tape saturation shareware VST plug in

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lo-Fi Mike
  • Start date Start date
HOw cool.

I always like to support this kind of thing it's so free market.(or seems to be)

i liken this to the Corner store that you used to run down, to get the milk from and some jelly babies.

what does he recommend as a donation?

he should put a recommended donation.

hey guys do this while the Audio piece is playing grab the tape speed and zero it from 100% to 0% woooom love that sound.

actually i have used it you will hear it on the start of Slave but I achieved it in a different way.

I think it sounds Great.

Actually I was looking to manipulate my Version of the song DX_on the 31-Meter Band.

SO I put it through I really liked the results here if you want to hear:

http://www.theblackbay.com/testwma.php

I found the saturation to my liking I had to pull the lower again but I like what it did to the harmonic content.

I like the plug-in ...see what “free market” or close to a “free market” can do when in relation to Technology.

Some basic instruction as to what those buttons on the side are would be good though I see “bypass” then I see “I don’t know” then I see “circuit bypass?” or “head bypass?” then I’m lost.

The last part of my song says "and i said look out funny...and he answered I know a god Satan"

for all you Christians out there i don't know why it says that.
but that's what i hear.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Then again, my real answer is, if the music is worth listening to, and therefore actually worth recording, than this whole topic is unnecessary because nobody will give a rat's ass whether it sounds like it was recorded on a Studer or on a Zoom.

G.
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Sorry, I don't believe that for a second! That negates the whole existence of professional engineers and the progress of recording gear.

I have heard many "great" songs that are unbearable to listen to because of VERY poor recording quality. I have heard many not so great songs that are tolerable because they were recorded/mixed quite well.

A great recent example was of my bands live recording. I ran a no eq/compression/reverb/etc.... "push mix" for the lead guitarist to listen to. It was depressing. It highlighted everything bad.

I then spent about 45 minutes "mixing" it, and vola! Every song seemed to have been played much better!

When the individual parts are not in context with the way the music "should" be heard, a whole element that makes music pleasing to listen to is missing. Sort of like squashing the dynamic. You have made the music not in relation to what it is by squashing it, thus, much of the emotional impact is gone, thus, no matter how good the song is, it doesn't sound very good.

Now, I agree that your average listener will not know exactly WHY they don't care too much for the song, but if you played them a well produced version and a poorly produced very, 999,999 out of 1,000,000 are gonna enjoy the well produced version and want to turn off the poorly produced version.
 
It's, of course, entirely subjective, Ed, as to how much importance any one listener puts into the recording quality. But I think it's fair to say that the relatively crap recordings (compared to what was possible at the time from the BBC or RCA) to come out of Sun studios in the mid 50s didn't exactly drive people away from Carl Perkins or Johnny Cash or Elvis Presley. And likewise, if the Beatles recorded somewhere other than Abbey Road, they'd still be the legends in their own lines that they were and are.

On the other side of the coin, if you're recording Sanjay, or whatever that dork's name was from American I-Dull, it doesn't matter if you're using an antique RCA ribbon thorugh a Chandler pre or a SM58 through an mAudio interface, it's still going to suck, and it's still not going to be worth wasting anybody's time to record.

And it especially isn't going to matter either way if one uses a tape emulator or actual tape to throw a patina on something that just isn't worth listening to to begin with. And if it's really worth listening to, the patina of tape is usually an unnecessary extra.

Now there are those Alan Parsons types out there who actually are one of the performers with the studio as their musical instrument. That's a bit different. There are also those who are more interested in exploring sound scapes than they are in muiscal performance. Anything from a Tangerine Dream on one end of the spectrum to just about any high school garage metal band on the other. For those, what can be manufactured in the studio can sometimes be even more important than what's actually played on the instruments.

But I'm old school, myself. The musicianship and performance will ALWAYS be far more important than the recording engineer. We can't exist without them. They can get along just fine without us.

It's an ugly truth, but it's one that if more of us 'fessed up to it, there'd be a lot more signal and a lot less noise out there.

Just an opinion. I'm almost positive you disagree. And that cool. Opinion noted.

G.
 
Thats the eternal argument: substance vs packaging

The Misfits have managed, over decades to sell multiplatinum without ever going gold, with great songs and shitty production. Also they got no radio, or any other main media support.

99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the stuff on the radio, if not more right now is producer made music

There IS no song, just the packaging itself. The song wouldn't exist without the production. If you are listening to the radio or at a supermarket (the only brick and mortar place to buy records now for the most part) you are listening to productions. Songs that may have even been mixed for the most part before any of the lyrics were written

In between these two extremes, Id still say packaging mattered. Ive only done anectdotal tests, but even at the same volume back in the day, people sure felt a mastered album was a lot more "done". They couldnt describe what was different about it, nor, as you pointed out did they care WHAT was different about it.

They sure as hell cared that is WAS different though
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
You just stick the dll in whatever directory you have designated as your VST plugs directory. No further installation required, though some editors (like older AA) requires running a manual update scan for new plugs.

G.
Click to expand...

Thanks! It worked!

Hey, I've gotta disagree just a smidge about recordings. I really enjoy a very good recording of really good music much more than I enjoy a crappy recording of really good music.
 
XLR said:
If wow and flutter doesn't bother you.
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Well, one could argue that wow and flutter might be a good thing.

You could even utilize it to create a decidedly lo-fi kinda doubling or even delay effect.
 
noisewreck said:
Well, one could argue that wow and flutter might be a good thing.
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Have you listened to cassette tape much? No sarcasm intended, as I think experimentation is always good... just curious. I hate cassette-induced artifacts personally.
 
Re: Substance Vs. Packaging. This is an arguement that will probably NEVER be settled. I'm starting to wonder if only us engineer types really care. Recently my brother and I released an LP (all on our own...no overhead...no partners...just us). We decided that we'd press up 1,000 units (that's all we could afford anyway). Due to a communication error (loooooong story), we ended up sending the manufacturer the wrong master copy. We sent them the right LP, but it was a bunch of test versions and demo's. Not only were the mixes terrible, but the mastering job was even worse. For weeks I wondered how the hell were we supposed to get rid of 1000 units. Long story short, I have 100 copies left and a Japanese distributor (one of our biggest costumers) just placed an order for 150 (they've bought 550 total).

I get hits from Americans, French, and Japanese people on myspace - NOT ONE CUSTOMER EVER complained about the sound quality (or the fact that 2 of the songs are out of order in comparison to the track list). Every email I get is a compliment or a notification that "you have many fans here in my country!!". The only question I get is when is the next project coming.

That said, it still drives US crazy that the sonic quality is piss poor (and damnit I mean PISS POOR!!) so I've remixed the songs that I could recover (yea...my old computer crashed and somebody in my house accidentally tossed my hard drive :() and I've had a few of them professionally re-mastered.

But is this going to sell my record any faster or will I be the only person satisfied by the re-release? I'm starting to wonder...
 
Hey, I've gotta disagree just a smidge about recordings. I really enjoy a very good recording of really good music much more than I enjoy a crappy recording of really good music.
Click to expand...


Of course, everyone would agree with that,
but I dont think SouthSIDE Glen was talking about a "crappy" recording
 
I tried this plugin this weekend and thought the hi-quality tape setting added a little something sweet to the mix.
 
Lo-Fi Mike said:
Of course, everyone would agree with that,
but I dont think SouthSIDE Glen was talking about a "crappy" recording
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Absolutely. Thank you.

Of COURSE it's our job as engineers to put the artist's best face forward.

Of COURSE it's our job not to just phone it in.

And of COURSE it's often our job to lend some artistic flair to the production itself, and not just document a live performance.

My point is that absolutely none of that matters one whit if the performance/music itself is just not worth it, and that if the performance is worth it, the rest doesn't matter anywhere near as much as us tweakheads care to admit.

My reference to Sun records didn't mean that I thought that Sam Phillips did a crap job. What I was saying was that what Phillips and his fairly small and common little studio jsut couldn't - even under the best of conditions - match what was possible in the state of the art studios with that were available in the early 50s.

Compared to what could have been done elsewhere, your average Sun Records 45 - relatively speaking - just did not sound all that great. Nobody cared. When you got Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and some punk kid name Elvis in front of the mic,that's all that matters.

I really didn't intend this fine of a point to be put on this topic, it was just a passing remark at the end of a post with a different point altogether that got pulled out of proportion. We can't all be (or record) the next Johnny Cash, of course.

But whether we apply a patina of tape distortion, or aural excitement, or leveling pancake, or any other studio doo dad to the production ain't gonna matter either way. It will neve turn Sanjay into Johnny Cash, and leaving it out will never trun Johnny Cash into Sanjay.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
It will neve turn Sanjay into Johnny Cash, and leaving it out will never trun Johnny Cash into Sanjay.

G.
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My God, would u tell that to some of the ametures I've done work for? Do you many times I've gotten the question, "Well can't you make me sound like ______?"

No! No! No I can't! You suck and _____ doesn't! Nothing in the studio will change this!! There is no musical magic button!!

*vent off*
 
Trell Blaze said:
My God, would u tell that to some of the ametures I've done work for? Do you many times I've gotten the question, "Well can't you make me sound like ______?"

No! No! No I can't! You suck and _____ doesn't! Nothing in the studio will change this!! There is no musical magic button!!
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Ahhh, stick around this forum for a while longer, my exasperated friend. If you think you hear it a lot from you clients now, just wait to get a taste of how many people on this planet plug into the Internet asking the same thing! :eek:;)

And here it's compounded into the following general exchange that happens at least once a month on average around here:

Questioner: "How can I make my recordings sound like the pros?"

Answerer: "By doing things the way the pros do them."

Questioner: [ANGRILY] "This is only Home Recording, Don't be so elitist."

Welcome to the board, Trell ;).

G.
 
Trell Blaze said:
My God, would u tell that to some of the ametures I've done work for? Do you many times I've gotten the question, "Well can't you make me sound like ______?"

No! No! No I can't! You suck and _____ doesn't! Nothing in the studio will change this!! There is no musical magic button!!
Click to expand...

I have an easy button.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
And here it's compounded into the following general exchange that happens at least once a month on average around here:

Questioner: "How can I make my recordings sound like the pros?"

Answerer: "By doing things the way the pros do them."

Questioner: [ANGRILY] "This is only Home Recording, Don't be so elitist."

G.
Click to expand...

You forgot the link that makes this a circular argument:

Someone: [SMUGLY] "You *should* be able to make a pro record with Radio Shack gear..."

And thus the circle is forever fused......
 
fraserhutch said:
You forgot the link that makes this a circular argument:

Someone: [SMUGLY] "You *should* be able to make a pro record with Radio Shack gear..."

And thus the circle is forever fused......
Click to expand...
And then the next post is...

Someone else: [STRANGE MIX OF SINCERE BELIEF AND AGGRESSIVE SARCASM] "Don't ever listen to anybody here (except me in this post). Just start spinning knobs and figure it all out yourself."

So now we have in that whole, short but complete exchange of 5 lines of post, we have the answers to every question ever posted on these forums as well as a locked tight line of reasoning to just shut these forums down altogether as meaningless:rolleyes::cool::D

G.
 
lol @ all of u...

Eh...lately I've been pretty much honest about that sort of thing.

Client: Can you make me sound like T-Pain?

Me: T-Pain uses this thing called auto-tune and turns it up so it's an effect...however T-Pain can actually sing a lil bit. If you can't sing as well as he can then, no...I can't make you sound like him. You might wanna listen to yourself and decide weather or not this is the right career choice for you...and be honest with yourself...

I think that's a pretty un-harsh way to "advise" someone that maybe recording isn't their thing...right?
 
fraserhutch said:
You Someone: [SMUGLY] "You *should* be able to make a pro record with Radio Shack gear..."
Click to expand...

One *could*, but it would be genre specific. Don't expect to pull off Madonna type pop records with that kind of gear.

On the other hand, take Four-Tet for example. The guy just uses a SoundBlaster with a PC mic.


Oh, and don't be an elitist. Pshaw. :p

My point is, anything could be used as viable means of making and recording music. However, the "crappy" methods are usually for adding spice, or only work for certain genres, so one has to be realistic of their expectations.
 
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