Heat VS Deco + FusionBox

Hi Folks,

So I’ve decided to remove the computer from my music’s equation, wich is not a big deal cause now I only use it as a recorder plus few plugins on the master bus.
Usually I put a saturation and/or a tape compression plugin on the master, drived quite heavily to give a lot of grit and to obviously glue the things together.

As you might guess, I’ll now look at a hardware solution to cover this previous software ground.

Right now I’m thinking about a Heat (obviously) or a combo Erica FusionBox/Strymon Deco.

First thing first, I’m sure the Heat will cover all my master enhancer/saturator needs, but what about the Deco. Is it easy to get a nice compressed and saturated master with it ?
I know there is not as much possibility as with the Heat, but if it can enhance the mix just enough and give a nice amount of dirt I guess it will be alright.

Secondly, I would like to do more than just master saturation/glue. That’s why I’m considering a Deco + a Fusionbox, the erica’s pedal can handle the crazyness while the Deco is saturating everybody.
With the Heat, I’ve got the impression that this box alone can do both at the same time. You know, enhance the mix, and while activating an lfo or playing with the filter, introducing some crazyness.

As far has I heard, the Fusion (if we forget the delay/flanger thing) seems to be more in my alley. For example, do you think the heat can react like this :


On this demo there is a huge distorted feedback after the kicks. Does the heat can generate those heavy feedbacked stuff ?

At a point I’ll probably test all this box by my self but I first would like to have your input on this.

Does some of you had the chance to compare a Deco and a Heat, or a FusionBox and a Heat ?

I have a deco, have no experience with heat but i am quite happy with the deco particualr when i make “stereo” out of mono sounds.

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I have the Analog Heat and had the deco and the fusionbox.
The example you posted can’t be achieved with the heat. Maybe something similar when you assign the drive amount to the lfo and set that to one cycle and fade in. So that the drive gets louder after the signal was triggered.
But not as easy and with a different sound. For me this sound example you posted is actually the coolest function of the fusionbox.

The deco can make a mix sound a bit compressed or saturated or totally crunch it up. But it always cuts some high frequencies. Kind of like a real tape machine.
The analog heat can achieve similar results but you can boost the high and low freqs.

I’m only using hardware for my music atm and my mixes tend to lack a bit in the high frequency range. So the deco didn’t help but the heat gave me back some highs. And it can function as a compressor too which the deco can’t.

If you’re deciding between heat or deco+fusionbox i’d say go with the heat. Unless you really want to have that effect in the video link. It’s a really cool effect but i noticed that i don’t want to have this crazy distorted effect on my drums in every song. But the heat is on every song now.

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Yeah, that’s what I tought, the heat can’t give this feedback. Well, as you say, it seems to be a fun feature but you don’t want this effect on all of your tunes, but there is also the nice delay/flange that the FusioBox produce.
Still about the Fusion, is the “Vintage Stereo blabla” a real thing ? I mean, on the demo I’ve posted (official Erica Synth’s) you can’t hear it cause it’s in mono.

In fact I’m not so much enjoyed by the Deco, it seems nice for the price and should do the job, but this Erica’s box seems to be the ultimate analog heat :heat:

On the other hand, I trust Elektron, I’ve got a Rytm and an A4 and they are damn reliable !

One last solution but I don’t really like it, is to drive my 4 track recorder. That way I have a tape compression + a drive. But let’s face it, the plugin I used to use (Tonebooster’s Reel) give better results.

Yeah i think plug ins can do a lot in that aspect. Hard to find boxes that do the same.

The ensemble effect is cool on synths but when i remember correctly i had problems with the mono compatibility when using it. Sometimes it wouldn’t be audible at all when set to mono. As i said that’s just what i remember. I’m not absolutely sure if it wasn’t a user error on my side.

What i didn’t like about the fusionbox was the loud background noise especially on longer drly settings. This was due to the lofi delay chips they used in it. It adds to the lofi character and can sound cool but it was a bit too much for me even though i like a bit of noise and hiss in my music.
You can turn down the filter knob a bit to cut out the noise but then you also loose some highs again. It’s a unique box and i liked it but i needed money and already had the heat, a sherman filterbank and a vermona lancet. So it had to go.

Isn’t the Erica mono in? That would be pretty limiting on our master bus.

I have the deco and i love it. Was initially dismayed at the lack of highs but as soon as i figured out i had to open it and flip a tab to make it take stereo signals most of the highs came right back. Also messed with the eq. Asit is now i believe it gives me a nice subtle compression and drive, plus the right side controls give me cool performance controls. As cool as it is i can’t justify 700 bucks on the heat.

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Sure, but I intend to use the Deco on the master and keeping the Fusion for others uses.

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You can just record your mix distorted in mono and layer it under the clean mix, can add some serious weight to a mix that way.

Done it today with the Analog Drive, Heat and Drive make excellent buddies btw.

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I’ve been curious as to how the two would interact, do you have any demo’s?

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Not really just got the Ad the other day but I’ll throw something together real quick.

Edit: Yes real quick… 1 hour :smiley:

Here is some comparison with no SC compression-> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hpjlu5m4w_ge9aj8K5H6LxKnscYYS-Yn/view?usp=sharing

If you feeling lazy here is ugly SC compression :smiley: ->

Sorry about not using more sounds just realized it’s 5 mins of the same loop :frowning:

Ohh btw imo Heat is much more subtle and is better suited for buss processing then Drive especially the first 3 distortion circuits while Drive really shines on individual sounds due to it’s more aggressive, gritty nature. Still love using the Heat on kicks though, if doing that reverb rumble techno kick Heat is awesome.

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