My best tape "plugin"

trifidmaster

trifidmaster

New member
I have purchased my best tape "plugin". Did I???

I have been looking for it ages and now I got it finally.
It is itself the Studer A807. I am not kidding, I am serious.

I have tried it very briefly with EMTEC and Maxell tapes, different speeds, different EQs. Some commercial CD-s do not benefit from it - as it seams to be too much of tape compression for them.
But tracks, and some "flat" CD-s just start to live.

I did not hear any plug-in until now what can do the same sound - did I miss something? Any comment, elaboration, advice is welcome.

trif.:)
 
I think we need to start another thread about how tape-emulation plugins are or are not completely ridiculous.

I am going to mark the line and hop to the side of "completely ridiculous".

That hardware emulator is pretty interesting though. Another way to get the tape effect, would be to get an old Fender Echoplex (which used real tape and produced "echo" by placing multiple tape playback heads past the record head in the chain, and just had a loop of tape) - and only use one playback head. That way, you are actually recording your digital output to tape, and then reading back off of it.

Sure, the tape inside an Echoplex is a small width, and perhaps doesn't have a bandwidth wide enough for slapping on the master effects bus of your recording... but a customized machine would be cool, that uses, say, 1" tape for a stereo channel, and maybe has a longer loop of tape (so you aren't rewriting on the same 2' of tape over and over.

Or perhaps you can do what some do, which is to send your final mix out to a stereo tape recorder (A Tascam 22-2, etc.), and then re-import the tape recording back into the computer for final distro. Maybe I'll give that a try at some point.
 
I have to say that I love the "Tape Head" plugin by Steve Massey. I don't know how accurately it imitates tape, but it sure sounds good on most of what I use it on.
 
cusebassman said:
but a customized machine would be cool, that uses, say, 1" tape for a stereo channel, and maybe has a longer loop of tape (so you aren't rewriting on the same 2' of tape over and over.
Click to expand...

whilst we're getting a custom machine, let's make it 2" :D


oooh that would be TASTEY!!


Stereo on 2" :D
 
OK, here is the pic.

The unit is used as a OFF-LINE plugin. So, some the already recorded tracks (audio tracks) go to the tape and back (from/to the DAW), and the "tape magic" happens.
Now, it is experimenting time about speeds and equalization (NAB/CCIR), and tape types.
Any advice on these aspects is welcome.

trif.
 

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Ah, see, when you put "plugin" in quotes, I didn't realise you were being sarcastic to the point that you were getting an actual Studer.

I shall be quiet and sit in the corner.

With my new Shure SM81, which just came :D
 
"plug-in" - I am sorry if it was misleading, that was not my intention.

Corner? OK - I will have to remove some of my bass traps;).
BTW: I have 14 bass traps in my room next to the 16 m soffits...

trif.
 
trifidmaster said:
Now, it is experimenting time about speeds and equalization (NAB/CCIR), and tape types.
Any advice on these aspects is welcome.

trif.
Click to expand...
Trif, you need to be asking these questions over in the "Analog only" forum. Those boys are all over that kind of info like Oprah on a baked ham.

G.
 
Gens,
Thanks! I will check the other forum.

I am not a protools user, so I can not check the Steve Massey plug in.

I suppose that the Portico 5042 uses dsp - I have never heard its sound.

What I want to do for example is to create a tape delay in such a way, that the delays are less and less "high"quality. Is this possible with a software plug-in?

trif.
 
trifidmaster said:
I suppose that the Portico 5042 uses dsp - I have never heard its sound.
Click to expand...
Actually the Portico 5042 is all analog no DSP used. It's great for people like me who don't like tape :D You get all the compression and nonlinear artefacts w/o the wow and flutter and the hiss (well... actually you CAN get hiss if you get carried away).

No need to play with azimuth alignment, degaussing, cleaning and other such nonsense.
 
trifidmaster said:
What I want to do for example is to create a tape delay in such a way, that the delays are less and less "high"quality. Is this possible with a software plug-in?

trif.
Click to expand...

why not look for a WEM copycat? they can be got for fairly cheap these days, and i'd rather spend money on that then on a plug-in! they can be got for anything between $200 and $500 depending on how hard ya look. Make sure you get a few spare tape loops too.
 

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I'd imagine you can make the tape loops fairly easily if you know anything about tape - and I mean anything.

As for the quality degrading, the tape isn't going to degrade so quickly that you notice a significant difference from replay to replay.

Plus, if you think about it, if the tape were degrading that quickly, not only would successive repetitions be declining in quality, so would anything being put on the tape... it isn't a constant feed of new tape - its used over and over :)

However, its an interesting idea. You'd have to record the effect to a new track, of course, but it would work :)
 
The Copycat indeed can do "magic", but I needed a much longer tape. And as far as I understand the Copycat's tape length is not so long.

The delay what I will create on my Studer is not the only one technique what I will do. I will use certainly the "inperfection" of my Studer to "break" my rigid sounds.

Now, I realize that I had to say at the very beginning of this topic, that I am a midi composer = all my tracks are coming from samplers / synths / vstis.

I do not want my Studer be as a master recorder. I want to use it as an non real-time insert "effect".

I have collected and read some scientific articles about tapes, equalizations. Well, now that I understand more about this subject - surprisingly there is a big theory behind this subject, it is even more clear to me that for my needs the actual experimentations is the way to go.

trif.
 
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