Softube Tape

[OneOfManyPauls]

I still wonder why i would ever need a software which emulates the behavior of tapes. Sorry for the troll post. I really wonder though.

Best to just try the demo with your tracks and see what you think.

Its blend of eq, saturation and compression sounds gorgeous to my ears on pretty much everything I've strapped it to - especially drum machine plug-ins.

[Endor-8o8]

Type A is based on a classic Swiss high end reel-to-reel machine, known and loved for its precision and linearity.
Type B is much more colorful—it's a transformer based machine which adds extra weight and cream to the low end.
Lastly, Type C is based on a British tape machine with a distinct vintage vibe.

Sorry if I'm being dense, so is
A = Nagra?
What is B?
C=EMI?

Thanks
(demo downloaded)

A should be Studer, B = Ampex and C = EMI...if I'm not mistaking.

[jens]

Irony? I don't think the word irony means what you think it means...

I was obviously joking, bro. Slate is sh**.

My bad and my wholehearted apology - you really got me there...

what else could I say? (except maybe, that I have seen more than one genuine posts quite in the same vein as yours in the past)

[zyzygis]

[quote="simmo75"][quote="zyzygis"]Anyone compared this with the overloud tape deck plugin?[/quote]

I compared the price... 3 x cheaper than Tapedesk... Sheesh![/quote]
Hmm..but is Tapedesk 3x better sounding?

[Klinke1]

I tested in Cubase, Bidule and Bitwig.. 48kHz = No latency!
Sounds good so far.

[Eddie TX]

Anyone compared this with the overloud tape deck plugin?

I compared the price... 3 x cheaper than Tapedesk... Sheesh!

Real world prices, right now at everyplugin.com:

TapeDesk: $108.36
Softube Tape: $66.36

TapeDesk and Tape both sound good to my ears. TapeDesk offers more varied color options with the console emulations, mic preamps, etc. The three tape modes in Softube's plug aren't quite as different-sounding as the three consoles in TapeDesk.

Both are easy on the CPU and have nice GUIs.

For Studio One users, the most interesting feature of Tape is the MixFX integration. However, when I tried this, it really clobbered my CPU and didn't sound as good to me as the Presonus console plugins. Perhaps this mode isn't quite fully developed yet. In any case, it's the first 3rd-party plugin that can be used this way. Nice one, Softube!

Cheers,
Eddie

[plexuss]

I still wonder why i would ever need a software which emulates the behavior of tapes. Sorry for the troll post. I really wonder though.

Certain types of noise and distortion are perceived as pleasing to humans. Tape and other analogue mediums often create this kind of pleasing noise and distortion. they are typically complex being generated in the analogue domain which tends to be stocastic. Digital analogue-emulation, when done well, can create a similar effect as the true analogue experience. That's why - we like noise and distortion. This is one reason vinyl still has a life and some studios still use tape. But you have to know how to use these tools in a way that creates a pleasing character to the audio. It help to have direct experience with analogue gear and tape so you know what character to aim for.

[penguinfromdeep]

After some more testing I am actually quite surprised how good this thing sounds. So I bought it, the price makes it a no-brainer for me (especially with the little intro discount). I own Slate VTM and TB Reelbus too, didn't make side to side comparison but this thing definitely brings different flavour on the table. As I said before, I like that it can go bit more into lo-fi territory too than say Slate VTM. No problems with Gobbler either, everything went smoothly.

[n9]

Saturation can be truly wonderful. If you're asking why people would want to emulate tape I guess my answer is that when tape was a dominant media for recording and reproducing sound many, many very smart and committed people spent many many hours figuring out how to make it sound the best it could possibly sound... with many definitions of what "best" would mean. Engineers spent countless hours and lots of money figuring out how to record symphony orchestras with a great deal of accuracy and high fidelity. Other engineers spent their hours figuring out how to get rock bands to sound big and amazing and hip hop producers figured out how you could push a tape to make a sampled drum loop sound bigger... and the list goes on.

In the 80s and 90s everyone "switched to digital" because of many reasons, but mainly because it was thought that it would "just sound better." Turns out that for a lot of reasons it generally did not sound better, and a lot of the reasons were that engineers had figured out how to create beautiful, resonant sounds out of the idiosyncrasies and nonlinear properties of tape. Tape was not pristine and accurate, maybe, but there were a lot of interesting and effective things that you could do with it.

For me, tape is yet another wonderfully deep way to square off the tops and bottoms of those waveforms. You can drive it a little and get an effect that sounds subtle, but when you turn it off you miss it. You can push it harder and get some truly wild behaviors related to saturating the media itself, the preamps and op amps in the device, to the math that I don't understand that relates to the bias... try pushing a sine wave into a tape machine some time... it is really weird.

But anyway. You could just as easily ask what the big deal was with guitar amps or compressors.

But, we're talking about this plugin here. I demoed it and bought it right away. I've been using Satin, Waves's Kramer and j37 and the tape plugins that come with ozone. This one is good. I know it gets put down but the Waves j37 is pretty nice, I think, and Satin is wonderful if hard to control. This one might end up being my favorite, though... but it is early days.

Here are the good things:

The "amount" setting is incredibly useful in conjunction with the input level. This is missing from Satin and j37 and really, really works. You can dial back the amount setting to 25 or 50% and then push the input until you get a little bit if drive and then back it off. THEN, you can push and pull that amount setting and really dial in what you want. This is easier and more effective than the competition.

The speed stability is great. Better than Satin, better than j37. It sounds very real and there is a wide range of warble. I really like it. AND you can use this in conjunction with the wet/dry to get some very nice phasing effects. Useful.

The drive is pretty sedate and balanced. It sounds like I want it to sound. Satin is probably more accurate -- I have had generally bad experiences pushing studio tape machines and Satin reminds me of these experiments for sure. This reminds me more of pushing four tracks and my old Dennon deck... a more pleasing result than the real world, perhaps. The drive sounds better than Satin or j37 top my ears.

If I had to pick one of the izotope, waves, Satin I would pick this one. (And, hey, others might disagree but since we're talking about these plugins... just skip that Kramer tape plugin. It's not very good. The j37 is probably still my second favorite, though.)

[plexuss]

I just spent some time comparing Tape and Satin. Tape has some nice sounds, more focused on juicing up the bottom end. Satin sounds more like tape to me. I have used tape quite a bit in the past before digital came along. Tape is interesting and over driving it gives a unique sound. It sounds like tape but when the bottom end is boosted a bit. This could just be a difference between the kinds of machines and tape each are emulating.

[sfxsound3]

Turns out that for a lot of reasons it generally did not sound better

[simmo75]

You can't seem to link/group Tape to control multiple instances like you can with Satin and VTM, Or am i missing something?
Surely its a must have function for a tape emulation.

[Igro]

I don't get it. If buy it from other shops than presonus, will it incorporate into MixFx? if I buy it from presonus, then I can use it ONLY in Studio One? What are the pros and cons buying it from Presonus or elsewhere? Thank you.

It's the same plugin no matter where you buy it from. However, the extra version (MixFX) only works in S1.

Thanks pal.

[jbraner]

A should be Studer, B = Ampex and C = EMI...if I'm not mistaking.

Thanks
I'm gonna play with the demo today...

[jinotsuh]

For Studio One users, the most interesting feature of Tape is the MixFX integration. However, when I tried this, it really clobbered my CPU and didn't sound as good to me as the Presonus console plugins. Perhaps this mode isn't quite fully developed yet. In any case, it's the first 3rd-party plugin that can be used this way. Nice one, Softube!

Cheers,
Eddie

When I tried it out in the MixFx I didn't notice this, it was fine. I put one on the master bus and 3 more on 3 other bus's in each MixFx slot which were fed by sends from 3 other bus's, drum bus a guitar bus and a keyboards bus each of which had an instance of CTC 1 Pro, all of which fed another bus, like pre master or something with CTC 1 Pro and then into the master with Tape in the MixFx slot, whether or not it was an accepted method, if there is such a thing, the result sounded pretty awesome to me, like i preferred it that way rather than not. Was just trying to have everything going through CTC 1 Pro and then through Tape, just messing around, experimenting, but the result was pleasing to me. With 4 instances of Tape in MixFx slots I didn't notice any CPU clobbering anyway.