Waves Abbey Road J37 Tape

[Compyfox]

The more I read about most current Waves plugins, and the more I test them myself, the more I see them as a waste of space and CPU power and the less usable they are.

The REDD, while being an interesting concept, and the complimentary EQ (the RS56 IIRC) is just a prime example of overpriced and overhypted tools that carries the names "Abbey Road" and Waves.

The J37 Tape seems to suffer the same. Let's hope that Waves does not pick up the spot where Abbey Road Plugins stopped in terms of the TG EQ/Limiter, the Brilliance Pack and the RS124. Because then I fear the worst actually.

[macmurphy]

the RS56 is a very capable eq. it's not over-hyped at all.

[hibidy]

The REDD, while being an interesting concept, and the complimentary EQ (the RS56 IIRC) is just a prime example of overpriced and overhypted tools that carries the names "Abbey Road" and Waves.

I don't agree. a) I paid 99 bucks for it........that's hardly overpriced and b) I demoed the f...k out of it. I tried it in as many situations as I could and found it to be a really nice tool. Especially on a guitar buss.

Ymmv.

[hibidy]

the RS56 is a very capable eq. it's not over-hyped at all.

It's on my "maybe someday" list. Looks really nice. Not sure thought that I can't do that with what I have........financial needs from spending account:

tires
new computer*
RS56

*if I go through newegg I can do 12mo no interest, so it's not a one-chunk purchase.

[K-Slash]

I know i will be flamed again but i am going to say it again.

This tape emu is worst i ever heard. It is something as digital mushy mushy degrading plugin. It is sounding like a overdriven waveshaping saturator, something similar i can get from Ableton Saturator. I don't like it at all, it is destroying mix completely.

I know i know, people gonna say me i am driving it to hot..well to hot my a**. Most popular emulators i can drive to maximum, they don't sound good but they don't sound that bad not even remotely. I can get far more usable range of tape effect from other plugins then from this one.

Actually it does remind me on Waves NLS distortion but just higher i mean more of it.

From the examples posted here i see other people are getting sameish result in the way - their mixes sound way better without then with that plugin..imho

Delay is nice though..

Seriously ?

As with lot of hardware, if you drive it too hard, it sounds like shit too.

I'm not a Waves fan, but I have to agree the J37 is a nice sounding plugin. But yes, it's almost too sensitive to subtle level changes. And can break up easily.

I'd say not easy to find the sweet spot, but when you do, it's a keeper.

I tested it on pianos, drums, and master bus, and was satisfied with the "vintage" sound I got.

Sometimes, to get to the sweet spot, I had to set the input levels way below the VU reference (instead of -18, more like -24 to -30 dB).

And like with all plugins enhancing harmonic content and saturating, you have to be careful with the source material you use.

It works better with material that is "raw", and has not much saturation already, IMHO.

Just my 2 cents.

[Compyfox]

the RS56 is a very capable eq. it's not over-hyped at all.

Oh please, from all the "tape supplementary EQ's", this is the less usable one to stand on it's own.

The Motown Series by NF clearly show that originally intended to be "supplementary" EQ's can work on their own as well. Not os in the case of RS-56.

It was created to supplement either the REDD Console EQ, or to be uses pre printing to tape. Here it is working - as add on. On it's own, it's useless.


Not to mention that the GUI is oversized, there is no harmonic distortion taking place. It's a plain digital EQ rebranded as Waves/Abbey Road.

I don't agree. a) I paid 99 bucks for it........that's hardly overpriced and

You went by a sale (IIRC, this only happened one time while being that low) to get the REDD. I'm going by MSRP. And here it is(!) overpriced.

b) I demoed the f...k out of it. I tried it in as many situations as I could and found it to be a really nice tool. Especially on a guitar buss.

Ymmv.

Yes my mmv. As you know, I've tested and compared the REDD to the ALTEC (the Altec being an evolution of the REDD), and they're completely different in terms of usablity.

Still... there is no channel interaction/fluctuation in stereo mode (that console was far from clean!), the EQ is (again) a plain digital one and not even "stepped", the saturator eats a lot of CPU power, ...

On top of that, the GUI is a waste of space (just like the RS56) and could have been trimmed down. I wrote all that in my original review here in the FX section.


The IMO only really good usable part is the preamp "module" in the REDD. And for this it's a waste of both CPU power and space. However, Waves still doesn't want to integrate the REDD (Siemens preamps) into NLS.

I think due to the fact that Abbey Road Plugins said "we discontinued our plugin range" and Waves slowly picking up everything. We now have the REDD, Kings MIcrophones, supplementary EQ, a tape machine. I think next is a random compressor then Waves can sell all that as "Abbey Road Collection", or ARC in short.

[K-Slash]

the RS56 is a very capable eq. it's not over-hyped at all.

Oh please, from all the "tape supplementary EQ's", this is the less usable one to stand on it's own.

It's your view.

I agree with macmurphy here. The RS56 is usable in every context to my ears. Even mastering, per se. The filters sound great, and it's easy to quickly get a great sound out of it. Not to mention that the different bell shapes are smooth.

Not to mention that the GUI is oversized, there is no harmonic distortion taking place. It's a plain digital EQ rebranded as Waves/Abbey Road.

Yes it's a digital EQ. But the original doesn't have harmonic distortion, it is a passive design that uses no amplifiers !

On it's own it can only do cuts, so while you boost a frequency, everything around it is cut to make it more apparent.

The V72 amps were used to add gain after it, but were not part of the RS56.

So yes, I agree that Waves could have used their model of V72 amps to add gain to compensate the cuts and add at the same time sublte harmonic distortion, but still, in the original design it's not there. So we can't blame them for that.

As for the GUI, I like big ones, and like the design, so no big deal to me .

[cyphersuit]

I often use the rs56 because i like the results. Don't care if harmonical distortion is missing, analog hiss is there ore not. Whatever. Sounds better than many praised eqs to me. So it gets an everyday use here.

[Harry_HH]

That reminds me to post our test files next week. We used these to obatin freq response, THD, crosstalk etc. from real machines.

Just in case someone still wants to test drive a collection of tape plugins (+ against real-world ones), here again is our quite-revealing test setup as downloadable zip:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5530015

Instructions in the first post.

I know that it doesn't belong to their company policy,
but it would be interesenting to hear Waves developer comments
the discurse above. I think this should be part of the present day
transparent communication culture. H.

Comment on what exactly? Is this test useful or is their tape emu on pair with hardware or what exactly?

AFAIK this test is perfect near perfect.

If any developer - not to mention Waves, which has such a respectabe record -
launches a new product, and someone argues/shows evidence of a fundamental failure, I think that it would be more than reasonable if we heard counter-arguments. This is called constructive communication. If you have ask why this kind of interaction is important, I think its not worth try to explain. H.

[DubLifeSD]

I often use the rs56 because i like the results. Don't care if harmonical distortion is missing, analog hiss is there ore not. Whatever. Sounds better than many praised eqs to me. So it gets an everyday use here.

The RS56 is freaking amazing on vocals. I've been in a few studios recently and have seen engineers using it quite a bit on new records.

[Compyfox]

On it's own it can only do cuts, so while you boost a frequency, everything around it is cut to make it more apparent.

The V72 amps were used to add gain after it, but were not part of the RS56.

Wait, are we still talking about the same plugin? Because the RS-56 plugin did not feature any saturation (preamp), and it's an active EQ! Meaning, it does boost. Nothing else around the "boosted" frequency is attenuated (as it would be the case with the Brilliance pack, which are indeed "passive, non powered" EQs).


I pulled this thing apart, it's nothing special compared to plain basic/boring Cubase EQ. And the fixed frequencies are IMO not really musical. API, ADT and Neve clearly take the cake on that.


I don't even know why this EQ was ported in the first place. But I guess it's to milk the name "Abbey Road" even more.

[macmurphy]

the RS56 is a very capable eq. it's not over-hyped at all.

Oh please, .........

good lord.. i demoed it, got great results with it and since buying it have continued to find it an interesting and useful eq.

i tend not to over-analyse things. if they sound good i'll use them. the RS56 is excellent on pads in m/s mode for example - it's really quick to set up mirrored eq curves that have a pleasing morph-ability that just seems to sound nice to me.

i've also found it very useful general mixing eq as the frequencies are just right. at least for my music,anyway.

[K-Slash]

On it's own it can only do cuts, so while you boost a frequency, everything around it is cut to make it more apparent.

The V72 amps were used to add gain after it, but were not part of the RS56.

Wait, are we still talking about the same plugin? Because the RS-56 plugin did not feature any saturation (preamp), and it's an active EQ! Meaning, it does boost. Nothing else around the "boosted" frequency is attenuated (as it would be the case with the Brilliance pack, which are indeed "passive, non powered" EQs).

It's not the first time I say that you should check your sources, seriously...

http://www.waves.com/behind-the-rs56-passive-equalizer

The RS56 is a passive EQ, meaning no amplification of any kind is used to create its filters.

This lack of amplification means passive equalizers can only attenuate the signal, not boost it.

At Abbey Road Studios, make-up gain was applied using V72 amplifiers.

You're welcome.

[Compyfox]

I had it in VSTPlugin Analyzer. It clearly showed positive EQ courves on boosting frequencies.

If that'd be a passive, non powered EQ (like the Brilliance Pack, or to a certain extend the Altec and REDD EQ's), then the peaks of the boosted bands would have remained around 0dB, and the rest being attenuated.

This is not the case - so it's not a complete passive EQ alone and they built in gain compensation (last quote with the V72) in this digital creation. As you quoted, Abbey Road used the V72 to compensate. Though if Waves would have used it, it would introduce THD, not to mention huge CPU load (if they used the same code of the REDD Plugin). But they didn't.


So it's yet another digital EQ - that's only supplementary. And the chosen frequencies, even back in the days, were rather random than "musical" IMO! Again, Motown (USA) did a better job, and Europe (the UK in this case) were a bit behind on things.

You're welcome as well.

[K-Slash]

Well, if you see it behaving as active, it's because it has automatic gain compensation maybe ?

So instead of reaching for the output gain knob eveytime we "boost" they made it compensated.

Dunno, but I agree they should have added the V72 amp model in it.