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BPB Saturator
Reviewed By markmann [all]
April 19th, 2021
Version reviewed: 1.0.0 on Mac
This is one of the top saturators out there for my purposes. I prefer its tape saturation to the many other commercial tape plugins I own (Slate, Softube, ToneBoosters, U-he etc.). The tube portion can be very effective to increase the "bite" of a track. The controls are laid out nicely and you can dial in a sound quickly. You can go from subtle to over-the-top with both tape and tube. I honestly didn't expect a free plugin to be this competitive and was pleasantly surprised. I will be checking out BPB's Dirty Filter now.
Read ReviewIron Oxide
Reviewed By markmann [all]
June 2nd, 2007
Version reviewed: 1.1 on Mac
I agree with MInx that this plug-in is fantastic. I also own the DUY Tape and while it is better for a few sounds, the vast majority of the time I find myself going with Iron Oxide. And now that the developer has added a gain knob, you can drive the "tape" as much or as little as you want. This feature is really helpful and makes the thing sound even better because you can really fine tune to a particular sound.
I graded features at an 8 because it just does the one thing. But that's all you want in a tape emulation. There is no need for documentation. You just move the speed and drive knobs until you find a combo that's right for the sound you're working on. And who needs presets when it's this simple. The developer is one guy and the support has been fantastic.
But the plug (like all his stuff and I have several others) is totally stable and EXTREMELY CPU efficient. It basically uses the host GUI thing. It doesn't have a pretty interface. But those "vintage" GUIs are totally superfluous to me. I'm so glad he kept it simple. You've got two knobs and they make a great sound. Who cares how they look.
Once you get this thing on many of your tracks the whole mix just stands up and wails. I've tried every native tape emulation I can find for PC and Mac and this one just blows everything else away. When used in conjunction with Airwindows Hard Vacuum plug-in (a tube emulation), you can get great sounds quickly.
The tape speed slider control is really important. You can slide it until Iron Oxide emphasizes the sound you're working on. For drums and bass, lower speeds of 8-14 ips seem to bring out the fatness. For piano, vocals and guitar, speeds between 15 and 30 ips work better. This control is almost like an EQ and it's very effective.Read Review
I graded features at an 8 because it just does the one thing. But that's all you want in a tape emulation. There is no need for documentation. You just move the speed and drive knobs until you find a combo that's right for the sound you're working on. And who needs presets when it's this simple. The developer is one guy and the support has been fantastic.
But the plug (like all his stuff and I have several others) is totally stable and EXTREMELY CPU efficient. It basically uses the host GUI thing. It doesn't have a pretty interface. But those "vintage" GUIs are totally superfluous to me. I'm so glad he kept it simple. You've got two knobs and they make a great sound. Who cares how they look.
Once you get this thing on many of your tracks the whole mix just stands up and wails. I've tried every native tape emulation I can find for PC and Mac and this one just blows everything else away. When used in conjunction with Airwindows Hard Vacuum plug-in (a tube emulation), you can get great sounds quickly.
The tape speed slider control is really important. You can slide it until Iron Oxide emphasizes the sound you're working on. For drums and bass, lower speeds of 8-14 ips seem to bring out the fatness. For piano, vocals and guitar, speeds between 15 and 30 ips work better. This control is almost like an EQ and it's very effective.Read Review
