I bought mine to warm up output of John Bowen’s Solaris. Now Solaris is sold and Heat stays as either buss effect or as an insert for Modal 008. What I like the most is stereo filter, actually, for that trippy sweeps of pads from 008. Also, somehow, when 008’s drive is engaged, I mostly get less aggressive tones from it - go figure - so distortion is nice bonus for me. When used as buss effect I am using Overbridge. And I must say that for me it works like a charm, when I never even read manual, just put plugin in Ableton’s Live and it connected like other “Hardware Effect” block.
Note: Solaris was sold, because it was too much for me, so I must say that I have all respect for John for his creation and will never say bad word about Solaris, except my insufficiency for it.
I’d like to mention that recording synthesized drums through the Heat is brilliant, it can really glue the sound together.
For example kick transient, Heat really flattens it out instead of having a nasty spike in the beginning of your kick, a typical problem of vst generated kicks imo.
Then all the other stuff it does, it most certainly is worth it and especially at 2nd hand prices.
At the moment I’m running the Heat +FX on my Main Out from my MPC Live 2, Clean Boost and sticking all my samples drums and bass through it and it’s a total monster. I leave other sounds unaffected through other outs.
I’m going to get to grips with all its midi CC capabilities this week so I can add effects, mangle the ends of bars and do high pass filter DJ sweeps.
I waited for a BStock to become available at Andertons.
It’s so good, I was slightly wobbly at the start but it’s added a professional weight to my sound that I really love.
I’ve always been intrigued by the Heat, but I have a few questions on it. It seems like one use for me would be to send a kick/bass buss through it and glue them together that way, and then print the result.
I’d also love to replace ableton auto filter on some tracks live modulate the Heat’s filter on synth tracks. (I currently live modulate Auto Filter). How good is the filter for that type of usage? That’s probably the number use case for me with this box.
I also COULD run the master buss through it when mixing, which seems like a lot of people do. But I read that it can sound kind of “samey” - I like warm, rich sounds for an analogue deep house vibe (if that paints a decent picture).
My main concern is overbridge and latency. How much does it add, and is it easy to manage? I’d be sending a sync clock from my DAW to my hardware for recording, so maybe I’d just load up the analogue heat app after recording in.
Pros of overbridge are that I’d free up 4 i/o slots, plus I believe its much easier to control the Heat in it - is that true or could I get away with not using it? If I used the Heat connected to my interface. I’d be able to route through it, but also not have to deal with plugin latency.
Anyway, curious on your thoughts on all these things. I’m just looking at a mk1 or 2 version.
I will say I just got totally fed up with Overbridge and I too won’t bother with it either. Tech support highlighted a bug to me where you need to toggle the inputs on and off to get OB to show both waveforms, but it’s feels apparent to me they’re going to do little with firmware updates in the future. It’s missing loads of info and has a lot of things that need explaining, the gain staging is silly with so many volumes.
But, the unit is amazing. I’ve sold all my Elektron black boxes other than Machinedrum but the AH is a Swiss Army knife and will be with me for a long time.
i got an analog heat mk1 last month for 450 - was wanting one or the boum for ages and it finally happened. thing is nuts actually - one of the first nights i got it i got off work at midnight, got home, and ended up lost in the sauce until 4am completely blown away at the sounds coming out of my modular. probably top 3 music making sesh in the last 5 years. ended up sleeping through my alarm the next morning and was extra late for work and it was so worth it.
i had it on the master insert of my xone 96, but just yesterday gave overbridge a try (was a bit of a faff getting it to work, but a firmware update to ah was the ticket). i’ve mostly been an overbridge hater all these years, but it was pretty sick and worked well. a few times the latency was bad (fixed with ableton track delay), and a few times it blew out my project cpu (had the delete the plugin and reload it and it was fine). it’s my first experience with an analog plugin, and i’m definitely into it if it continues to work well. printing kick/bass buss through it from ableton - sick. synths/percs - sick. using it as the main filter for modular sounds - sick, although i haven’t tried track automation with it yet. using the wet level knob to match rms, or using the letitmix gainmatch plugin, makes a/b super easy which is essential
but really though - the sounds out of this thing are spectacular (i’m into detroit-dirty mord techno, so ymmv), the filter sounds so good, and the 2 cv ins are a huge plus. i’ve been looking into a hardware compressor lately too (hcl varis at 1600, api 529 at 1500, etc), and i think this thing is a fucking steal at 450. especially after going to town on a culture vulture via access analog the last few weeks. super happy i went with ah over the boum
Loved it since pre-release back in late 2016(?) or early 2017…can’t remember.
Anyway…now that I have an Osmose, I want another one just for it…gorgeous together (and a bunch of pedals after)
Appreciate the info all. Managed to track down a mkii for $400. Couldnt resist at that price.
Should have it early next week or so. I’m really glad a lot of you don’t use over ridge for it because i didn’t want to either. Just going in and out of my interface and will put it in an Ableton external effect.
Also will track some synths in through it since total mix makes that incredibly easy.
some days ago I decided to fire up my Heat Mk1 (after nearly 1 year or longer)… but this time with subtle settings and not that brute-force approach as I’ve done so fare, I was really listening carefully
the magic starts when the two knobs Wet Level and Dry / Wet are used properly, which I haven’t done before … even with the more extreme circuits
some phasing-issues are noticeable … but I don’t care too much, it just got more psychedelic
Damn hope it’s worth it cause I just bought an mk1 for 399usd! I’m actually really psyched about this. I can’t wait to leave it on my master bus after chroma console!!!
Here’s a novel idea perhaps: I’ve found the Oto bebe cherie to serve a more ideal role for me. I had the AH mk1 and yes, honestly it was great. I’m someone who very deeply tries to convince myself that I do not need a piece of equipment. Especially a desktop format piece which i just hate in general. So if I can do the same thing with something in software or with something physically smaller, i’m dying for it. But yeah the AH was just excellent.
But now i use the Bebe cherie as a preamp/console type of thing set up in the patch bay. The gain saturation, the compressor and the enhancer knob just do the same thing for me in a much more elegant and simplified way. Just something to consider.
I combine dt2 with ah+fx
Love the saturation, Reverb is simple but sounds good and is useful and the filter is amazing. Nice to have a compressor, bass mono er and then all together it is worthed
Especially since it is one device combining with my dt2 is very small an not too many cables
using +FX with a DTII and DNII. I really like it, more than I anticipated.
the modulation possibilities make way more sense on the +FX, you can get some really interesting effects and tones.
I’m using for running sounds from Ableton and sampling into DTII and in reverse, as the end of chain between DTII & DNII. It’s just really fun and versatile.
I need to spend some time saving some more presets and playing around with midi. I’ve done that a bit but definitely something to explore more.
I thought it seemed really pricey when I got it as I bought new, but quickly forgot about that and have just been enjoying.
I owned an MKII and didn’t quite get the hype before but the +FX has been a much more positive experience, it’s just a really well done machine.
It has none of the modulation which I think is a huge part of the heat. I can see how for simply running sounds thru it tho, it could be an alternative for some, I don’t think it would for me.
I actually love the heat at about 20 - 40% wet when end of chain which you couldn’t do on the oto either.
anyway, very different, the oto looks cool.
actually speaking to low wet signal on heat, it’s amazing for this. use a HPF and tune to your kick, raise the resonance and you can create really nice low end, dial in to taste - modulate it etc.
- so distortion is nice bonus for me. When used as buss effect I am using Overbridge. And I must say that for me it works like a charm, when I never even read manual, just put plugin in Ableton’s Live and it connected like other “Hardware Effect” block.
