Audio plugins, DSP software that imitates the sound character of some Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorders

[DanielT]

Please note this is neither something I know anything about nor will I buy BUT I was curious about it. Are these audio plugin something that is in demand in the professional studio world?

Those of you who know more about this, please tell me/us. See:

IK Multimedia - T-RackS Tape Machine Collection

T-RackS Tape Machine Collection of audio plugins gives you the true character of 4 iconic analog tape machines, together in one bundle.

www.ikmultimedia.com

 

[DSJR]

Certainly the playback frequency response is slightly different, I gather mainly in the low bass, on many pro and mastering machines - there was a physical test of several pro machines but i can't remember the link. Best of that bunch seemed to be the ATR 102 I recall. No interest now really but maybe this software adds distortion and noise profiles too?

 

[DanielT]

Certainly the playback frequency response is slightly different, I gather mainly in the low bass, on many pro and mastering machines - there was a physical test of several pro machines but i can't remember the link. Best of that bunch seemed to be the ATR 102 I recall. No interest now really but maybe this software adds distortion and noise profiles too?

Well, if the demand is there, maybe this is something that recording studios can use? I don't know if the software also adds noise and distortion, but it is very possible. They seem to have spent a fair amount of time recreating the sound from these vintage Real- to-Real, so why not?

Why roll back technological development with modern technology? But it is perhaps the craze for vinyl that has branched off?

 

[dasdoing]

it will provide EQ, saturation and compression.
not sure how useful such detailed emulations are

 

[Chr1]

Presumably there is a market for these "retro" analogue sounding VSTs. Similar to the various tube emulations. Reckon there are a lot of rock bands that aim for a retro/vintage sound. Bands like the Black Keys spring to mind...

 

[DanielT]

Okay, as part of creating an artistic expression I understand that but aren't musicians limiting themselves if they want a vintage sound? For example, I think DSJR in some thread, post, recently said to me that for many older recordings a limit was set to only record down to 40 Hz. Or was it even higher up in frequency? If so, think of someone who wants to record organ music, or modern techno (which can go far down in frequency), with those limitations. Because then it will be more to inhibit artistic expression than to make it flourish.

 

[Chr1]

Don't think anyone that is recording classical or techno would use this sort of thing. Possibly techno, as part of the sound on one of many tracks/channels...
ie as an effect.

 

[DSJR]

The 40Hz thing was in vinyl cutting (someone here suggested 30Hz was more like it, but this may be other non UK cutting facilities) many pro reel-to-reel machines seemed to go awol below 30hz anyway (I hope some mastering-recording folks here will expand on or correct me) and I recall 50Hz was the bottom test tone for setting up the playback machine, Dolby systems and so on and with 15khz the top frequency.

 

[DanielT]

Well, that might be a smart solution. If there are those who want a vintage sound, they are given the opportunity.

Provided that information is given that the sound is mixed based on that principle. So you know what you are buying or listening to.

 

[jjaskuna]

There is a very large market for emulation plugins. This extends from tape to console emulation. Even mic emulation.

You need to consider the amount of production done in the box (ITB) vs out of the box (OTB). Some people do not like the sound of digital ITB and may use tools like these to, dare i say "warm", the sound. You can also see this theme pop up in things as small as how an eq curve is computed--analog modeled eq curves vs digital curves. Personally, I prefer digital and no harmonic emulation, but tbh I could not tell you if recording A was mixed ITB with emulation or OTB on a neve classic.

 

[dasdoing]

aren't musicians limiting themselves if they want a vintage sound?

it's not the musicians, it's the engineers. saturation is a HUGE part of production. I have been wondering for a while why we still need the analog sound. I am pretty sure now that it all comes down to close micing. you mix a bunch of close miced instruments together you can't expect it to sound natural. that's where adding from the bottom (saturation) and cutting from the top (compression/limiting) comes into play. it makes stuff more coherent, since now you have something where you restrict all those sounds, like a box. Stuff now has a relation. It is not about vintage sound at all.

 

[DVDdoug]

Analog tape was getting very good by the end of the analog era... Not as good as digital, but "good enough" and better than anything we had at home. There was little or no "tape sound", except you might hear tape hiss on a CD made from analog tape.

There are unique tape saturation characteristics, but I'm not sure how often tape was pushed into saturation in pro studios. It was common to occasionally go "into the red" with home recording, and in TV & radio production where there may be some slight saturation, depending on the tape formulation and the machine calibration. A hotter signal gives you a better signal-to-noise ratio.

Pro studio machines had a LOT more headroom than cassette decks.

Tape "soft-clips" as it goes into saturation so it's more like a limiter than clipping. And there is record-playback equalization (similar to RIAA equalization on records) and that tends to further "soften" the distortion components.

So it CAN be used as a desirable compression/saturation effect.

IMO - it's "dumb" to simulate tape hiss or wow & flutter, or the characteristics of any particular tape decks, but there are plug-ins for exactly that.

 

[ampetrosillo]

Tape emulations can be useful sometimes in production. They work nicely on rhythm section busses if you want that "fat" sound, but with some sheen¹ up top (where we still are sort of sensitive, in the 10-15kHz range). The analog emulation part of the market is, like, "all the rage".

Guys, audio (at least the purely electrical side of it) is essentially a solved problem and it has been for a couple of decades. Let's even say a decade. The only way plugin developers can carry on making any money is by pushing "faithful analog reproductions" of whatever, these days. The big players (Universal Audio, Waves, etc.) essentially have 90% of their product line made up of analog reproductions. Some things I get (certain compressors, some tape reel plugins, some instruments, etc.) and other things, like, not at all. EQ reproductions are my pet peeve; I even forced myself to use, for example, Pultec EQs on busses to see what they were all about, and honestly... I got what I wanted faster and more easily with the stock digital EQ plugin of my DAW with all the bell shapes and Qs and infinite bands I wanted, and the only "analog EQ" plugins I still occasionally use are either free or I got for free, or as part of a bundle.

There is also a broader conversation about the topic of "innovation" in music that could be had; I will only say that innovation in music (at least "pop" music in its broadest sense, so also rock, electro, etc.) has closely tracked technological evolution. Now (well, it's at least since the '90s really) that there are no new sounds to discover, it's all about reviving the past. Artists did some "vintage" bits (for the time) even before (for example referencing vaudeville music, etc.), but they tended to be, like, episodical in a much wider catalogue; now artists make their artistic persona revolve around "vintage" everything, combined in different ways, but I'm afraid that there are only so many ways to skin a cat.

¹ : where sheen means some compression and/or excitation, especially when paired with a compander that will bring out more of that "colour".

 

[Keith_W]

It's a creative decision by the producer. It is really common with movies - modern movies have a "clean" look which is subjectively unrealistic. Watch this Youtube clip and ask yourself if something similar is happening with music?

 

[DanielT]

Thanks for the interesting answers. Nice to get a little insight into the recording world.

And on more recording-dedicated forums this T-RackS Tape Machine Collection has been discussed. Here, for example, a 27-page long thread:

KVR Forum: IK Multimedia T-racks Tape Machine Collection - Effects Forum

KVR Audio Forum - IK Multimedia T-racks Tape Machine Collection - Effects Forum

www.kvraudio.com

 

[bloomdido]

There is also a broader conversation about the topic of "innovation" in music that could be had; I will only say that innovation in music (at least "pop" music in its broadest sense, so also rock, electro, etc.) has closely tracked technological evolution. Now (well, it's at least since the '90s really) that there are no new sounds to discover, it's all about reviving the past.

There's a current hype around "spectral" processing i.e. getting frequencies over time with FFT, applying changes in frequency domain with some complex (or not so complex) algorithm and then rebuilding the sound back to regular audio. As such manipulation is now much more available due to more computing power in producers' and musicians' equipment - what is your opinion, can such techniques lead to any substantial innovation in music/production?

 

[jkess114]

As a former audio engineer, I bought many of the more respected tape emulating plugins - UAD studer A800, ATR102, Phoenix and many of the tape delay emulating efx. The Tape Machine emulators for making something sound like it was recorded to tape always left me flat. For whatever was good about it, it came at the cost of something I didn't like and I never wound up keeping them to the end of a mix. I'd hope to be able to use it but it just didn't cut it. I have a ATR102 and doing a layback, even with the extra conversion, sounds way better to me than the plug-in emulation of it. Same thing back in the day when I had A800 in my studio. Man the second we dumped into PT there was a sinking feeling as the audio receded into the speakers six inches.

 

[kemmler3D]

"Vintage" effect plugins have been popular since DAWs became a thing, they were big even in the 90s. Certain amounts and certain types of distortion on certain tracks simply sound good. This doesn't have much to do with the genre, it's just a tool in the box that producers and engineers like to use to make certain things sound warmer.

I would say this type of tape emulator is rarely used on the master channel, more often you'll see someone put it on individual tracks at varying amounts. For example, you could add a certain flavor to a sampled electric piano with one of these.

 

[holdingpants01]

there's a big market for them yet none sounds the same and none sounds like a tape machine TBH. I highly recommend Eric's Valentine channel if you want to see how much work can be put into the song production in general, but he also made a video specifically about the tape plugins emulation and hardware with sound examples

 

[jkess114]

I ran a commercial studio from 2001-2013 in Brooklyn, then a mastering studio from 2014-2022 so I've seen most of the emulating, saturation plug-in evolution. Holdingpants is right I'm afraid, none of them sound like the real thing.