If you buy a tape vst today.

[himalaya]

If you buy a tape vst today.

I'd buy Acustica Audio's Taupe. Mainly because it's an amazing 'colour' making plugin, tape-emulation or not. Taken as whole, it can impart so many colours. I think the combination of all the tape impulses with the EQ and the compressor is a master stroke as it really helps to add a lot of analogue mojo to the mix. I've been demoing it for some time now and I'm desperately trying to talk myself out of buying it.

However, personally, I want several of such plugins at my disposal, as each one provides their own unique take on the 'tape' sound. In fact, I'm less concerned if a plugin nails the tape sound and I'm more interested to find out if I like the 'colour' it's adding to the tracks or the full mix. Whatever this 'colour' may be. For example, I found Airwindows ToTape5 a superb 'colour' maker, which in one situation worked amazingly well in combination with Taupe. The two, used very subtly, gave me a superb, larger than life sound.

I'm currently testing Voxengo's new update to the CRITIV Tape Bus plugin, and it seems to be an amazing 'colour' maker as well. Some very nice options there.

[beely]

Let me tell you one thing. If you will buy softube plugin you will add yourself to all possible famous labels black list. Let me explain, every major label before saying if your music is good or not ask you "what plugin did you uses for tape saturation?". If you will answer not correctly your track wount be aproved. Softube these days is totaly not relevant. No way. Just avoid that one. Your tracks wount be aproved.

Thanks for the laugh.

[cowby]

Thanks all for your valuable comments. I just ruled out AA as it was far out of my budget. Will have a look at U-HE and other cheaper solutions. Again... thanks!

[perpetual3]

I really like Toneboosters Reelbus 4. I highly suggest to demo the plugin. Multiple models, continuously variable tape speed, many parameters to affect the tape sound for each model, drive EQ, echo, flanger. Many ways to break up the sound.

I also use a Softube Tape for when I only want something like a hi-fi sheen. Got it cheap awhile ago, would never have paid full price for it. It’s much more subtle.

[TheSynthScientist]

I didn't realise that Gobbler needs to be running permanently for the plugin to be accessible from my DAWs.

That's not the case. You can safely uninstall Gobbler from your machine. This won't affect the functioning of your Softube plugin(s) in any way. Alle Gobbler does is:

a) handling and storing your Softube license-related data

b) passing your respective registration data on to iLok

c) providing a multi-installer


The Gobbler application on your machine is only required for C) - but as has been mentioned here already, there are individual installers on the Softube website as well, so the Gobbler application is
actually not required at all.

I think that true for most products, it seems necessary to get the Weiss demo downloads.

[jens]

When you request a demo-license you always have to wait a while until it becomes available and until then there's no installer for it in your account, regardless of whether you download it directly from their website or via the Gobbler app.

Their server seems to be steam-powered.

[lacandon]

Softube Tape sounds very much like the tape I used very similar I didn t like any other roundtone 4 its good but to my ears it.sounds a bit hard in the high mids .

[moshimoshi]

Sorry to necro this thread (ok it's only from Dec 2018 but anyway) but what are people's current thoughts on tape emus? I'm asking because Softube has a sale and I'm very tempted by Tape. So outside of UAD and Nebula is there anything comparable for 49euros? I have only tried the demo very briefly - it sounds interesting so far but I have a feeling I will have to demo it for a while to get a proper feel for what it does. It definitely seems more noticeable on bass/mid frequencies - higher freqs seem relatively untouched? This is just based on an hour or so of demo-ing so I could be wrong and I need to try this on more material. But I'm interested in what people think

[The Noodlist]

Klevgrand Reamp might be worth a look. It's currently on sale.
LVC Audio OMPre, not exactly tape, but has a saturation effect, sounds well, even when pushed.
Toneboosters stuff are no-brainers.

[bmanic]

IK Multimedia Tape bundle. By far the best tape emulation I've heard to this day. Yes, including Acustica Audio Taupe which I also like a lot but it can't do proper crunched tape due to the technology limitations. It can go quite far considering the tech but not far enough.

It's worth noting though that Taupe is a massive package with an amazing EQ and a decent compressor included as well!

[moshimoshi]

Thx for recommendations - I'll check out the Klevgrand thing. IK even at 100 euros on sale is more than I'd like to spend. Plus I'm not sure I need 4 of them, would be nice if they let you buy 1 for €25

[The Noodlist]

Thx for recommendations - I'll check out the Klevgrand thing. IK even at 100 euros on sale is more than I'd like to spend. Plus I'm not sure I need 4 of them, would be nice if they let you buy 1 for €25

€29

[moshimoshi]

Thx for recommendations - I'll check out the Klevgrand thing. IK even at 100 euros on sale is more than I'd like to spend. Plus I'm not sure I need 4 of them, would be nice if they let you buy 1 for €25

€29

? I realise I was quoting the ex-vat price. Anyway looking at their shop it looks like the individual ones are available but €79 each. hmm well maybe worth demoing, thank you for the heads up bmanic

ok on some further reflection I just don't know about the IK, it's basically double the price with vat, whether I buy 1 or 4. And there's too many options which I just don't need. Klevgrand seems more about imparting lots of character rather than being subtle (I'm looking for subtle). I guess I'll keep demoing the Softube and buy it if I like it.

Would be interested in any others' thoughts if they have any

[escalona]

IK Multimedia Tape bundle. By far the best tape emulation I've heard to this day. Yes, including Acustica Audio Taupe which I also like a lot but it can't do proper crunched tape due to the technology limitations. It can go quite far considering the tech but not far enough.

It's worth noting though that Taupe is a massive package with an amazing EQ and a decent compressor included as well!

but... but... it is IK Multimedia!!!

I mean, it has the word "Multimedia" in it!! Like back in the older days of Netscape Navigator!!

[Tappistry]

Sorry to necro this thread (ok it's only from Dec 2018 but anyway) but what are people's current thoughts on tape emus? I'm asking because Softube has a sale and I'm very tempted by Tape. So outside of UAD and Nebula is there anything comparable for 49euros? I have only tried the demo very briefly - it sounds interesting so far but I have a feeling I will have to demo it for a while to get a proper feel for what it does. It definitely seems more noticeable on bass/mid frequencies - higher freqs seem relatively untouched? This is just based on an hour or so of demo-ing so I could be wrong and I need to try this on more material. But I'm interested in what people think

2017-2018 was definitely the year(s) of the tape plugin.