RoughSleeper
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Many say tube sound is nothing more than EQ and designer coloration, if this is the case would it be possible to exactly replicate tube sound through the use of a plugin?
I think linear distortion might be straight forward to emulate.
Non-linear is possible, but perhaps a bit more involved.
Many say tube sound is nothing more than EQ
No this is incorrect... at least in the sense of a PURE-EQ that does nothing more than boost/cut frequencies. Tubes also add distortion and other harmonic "artifacts".
While this is true, the distortion is not something that adds to the "tube sound" in a positive way, and as it turns out, people who have successfully simulated the tube sound (i.e. Carver) did not add distortion, they just did it with a response modification (a type of EQ).
Tube simulators can, and some do add distortion.
Beyond the non-linear mechanisms that create harmonic distortion and intermodulation distortion, there are no other mysterious "harmonic artifacts".
If you are shown these graphs without knowing which is which, can you tell the tube amp from the solid state?
An 8 ohm resistor is not a real world load, I agree. But 'might' is not good enough with real world loads. I have 3 all tube speaker amps and 1 mosfet hp amp that I listened to through my HE-6 hp. If I listen to each with the same music track I could probably tell with a high certainty which is which only because I'm familiar with them. If not there is no way to tell.
Here are three frequency response curves from three different amplifiers, two all tubes and one solid state.
Audio Research Classic 60, all tube:
Conrad Johnson Premiere Eleven, all tube:
Krell KSA-50S, solid state:
Fig.1 Krell KSA-50S, frequency response at 1W into 8 ohms, in balanced mode (top), 2W into 4 ohms (bottom), and into dummy load (top at 2kHz) (right channel dashed, 0.5dB/vertical div.).
If you are shown these graphs without knowing which is which, can you tell the tube amp from the solid state?