Most of the 3rd party plugins on the market today try to sound like real analog gear.

The major companies spend ages studying vintage audio equipment to perfectly model it in a digital plugin form.

And there's no doubt that the audio community is very attracted to this kind of plugins.

I'm sure most of us will rather buy a cool looking analog EQ plugin that promises warmth and depth, instead of a super clear digital EQ like the one we have in our DAW.

However, You still have to know how to use "analog plugins" in order to get the most out of them.

Let's go over 5 tips to make sure you're not missing anything.

Tip #1: Watch The Input Level

Most of the analog plugins are sensitive to their input level.

It's very important to get the right input level, to make sure the plugin works like it's intended to. If the track that's feeding the plugin is too loud, you might get too much unwanted distortion or compression. If the input is too low, the plugin might become to subtle, and won't affect the sound much. If the plugin doesn't already have an input volume knob, simply change your track's clip gain, or even insert a volume plugin before that plugin and use it as an input knob.

I recommend doing that before you start tweaking the rest of the plugin.

Tip #2: Always Level Match This is the most common problem with this type of plugins. On a lot of these plugins, just inserting them on their default preset will make your track slightly louder, which will make you think it sounds better. So play around with the bypass button and look for any volume differences, then use the gain knob to turn it down back to the original level. The same goes for loading presets.

When you load up a preset, you have to make sure that the volume of your track stayed the same, in order to be able to really hear what the preset is doing to the sound.

Otherwise, the louder version (whether it's with the plugin on or not) will sound better.

Even when tweaking the plugin yourself, don't forget to bypass it and see if you really help your track sound better, or if you just make it sound louder.

Tip #3: Watch Out For Noise Some analog plugins emulate a specific piece of vintage gear. Not only the sound and knobs of it, sometimes they even model the gear's static noise. So when inserting an analog plugin listen carefully for noise, and if you hear some, look for a button that turns it off.

Using too many of these "noisy" plugins will introduce a lot of unnecessary hiss to your mix, so watch out for that.

Tip #4: Additional Effects

Some analog plugins can actually affect the sound of your track more than you might think.

For example, a vintage compressor plugin can also add some EQ coloration.

And a vintage EQ plugin might add some saturation or distortion. Sometimes it's a good thing and sometimes it's not.

So listen carefully and try to hear if the plugin you insert has some side effects that changes the sound as well.

Tip #5: Read The Manual Unlike an all-around plugin like a digital EQ, some analog plugins are designed for specific uses, and won't work properly in every situation. Not only that, but sometimes plugins also have different than usual interface and knobs, and might work differently than you would expect. That's why it's a good idea to read the manual and learn your plugin and how to use it.

Are you using analog style plugin?

Which ones are you favorites?

Share your answers in the comments!