using the plugin on some key instruments as well as on the mixbus and it brings the whole song to life.

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Do you put the plugin on your mixbus from the beginning and mix into it? I know a lot of people are adding it towards the end of the mix, give it a try and mix through it if you haven't already. It's a great plugin, MixWave did a great job!

@JonManness 4 месяца назад

@@MillSounds I am mixing into it and it sounds awesome. I’m one of those who likes to have a mastering chain in place while mixing and the CA-70 now has a permanent spot on there

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

@@JonManness I agree, that's how I do things as well. I ask everyone this because a lot of people are missing out on the fact that starting with the Coil's in place over the mix is going to make your life and mixing experience a lot easier and better. Nothing wrong with just adding it on after the fact, but I don't think it's the best way to go about it.

@FredDeMassiveAlambic 4 месяца назад

@@MillSounds if I may join this discussion : I'm always adding mixbus saturation late in the mix, to often use it the same way.. as well as most of my mixing chain in fact ahah.. so I may join your club @JonManness can I ask what tool you used that was replaced by the CA-70 ? and @MillSounds too if you got a favorite pick ?

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

@@FredDeMassiveAlambic I had a few other things I sold to get more of the Coil Audio preamps, but they were other preamps and some EQ's, very different. I don't think the CA-70 or plugin have replaced anything, it's just another great option to have. I still mix through my API Console here, sometimes I mix through the Coil preamps instead. Sometimes I use both at the same time. This plugin will probably save me a lot of time, as I'll use the plugin on certain tracks instead of taking the time to reprint stems and tracks through the hardware sometimes.

@alexbreyer6921 4 месяца назад

Good job! They are pretty close, especially in the full mix. The plugin sometimes has a more open top end, but that might be the Apollo pres.

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Considering the CA-70 is a kind of "darker", thicker and more mellow preamp, I was surprised at the difference with the vocal in the full mix. I felt like the hardware vocal popped out of the mix a little better and felt more present in the full mix context, even though I was hearing maybe a little more top end on the plugin tracks when the vocal was solo'ed without any processing. Coil puts a lot of emphasis on the impedance interaction that their hardware creates, so I think that was a big factor. There's just no way to really recreate that with a plugin after the fact, you can't replace the interactions that happen to the mic because of preamp.

@alexbreyer6921 4 месяца назад

@@MillSounds You bringing this up makes me wonder if a phase rotator, like Little Labs IBP, Melda Freeform Phase, or Voxengo PHA-979 might add something extra. Rotating that phase slightly can sometimes poke things out in nice ways. The thing is, it's always hard to know if that's what you need with ITB mixing. But just hearing your experience here makes me think about trying it.

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

@@alexbreyer6921 Try it and report back!

@scottellis7573 4 месяца назад

Great video but it would even better up if you could upload an mage of your plugin master settings, since you showed all the other settings. Thanks so much for your efforts!

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Hey Scott, thanks! Just match the hardware settings on the plugin and then experiment with driving it a bit harder with the clean input stage that MixWave added. Full session files link in the description, pull those up and throw the plugin on the clean UA Apollo tracks and compare them to the hardware prints (I've also got the plugin prints in there as well). Let me know what you think if you do some deep diving in the session files!

@kylechandler4929 4 месяца назад

I own both the hardware and the plugin now and the plugin has been getting a serious workout. The hardware is really hard to beat (especially when tracking) but for a plugin it’s remarkably “deep” in the finished tones you can milk from it and the CPU load is quite light compared to other “tube” emulations i have. I have it spread across multiple tracks in Reaper and when i globally bypass i get sad haha. Im also demo’ing the Audioscape golden58 plug but so far im not finding it as useful as the 70. Kinda plastic sounding (ala Waves, which im not a fan of) and seems like an after-thought compared to whatever is under the hood of the coil 70. Anyway, another great video!

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Glad you're enjoying it as well! It's funny, but the only people being critical of the plugin seem to be the people that don't have any experience with the hardware. Pretty much everyone I've talked to that owns the hardware as well really loves the plugin. I think MixWave did a great job.

@cowabungaw9958 3 месяца назад

The Mixwave sounded thinner.The Montage2 brought the mixes closer. It'd be interesting to hear the Mixwave suggestion, but then wouldn't the extra conversion process exert another variable?

@alexyoungbased 3 месяца назад

Hardware most certainly has more weight with the low and mid frequencies. Pretty glaring in my opinion .

@AlexNiedt 4 месяца назад

Bigger difference than I expected on this one. The plug-in sounds (and I hate to say this) like...a plug-in, in comparison.

@kevinbatchelor9566 4 месяца назад

They've done a really good job whit the MW plugin but to my ears, the bottom end is noticeably more full on the Coil hardware.

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

I went back and forth on that. I still thought they were really close, I think a lot of people that can't afford the hardware are going to jump on this and have no regrets.

@jamescassidy4045 4 месяца назад

I'm hearing a really close vibe/tone for sure, but the biggest thing I'm hearing is not so much in the top end at all, but in the low end. It's like the Hardware has something going on in a lower region that the MW just isn't producing. It's almost like a Sub bass kinda thing, or at least somewhere fairly low, maybe 60-100HZ kinda thing. I'm not quite sure, but I'm def hearing the biggest difference in the low end somewhere.

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

I went back and forth on this. I actually preferred the low end on the plugin at times. Although it was more pronounced and impressive on the hardware, it felt like a little too much. That could have easily been remedied a lot of ways, like turning down the Low control a notch or two (I always think of the Low control on the hardware as more of a proximity effect control than low end). But again, I left the lo end a bit exaggerated overall so we could hear stuff like that better. Make sure you download the session files and demo the plugin if you don't have it already. It's adding a lot to the stock Apollo pre's!

@jamescassidy4045 4 месяца назад

@@MillSounds Hey! Yeah totally, good points! That's cool how the low end control is almost more of a proximity/depth Vibe, like it seems like they went very wide/low with it, almost like a subtle Pultec style Low band or something hah! I'm def going to download the files, and check out the Plugin. Peace Bro!

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

@@jamescassidy4045 The Low control interacts with the negative feedback and output as well, I almost don’t even think of it as an EQ. It is its own thing!

@jamescassidy4045 4 месяца назад

@@MillSounds Ya totally, I was going to say, I bet it's totally doing something like that. I had a feeling just judging by the way it sounds. Interesting stuff dude!

@shaft9000 4 месяца назад

The results differed pretty significantly, imho. The mixwave sounds compacted into a flatter soundstage/dimensionality , with less 'bounce' and source differentiation in the lows, while the highs are somewhat muted with less sizzle and animation. I was surprised that the real 'all-tube' mix didn't slew or 'smear' the tracks more. Perhaps this plug is worth $30-50 to someone, but I believe I'll stick with the tools I have. Cheers! 🍻

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Make sure you download the full session files and demo the plugin. Not everyone gets to use Coil preamps, and not all the files you get sent to work on sound great. I still think the plugin can supplement the hardware really well if you have both. Especially for CA-286 owners that might want a little bit of CA-70 flavor added in.

@LesonDeson 4 месяца назад

I feel the hardware has a blooming quality in the low and the plugin sounds drier.

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

Download the session files and demo the plugin to do some direct comparisons for yourself. It's possible to get a lot closer with some tweaking!

@Allious131 4 месяца назад

@@MillSounds He won't he's here to troll and feel superior because he paid 50,000 for his gear I wouldn't even give them that option. He obviously thinks in his head that hardware will make his mixes and masters automatically come out good 🤣🤣😂😂😂

@ndavies8 4 месяца назад

Hardware has more presence

@MillSounds 4 месяца назад

I felt like the plugin was a little bit darker overall from the hardware, even before I did this video. With the output all the way up (on the hardware and software), they both sound pretty warm with a nice roll off on the high end. You can easily get that presence back back backing off on the output. That can be a problem on lower gain sources on the hardware because by the time you get the tone you want, the output signal can be pretty low (I've gotten around this with my Universal Audio Apollo workflow, I just throw a clean digital UAD EQ on the channel and turn up the output on the EQ to make up my gain). On the plugin, you've got the clean input and output stages that MixWave added, so it's really easy to turn the "hardware" output down on the plugin and make it up with the clean output. Easy way to get some highs and presence back!

@ndavies8 4 месяца назад

@@MillSounds Oh makes sense!