Saturation on the master

[anttimaatteri]

you can do what you want on your master as long as its purpose is to sound better than before. which in turn may be the case too when it sounds shittier than before on purpose^^

[kritikon]

I've heard bears just love people camping out in the woods in nice soft tents...

[AC222]

House & also Techno producers actually still use real Tape unto this Day. Its a significant part of their Sound - Aesthetic. Yet, also true that quite some also like Kramer or J37, especially in the Dub - Techno scene. My Tip would be TB ReelBus to be honest, as it can also add that little final Touch some Tracks need at the end.

Sounds like you know your stuff! Do you see tape used in synthwave?

Absolutely! Synthwave is all about 80s, and what gets you there better than devices/emulations that were used then? Tapes, console saturations, even VHS and cassette degradation effects. All of it is part of Synthwave sound.

Yessss and thank you!!!! Love me some Synthwave

[Synthack]

.........

[plexuss]

And...remember there are those old farts among us who used tape/desks/analogue FX etc extensively in the past. Yeah we used to record hot, but tbh a lot of that was gainstaging to minimize noise. You wouldn't believe how quickly we all stampeded to digital when it became a) available/affordable, and b) obvious how it reduced both distortion and noise.
Half of all your attention in h/w days was reducing noise, increasing clarity. So now want to decrease clarity and increase noise...nah, not having it.

I agree with this. I was going to post something similar. I've experimented with digital "saturation" in various ways with various highly praised tools. My conclusion, for myself alone, is that adding distortion makes things sounds worse. So, I tend to avoid "saturation" unless I am going for something specifically. When it comes to the master, I will sometimes use a very subtle pre-amp like something from Acustica or LVC if it imparts that 3D thing we all talk about. I do use distortion for effect on tracks. I find low level distortion tends to "pile up" and fill up the noise floor with spectrally complex mush robbing audio quality. YMMV.

[Jkist]

Some use saturation as a kind of compression to tame harsh transients and glue things together a bit. It works, but you have to be careful as the effect can get to be too much very quickly IMO.

[LeVzi]

And...remember there are those old farts among us who used tape/desks/analogue FX etc extensively in the past. Yeah we used to record hot, but tbh a lot of that was gainstaging to minimize noise. You wouldn't believe how quickly we all stampeded to digital when it became a) available/affordable, and b) obvious how it reduced both distortion and noise.
Half of all your attention in h/w days was reducing noise, increasing clarity. So now want to decrease clarity and increase noise...nah, not having it.

I agree with this. I was going to post something similar. I've experimented with digital "saturation" in various ways with various highly praised tools. My conclusion, for myself alone, is that adding distortion makes things sounds worse. So, I tend to avoid "saturation" unless I am going for something specifically. When it comes to the master, I will sometimes use a very subtle pre-amp like something from Acustica or LVC if it imparts that 3D thing we all talk about. I do use distortion for effect on tracks. I find low level distortion tends to "pile up" and fill up the noise floor with spectrally complex mush robbing audio quality. YMMV.

This is how I feel, I tried J37 on the master bus and it sounded awful. I just wonder how you can add any kind of distortion and then during mastering getting the loudness right, you are just going to make it fall apart.

[El°HYM]

Just to clarify.

Me was referring to a Reel to Reel Stereo - Tape, so with those there shouldnt be too much Noise or any Artefacts etc. if its a properly maintained Machine.

Trying to recreate this ITB, I would rather go with ReelBus or Satin, some might say IK Tape Collection.

[pixel85]

J37 is not clean and it has significant impact on sound. I don't like any of Waves tapes for electronic music. It makes it... "Mellow"? Soft etc. nothing that works well for clean and punchy EDM.

[MogwaiBoy]

J37 is a "lofi" plugin in my opinion, same with Kramer "Master" Tape... there's nothing "mastering grade" about them. If you want lofi degredation though, go for it.

The tape plugins that I've felt comfortable using on the master - that have pleasant enhancing qualities and no perceivable drop in audio quality - are: Taupe, Taipei and IKM Tape 80. Not at default settings and not at just any setting.. but carefully tuned. Because Acustica tech simply cannot take a hot input signal without turning into a chirpy resonant mess, you really have to tread carefully with Taipei, but all the "deeper, wider, more 3D" type cliches are for real when it's setup right. If you're going for one absolute top plugin for the "master tape" thing, Taipei is it.

[excuse me please]

J37 is an Abbey Road whatever emu. The last things you want if you want a clean sound. Jeebus.

[LeVzi]

J37 is not clean and it has significant impact on sound. I don't like any of Waves tapes for electronic music. It makes it... "Mellow"? Soft etc. nothing that works well for clean and punchy EDM.

Yeah definitely, I only have J37 and that was crap.

[excuse me please]

I use TDR VOS SlickEQ. Sounds pretty clean to me. Effect should be barely noticable.

[NinjaToon]

Not really sure what "EDM" means in terms of OPs context but for more electronica or lofi style production I would have thought the dirtier the better. You actually have to go out of your way to not use saturation in todays plugin market so maybe this is a reaction to that? Just too much of it out there. We are oversaturated with fake saturators.

I personally like saturation on the master but again EDM could mean anything to me and I'm not sure if I'm making any "EDM"... maybe I am?!

I like Kelvin and PSP saturator lately. Also like flywheel. I have also liked Dent as a clipper sometimes too. I have used townhouse and old-timer as master bus compression a lot which are also not clean. What can I say? I like dirt.

[plexuss]

I like dirt.

Careful. Dirt can turn into bad sounding audio very quickly without it being noticed.

No saturation anywhere. The only way to achieve this level of clarity (not EDM):


https://soundcloud.com/musicofplexus/th ... lmeth-thee