What do you guys use to keep the Heat in line? I’ve only been using it for a few sessions now and the thing is INSANE at times! I’m wondering what kind of fx chains you might be trying out to let the Heat distort the signal but also not color the sound too much by overcompressing in the process.
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Manually ride the output level prob cleanest/cheapest option, if you have enough hands, which might not always be the case 
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I’ve found the basic limiter in Ableton to be fine, placed right after the Heat vst. Just work at track levels well below 0 so as not to affect the signal constantly
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Some kind of variable level auto-compensation option would make sense on a box like this. Had brief go on one and half the fun was hard tweaking, which made things LOUUUD 
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The only thing I find that difficult to control is the resonance, be careful there, I think it deffo needs capping or some kind of live safe mode as a tiny bit makes low frequencies really jump out, and it becomes dangerous anything beyond the last quarter. Other than that I find the circuits behave predictably and if you gain stage properly before hand you just needs minimal adjustments before fir e.g. Swapping circuits… jus make sure you have plenty of head room on your mixer/interface particularly if it’s digital.
That’s not say a limiter isn’t useful tho, I say any will do the job if it’s just a fail safe to avoid clipping.
A soft limiter on the the output of HEAT’s hardware would be a real treat, tho unless it’s already in there lying dormant, it would need to be digital via software, which means the signal path would be altered. Which I’m not expecting.
I think anyway
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I wonder if putting the Heat in an audio effect rack and then assigning certain problem controls to macros would help. I.E., Macro 1 could control the Resonance but also the Dry/Wet level so when Res goes up Dry/Wet goes down a little when the Cutoff is swept. Probably wouldn’t be the end-all but it could help a bit.
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elektron analog filters are notorious for their insane resonance range. I’d steer clear of going past 12 o clock whenever possible.
I’m still trying to figure out the gainstaging on this thing. The level controls seem to lack range - I’m constantly running out of knob range when trying to levelmatch the wet and dry for A/B comparisons.
A limiter is just a crutch for not being able to gainstage things optimally IMO. Unless we are talking about limiting as an effect.
EDIT: duh, my gainstage issues were user error 
Forgot the patch volume parameter!
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Question I own a dbx compressor (http://dbxpro.com/en/products/166xs) and recently was fortunate enough to get the analog heat.
I am writing music with A4/Rytm/TB03 - wondering if the best workflow is to compress the signal before (to compress transients prior to final shaping by heat) or after the analog heat (for the limiter)
I’d say there are no strict rules, you need to try both methods and apply either technique depending on the result you’re after on a case by case basis.
Hardware limiters do a poor job wrt brickwall limiting compared to software, fwiw. Hardware compression however…! yummy
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yep sounds good. thanks for the comment
I wired up my desk today with mixer -> Heat -> compressor
using low ratio and release time to pump with the tempo - subtle and effective.
agree the limiter isn’t that great - its really there just as a fail safe
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I have my synths running to my mixer to an OTO Biscuit then to my speakers, and some times the speakers pop a little bit, and seem to get too loud. I am new to sound engineering; do I need a compressor or a limiter? Would the Analog Heat work as a compressor?
I saw a video on how to use the Heat as a compressor. Would that keep the biscuit inline?
Could I replace the Biscuit with the Heat, and have the Heat act as a compressor limiter in addition to adding color and distortion? I like the idea of the versatility of the Heat over the Biscuit.
so the OTO is going straight to your monitors? Does your mixer have sends / aux ?
The mixer does have sends/aux, but I found I was sending everything through the OTO why not put it between the mixer and the monitors. I think it could be replaced by the Heat.
If the OTO is going before the master fader on the mixer you should be good. If you are going to go crazy with resonance drop the master fade down 5-10dB just so you don’t shred your monitors.
The OTO is after the mixer entirely in the chain. Straight to the monitors.
I have two sends/aux and both are in use. The OTO has to be after the mixer. Would the Heat act as a compressor?
Too bad, there is no Patch Volume knob on the box. I would have put it along side both the Wet Level and Dry/Wet knobs.
And put the Drive knob on top of the circuit rotary.
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About limiter, I wonder if there’s a limiter at the beginning of the audio path, before Overbridge maybe. I can’t have very high gain distortion, which is easy with Analog Drive.
Any mod possible?
The LR inputs are at the right of the flat ribbon.
I wonder this too, but at the end of the audio path.
I’ve been using the Clean Boost on master. With a fair bit of filter “dirt”, full wet, drive around half way. When I really crank the EQs, the peaks don’t get any louder, but the RMS gets pushed heavily.
This is not a complaint, I love the sound. But there’s definitely some analog limiting going on in some of the componentry, after the EQ, which is at the end of the chain.
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