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Tape Emulation Plugins. Give me your experiences

I have lately been trying out Acustica Audio's Taupe, Jam and Pumpkin Pro (the non-pro version is free). Pumpkin is supposed to include improved anti-aliasing techniques in addition to oversampling.

Jam and Pumpkin only have a few tape options, Taupe has many.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to recommend any of these. The IK Multimedia ones are great for mastering; and Universal Audio's Studer really impressed me when I demoed it. Plus I have question marks about the integration of the saturated signal with the clean one. But the range of options and sound shaping have enabled me to create some results that I find very pleasing.

Black Rooster Audio's Magnetite and NeOld's Warble are both excellent, the former for subtle mixing and the latter for characterful saturation and warbling. If I had nothing else but Magnetite, I wouldn't feel like I was seriously lacking for basic mixing needs.
 
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I'm not using tape emulation all that often these days, but when I do, I'm still pretty much always using either Fuse "Flywheel" or Neold "Warble." Haven't felt the need to branch out beyond those, they cover my needs great! We do have a ton of good options these days (for just about everything, not just faux-tape). (Tauxpe?)
 
I retract my comments in this thread

Tape Emulation is marketing BS

Building a Hardware tracking chain...Actual Neve 1073 changes the game...
 
easyrider said:
Plugins are myth
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From the mighty trunk of Yggdrasil

To the soaring peaks of Olympus

Doth the Divine Poets, on Wings of Mercurial Lightning, riding Steeds of Flame

Declare in Voices Mighty and Pure

"Yo, that UAD 1073 emulation is LIT, I heard the Apollo boxes change IMPEDANCE on the op amp to match the original hardware?! Mojo for DAYS, you don't even NEED a real Neve no more"
 
Little late to the party, but on a channel it's likely to be HG2-MS, with a possibility of SSL X Saturator.
Busses likely to be HG2-MS or MSaturatorMB, though ADAPTR HYPE is muscling in.
Mix/Master Bus is now generally ADAPTR HYPE, finished with an IKM Tape Machine according to what works best. 24 for Clean Mojo, 440 for a deeper grit in the glue, or something in between.
THere are likely to be other elemnents in the chain, but Hype is going a long way to slim that number down, as it's intuitive surgical capabilities, that enhance and glue while leavingroom for your favourite character finisher to end the chain is really most beguling.
 
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Nico Schuele said:
I stopped using tape emulations these days. Most of the libs that I use are already recorded on tape. I use some Neve channel emulations though (Sonimus N-Console.)
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which companies record thier libraries on to tape? I assumed most go through a console straight into a PC/Mac.
 
Nico Schuele said:
I stopped using tape emulations these days. Most of the libs that I use are already recorded on tape. I use some Neve channel emulations though (Sonimus N-Console.)
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For most mixing- and mastering-engineers I know, tape is primarily about the so-called "glue" it applies to an entire mix, and not so much about its effects on individual tracks.

BTW: Apart from obvious effects like distortion and the like, I doubt that the influence of tape on individual samples recorded on it is even remotely comparable to the impact of tape on an actual recorded performance (even if the latter is derived from samples).
 
Dietz said:
For most mixing- and mastering-engineers I know, tape is primarily about the so-called "glue" it applies to an entire mix, and not so much about its effects on individual tracks.

BTW: Apart from obvious effects like distortion and the like, I doubt that the influence of tape on individual samples recorded on it is even remotely comparable to the impact of tape on an actual recorded performance (even if the latter is derived from samples).
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For mixing and mastering engineers I'm sure you are right; likewise the use of specific sound design when applied to an individual instrument track by a producer.

I'm not so sure about the value of sample instruments recorded to tape (or more sensibly, but less romantically, processed on tape after digital recordings). I think it can make a difference. Rather like having reverb baked in by recording the room, recording to tape would give you saturation, compression and attenuation of the frequencies baked in. Just like recording through specific microphones and a microphone preamp does.

But perhaps in most cases recording samples to tape is more about the romance than significant sound shaping. My only limited experience of working with tape was very low end and something to fight against more than treasure!
 
Plugin developers tap into brands…nostalgia and GUI’s….selling cheap….

They all know it’s not hardware…

Nothing beats a real Mic Pre amp or pedal…Bought a Buzz Audio bus Compressor…it’s the final key to unlock the door…after hardware you have nowhere else to go…get out of the trap of buying $29 plugins of the same thing….repeating the same experiment over and over expecting a different result…

2 channels of Neve, a Couple of API couple of hardware EQ and comps and your making the best sounding recordings in your life….
 
Nico Schuele said:
I stopped using tape emulations these days. Most of the libs that I use are already recorded on tape. I use some Neve channel emulations though (Sonimus N-Console.)
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Also tracked through million dollar consoles and hardware comps and EQs….


Hate it when people comment on the like of Andrew Scheps mixing ITB….forgetting the audio he receives has been tracked through glorious hardware….

Many mixers with more skills than me on countless of hits say…pull up the faders and it should sound 99% like a record…
 
easyrider said:
Plugin developers tap into brands…nostalgia and GUI’s….selling cheap….

They all know it’s not hardware…

Nothing beats a real Mic Pre amp or pedal…Bought a Buzz Audio bus Compressor…it’s the final key to unlock the door…after hardware you have nowhere else to go…get out of the trap of buying $29 plugins of the same thing….repeating the same experiment over and over expecting a different result…

2 channels of Neve, a Couple of API couple of hardware EQ and comps and your making the best sounding recordings in your life….
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Most of us here, though, are principally composers. We'd probably be better off using what budget we have to pay a professional mix engineer and a separate mastering engineer, even if they only used plugins, rather than buying hardware to use ourselves. Obviously, this doesn't apply to everyone here.
 
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