Audio node
Analog Filter
A vintage tube-microphone channel strip that turns a thin, harsh voice recording warm, wide and pleasant: opto leveling, tube saturation (even harmonics), proximity and presence EQ with an aged high roll-off, tape wow & flutter, a stereo doubler for width, and a warm sandy noise floor with sparse dust crackles. Mono-first like a real mic — the width is the doubler at the end of the chain.
Inputs
| Port | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| AudioThe voice (or any signal) to run through the vintage mic strip — cable any engine source: Audio Input, players, synths, other filters. A stereo source is mixed to mono first, like tracking through one microphone; the Width doubler rebuilds the stereo at the end. | structure | — |
| EnableOff bypasses the strip — audio passes through untouched, the engine chain stays wired so re-enabling is seamless. | bool | true |
| DriveTube saturation amount. The asymmetric curve adds EVEN harmonics (the octave) — warmth, not fuzz. Level-compensated: more Drive changes the color, not the loudness. 0 = clean, 0.3–0.5 = classic tube glow, 1 = thick. | float | 0.35 |
| WarmthThe proximity low shelf (+5 dB at 200 Hz when full) — the chest and body a cheap recording lacks. Works with the aged high roll-off to tilt the voice dark and close. | float | 0.5 |
| PresenceA gentle 4.2 kHz peak (up to +3.5 dB) — intelligibility and air without harshness. This is what keeps a warm, dark voice from sounding muffled. | float | 0.4 |
| AgeHow old the machine is: deepens the high-frequency roll-off, adds tape wow (0.55 Hz) and flutter (7.4 Hz) pitch breathing, and raises the dust-crackle density. 0 = pristine tube studio, 1 = a well-loved relic. | float | 0.3 |
| NoiseThe analog floor: warm band-limited hiss (the sand) plus sparse dust crackles (their density also rises with Age). Mono, like a real chain's floor. 0 = silent — the strip adds NO noise at zero. | float | 0.25 |
| WidthThe stereo doubler: two drifting delay taps (~9/14 ms) spread the mono voice into a wide, soft image while it stays center-anchored. 0 = pure mono, 0.5 = pleasantly wide, 1 = maximal spread. | float | 0.5 |
| CompressOpto-style leveling (3 ms in, 250 ms out, soft ratio up to 4:1 with makeup) — evens out an uneven amateur take into a steady, produced voice. This is most of the 'pleasant' in the result. | float | 0.5 |
| MixDry/wet against the untouched input. 1 = the full strip; lower values blend the processed character into the original. The safety limiter stays on the output at any setting. | float | 1 |
Outputs
| Port | Type |
|---|---|
| AudioThe voice (or any signal) to run through the vintage mic strip — cable any engine source: Audio Input, players, synths, other filters. A stereo source is mixed to mono first, like tracking through one microphone; the Width doubler rebuilds the stereo at the end. | structure |
| Level | float |
How It Works
Analog Filter is a vintage tube-microphone channel strip in the graph. A thin, harsh voice recording goes in and the sound of an expensive old microphone comes out. The chain runs in a fixed order, because the order is the sound:
- Rumble filter — clears the sub-bass that a proximity shelf would otherwise multiply.
- Opto compressor (Compress) — slow and forgiving, the way a light-dependent cell actually behaves.
- Tube saturation (Drive) — deliberately asymmetric, so it generates even harmonics, the warm ones.
- Vintage EQ — a proximity shelf (Warmth), a presence lift (Presence) and an aged high roll-off.
- Tape wow and flutter — slow drift and fast wobble in the pitch.
- Stereo doubler (Width) — two drifting taps; the strip is mono-first, and the width is added last, like a real microphone into a real desk.
- Noise floor (Noise, Age) — warm sandy hiss with sparse dust crackles that thicken with Age.
- A safety valve at the end.
All eight knobs are glided per buffer, so a move bends the sound instead of stepping it. At Noise 0 the node adds nothing — silence stays silent — and bypass is bit-exact. Level reports the output level for metering.
Use Cases
- Rescue a thin voice — A laptop microphone or a phone recording into the strip comes out sounding like it was captured on a large-diaphragm tube mic.
- Period colour — Age and Noise together put a recording in a decade: a little for tape, a lot for shellac.
- Live narration — Between Audio Input and Audio Output, with Compress holding the level while the speaker moves.
- Character on a synth — The Modular System's clean modal voices take Drive and Warmth well; the strip makes them sit in a mix.
- Widening a mono source — Width alone, with everything else at zero, is a doubler.
Tips
- Drive and Compress interact: compress first for level, then drive for colour, or the compressor will just undo the saturation.
- Warmth is a proximity shelf — it is meant to be pushed on a close voice and left alone on a distant one.
- Noise 0 really is silent. Reach for a little noise only when the recording is too clean to sound real.
- Mix is a parallel blend: keep some dry signal to retain the transients while the strip does the colour.
- Because every parameter glides, an LFO or a Timeline curve on Drive is musical rather than steppy.
Open Analog Filter in the interactive catalog →
Analog Filter is one of 381 nodes in Grafit Pro.
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