Tape saturation in the digital domain?

[StudioRecorder]

Hi,

I'm looking for something that'll give me good analog tape saturation in the digital domain. Do you have any suggestions of FX units or plug-ins that'll get me this desired effect?

I'm using the Digi001 and a 733 G4.

I appreciate it, thanks!!

[Blue Bear Sound]

Steinberg's Magento plug in SX2 is really very good... don't know if it's available separately.

[Son of Mixerman]

HEDD

SoMm

[DigitMus]

Originally posted by Son of Mixerman
HEDD

SoMm

What SoMm said - HEDD is the shiznit.
Hope you've got a fat wallet.

[Strange Leaf]

"I'm looking for something that'll give me good analog tape saturation in the digital domain"

If you by "good" mean "good", I'd say there are none.

There are some hardware units that might work, such as the Empirical Labs Fatso Jr or the SPL Machine Head (discontinued).

Magneto does an ok job, but not better than a run-of-the-mill average and used reel-to-reel.

[chessrock]

PSP Vintage Warmer



. . . as cheezy as it is.

[larrye]

Chessrock,
I have Vintage Warmer, any tips on getting the best sound out of it?
I have not had a lot of luck with it other than I can get it to add some good comp. for a mix going to CD. But I can't tell that it colors the sound very much. Maybe I don't drive it hard enough. But for the life of me I can't get it add the saturation that some old tape decks I use to have did.

Thanks,
Larrye

[chessrock]

Originally posted by larrye
Maybe I don't drive it hard enough.

That might be it. I find myself just going through all the presets untill I find one that sounds close, and then I'll just fiddle with the knobs till it sounds good. Pretty scientific stuff.

I like some of the mixing first aid sets and I love the snare drum setting, but the PSP is more of a situational player for most folks rather than an every-down starter. What's that they say about mileage varying? ?

[Teacher]

love vintage warmer on sub mixes to bring things more to the fore front of the mix as well as a master bus insert to bring the levels up

[deharmonic]

Originally posted by Teacher
love vintage warmer on sub mixes to bring things more to the fore front of the mix as well as a master bus insert to bring the levels up

ah yes, i dig the vw on drum submixes...

[dafduc]

Sony Oxford is reputed to give you tape-style saturation when you push your level past zero - without digital distortion. Quite a trick, if true. Suppoosedly a mastering house fave though, squeezes a few extra dbs out of a mix for those volume hungry buyers.

Daf

[chessrock]

Originally posted by dafduc
Sony Oxford is reputed to give you tape-style saturation when you push your level past zero - without digital distortion.

Not to mention their EQ is supposedly to die for.

[musikman316]

For the cost of a decent plug in you can find an Otari 5050 tape machine (1/4" 2 track) on ebay. Don't buy one that is selling for like $50 but try and spend a little more for a unit in good working condition. This way you won't have to spend too much on maintaining the the machine. You can buy "one pass" tape for pretty cheap (tapetape.com) and use it about 20 times before you'd need to buy some more...

The great thing about having a tape machine is that you can bounce stereo sub mixes to it, re-record it and line up your tracks in PT. Or you could mix down to it (or both). The Otari is a great sounding machine for the $ and worth having. Learning to align a machine is very simple, although you may want to buy one that has an MRL (a test tone tape) so you won't have to buy one seperate, I believe a 1/4" MRL is about $90.

So there, that's my opinion on the matter. There is no plug-in that I've used that can really give you realistic tape saturation, this may change in the future as programmers get more in depth and computers become more powerful, but for now analog tape is still where it's at.

Later,
musik