I am in doubt. I have it, but I’m not sure is it good idea to use it or not. It definately colours the synths, basses, claps etc in very good way, but on the other hand it creates backround noise. Almost like a cassette tape.
There are pros and cons.
What do you think?
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I was also astonished by the amount of unwanted noise the AH generates.
Everybody says it’s normal, but for me it’s a real “ear sore”.
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I previously had 2 Analog Heats. I never had a noise issue, but I just found the tone too harsh. For me they didn’t add anything pleasant.
It depends how much you use it. If you use only a bit of Clean boost then it’s okay but if you use for example Classic dist mode (what I like the most) then the noise is pretty audible.
I reckon these type of processing tools work best on individual sounds with careful tweaking and resampling the results, rather than slapping it on the Master and hoping for the best.
After that I’d imagine you could eq out any unwanted noise and in a full track it’d be fine. Depends on what you’re after I guess.
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Agreed, or use noise gates which would be more common for something using super high gains. You can’t distort without raising the noise floor.
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Do have experience with any other distortion effect that doesn’t create noise?
Pros: very good parallel processing with real A/B testing possible (very rare), analog EQ, analog filter (that can use peak for mid-EQ if needed), many circuit styles, well built.
Cons: imo overbridge isn’t as good as it should be, no mid or sweepable mid EQ, lost support (?) due to the MKII. Any others?
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Out of all the distortion pedals/effect boxes I have used the Analog Heat is by far the quietest. If this isn’t your first experience with a distortion pedal/box, I would love to know of another distortion unit that doesn’t create air/noise (might be a future purchase for me).
Yea, I get some air on the higher distortion units (mid drive & above), but I can get rid of pretty much all of it by dialing it in & using the lo pass filter. I don’t like to go too far with lo pass on certain sounds, so if there is any air left in the sound after using lo pass, I get rid of it in whatever I sampled the sound into (tip: certain effects can help with things like air & unwanted noise, experiment & have fun for best results).
I use the more extreme distortion units on individual sounds (mid drive & above), which makes it easier to remove unwanted air/noise (compared to putting it on an entire mix, but it also depends on the sounds, ect) & I use clean boost, saturation or enhancement on the entire mix.
I absolutely adore the Analog Heat. I admit when I first got it I was a little disappointed, but every day I loved it more & more & more. Now I use it on everything.
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Yep and yep. And the noisiest I have is the Analog Drive. 
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Specifically designed for guitars though, no?
I think it’s a great studio tool. I travel a lot and use apps like gadget and senode etc. I can’t be arsed to try to stem these out and mix and whatever so I run the full tracks thru AH into my desk with aux sends to kaoss pad and reverb. I record the results to zoom h5 and I’m happy with it.
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Compared to the other distortion units I have used, the Analog Heat is not only the quietest, it has the most control over the sound. Using a combination of drive, wet volume, dry/wet signal and EQ section, I can remove most of the unwanted noise without adversely affecting the tone I want. Add a noise gate into the mix and I have no issues whatsoever with noise.
I love the AH so much I’m considering a second unit. There’s one in my local Cash Converters that is already at a decent price but not so decent that I will buy it, but if it falls any lower I’ll snap it up.
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I’d 2 Analog Heats, sold them to buy other synths, I thought they sounded great and would consider acquiring another in the future, I didn’t notice any excess noise. And I do have sellers remorse. Saying that I use synths built on really old circuit designs so a bit of noise is normal to me.
To some getting a cassette tape style sound is a good thing 
Go for it 
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i use it mainly to crank up bass hardware synths. but i dont use it in a daw, too much of a hassle. soundtoys decapitator does an excellent job there when you need a bit of crunch on a track and can be used in many instances.
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The A/B isn’t true. The off mode flattens out the original signal signifficantly.
Make an A/B between Original Signal and Heat in Off Mode thru a mackie for example…
That killed my amazement for the Heat. Its a nice tool, but not so magical as it seems to be when you do the onboard A/B.
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To offer an humble opinion - and AH is my only box like that, so I struggled quite a bit - it is as I experience it quite possible to work with the AH at roughly unity and get «just tone» without audible noise. I dont experience flattening at all, but gain can be tricky. If not working at close to unity, gain will seem to drop lots when bypassing. For some time I wondered about noise as well, but realised I was adding way too much gain.
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Right. This is what volume does. It sounds better because it’s louder (a widely found phenomenon). The ability to carefully monitor your gain is a huge benefit to understanding the effect transparently.
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I love noise and quality beautiful distortion and would suck a fox off for a heat but I will genuinely never be able to afford one. So… use that information however you want
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Some recommendations: D16 plugs, the amp section in Permut8, bx_vertigo mix sattelite, and for gain stuff the automatic hornet meter/gainstage plugin is helpful to no end. Second hand mk1 will come your way im sure.
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I’m using mine in on a stereo bus with a chain where an RNLA comp/limiter goes into the AH then further to a single-ended 2-ch denoiser (those old, black and red Behringers are golden) and then finally through an analog stereo imager.
I’d say that denoiser is a much better solution than a noise gate if you’re worried about the noise.