Tape Recorder Emulation

[SonicDimension]

The Strymon El Capistan is a digital guitar pedal which emulates classic tape delays like the Roland Space Echo. It has a sound-on-sound loop recording mode that can do these kinds of tricks. As far as I know, there are no plug-ins which emulate all of the behaviors of tape as accurately as the El Capistan does.

However, ValhallaDSP is currently developing a tape delay plug-in. I am hopeful that this delay will broaden the range of in-the-box tape sounds at our disposal. Definitely keep an eye out for that one.

[perpetual3]

The Strymon El Capistan is a digital guitar pedal which emulates classic tape delays like the Roland Space Echo. It has a sound-on-sound loop recording mode that can do these kinds of tricks. As far as I know, there are no plug-ins which emulate all of the behaviors of tape as accurately as the El Capistan does.

However, ValhallaDSP is currently developing a tape delay plug-in. I am hopeful that this delay will broaden the range of in-the-box tape sounds at our disposal. Definitely keep an eye out for that one.

Thank you! Checking this out now.

[pabloaldunate]

Got great results using Cableguys Half Time for slowing down the recording and Goodhertz Wow Control for tape coloration.
This output gets recorded to Sample One XT from Presonus and the result is very similar to the second video but Sample One XT doesn't automatically transposes the pitch for the different keys.
What Software samplers can do this?

[pabloaldunate]

Made an instrument similar to the second video by pitch shifting with Melodyne and then sampling.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DoeYX3 ... sp=sharing

[robbmonn]

I do a lot of stuff with slowed down samples and tracks and tapes. I watched both of these videos and this is what I think:

His Nagra has a lot of pitch instability and amplitude instability. These are relatively high frequency modulations at normal pitch and seem to slow somewhat (although not completely?) when he pitches down.

That Nagra also has some overdrive/honk on the low mids. Maybe he is bringing the signal in hot. I would.

My point is that this tape deck/tape/material/use combo doesn't actually represent "tape" so much as "this configuration of player, tape and material."

You'd be better served really becoming familiar with the sound that you are looking to emulate to the point that you can really hear it.

Then start trying to model it. Try different tape processes and other plugins to see if you can get it.

Here's my main tip: he is using that recorder with pitch and amplitude instability to both record and playback. For the pitch factor at least that means that the same motors are driving both record and playback... you will want TWO sources of pitch modulation is what that means, running at nearly the same speed but far enough apart they are not in phase.

What I would start with:

record your sample
play it back half speed
mess with a lowpass filter with a little bit of resonance that tracks pitch (maybe)
put this through an effects chain:
apply light compression or limiter +
apply something that has color and eq to emulate the preamps in the nagra bx_console E would be my go to.
apply an instance of something like softube tape or Reelbus. Push the input some, get some saturation going and pitch and amp instability.
apply a second instance of the same or a different tape effect, but keep it pretty clean except for the pitch instability.

Pay special mind to gain staging through the effects chain. Small changes can have big results. Be patient and SAVE your results so you can keep reusing and refining the sounds.

[Mathematics]

Neat sound. The basic theory behind this has to do with the ability to record a frequency at a high enough sample rate such that you have the ability to "slow" down the recording and maintain a natural and organic pitch change. Unfortunately, you'd break the laws of physics in thinking you could interpolate the sampled information without introducing artifacts when playing a recorded sample back at a different period of time; hence, the loss of upper harmonic (frequency) content due to the change of period. So, the best we can do, is try to reduce the artifacts, so much so, that it's perceivably inaudible.

I believe we're on the same page at this point.

Robbmonn has the right idea. If I may, I'd like to add some spare change only to his first two lines and then I'm adding my own technique. As he says, record the sample and play it back at half the speed. Let me make a quick notation to this. I imagine you're trying to accomplish this with plugins, right? So, depending on your original material, you'd want to use a sound with higher frequency content. That should be your material. Avoid low frequency content. Next, when you "record" meaning you bounce down to a file, record at and bounce down to the highest sample rate you can.

Now time stretch it...with whatever you want. Any daw can do this. I highly suggest Live's Complex Pro time stretching algorithm. Next, apply something like J37 or Saphira or even Kramer Tape. Mess with IPS and wow/flutter lightly. I would like to suggest, RC-20 for the Tape emulation (last module on the plugin). I predict excellent results with that.

Well...if everything is done right...you should have very comparable results. Without trying this out myself, I am basing this idea purely on the physics of sound synthesis.

If I'm completely wrong, everyone's entitled to cast the first stone. If so, I'm running!

I would take a look at Izotope's Iris 2 and slap one of the aforementioned tape emulators right after it. I've made some similarly cool sounds with that.

[CapnLockheed]

Nothing emulates a tape recorder.....better than a tape recorder!

This is EXACTLY what you need....a shitty old analog cassette recorder but updated with USB!! Get one of these and you'll be all ready to cover "Street Fighting Man", (you may need to Google that ).

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