Tape Emulation roundup

[Ploki]

i only have 3, and i dont want or need more.
- u-he satin i got in the ni bundles (40€?)
- wavesfactory cassette (30€)
- voxengo tapebus i got in the premium subscription i bought for other plugs.
-------
70€

tapes
technics deck i still have was 30€. tascam pro cassette deck i had was 200€, service was 50€, and blank tapes were 20€. The noise floor on the Tascam was unusable -50dB.
unitra POS reel to reel i had was 70€, single 1/4" blank was 20€. The dumb-ass DIN5-4x Jack cable i had to make cost me a few € in connectors and 15 minutes of work.
so
----
300€ for what in the end was a single useful cassette deck, and countless hours of trying to make it work. I lost about 100€ from services and sales of other two

unitra POS reel to reel stopped working soon. didnt service it. It was trash and NOT worth the hassle, the results were only good for ""tape"" fx. So severely degraded shit. Things Wavesfactory Cassette does absolutely wonderfully. (I stopped using my cassette deck because of WF Cassette)

a usable rtr will cost you 200-500€ , 2-trackers more towards 500€.
2-trackers are much better for studio.
a good rtr will be more towards 1000€.
2" blank tapes (for machine Wytse has) are 200-400€...

So the cheapest studio-usable you will get will set you back at lest 300€ (with blanks), REVOX B77 for example, and probably 50-100€ for service within the first year or immediately even.

For "studio" use i'd be vary of using anything less than 2-tracker 1/4" 15 IPS (not the cheapest) for anything other than extreme "Tape degradation" FX.

Friend had a stroke of luck and got Teac X2000 for 200€ a couple of years ago. However he stopped using it because in half a year, stereo image got screwed and service was 100€.

edit:
i also have to say, u-he satin was the most RTR-like compared to all professional RTRs i ever tried (including 2" Otari MX-80 24-tracker)

[simon.a.billington]

Yes and no. Remember that many tracks were recorded to one channel just to save on space, like multi-mic setups.

Also by doing that you will start running into negative effects that the engineers had to start fighting against. Increased noise level, too much distortion, loss of fidelity. It might be authentic, but there is a lot about those authentic albums that sound inferior in quality to today’s standards.

People wear rose coloured glasses when they think back to the classic albums growing up. They are confusing the experience of how the album made them feel at the time with some sort of sense of superior quality. Clearly that has lead to many false assumptions.

It's an interesting thing. For the first 15 or so years of making music I lived with the problems of tape all the time, using mainly a 4 track reel to reel and a two track Revox A77. I think even then I liked the idea of beauty emerging from the layers of noise so for me this isn't so much nostalgia thing. I guess I was born lo-fi.

And then there is the saturation / distortion that tape adds - which no doubt you can get another way in the digital realm without resorting to tape emulation..

My understanding about the whole vinyl / CD thing was that after being used to the EQ curves of vinyl when much of the back catalogues (and sometimes new stuff) people overdid the treble / harshness when transferring to CD. I expect that then improved and by EQing like vinyl you could have "warm" sounding CDs..but now I'm rambling.

I think there are certain aesthetic qualities that make it a worthwhile applying tape emulation in our projects. I’m just also acknowledged that it’s a double edged sword as well. As in all things moderation and balance are key as well as context.

After all, it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

[CircuitEYE]

Wow, I had idea there were so many.
Maybe I can sell my tape machines now.....Naw

[The Noodlist]

Reelbus has been updated.
https://www.toneboosters.com/download.html

Reelbus.png

[chk071]

Wow, that's some slick looking GUI, nice.

[adl]

Wow, that's some slick looking GUI, nice.

Yes. Really looks astonishing!

[Lotuz2019]

Nice! I'd like a similar look for the Tape tab as well.

[NeonNightflyer]

Sweet update for ReelBus. It looks very nice with the Starry Night theme.

Unfortunately, the new EQ4 update completely overwrote every instance of EQ4 in my projects. They're all just empty templates now.

[Lotuz2019]

It looks very nice with the Starry Night theme.

+1

Would be even nicer though if you could create your own color theme.

[Ploki]

Reelbus has been updated.
https://www.toneboosters.com/download.html
Reelbus.png

wow, what a nice compromise between skeuomorphism and flatness. kudos on the gui

[nilhartman]

Have its sonics been updated as well ?

[Calenberger]

Reelbus has been updated.
https://www.toneboosters.com/download.html
Reelbus.png

wow, what a nice compromise between skeuomorphism and flatness. kudos on the gui

...and no iLok!
PS: isn't an irony that the fiercest iLok fighter on KVR has 80% of his avatar's letters directly taken from iLok? I like these coincidences...
PPS: just gimmie a "P"

[Ploki]

...and no iLok!
PS: isn't an irony that the fiercest iLok fighter on KVR has 80% of his avatar's letters directly taken from iLok? I like these coincidences...
PPS: just gimmie a "P"

dang!
also i wouldn't say i'm the fiercest.

[imrae]

Can you still get back to the old reelbus tabs from there? This looks like a cut-back "easy mode" or something?

[El°HYM]

Can you still get back to the old reelbus tabs from there? This looks like a cut-back "easy mode" or something?

Seems a bit confusing at first; the new #tab is supposed to be for the Master incl. the VU Meters. Then you change the #preset from 'init' to the next or another one, it just changes back to the normal view. Not sure either, if this is a good thing, so far. Might make more sense workflow - wise... we will see how this works.