KVR Audio

Wriggle · Post by **Wriggle** » Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:30 pm

Struder A800 plug-in by UA isn’t cheap but I wouldn’t be without it. I already had Saturn 2 by Fabfilter but A800 sounds incredibly good.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Mon Sep 04, 2023 9:00 pm

Dolby B or Dolby C?

PatchAdamz · Post by **PatchAdamz** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 2:56 am

Fuse has a nice tape emulation, easier then setting up a cassette system......

DNnX · Post by **DNnX** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 3:43 am

I own more than 50 cassette decks.
I set 16 decks to the rack and regularly adds color to single audio track or master track.
The sound character is very very different between the decks.

If you need subtle tape saturation for the mastering, go to late 80s or early 90s deck with 3 heads.
Get TEAC V-x0x0, A&D GX-Zxxxx, Victor TD-Vxxx, SONY TC-KxxxESx.

Get TEAC C-2X or C-3X if you need x2 speed deck.

The old 70s decks saturates a lot, limits freq range too much, with lots of Wow Flutter.
If you really need to add more tape color, get 70s deck.
Any deck should be OK but I will recommend you to get one with Ferrite Head, not Permalloy.

You also need to get extra Noise Reduction unit if Dolby B or Dolby C does not satisfy you.
Especially if you try 70s deck, they only have Dolby B or sometime nothing.
dbx 224 Type II NR is popular and good and cheap. Very effective.
There are multiband NR like Otto NRA-xxx, Aurex Adres but harder to find than famous dbx.

ChamomileShark · Post by **ChamomileShark** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 5:32 pm

DNnX wrote: Fri Sep 08, 2023 3:43 am I own more than 50 cassette decks.

You sir are a legend.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:40 pm

in that situation, i would get a couple of big mixers and set them all up, mono per instance is fine, don't need 100 channels

then get the audience (of weirdos) to each bring a cassette, till all 50 decks are filled. then press play on all of them.
sit back and toke up

ChamomileShark · Post by **ChamomileShark** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:43 pm

vurt wrote: Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:40 pm in that situation, i would get a couple of big mixers and set them all up, mono per instance is fine, don't need 100 channels
then get the audience (of weirdos) to each bring a cassette, till all 50 decks are filled. then press play on all of them.
sit back and toke up

and discover they've all brought the tape of "Now that's what I call music vol 15"?

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:45 pm

ChamomileShark wrote: Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:43 pm
vurt wrote: Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:40 pm in that situation, i would get a couple of big mixers and set them all up, mono per instance is fine, don't need 100 channels
then get the audience (of weirdos) to each bring a cassette, till all 50 decks are filled. then press play on all of them.
sit back and toke up
and discover they've all brought the tape of "Now that's what I call music vol 15"?

would still work, as once you've started them all, one by one, they'll be out of phase.

Synthman2000 · Post by **Synthman2000** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 7:54 pm

I use this, significantly less hassle than a tape deck and more flexible into the future. It can sound just as I recall tape cassettes to be.

https://www.wavesfactory.com/audio-plugins/cassette/

Always keep a master mix of the music without the tape effect added. Then you always have options.

PatchAdamz · Post by **PatchAdamz** » Fri Sep 08, 2023 11:01 pm

For real life saturation I would use a higher quality tape system and not cassette.
Cassette is good for when you want it to sound lo-fi, not necessarily saturated.

There are some excellent plugins for saturation (and lo-fi tape emulations).

Being a "purest" about not being "pure" is paradoxical.

mixtur.se · Post by **mixtur.se** » Sat Sep 09, 2023 5:13 am

Klevgränd DAW casette is another option https://klevgrand.com/products/dawcassette

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Sat Sep 09, 2023 5:23 am

I literally spent the first 20 years of recording music trying to make it not obvious that I was recording to tape.

Synthman2000 · Post by **Synthman2000** » Sat Sep 09, 2023 8:50 am

I have heard worse sound come from MP3 than tapes. Tapes sound like music, low res MP3 sounds like harsh whistley, inharmonic, modulated noise swirling around in the top end.

It could be very well argued that audio through mid 80's to 2,000's or so generally sounded better. It was recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by individual pro's in a studio that would cost more than most people today earn in a lifetime. Then a broadcast engineer at the station that knew what they were doing to achieve good loud sound transmission in FM stereo (if not, they did not have a job). When that hit a fresh TDK SA-90 / SA-X 90 or better cassette tape it sounded very good.

Nowadays we have amateurs with their freeware or be all and end all $29.99 suite or $99 all singing and dancing "do it all mastering" on their $400 monitors in a room you would not record flatulence nicely in.

They are jumped up and pumped up after watching adverts for plug ins on Youtube from someone who has done virtually nothing in their career, think they are god's gift to audio engineering. They clip, saturate, artificially widen (cause it's cool and every one else does right?) and character compress (no doubt very badly after watching more YT), beyond clueless self mastered at home and then streamed with 96kbps codecs.

That's not better, it's worse. And by a big margin.

ChamomileShark · Post by **ChamomileShark** » Sat Sep 09, 2023 9:25 am

Synthman2000 wrote: Sat Sep 09, 2023 8:50 am It could be very well argued that audio through mid 80's to 2,000's or so generally sounded better. It was recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by individual pro's in a studio that would cost more than most people today earn in a lifetime. Then a broadcast engineer at the station that knew what they were doing to achieve good loud sound transmission in FM stereo (if not, they did not have a job). When that hit a fresh TDK SA-90 / SA-X 90 or better cassette tape it sounded very good.

But alot of people in the early 80s were able to produce synth music for the first time as the first really affordable synths came out like the Moog Prodigy, Korg MS10, EDP Wasp etc and the comparitivly "cheap" 4 tracks. Those weren't good quality but there was a whole cassette swap/mail order culture. And it was fun.

We weren't all Peter Gabriel.

Synthman2000 · Post by **Synthman2000** » Sat Sep 09, 2023 1:12 pm

I am aware of that and some music I love dearly comes from cassette captures and why I said.."Tapes sound like music".

Was Electro anything to do with being being Peter Gabriel? As just one example.

Arguably off of cassette tapes (when they were fresh back then) still sounds superior than overcooked, clipped, saturated, artificially widened, copy paste preset, amateur material today esp. at 96kbps.

Cassette also has a characterful time stamp. It may be lo fi but arguably better than phasey unrelated top end which is embedded inside the music as artifacts which by any stretch of the word character is hard to be identified as good sounding.

In 2023 there are literally no excuses for anyone not to be creating and producing world class audio quality. The difference is skill and knowledge. There is plenty of demo quality material in 2023 by those who know no better and that sounds worse at 96kbps than it would from a good cassette.

Cassette Saturation