Can Satin save me $2000 USD?

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Hey all,

I was looking to buy Empirical Labs Fatso. Its around $2199 USD new. I'm wondering if any of you can comment on how Satin would compare to the Fatso I would appreciate it. Reading through the product literature it seems to me there are a lot of overlapping features between these two. I have no means of testing the Fatso and I don't need it's compression features. I have several good outboard compressors already. I'm purely interested in the tape saturation stuff. Satin looks on paper to do all the Fatso does in this department but at a price that would perhaps enable budget room to purchase two extra microphones. Value for money if Satin can do what the Fatso can do I'm not going to hesitate to go the software route. I have no means of testing the Fatso before you ask. Thanks.

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First, we have a Fatso Jr. at the u-he HQ, so we know that thing quite well.
It's hard to compare the two, as they're simply approaching the subject from different angles. Fatso addresses the aspects of (tape) saturation directly, and only a couple of them (e.g. no hiss, asperity, w&f, different speeds etc.). It's a cool product, but, to be honest, I like it more for its compressor sound (which is nothing short of amazing).

Perhaps a good hardware tape sim is the Anamod ATS-1, but I haven't had a chance to hear it personally. The analog-computing approach is quite appealing to me as a dev, though.
The thing with hardware fx is: you have to limit such a thing to a reasonable amount of processing, otherwise the thing would be too complex and expensive.

Software makes this more easy, that's why Satin doesn't mimic the sound in the first place, it actually 'acts' like a tape machine, incudes models for transport, tape & coating, heads, hysteresis, surrounding circuits, even high-frequency biasing and erasure currents (and with v1.2: azimuth). This makes things pretty flexible, we can actually mimic quite an amount of rel-world gear, from domestic cassette to 2" studio tape. This had most certainly not been in the focus of the majority of hardware fx manufacturers, so it's pretty much apples & pears.

I heard there's the TM233 in the making from ADT, which reads a bit like 'Satin as hardware', from the specs. But I'm not sure how it's going atm. Would love to hear/see one of these.
Sascha Eversmeier
drummer of The Board
software dev in the studio-speaker biz | former plugin creator [u-he, samplitude & digitalfishphones]

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Awesome. Thanks Sascha. I was hoping to run into someone who has one as a basis for comparison. The thing is I have the Distressor already and I think Fatso takes inspiration from the Distressor for it's compression features. I have lots of outboard already and have no reservations about using software. Like most I have a space problem but I really don't want to pay a pile of cash if there is a cheaper way that does what I want. Listening to Satin and it sounds great. With me having the Distressor already and you saying you like Fatso for compression more-so you have edged me towards Satin and cash in my pocket. Thanks very much.

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Thanks. I've already decided on Satin however. I prefer hardware for most things but sometimes software is the right choice. Since the Fatso is in production I wouldn't buy a model of it in software. Satin is quite a different beast as was explained yesterday. Since I already have empirical labs Distressor the Fatso would be overlapping in features. Especially the compression features and I hate paying for stuff I already have. I'm sure these are just lifted from the Distressor. Satin models tape behaviour which is precisely what I was after. And it sounds bloody great! Also I think to run that particular plugin you need the UAD platform do you not (it's outboard processing)? I have a RME setup.

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