Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machine: Released

[bduffy]

@bduffy

Do you have an alternate email address that you might be able to use? With a handful of vendors I have had trouble with email not even going into the spam folder. It just doesn't even show up, even if I have the sender's name in my contact info, etc. So the issue may be on your end with your isp and not at all with Slate Digital. In my case email from Slate Digital works fine but other legitimate emails that I'm waiting for disappear into the void, meanwhile the junk mail still comes through! Usually, having an alternate email address is the easiest way to clear things up.

Yeah, I could give it a shot. I've never had problems with Slate emails before, but good idea.

EDIT: Well, I spoke too soon; my Gmail email worked! Huhn. I wonder what's going on there...thanks again, Sequent!

[Sequent]

I tend to agree. Also... wouldn't you be mainly applying this type of effect at the mixing stage? Even though it isn't really an issue... I've gotten into the habit of using smaller buffers (and therefore lower latencies) while recording. When all the tracks are locked and I'm definitely in the final mixing stage I usually bump my buffers up to max. At that point I would think that latency really shouldn't be an issue. At least that's what works for me.

so how much latency does this VTM actually produce?

Here it reports 39.21ms/1729 samples latency.

OUCH! f**k that!

Totally worth it!

FL can compensate no problem. Plus if I was tracking I'd print to tape afterward, like one would in reality...

[Sequent]

EDIT: Well, I spoke too soon; my Gmail email worked! Huhn. I wonder what's going on there...thanks again, Sequent!

Ha! I've also been migrating these kinds of things to Gmail. Never seems to be a problem. I'm glad you're all sorted!

[audiosabre]

...latency really shouldn't be an issue

I think this quote sums it up nicely

I expected a plugin like VTM to have a high latency, but that's just me. I actually dislike it when developers sacrifice the integrity of their algorithm to achieve low latency

[penguinfromdeep]

+1

[Kaboom75]

I've found a problem with VTM in Ableton Live 8.3 the amount of tape on the reels doesn't shrink or grow in size.

[Compyfox]

Neither does it in Cubase - and IIRC, it souldn't.

Maybe it's a beta thing again?

[Tp3]

Oh one more thing worth mentioning to everybody:

Tape machines, due to their complex dynamic behavior, take TIME to learn. Don't expect to form an opinion about a machine until you have a fair number of hours of testing and using the thing. This is not a "slap it on a track and form an opinion within the first hour" kind of plugin. It takes quite a bit of patience and experimentation to find your own sweet spot and how to tackle the machine.

That kind of defeat the purpose of a plugs, doesn't it ?

I mean, with HW we EXPECT a learning curve. but with plugs.... there's "no time to learn" (let alone compare with the real thing - 99% will never get the chance to hear a real tape, like it is INTENDED to be heard).

[Kaboom75]

Playing around with VTM is very rewarding you get a better sound after hours than when you just chuck it on. You can't always a have a plugin that you can just chuck on and expect the settings to suit that particular mix. Some tracks will hit the VTM too hard some too lite. I would rather mess around with knobs than just throw it on wheres the fun in just drag and drop it on.

The Slate manuals are great I always feel like I know a load of new stuff about audio and it's history after having a read and putting it into practice.
Can't wait to sit in a pub with my mates and tell them how shit CD and computer files are and why old fashioned tape is better.

[v1o]

The emulated tape frequency response (with the second tape type) is very accurate, but it just matches a good old EQ preset I made (for PEQ Blue) based on a Telefunken M15 almost perfectly.
There's no "widening" side-effect as on real tape at all. There's no harshness taming side-effect. The saturation is basic and unlike real tape saturation, no "smearing" and no "airy" compressor/limiter-like side-effect, and there's a "linear" response of the saturation instead of an accurate response (same problem in your tube emulator, not to mention the harmonics are very different).

In short, obviously, the most important tape side-effects weren't emulated, as always. The good thing is that this is the first "virtual tape" plugin that doesn't destroy the audio in some way and is better left off. It's actually usable and can sound nice, mainly because of the frequency response equalization and the proper transient preservation during saturation, which is similar to the real thing and which all others fail miserably at.

Fabrice, you can talk about saturation behavior with continuous basic waveforms, but you know that's uninteresting compared to the other effects I mentioned which are what really defines "tape sound", not to mention that your saturation doesn't respond like the real machine at different frequency ranges either. You don't have anything even close to a proper tape emulation, just a nice basic special effect. I may spoil the fun for someone (who may feel obliged to make a personal attack, as is usual), but I'm not gonna join the imminent choir, since I care about authenticity just like you but the difference is that I don't have a product to sell and I don't have to focus on merely a couple of effects related to this kind of emulation, but on -all- of them, including the more important ones.

Interesting but what actual tape machine are you comparing to?


No two tape machines will sound the same. No two brands of tape sound the same either, whether it's TDK, BASF, Agfa, Maxell, Scotch etc etc. Too many variables to consider.

And besides have you heard the actual unit that Slate have emulated?



what experience do you have recording with professional tape equipment?

[penguinfromdeep]

You are damn right asking those questions v1o. I think Shy mentions that he is relying on memory and recordings from artist like Boards of Canada and such for the tape sound

[bmanic]

Oh one more thing worth mentioning to everybody:

Tape machines, due to their complex dynamic behavior, take TIME to learn. Don't expect to form an opinion about a machine until you have a fair number of hours of testing and using the thing. This is not a "slap it on a track and form an opinion within the first hour" kind of plugin. It takes quite a bit of patience and experimentation to find your own sweet spot and how to tackle the machine.

That kind of defeat the purpose of a plugs, doesn't it ?

I mean, with HW we EXPECT a learning curve. but with plugs.... there's "no time to learn" (let alone compare with the real thing - 99% will never get the chance to hear a real tape, like it is INTENDED to be heard).

You don't seem to understand what I was trying to say.. I'll try to be more specific:

Because TAPE is complex (this includes ALL proper digital emulations of tape as well) it will take time to learn how to use it. It is NOT just a simple effect that you slap on everything. Same goes for some other complex effects.. especially if they have any kind of analogue modeling which automatically means you have to keep gain staging in mind and learn how it affects the sound.

This is not like choruses, flangers and filters (again unless they are analogue modeled because then again there is the gain-staging present) where you can pretty much instantly get a general feel for the plugin and will know pretty quickly if you like it or not.

Cheers!
bManic

[Eiosis]

...latency really shouldn't be an issue

I think this quote sums it up nicely

I expected a plugin like VTM to have a high latency, but that's just me. I actually dislike it when developers sacrifice the integrity of their algorithm to achieve low latency

Indeed a tape plugin without this latency can't be 100% authentic, at least when it comes to the machines we replicated in the VTM.


Fabrice

[kmonkey]

I've found a problem with VTM in Ableton Live 8.3 the amount of tape on the reels doesn't shrink or grow in size.

Neither does it in Cubase - and IIRC, it souldn't.

Maybe it's a beta thing again?

Guys you are joking right

[camsr]

Music recorded on a real Studer is sold on CD which is digital so it can still be the same sounding. VCC worked out sounding analog it's not marketing lies.

Yes this is true but remember some things are too CPU intensive for live use. If we all worked in our DAWs like an audio editor then we could have a million new things but we would have to wait for the processing to complete. I actually hope this to be the case in the future because computers are capable of so many things that would have cost thousands of dollars to implement in the physical realm.