Waves Abbey Road Vinyl - “Everything Sounds Better On Vinyl?”
Back in the good ole days, all the great albums that defined popular culture came with the analogue fingerprint… whether it was Sgt Peppers, Dark Side of The Moon, Rumours, and so on… Tape and vinyl defined all recorded music. The rise of the CD, mp3, PirateBay, and, in 2006, Spotify… well… it has been a bit of a death nail to this once loved analogue warmth.
Wiz forward to 2022, however, and Charity Shops are filled with CDs, music shops struggle and mostly sell T-Shirts and mugs… good ole Vinyl has been booming, mainly amongst Indies… but even that rascal Harry Styles is shifting eye watering numbers… despite making inuendo laden songs about fruit… People are hungry for that classic sound… “everything sounds better on vinyl” is the mantra. As a reaction to this mantra, we are seeing more tape and vinyl VSTs to take away that perfect, clean digital sound… helping those after “effects,” like myself, and those where physical runs on vinyl are beyond the budget… This is where Waves steps in with Abbey Road Vinyl, claiming that Abbey Road Vinyl will “give your music the vintage warmth of vinyl records played on classic turntables and needles: a precise model of Abbey Road Studios’ vinyl cutting and playback gear… Designed with Abbey Road Studios, this plugin faithfully captures every stage of the vinyl production and playback process.”
This plugin is, by far, the best vinyl emulation I have come across, beating Izotope mainly down to the expanded customisation that is available… It gives you access to that classic “Abbey Road” sound from the studio’s vintage record cutting equipment. The pre-sets are ready to go and the user interface is easy to use.
What are the draw backs?
-This is a plugin that gets a lot of stick… viewed as a bit of a gimmick when compared to the more lauded Waves replicas, like J37 and Kramer Tape… this is despite it having a clear appeal to Hip Hop producers and maybe “indie” artists wanting a “vintage effect”…
-The noise and clicks are a bit “loop” like and do not strike me a truly “random”.
-If your computer is rubbish, it could be CPU hungry!
-As with all Waves plugins, you’re signing up for potentially higher costs than the face value of the plugin though their “update plan.” Be aware of this, especially if a hidden “subscription” is not your taste!
Conclusion: I have used Abbey Road Vinyl myself as a “secret sauce” when tinkering about on the master bus before mastering… mainly as it worked on the unwanted high and low frequencies in a nice way, gluing my mixes together. For me, it is a decent plugin in the right context.
-John Michie
Photo courtesy of Waves.com