Tape Emulation Plugins. Give me your experiences
- Thread starter doctoremmet
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Joël Dollié
Active Member
Console emulations, right now I use kazrog true iron which is just transistor distortion.
jcrosby
Senior Member
I really like Slate's tape, UAD's are nice as well. And I find Ozone's to be fairly decent despite what some think, (it just has a little less personality than the previous two, but does add a nice bump in the sub). IK's are also nice but boy oh boy are they CPU hogs...
Tape's pretty infamous for the 'head bump' which is what I listen for in a tape plugin... So in addition to harmonics my favorite tape plugins fatten up the low end while smoothing highs and adding a glueing effect. That's why I prefer the ones above to Softube's which is definitely nice, (especially for adding presence). It's just a little too neutral in the low end. I tend to use it for adding some crunch and/or brightness.
Tape's pretty infamous for the 'head bump' which is what I listen for in a tape plugin... So in addition to harmonics my favorite tape plugins fatten up the low end while smoothing highs and adding a glueing effect. That's why I prefer the ones above to Softube's which is definitely nice, (especially for adding presence). It's just a little too neutral in the low end. I tend to use it for adding some crunch and/or brightness.
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doctoremmet
Senior Member
Yeah, this has me worried somewhat as an i7 6700K, 24 Gb owner...
Reason why I am considering Waves stuff for mixing (or that newly released 413) and the IK for use on a mixed down stereo track
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doctoremmet
Senior Member
Interesting. Will have a look at the broader “saturation” category as well!
jcrosby
Senior Member
Definitely demo first! On my macbook, (i9) it's about a 15% single thread hit in Logic. This is around the same hit as some of Acustica's plugins with most features on. If you've used or demoed any of theirs that should give you an idea of the kinds of resources they demand. I basically use them when mastering and that's it more or less. Most of my mixes are too big to use them except on perhaps the mix bus.
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doctoremmet
Senior Member
Cool. Two mentions for True Iron.
What about this one:
Abbey Road Saturator – Analog Saturation Plugin - Waves Audio
Musical analog saturation & distortion from the legendary Abbey Road Studios: The sound of classic tubes and transistors, driven from subtle to extreme, and excited by the rare EMI TG12321—a secret weapon of Abbey Road engineers.
www.waves.com
Is this somewhat similar? Just noticed it and since I am already firmly in Waves TG world, it could be interesting to add to the shortlist?
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doctoremmet
Senior Member
Thanks, I will!!
jcrosby
Senior Member
It's an ednless list!!!
True Iron's REALLY good for sure..Cool. Two mentions for True Iron.
What about this one:
Abbey Road Saturator – Analog Saturation Plugin - Waves Audio
Musical analog saturation & distortion from the legendary Abbey Road Studios: The sound of classic tubes and transistors, driven from subtle to extreme, and excited by the rare EMI TG12321—a secret weapon of Abbey Road engineers.
Is this somewhat similar? Just notices it and since I am already firmly in Waves TG world, it could be interesting to add to the shortlist?
The AR is more extreme by default, if you turn the input gain way down it can be more subtle, but in it's "normal" operating range it's more heavy handed than true iron.
JEPA
Senior Member
I have this, I have used it on voices and some percussions, but not on the Master Bus. I haven't tried it on the Master Bus cuz of the genre (orchestral) and because of the results with the voice and the percussions I don't like it on the Master Bus. But on the individual channels it's ok.Cool. Two mentions for True Iron.
What about this one:
Abbey Road Saturator – Analog Saturation Plugin - Waves Audio
Musical analog saturation & distortion from the legendary Abbey Road Studios: The sound of classic tubes and transistors, driven from subtle to extreme, and excited by the rare EMI TG12321—a secret weapon of Abbey Road engineers.
Is this somewhat similar? Just notices it and since I am already firmly in Waves TG world, it could be interesting to add to the shortlist?
Petrucci
Senior Member
I used to like Slate VTM a lot but I started noticing that it introduced too much bass which I dialed out with its dedicated control for it. But it also took out too much highs so when I got UAD I demoed Atr-102 with its ultra-linear presets and liked it a lot on my 2-bus - instant buy, I use it all the time now, it really gives this glue and nice saturation to the mix though it also changes EQ balance depending on the tape type etc. I also like UAD Studer on individual channels with non-orchestral stuff, it seems like It's easier to mix the tracks with Studer on them. Haven't tried other tape plugins but heard a lot of praise on U-he Satin.
telecode101
Senior Member
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BVMusic
Brian Vassallo
I think adding TAPE plugin not only brings forward your mix sounding more organic and warm, like its getting out of analog gear, but I think if you put too much it can muddy your mix, or even perhaps, change the track. It's like cooking, too much salt everywhere, and the taste of the dish is changed! So, balancing carefully the TAPE effect , when put on the Track channels and on the Mix Buss is to be taken care of. Perhaps one of the functions In a Tape that needs careful settings when used to a achieve good balance on the whole mix, is the 'bump' function. And if I am not mistaken , there Is a kind of compression process going on as well with Tape. Correct? However, when TAPE and console emulations plugins are used attentively, you can have a great sounding result as if your DAW is now an analog machine!
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Locks
Penguinologist
Offtopic a little. But my partner and I recently just picked up an Akai GX-4000D. Hoping to experiment by running a few string libraries through it. I imagine the effect will be subtle.
I'm not home right now to take a photo but here's an image of one I just pulled from google.
I'm not home right now to take a photo but here's an image of one I just pulled from google.
Joël Dollié
Active Member
Also, If you drive distortion plugins too loud you can also get a bunch of extra noise because of aliasing, unless they oversample a lot. But when driving just a bit it's ok.
But even if there was no aliasing I wouldn't recommend driving them too hard, at least on the master. It can really kill clarity.
But even if there was no aliasing I wouldn't recommend driving them too hard, at least on the master. It can really kill clarity.
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doctoremmet
Senior Member
Awesome. When you do, please post some audio examples!Offtopic a little. But my partner and I recently just picked up an Akai GX-4000D. Hoping to experiment by running a few string libraries through it. I imagine the effect will be subtle.
I'm not home right now to take a photo but here's an image of one I just pulled from google.
darcvision
Active Member
anyone had experience with softube tape or hornet tape? i'm looking for good tape emulation for master bus, i heard waves j37 and ik multimedia tape are good, but very cpu hungry. when it comes to tape emulation, i always using free plugin such as tape cassette 2, la petite excite, saturation knob and totape5.
