Tips for emulating tape

omen80

Hi, just wondering if anyone uses tape saturation plugins when mixing in their DAW? I have pro tools and find that when everything is recorded digitally it is nearly too clear and bright! I have started playing around with putting a guitar solo, for instance, through a cassette player and then re-record it back into pro tools. It really adds a certain character to it.
I'm on the lookout now for some plugins which might give a better effect which I could possibly use on my master fader to give a certain 70's or 80's vibe.

Anyone know of any good ones which are not expensive?


Thanks

Zombienosh

http://www.avid.com/US/products/Reel-Tape-Saturation

seems to be avids answer, can't say i've tried it, but I've never heard of anyone who says any plugin can emulate that "real" tape sound, pfft purists.

also heres a free demo of a massey plug-in http://masseyplugins.com/plugins/tapehead

madtheory

Massey tape head is very nice, but be warned, it's subtle. Haven't tried Heat yet but Dave Hill's other plugins are super duper.

You could also add 3 to 6dB of limiting, tape does that anyway. Again, Massey L2007 is great. And use compressors to shape the sound. It's the softening of transients that is a large part of the tape sound. The comp3 is actually pretty good, takes a while to set up though.

omen80

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to try Massey tape head tomorrow and see how it goes!

trackmixstudio

http://www.ursplugins.com/ursSAT.html
I use tape 30ips at 15% drive on every track.
Seems subtle when you put it on but if you turn them all off there is a big difference.
The main benefit is a softening of the highs and a bit of saturation which helps get rid of the perfect digital sound.

madtheory

A tip I got from a guy about the Massey, that actually works very well, is to set it to unity gain and "normal" and put it after your eq.

SonasRec

I've been using Slate Vcc for a while and finds it does nice things to a mix. It's not tape saturation emulation though, it's analog console emulation.

+1 for the massey plugs.

Also use Dave Hills Cranesong HEDD for conversion, It can generate odd & even harmonics for tape emulation. Amazing piece of kit but it's expensive.

madtheory

SonasRec wrote: »

Also use Dave Hills Cranesong HEDD for conversion, It can generate odd & even harmonics for tape emulation. Amazing piece of kit but it's expensive.

Good god but those are super. Me want.

PaulBrewer

Reading between the lines it sounds like you're trying to 'fix' a problem with something after the fact ?

omen80

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Reading between the lines it sounds like you're trying to 'fix' a problem with something after the fact ?

No, not at all. I'm just looking to give a certain warmth to the end result, I would be using tape emulation as an effect.

Thanks everyone for the replies.....

DamagedTrax

UAD A800
Nebula R2R library
URS saturation

best of the bunch IMO

krd

This guy actually uses a tape player to get the sound. It's a really interesting sound. I haven't heard anyone using it commercially.

Tape used to really have it's own sound. And some stuff that sounded brittle and overproduced on CD, would sound really good once it was on tape. I think Radiohead's the bends sounded better on tape than CD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bfJmj7U3xQ

seannash

Yeah ive seen people record the audio to video tape and play it back into there daw

Cant comment on quality,to be honest i think a good emanulation might be better than cassette tape/video tape and alot less hassle

omen80

seannash wrote: »

Yeah ive seen people record the audio to video tape and play it back into there daw

Cant comment on quality,to be honest i think a good emanulation might be better than cassette tape/video tape and alot less hassle

Yeah sometimes I send one track, like a guitar solo, out to a cassette player and back in to pro tools. It gives a nice character to it but I think it would be a bit too much to put the entire mix through. My cassette recorder is little too "wonky" if you know what I mean!

krd

omen80 wrote: »

It gives a nice character to it but I think it would be a bit too much to put the entire mix through. My cassette recorder is little too "wonky" if you know what I mean!

You can try cleaning your tape recorder. A hoover and toothbrush.

Probably wouldn't be an idea to put a whole mix through it. PJ Harvey still uses C60 4 tracks. Not for the entire mix just bits and pieces.

The guy in the clip. We emailed each other back and fort a while back - he's in Russia. He said he used to listen to all his music on tapes - he started doing that thing with the tape recorder to emulate the music he grew up listening to.

Keith Richards used to record himself playing an acoustic guitar into a dictaphone - it came out sounding like a distorted electric guitar - they also used to use it for vocals. At the time in the late 60s - they were trying to emulate obscure American blues records of the late 40s and 50s.

I remember reading this producer. He said he spent hours messing around with plugins trying to get the effect of the sound coming through walkman headphones. It was driving him crazy. So it he miked up walkman headphones and he got the effect he wanted straight away.

madtheory

krd wrote: »

You can try cleaning your tape recorder. A hoover and toothbrush.

You forgot the