Tape Saturation Question

[siegfried]

Hello, I´m mixing in my DAW, but I´m planning to send mixdown (before mastering) to somebody, who will record it on profi tape machine and back to digital. So my question is: is a good idea to "warming" separate tracks sound by plugins like Magneto, Wintage Warmer, ColorTone, am track... and then record whole mix to real Tape? Or it will be work better, when the mixdown will be "cold" digital? Thank you!

I want to have mix very warm, but I´m afraid of "overwarming"... And have no experiences with real tape saturation...

[Darius van H]

If you're gonna put it on tape, then why put it back to digital?...........better to just send the tape to the masterhouse........or just send the original digi mix to the masterhouse and ask them to kiss it with tape.

[blinkman]

Do what you can in your mix, to get the sound you're after. Putting it on tape (assuming it's a good machine, properly maintained and aligned) can give you a bit of warmth and sweetness, and even help "glue" the sounds together...all very desirable...but don't expect it to radically change the whole sound of your mix.

If you're looking to do something more radical with the machine (extreme tape compression or saturation), you'll want to be there to hear it. It could have the opposite effect to what you're after. If you're there, you can listen off the machine's repro head while the level is adjusted to your taste.

Also--like Darius said already--if you do this, definitely send your analog masters to the mastering house.

c.

[Andreas G]

If the plugins can improve something... why not? I remember Magneto when it came out and was also availabel for Macintosh back then. I've got some really nice results on drums, bass and guitars. As for the mastertape I'm not sure if it's worth the effort before the mastering stage. I think I'd leave that to the ME if you don't own a tapedeck already.

Andreas