Best tape emulator plug

[ForgottenG]

Uad Studer is excellent. I have been using it regularly on mixes since I got it. I don't have time to argue whether it sounds as good as tape, all I know is when I put it on the mix it sounds good. It is one more piece of mojo to spice up a mix.

[ektia]

Roundtone is a terrific plug for the price. Magnetic saturates and adds color, but does not sound like tape to me.

[Tim Abraham]

I've used a few tape emu plugins. I own a Studer A80 2" and use it almost every day. My experience with plugs:

Cranesong Pheonix: Very, very useful for shaping eq and transients. Depending which flavour, it will add harmonics. Sounds like tape? Kinda, but not really. More of a very fast compressor, darkening eq, harmonic exciter.

Massey Tapehead: good for distortion effects on occasion. Doesn't sound even remotely close to a working tape deck. Maybe a broken or mis-aligned one. Soundtoys Decapitator would almost always be my choice for the distortion job ITB though.

Digi Reel Tape Saturation: Sounds more like tape than the previous two, but it feels like it's intentionally heavy-handed to me. Even at it's most conservative cal/formulation settings, hitting it with level on the "VU" similar to what I would with real tape results in way more saturation and compression than the real deal. The 'swiss' setting vaguely reminds me of the Studer sound. Useful on occasion, but nothing magical.

McDsp: No resemblance to tape for me. I don't hear any of the harmonic additions. Just compression and eq shifts. Useful for those things, but to be honest I'd rather use an eq or compressor for those jobs. I also find the gui distracting. I don't want to see the eq curve that formulation/bias/speed gives me.

I haven't used the UAD Studer or Waves thing.

So, of the things I've used, the thing that reminds me most of my Studer is the Digi Saturation, but I rarely use it because it doesn't often make the track sound better to me (and there's a "zippy-ness" to the top end that is unflattering to most sources)..

However, Pheonix, although not much like tape to me gets used all over the place. It does a transient saturation and harmonic enhancement thing that is very useful and although it doesn't actually sound like tape, I use it for the same kinds of jobs that I would print things to tape for.

[Dudley]

the PSP sats are very good and very useful in different ways, but the A800 is the most 'real' i've heard

[Blandry]

112db Redline Preamp has great sounding tape presets. 60 day free trial as well.

[rectifried]

Originally Posted by Tim Abraham

I've used a few tape emu plugins. I own a Studer A80 2" and use it almost every day. My experience with plugs:

Cranesong Pheonix: Very, very useful for shaping eq and transients. Depending which flavour, it will add harmonics. Sounds like tape? Kinda, but not really. More of a very fast compressor, darkening eq, harmonic exciter.

Massey Tapehead: good for distortion effects on occasion. Doesn't sound even remotely close to a working tape deck. Maybe a broken or mis-aligned one. Soundtoys Decapitator would almost always be my choice for the distortion job ITB though.

Digi Reel Tape Saturation: Sounds more like tape than the previous two, but it feels like it's intentionally heavy-handed to me. Even at it's most conservative cal/formulation settings, hitting it with level on the "VU" similar to what I would with real tape results in way more saturation and compression than the real deal. The 'swiss' setting vaguely reminds me of the Studer sound. Useful on occasion, but nothing magical.

McDsp: No resemblance to tape for me. I don't hear any of the harmonic additions. Just compression and eq shifts. Useful for those things, but to be honest I'd rather use an eq or compressor for those jobs. I also find the gui distracting. I don't want to see the eq curve that formulation/bias/speed gives me.

I haven't used the UAD Studer or Waves thing.

So, of the things I've used, the thing that reminds me most of my Studer is the Digi Saturation, but I rarely use it because it doesn't often make the track sound better to me (and there's a "zippy-ness" to the top end that is unflattering to most sources)..

However, Pheonix, although not much like tape to me gets used all over the place. It does a transient saturation and harmonic enhancement thing that is very useful and although it doesn't actually sound like tape, I use it for the same kinds of jobs that I would print things to tape for.

I love(d) the Phoenix it's the one I really had to wrestle with not having when I went PTNative

Anyone running a tdm system should have it IMHO

Still looking for sommmthing though

So I got the mpx
It's cool I can tell a lot of thought went into it...
but it's not the Phoenix obviously

So I have to get a hedd... ?( already have an avocet)
I hope Dave hill will port to rtas ...but am not holding my breath

Glad to be tdm free tho

[pat38]

Originally Posted by rectifried

I love(d) the Phoenix it's the one I really had to wrestle with not having when I went PTNative

Anyone running a tdm system should have it IMHO

Still looking for sommmthing though

So I got the mpx
It's cool I can tell a lot of thought went into it...
but it's not the Phoenix obviously

So I have to get a hedd... ?( already have an avocet)
I hope Dave hill will port to rtas ...but am not holding my breath

Glad to be tdm free tho

Did you investigate dave's new RA tdm plug?

Roundtone, for my money.

[fito_88]

Originally Posted by bugscoe

The massey tapehead is pretty darn good for free.

its not for free

[Companda]

The last post before yours was over a year ago and to correct you, the Massey tape head was a free audio unit.

[fito_88]

Originally Posted by Companda

The last post before yours was over a year ago and to correct you, the Massey tape head was a free audio unit.

"was" .. thats why i posted its not anymore, im not even sure if it was free one day, besides the guys talkin about roundtone man (facepalm)

[dr_Jezz]

Originally Posted by fito_88

im not even sure if it was free one day, besides the guys talkin about roundtone man (facepalm)

It was when Idl'd it

[Companda]

Originally Posted by fito_88

"was" .. thats why i posted its not anymore, im not even sure if it was free one day, besides the guys talkin about roundtone man (facepalm)

I say "was" because the download is not on his site anymore I believe. It was around a year ago.

Massey Tape Head AU

Please realise you have contributed nothing to this thread. You're not even sure it was free... Well it was so move on.