What's new

Tape Emulation Plugins. Give me your experiences

I would recommend to test out a 14 day trial version of some of the TMT consoles on plugin alliance:



Agreed BUT and this is a very big but,wait until Plugin Alliance has one of their inevitable sales,
I have several of them and paid either $29 or $39 for all of them.
In case you haven’t purchased from PA they have frequent sales and if you’re patient you can get some great plugins at amazing prices.
BUT you have to wait and be patient..............
 
I actually had the Neve and Focusrite for a while before reselling them. Maybe I just don't have the right ears to be as wow'd as I always hope to be by these things.


Both the Focusrite and the Neve are Neve‘s, maybe you should check out some of the SSL’s they might be more suited for what you’re looking for.
 
See I know that I do actually like the Neve sound in general. It's more just that I'm expecting this stuff to be something that it isn't, I think. If I were really slamming these emulations and stacking them on every single track I know it'd be a major change, but my use is probably just too subtle to really make much difference.

I also know that if I were recording anything orchestral in the real world, I'd be doing it as transparently as possible, so this occasional fixation for me is more about whether or not this stuff is adding anything welcome to the sound in the virtual world, or if it's just doing the same kind of thing I'd rather avoid in reality, or even less.
 
Last edited:
Agreed BUT and this is a very big but,wait until Plugin Alliance has one of their inevitable sales,
I have several of them and paid either $29 or $39 for all of them.
In case you haven’t purchased from PA they have frequent sales and if you’re patient you can get some great plugins at amazing prices.
BUT you have to wait and be patient..............

Very good point! I should have mentioned to only ever buy their stuff on sale, but I was typing the message from my bed and was too tired to go into detail. My first plugin from them (Console N) I bought for 49.99 I think, but now I'm getting their 29.99 coupons as well.


I actually had the Neve and Focusrite for a while before reselling them. Maybe I just don't have the right ears to be as wow'd as I always hope to be by these things.

Hm, I think out of all my plugins the TMT Neve is the closest to being "magic fairy dust" (doesn't mean I sprinkle it over everything though). Even if you don't touch any dials, putting one on every track and assigning different TMT channel numbers to each makes a noticable difference to the sound, as you noted yourself too. If that isn't the change in sound you were looking for, maybe you're after something else entirely but can't quite put your finger on what it is yet. Might be worth looking for reference recordings that have the mojo you're looking for and digging into their process a little. Either way, good luck in finding the tone you're after!
 
Very good point! I should have mentioned to only ever buy their stuff on sale, but I was typing the message from my bed and was too tired to go into detail. My first plugin from them (Console N) I bought for 49.99 I think, but now I'm getting their 29.99 coupons as well.




Hm, I think out of all my plugins the TMT Neve is the closest to being "magic fairy dust" (doesn't mean I sprinkle it over everything though). Even if you don't touch any dials, putting one on every track and assigning different TMT channel numbers to each makes a noticable difference to the sound, as you noted yourself too. If that isn't the change in sound you were looking for, maybe you're after something else entirely but can't quite put your finger on what it is yet. Might be worth looking for reference recordings that have the mojo you're looking for and digging into their process a little. Either way, good luck in finding the tone you're after!

Do you mean the original Neve, or the newer one by Lindell? That one is supposedly a real leap forward for these plugins.
 
Do you mean the original Neve, or the newer one by Lindell? That one is supposedly a real leap forward for these plugins.

I only tried this one:


I don't think I have good enough ears yet to pick a favorite among different consoles and I thought since this is the emulation of the console they physically own, it's probably the one they did the best job on because they can compare it easier to the real thing.

I like the sound of it but I think the interface is unneccessarily hard to use for someone unfamiliar with real consoles. It should be much more self-explanatory than it is imho.
 
since this is the emulation of the console they physically own, it's probably the one they did the best job on because they can compare it easier to the real thing.
I get this thought! I also tell myself: in the hardware realm you would have had just ONE console and learn to maximize its characteristics to get the most out of it, rather than flipping through dozens of options...
 
Sure, having just one thing and maximizing its potential is how I approach most stuff... the problem is choosing which one thing will suit you best out of all the options!

Of the PA stuff, I narrowed it down to the Elysia EQ/compressor, Millennia EQ/compressor, or one of the consoles as being most relevant to what I'm after. The thing about the consoles is that the gates and even in many cases the compressors wouldn't be of much use for me, so it feels a little like overkill. Looks like their sale thingy has ended though anyway, oh well.
 
Last edited:
I have a lot of tape plugins, and I like the waves and u-he stuff (You should try the waves vinyl plugin as well). If you are looking to color your sound, RC-20 is still the one I like most. It goes on almost everything I do.


+1000

RC-20 is clearly a gem, and not only in tape emulation:



 
+1000

RC-20 is clearly a gem, and not only in tape emulation:




Great. Will check this one out. Have gotten a lot of mileage out of @lychee’s recommendations lately. Thanks!

@DimensionsTomorrow Thanks for the initial mention. Also: somehow Waves AR Vinyl (together with the Kings’ Mics one) is the only AR plugin that never appealed to me, conceptually. I have never given it a second look. I will now though... what is your use case?
 
Great. Will check this one out. Have gotten a lot of mileage out of @lychee’s recommendations lately. Thanks!

@DimensionsTomorrow Thanks for the initial mention. Also: somehow Waves AR Vinyl (together with the Kings’ Mics one) is the only AR plugin that never appealed to me, conceptually. I have never given it a second look. I will now though... what is your use case?

Well, it’s just another way to color the sound. I find it does something different than the tape plugins I have, and pretty much everything I do is meant to have more of an old school vinyl vibe.

I first learned about that Waves vinyl plugin from this guy. You can hear a few of his “fake (vinyl) breaks” from around 1:37 I believe. This three part video series is really fun and there’s lots about tape plugins in there. But for me RC-20 is a must have, and one that I also like that isn’t mentioned much is the Klevgrand DAW Cassette plugin. RC-20 is the top choice though. Everyone loves Wavesfactory Cassette these days, but I haven’t bonded with it as much as I thought I would.

 
Well, it’s just another way to color the sound. I find it does something different than the tape plugins I have, and pretty much everything I do is meant to have more of an old school vinyl vibe.

I first learned about that Waves vinyl plugin from this guy. You can hear a few of his “fake (vinyl) breaks” from around 1:37 I believe. This three part video series is really fun and there’s lots about tape plugins in there. But for me RC-20 is a must have, and one that I also like that isn’t mentioned much is the Klevgrand DAW Cassette plugin. RC-20 is the top choice though. Everyone loves Wavesfactory Cassette these days, but I haven’t bonded with it as much as I thought I would.


Awesome video. Thanks for the tip! I’ve always been fascinated by producers and musicians that actually take time to program all of the individual little noises in a break, in stead of just mangling some Amen break or other in ReCycle. I’ve always suspected Jazzanova and Photek went the extra mile and programmed every little detail. Their breaks were constantly changing and sounded different than most.

A very cool modus operandi if you ask me ;)

 
Awesome video. Thanks for the tip! I’ve always been fascinated by producers and musicians that actually take time to program all of the individual little noises in a break, in stead of just mangling some Amen break or other in ReCycle. I’ve always suspected Jazzanova and Photek went the extra mile and programmed every little detail. Their breaks were constantly changing and sounded different than most.

A very cool modus operandi if you ask me ;)



Definitely. I saw an interesting exchange between Alex Ball (“My Computer is a 1950s Orchestra”) and Barry Beats (Si Spex) in the comment section on one of Alex’s videos. Alex’s stuff is the “gold standard” for me, and his advice to Barry was to put tape emulation on each of the individual tracks and not just the main output as he thinks that the build up of the various plugins is what gives a more authentic vintage vibe. That was basically what I had been doing, but it was good to hear that I was on the right path.
 
Definitely. I saw an interesting exchange between Alex Ball (“My Computer is a 1950s Orchestra”) and Barry Beats (Si Spex) in the comment section on one of Alex’s videos. Alex’s stuff is the “gold standard” for me, and his advice to Barry was to put tape emulation on each of the individual tracks and not just the main output as he thinks that the build up of the various plugins is what gives a more authentic vintage vibe. That was basically what I had been doing, but it was good to hear that I was on the right path.
Yes. That’s something I’ve actually learned since starting this thread... and getting my first tape emulations. I now use True Iron and Softube Tape on all tracks, and IK Multimedia Tape on the 2 bus. I’ve just purchased Vertigo VSM 3. Been using Klanghelm as well. It’s a world of difference really. I think the non-linear summing effects are really making the difference. I am totally digging these breaks though - that guy has some skills! Thanks again!
 
Yes. That’s something I’ve actually learned since starting this thread... and getting my first tape emulations. I now use True Iron and Softube Tape on all tracks, and IK Multimedia Tape on the 2 bus. I’ve just purchased Vertigo VSM 3. Been using Klanghelm as well. It’s a world of difference really. I think the non-linear summing effects are really making the difference. I am totally digging these breaks though - that guy has some skills! Thanks again!

Yeah, those Barry Beats videos were very inspiring. I ended up buying Addictive Drums because of that. Lol.

I’m no Barry Beats, but there are a lot of these plugins on a couple of tracks did for fun for a weekly beat battle I occasionally participate in. These are a mix of sampled albums and virtual instruments. You can even play name the virtual synths with the second track. ;)



 
That first one with that Brigitte Bardot like sixties vibe is incredible! Those spring reverb guitar eruptions from-LSD-bad-trip hell were fun!

Second one has more of a laid back late eighties vibe, doesn’t it? In my mind that second verse could easily have featured Q-Tip. Although I am quite deep into synths, I wasn’t able to name a single one ;)

 
That first one with that Brigitte Bardot like sixties vibe is incredible! Those spring reverb guitar eruptions from-LSD-bad-trip hell were fun!

Second one has more of a laid back late eighties vibe, doesn’t it? In my mind that second verse could easily have featured Q-Tip. Although I am quite deep into synths, I wasn’t able to name a single one ;)



Cheers for that. The guitar was fun to do. I recorded a few hits from the bridge pickup of my strat and ran it through a bunch of Soundtoys plugins.

The synths from the other track were U-he’s Diva for the bass and the Buchla Easel from the Arturia V collection for the lead. I like both of those synths a lot.
 
Top Bottom