Nothing approaches IK Tape BUT it hates my computer! Alternatives? SOLVED!

[dblock]

Thanks all for the suggestions guys. I found that pushing my Softube Tape to exaggerated settings brought me as close to my liking as I think possible so I'm good with that.

[hitherepeople]

If you have most of them, then you'll already know it's futile to try and change from your number one

FWIW, I use softube tape and it's wonderful for me. It's not bad on the CPU (unless you use it in mix fx in studio one, then it's pretty ouchy in real time) I think it sounds great, It's cheap (It's always on sale) and it's pretty too

The IK stuff never got a fair shake from me because of the latency. I'm sure they great but it's much harder to test something when I have that kinda latency TBH.

I remember liking "Satin" back in the day. Not sure why I sold it.

[dblock]

You're right hitherepeople. It's so far been proven to be futile. Nothing comes close.I do have Softube Tape. I was blown away by it...that is until IK Tape came out. Now Softube Tape just pisses me off for being too subtle every time I try and use it instead of IK Tape. The IK latency didn't matter to be because I only use one instance on my mix buss. If I tried to use two instances my computer would burn in hell. I have Satin and it was "ok" but I just never got along with it.

[Passing Bye]

Buy another machine and use it via AudioGridder, there's perfectly capable 200+ bucks second hand i7 machines that will be more than good enough for that.

[martinjuenke]

https://fuseaudiolabs.com/#/pages/product?id=300989942

Fuse Audio Labs Flywheel?

[telecharge]

Here's a tape thread to check out...

If you buy a tape vst today - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=515423

The only one that comes to mind based on your comments is Nomad Factory Magnetic II. I've never seen it described as subtle. Maybe J37 if you can stomach Waves. Also try the free ChowTape if you haven't.

[dblock]

Buy another machine and use it via AudioGridder, there's perfectly capable 200+ bucks second hand i7 machines that will be more than good enough for that.

That is interesting Passing Bye.Never heard of that.I know I won't be adding any machines
but I'm still checking it out.Thanks.

[dblock]

https://fuseaudiolabs.com/#/pages/product?id=300989942

Fuse Audio Labs Flywheel?

Thanks martinjuenke! Wasn't aware of this one.I will demo and check it out.

[plexuss]

I use IK Tape 80 on my masters most of the time. The only Tape emu that I feel is even close to sound quality is Satin.

[dblock]

I use IK Tape 80 on my masters most of the time. The only Tape emu that I feel is even close to sound quality is Satin.

Thanks. I may have to revisit Satin.Maybe I didn't spend enough time with it to really see what it's capable of.I always thought Softube tape was way better except BUT it's just too subtle.

[dblock]

Here's a tape thread to check out...

If you buy a tape vst today - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=515423

The only one that comes to mind based on your comments is Nomad Factory Magnetic II. I've never seen it described as subtle. Maybe J37 if you can stomach Waves. Also try the free ChowTape if you haven't.

Thanks. Actually, you just reminded me that I have j37 which even now I consider to be pretty damned good.I can't stomach Waves but I already have all the old plugins I'm going to get from them.Nomad Magnetic actually surprised me.Not bad. As fate would have it they had an 85% off deal at VST BUZZ that just expired. lol! Wouldn't stop me if I really wanted it but that's always how it goes.

[hitherepeople]

I know what the answer is, but enquiring minds want to know. Have you played enough with the settings in tape? For me my favorite setting is to turn up the "amount to about 7 ish. Put it on B, boost the high frequency a bit, then add some crosstalk.

Like I said, I'm certain you have but I'd like to help if I could.

[JerGoertz]

I use IK Tape 80 on my masters most of the time. The only Tape emu that I feel is even close to sound quality is Satin.

Thanks. I may have to revisit Satin.Maybe I didn't spend enough time with it to really see what it's capable of.I always thought Softube tape was way better except BUT it's just too subtle.

Interesting opinion on Softube, I always thought if you drove it hot it wasn't subtle at all. It does have a wide range of tones.

[dblock]

I know what the answer is, but enquiring minds want to know. Have you played enough with the settings in tape? For me my favorite setting is to turn up the "amount to about 7 ish. Put it on B, boost the high frequency a bit, then add some crosstalk.

Like I said, I'm certain you have but I'd like to help if I could.

That was actually good suggestion hitherepeople.I happened to have a track up in front of me and decided to try those settings on my mixbus. Initially they were too subtle for my taste so I exaggerated them. I turned the amount on 10, input 6 and crosstalk to 3/4 and I actually think it sounds more like tape saturation than what I had so I saved it as a preset.
This could very well be a decent backup now. Nice!

[jamcat]

It’s not ideal, but you could always print/freeze the tape to your track. Just make sure you have the clean recording backed up.

I would rather do that than replace it with a lower quality plugin.
It would be nice if IK added an ECO mode for mixing, though.