I think that it brings a warmth to the digital recording. It doesn't make a huge difference in the sound, but that is the point really; not being overbearing. That is what I like about WAVES plugins i.e. their subtle approach to perfecting digital audio. Price of $300? Nope, not a chance. I am sure that a ton of work goes into these plugins, but the majority of us are on tight budgets, and that means you're going to have to appeal to the starving artist's price range. Keep up the good work Woody!
Hi and thanks for the thoughtful analysis. There's some good advice here and I'll pin the comment. Couldn't explore all the settings in length, the video was long enough already. But as always. I would encourage people to download the demo and try it for themselves.
Honestly this makes a pretty massive difference. Its subtle sure, but without the sound is cold and lifeless. The real trick is to play with the wow and flutter and bias.
Heard a bunch of hiss on a track I was just working on mastering. tried to pin it down, track recording? Effect in the chain? Oh yeah, it was AbbeyRhode’s compressor. Very authentic.
This plugin is amazing on vocals, especially when the vocals natural EQ is heavy around the 250-1K range. Best vocal plugin I have used to warm any vocals. Love a little bit of the hiss too c:
I'd like to first say that I've been a mix engineer since the mid 80's, so I am not a noob here. That being said, I had a very difficult time hearing much of a difference enabled and bypassed, etc. I am listening on ATH-M50X headphones as well as Focal monitors in a treated room. The effect is so subtle I have to ask myself if it's worth the money, even at $29. I'd have to say no. I think people think they hear things that aren't really there. A lot of plug ins today are too subtle to be worth bothering with.
Micael L. Is correct!! Read every word he said 2x! You need to go no further! End of story! You can do the same or even better with a saturation & eq plugin. The point is that there is no tape or machine involved! Face the facts. Get a good ssl piece or something etc.. You will get a lot closer to a smooth analog sound. Humble M.E. & mix engineer for decades.😉
I'd like to first say I have no experience with anything at all and I'm just fucking around with a hobby project. I also found it really hard to hear any difference at all in this video, but I did test the plugin out as it was recommended in a thread for what I wanted to do and I can safely say it can add very noticeable effects. Good or bad? I can't say, especially not to someone like you but it did what I wanted it to do.
The plugin definitely makes a difference. If you use some different settings, such as the tape speed, you can definitely get an "opening" effect, like someone lifted the blanket from your song. He used the default settings, which aren't very aggressive. Trust me, this plugin can make a good (and bad) effect on your music. You just have to spend an hour or so with it. I do use it on the 2 bus, unlike Waves says. Oh well. I like it there.
A lot of these Vintage Hardware Emulations that waves makes are absolute snake oil. Waves makes decent everyday utility plugins like RVOX, H-Delay, H-Comp etc. but all of these one knob, abbey roads, and SSL emulations are average at best. Such a money grab. I have been trying to tell people this for SO LONG. This plugin saturation on this plugin is so unnatural. So what you want about RC-20 but it is a MUCH better plugin and can do SO much more.
Honestly Micheal, with all due respect, you absolutely know more than me about engineering, no doubt. Im using the same headphones too, but when i put it on a mix i can absolutely hear a difference, well more so feel it. This is my favrouite plug in and i pretty much mix 75% of a song with this. Fair enough loading it on 1 channel isnt a crazy diffrence but if you load it up on every channel individually on your song (like they recomend) thats where the €300 price is worth it in my opinion. This plug in ramps up the emotion in a song for me.... But i love tape on everything..... Ive made records on tape before and it fairness it doesnt drive anywhere near as nicely but in moderation it beautiful....also the delay is out of this world
Hello. I bought this plugin a while ago for $29 and used it a couple of times on whole mixes and thought it was OK but not extraordinary. When I saw your video I wondered whether I'd wasted my money on something that might "do nothing" so I started to re-use it to give it another chance. First I used tone generators and oscilloscope plugins to see what it did. This was since I didn't hear much difference on laptop speakers. From what I saw, it sprang into life when the central mix wheels - usually linked - were used. Sonically a good starting point (in my opinion) was to use the "Abbey Road Default" setting on a single -18db or so track and listen to what it does. On good monitors or headphones you can hear the warmth it brings. So I think its just a little fussier over gainstaging to bring out its character. For $29 I think its fine.
The subtlety of the plugin is where it best shines. I use this plugin in my mastering chain and it works nicely by adding a slight warmth evening things out with a nice transparent sheen. A small touch of magic. My advice is if you cannot hear what it is actually doing to your mixes, I suggest do not use it until you can hear the differences. More so focus on getting better studio monitors. Headphones really do not cut it and they never will in my opinion when mixing. If that was the case I would have bought the best headphones on planet earth. Instead I invested in some of the best studio monitors.
The effect is definitely there, remember there's no rules in music!!! There's tons of different possibilities you could unravel here. The demo failed to show the flangin/fluttering effect you can get with it. Would I pay 299 for it? heck no, but they're constantly on sale for like 29 bucks., and at that price I would definitely consider it.
I liked the difference. Even though it's digital trying to emulate analog, and really, we're chasing our own tales, just even the hint of a sound that I grew up with is better than none. It added something. I was on the fence, I'll get it for $29, and won't put it on every track, but strap it across the mix bus. Thanks for a great and illustrative video.
Hi Woody, thanks for another great review. Here's a Reaper tip for you friend... If you go to the left hand side of the VST frame, double click on the VST title, and the frame will disappear. The vst will now float without the frame. This way, your vst doesn't take up so much of your screen.
thanks for sharing that! i do that sometimes, even then you get an ugly reaper window around the plugin, but haven't found a way to get rid of that. (like you see on the waves VU meters)
I hadn't tried it on all my channels. Made a huge difference in my rhythm guitar tracks for sure! Really brought out the clarity even at a very low amount..love it. However, this is the "only" plug-in that goes into every Mastering project. It was a night and day comparison for trying to have sonic continuity throughout my album. Worth every penny and then some to me.
The main problem with these "plugin sound tests/comparison" is that while you're listening on >$1000 studio monitors and expecting people to hear what you hear, most everyone isn't and so they think it's not worth the money. The truth is, this plugin IS one of the best tape emulation and analog saturation plugins on the market. Anyone that can't hear the difference or isn't impressed, doesn't know what to listen for or has no experience and most likely can't afford studio monitors to really hear the difference. These tools are best in the hands of people that know what they're doing and what they're talking about. Good review.
the thing is, if you need to be an engineer with 15 years of experience and a $3000 sound reproduction setup in order to hear the difference, who are you engineering for? folks listening to 160kbps mp3s over spotify in their ear buds aren't sound engineers.
to give an answer to that i'd say that mixing is more about a lot of subtle changes summed together, than a couple of heavy moves of eq, comp and saturation etc. the set up is needed to inform you to make accurate decisions in the effort to make a mix translate across every medium, shitty earbuds to top quality set ups. If we were to engineer on shitty earbuds then mixs would only sound good on shitty earbuds (not even). That's how i would justify my set up. and as for the 160kbps thing, every medium of presenting music compresses it in some way. radio, tv, youtube, soundcloud etc. if music were produced in 160kbps and was then ran through the compression of all these mediums i suspect the end result would sound more like an angry fart than a song.
"mixing is more about a lot of subtle changes summed together, than a couple of heavy moves of eq, comp and saturation etc." I totally agree with you on that.
@@matrixate There's also the concept of A/B-ing the mix on the super high-end monitors and the grot-box speakers that are crap and comparing if it still works. Headphones too. The total stereo separation of headphones is a huge thing in any mix still working on headphones. It needs to work in the highest possible variety of delivery devices. Luv and Peace.
Super video! 1st AB test, J37 effect on separate tracks vs. bypass: difference was subtle but I definitely preferred the former. 2nd AB test, J37 effect global vs. bypass: preferred the latter, less subtle; the former just sounded like increased mud/distortion. Very interesting different test conclusions IMO. Again, great work.
I bought it. Not for trying to "warm up" the sound, but rather for a different kind of distortion. If you drive it a little bit, it sounds great on guitars, or if you want a really old sounding distorted vocal track.
Asking if the difference is $300 is quite ridiculous considering that the plugin is on sale more than available for full price. While it is subtle, I can hear a difference, and think that the mix is a little deeper and the low and top end seem more defined with the plugins enabled. Clearly you are using it correctly in a pretty standard way. The actual question should be does #29 or $70 get you closer to a desired "tape sound" without the compared investment of buying, calibrating and maintaining a tape machine, let alone the knowledge of operating in another medium format and buying/properly maintaining tape. Overall its a decent review of the plugin and everyone individually should make their own decision. I personally don't own the plugin... but have several plugins that are meant emulate hardware (2A style , 73-pre's, shadow hills comp, 1176 comp) and am using many of them. For most of us small-project home studio types, of course I think many of us would LOVE to have the real deal instead of plugins, but if you say that software doesn't compare the real thing than you might as well go to a real studio and spend your money to use someone else's gear. Personally I love being able to be at home and work on new ideas without having to book time somewhere and wait for an opening or til I have the funds. Anyway, rant over. Cool song by the way
Hi Woody, thank you for this amazing shootout! I can definitely hear the effect both on individual tracks and on the mix. It is significantly more pronounced on some tracks compared to the others. Also, on the mixbus it seems more subtle. I would like to point though that you say "enabled" or "disabled" soon after the change in sound path happens and that makes it harder for me to compare the sound before and after the change - my attention is drawn to your voice and to some extent I forget what the sound was before you enabled or disabled the effect. May be this simply indicates that I am an unexperienced listener. Alternatively this may be a proof that the effect is very subtle. Now, whether it is worth $299 or not - I'd say J37 Tape definitely makes sound warmer, richer and more interesting. Given the current wide choice of options for saturation / enhancement plugins I would price it at $100. But since every now and then it becomes possible to get it for $29 I believe it is totally worth it. I am planning to buy. Thanks!
User manual from Waves says that J37 has best performance when input signal hit plugin into red zone between 1 and 2 db. Then you trim output so you have the same level volume between engaged and bypassed plugin.
While I don't think any plugin is worth $300, I only buy bundles on black Friday which saves a shit ton but anyway I use the waves Kramer tape and was disappointed for the first six months until I decided to actually read the manual and am blown away by the difference it makes. The best way to see what it is doing and what levels it is affected at most is by using a 1k sine wave into the tape plugin and spectrum analyser. You will be able to see the harmonics or any distortion it creates and if you see none or too much when you flip the plugin on your levels aren't set right for it and you're right it will do absolutely nothing or create ugly distortion. 0 on the Vu meter should be -18 and is about where you should have your track sitting when it hits the plugin. You can also use a trim gain plugin before the tape and try boosting a few above -18 dbvs and I think anyone who tries this will get way different results and you will be able to hear the effect. Gain staging your plugins is extremely important when it comes to any saturation plugin or emulations even though you might get away ignoring levels with others. I'm far from pro but this lesson made a huge difference for me.
To my opinion it does add warmth, but it goes at the expense of some dynamics and hi-freq. It's a choice... and gets more obvious once you have something sounding too clean. But essentially it's a bit of a compressor-like result with a slight more muddy low end. But personally in this song therefore I would rather slash/fatten the vocals a bit with a compressor to get a similar feeling, while leaving the guitar definately untouched to keep max overall dynamic experience and clarity. It's worth the money however if you have a major hit record in hand, and some too clean recordings, while don't know how to solve that.
I couldn't hear much difference except when he saturated the signals but I've used the plug-in in my mixes and it makes a big difference. This plug-in is just not a magical fixer, but if you dig into it, it will be worth the money.
I can certainly tell a difference in that acoustic guitar! Everything else is very subtle, but it makes the acoustic guitar way better, in my opinion. Thanks for this video :)
The settings that work best for me is 815, 7.5 IPS with a +5 Bias... I dunno, that just sounds best on the piano/vocal tracks I mix at church. Thanks for the demo! And yes, I got it at $29 also, during one of 47 sales Waves has per annum. ;-D
Great video. The difference is subtle (but pleasing to the ear) as it should be. J37 and Kramer Master Tape aren't lofi emulations, they're emulations of high end gear so the way they can subtlely help a mix gel together and "fill out" is exactly what they should do. Obviously for the most intense results, low tape speeds and the oldest tape format should be chosen in J37.
I picked this up after buying the waves diamond bundle. I keep this on my master chain as an option. I’ve found that it ads a bit of warmness and glue to my mixes. There’s been a time or two that it ended up emphasizing some distortion on the low end. In this case I side chained the mids and highs and paired it with a compressor With make up gain. I think it’s well worth $29.
Hmmm, closed my eyes and tried to hear the difference, but I am not sure I can. What changes I hear is probably coming from you telling me that you are switching the plugin on or off (bypass). I love that you took the effort to do this, though, and especially that you dealt with the volume differences that would otherwise mask the effect of the plugin (though, this might be thanx to the plugin itself). Keep up the wonderful work!
thanks fredrik, i was just as curious as my viewers about the effect that the plugin had, so it worth doing. i thought it was most effective on the master bus actually where it did a bit of compression and saturation, but difference was negligible, at least with these settings.
I should first point out that I'm listening through headphones coming out of my phone. And secondly, it's really important to note how much audio quality is lost on a UA-cam video compared to a normal audio recording. When listening to these examples, I notice changes on some instrument tracks more than others and I think this might be because of how the frequencies of each instrument respond differently to harmonic distortion and saturation caused by the J37. I think you'd have to tweak each track individually to achieve a consistent change that you can hear. I don't think default settings will give a consistently audible change. I appreciate this video though because I was interested to see what others think as I own the plug in. As one guy said however, the UAD tape emulations are superior to waves ones in my view. Thanks for the video man. Love your synth videos too, were very helpful to me in the past when trying to choose a synth to buy! Peace Woody :)
If you are curious about what those plugins actually do to your sound, you can use a spectral analyser and a sine wave (say, at 440hz). Most of those plugins add harmonic distortion in the form of odd harmonic content, with some (often optional) even harmonic. Even harmonic substantially alter the sound adding frequencies that can transform the color, this is a reason why in modern music we have often distorted guitar chords that are either power chords (lack of 3rd) or major chords even when the key normally requires a minor. Another plugin that does very nice and subtle synthesis of odd harmonic is Kush Audio Omega N, also at 29$. It requires the ilok nonsense, but at least just the ilok manager, no dongles. Izotope has Ozone, Neutron and Trash 2, I highly recommend to get Ozone with some special offer since their Vintage Tape is really good, and they offer a bunch of other module that are really superb.
I definitely hear this plug. It is probably more subtle than the magic of the real machine, but on sale it's great I think. To the folks that don't like the character of the distortion when it's cranked: that's what tape does. For the most part it sounds like garbage when pushed that hard. Yes, I own a reel to reel. It's meant to emulate one of the most famously used machines of all time. I think there is interest in that.
For everyone who's saying "I'm an experienced pro and I can't hear any difference at all", I'm not going to argue with you whether you can or can't. But on the bass track I hear a 3D effect going on. Its subtle but its there. And honestly, the "magic" of good things ARE subtlety. The plugin sounds great. There is also a slight de-essing effect going on with the vocalist. It's definitely there. What I did was not pay attention to the screen at all...and when I great it I looked at the screen. Enabled. When it sounded a little flat, I looked at the screen again...Disabled. Its there for me guys. Clean your ears.
With the J37 enabled, the song sounded a little more present to me, but in much the same way that a "coloring" compressor would. Given the choice, I think I'd go with a good vintage tube compressor vst instead. As for the delay feature, I think there are better tape delay emulations that offer more options for sonic variance and overall control. Another thing I noticed... Most tape and tube emulations roll off a little bit of the high frequencies. That's part of the character of the old hardware. It sounded a little like the J37 was compensating for that. Please don't get me wrong, I liked the J37, but it probably wouldn't be my first choice if I had other options. Thanks Woody, and have a great day friend.
Here's a quick guide to which plugin vendor to choose: Waves if you have caught the "analog is better" bug but struggle with concepts like pitch, amplitude and frequency Slate if you have a lumberjack beard, wear a brown leather jacket and drink jack daniels with your coffee Joseph Puig if you are over 50, drive a buick and have a Genesis shrine in your basement U-HE if every time you turn a knob, your knob turns also, your bedding has printed knobs and dream each night of knobs Sugar Bytes if you are under 21, want make edm, go to timewarp each year and your role model is David Guetta Rob Papen if you live in Berlin, dress in black and attend weekly sunday sermons at the church of Berghain UAD if you strongly believe you are a man, need to prove to yourself that you are a man and also have fat bank account
I like it. I don't care about "analog warmth" as such, but I found it to be useful and fun to work with. Not Worth 300 dollars though I would not spend that Money on any VST at this Point. For the price of 29 it is however almost Worth it just to look at the Visuals...
I heard the difference immediately, and I mean, I threw it on two problematic tracks I've been struggling with, and in both cases, the J37 kicked it out. It is a difference maker.
Some companies do a really great job at emulating tape warmth like DUY but unfortunately all i hear in this plugin is saturation(OL) not really that true tape warmth character we'r all looking for.. it really is a great looking DUI tho that i must say hehe!! Great video Woody!!
One quick tip for this sort of rather sublime plug-ins: Pick a track of your favorite music, which you know very well, and listen to it through the plugin(s). Then you'll be able to quickly understand what it does. And in many cases you might say: No, I don't want that in my music! (You could also try this with your typical mastering or mixing channel/bus..)
Not enough time is given to the piano and vocal to hear the difference. Switching back and forth so quickly prevents us from hearing the same passage with and without the effect.
I understand that it gives some warmth to each instrument and saturation to taste. But it depends a lot on the recording and trimming of the high frequencies in the mix
Thank you for doing this. The differences are subtle but there. Used as recommended (an instance on each track), you get a cumulative effect which interestingly enough, seems to gel all tracks together. What was interesting though is having it on the master bus didn't do it for me. Without it it sounds much more open, while with it on, the mix sounds somewhat muddy.
I hear clear difference when I use it for mastering or at the end of a complete mix. It brings a unique kind of musicality to the mix. i admit that at this mix In do not hear much. Maybe distorted guitars are better suited for this. Be sure to try the presets to get an idea what is possible.
I own the j37. But I prefer the Kramer tape. But I still use the j37 from time to time. Yes, it is very subtle. This plugin sounds best when it is dialed in subtle. I always use it when I have 2 or 4 acoustic tracks running to a buss. The Kramer doesn't sound as good on a acoustic buss. But the Kramer is much better on a electric guitar buss. Also, I find that the J37 performs best when it gets -12db, rms. With the Kramer, best performance is -18 rms, with the input turned down even farther and the output turned way up to make up the volume loss. So I think the J37 works better than folks give it credit for. It really needs to have a hotter input, and sounds better in a treated room with some quality monitoring. A UA-cam video is not a good representation of this plugin. If you want a heavy handed tape plug, go with the Kramer.
I have been using overdriven 10 band EQ on my digital synths for an analog sound. Outboard analog graphic EQ overdriven (+db) coupled with 10 to 31 bands of EQ really fine tunes the synths sound making the instrument larger or smaller. I would guess this technique could be used with any instrument.
The turning reels are cool. Formula/Speed; subtle yet audible. Level Link/Noise Level ; like having separate volume and gain knobs on an amp. Bias; worthless. Delay; who needs another delay? Modeled Tracks/Wow/Flutter; good for trippy and creative automation (Electronic/House/Trance, etc.) Nice VU meters. I wanted to use the J37 for mixing dynamics, but, no-go. it's saving grace is that the lower half controls have somewhat unique features 2 B explored. Otherwise, just use an Aural Exciter...and DON'T use it as part of your final mix bundle. Condolences to all who spent the $299. Peace.
Thanks for the video, nicely done although I wish you had run a little harder into the headroom for even more saturation. It would have really made the warmth even more obvious, yeah it may sound a little dirty if you go too far but I remember when CD's came out; I refused to buy them for quite a few years because of what was missing in the sound. Going to buy this pluggin
i think i pushed it pretty much into the sweet spot, any more and you get some unpleasant sounding dist, grab it when it's on sale, waves have a sale every other week :) cheers
@@WoodyPianoShack There's more to this plugin than pushing the input/output wheels. The most obvious sweetness is in bias and saturation adjustment. Plus, it's quite an amazing tape delay. In my opinion of course. Thanks for the video btw :)
A plugin needs tweeks to serve its purpose not simply setting it to the default settings, different musical instruments and elements require different tweeks to get a great result. Appreciating the work of software developers is very important, calling the J37 Tape crap as some of the subscribers say isn't cool and it actually reveals how much a person knows about music production.
In this song it brings alot of warmth and smooths out the highs but in this mix maybe that doesn't work so well as there is alot of low mids, Ive found it works well on something that sounds a little harsh and a little thin. Also not alot of transients in here maybe a little bit of the guitar but tape does have a bit of an effect on transients especially in the high end.
Some say to use this after NLS .. but even when running at 96,000hz I think too many "analogue" plugins will start add up and show aliasing and dullness on the treble, mid range and bass
If you want saturation - you need to push the volume on the inputs to the red that's how you achieve saturation - saturation will sound different with each tape formula
hi yotam! this is exactly what i was doing. there is a very fine when pushing into the red between some slight pleasant saturation and very ugly sounding clipping.
it seems more useful to me as an effect that could be used on anemic sounding track but not on everything. It seems to make the low end a little more up front. Not quite as creamy as real tape. You could probably get close to the same results with a compressor that includes saturation. It would have been interesting if the plugin included a 30ips setting with the proper equalization curve. Also, a tape width setting might have been nice, but to be fair, the plugin was designed to emulate a certain tape machine with all of its idiosyncrasies. All of this is IMHO of course.
The only tape machines worth getting in my experience are the UAD plugins. The Studer A800 is great on individual tracks, and the Ampex is fantastic on a master.
I like it on the tracks, but not the overall mix- if not on sale, $300.00 is up to the buyer. The difference does not slap you in the face. The high frequencies are there, no atten at all (except on the + bias settings at the end) A misconception about tape, is that the highs are not as prominent. This simply isn't true, if the deck is lined to the tape optimally. The difference is in the more organic, analog sound. The light compression occurs on the low end first, and well before distortion sets in.. This is the sweet spot as the bottom end warms. I preferred each track with the effect, vs. the entire mix. (applied overall sounded bad.. no deck distorts that much at 0 VU) The only effect not demonstrated well was the wow/flutter feature. A very slight amount really does add to the feel of analog, but not enough to detect critically. (it's not heard directly, but rather in a sense the music sounds good) I really like how the electric guitar adds color and tonefulness to this mix, otherwise an ok mix!
This plugin worked best on the electric guitar and vocal track where some transient smearing might be a desirable effect. However, it is a "no-go" for the acoustic piano, acoustic guitar and drums due to that effect. All this said, used appropriately and sparingly, this plugin could be useful to have in the DAW tool kit.
With the 888 formulation, 7.5 IPS, +3 bias and adding noise you were sounding great... In reality, the 7.5 IPS would have sent the bass to the roof... and (in the old analog days) vocals needed to be recorded at -10 peaks to keep the harmonic distortion within reason... IMHO, it's worth $29 but no more.
I'm listening on my shelf speakers. Then on my K702s. But I'm only hearing a little change. There is some "fill" in there, and a little addition to the dynamics. But I'm in agreement that its not worth 300$. 50 (current sale price) I might spring for. I think this might be something I reach for if I want a little extra something if I want to play with the dynamic signature of the recording. I could see using it on thin sounding synth patches or on my nasal vocals. I did like the slight bottom end punch in the drums. Wasn't expecting that. I still want to get a pair of Never 542s in a 500 series box. I like how they destroy the audio signal vs this plugin. The real trouble for me is finding the perfect comp and line level amp VSTs to use with it. I tend to swing to hardware comps for that kind of work.
Trust me, this plugin is very obvious on anything. But I have real tape machines, but you cannot emulate that deep open sound they have. However what you can emulate and what they also emulated (mind that the J37 is a super old machine, and later tape machines are much better actually at NOT coloring the sound) is the transparency with slight fuller low end, As real tape (a calibrated machine) is supposed to be flat with very little coloring and well beyond the range of human hearing (mine goes up to 30khz, you can measure this). This matters because the speakers can translate this and it changes how they operate (especially on the low end), even if you cannot hear the range the speakers will act differently. Anyway once you put this plugin in 7.5ISP its a big difference due to high end roll off, and you can also hear the formulas (888 being the oldest, 815 being the newest). I'd say if you cannot hear it its just lack of experience, its really just about practice, same with compressors (and like different compressor types). On a real machine tape saturation comes in much better and at much higher volumes. I haven't heard a plugin which really does it well.
Hi Woody, I've tried a lot of these Tape Saturation vsts (admittedly not on every single track) but nothing i have heard comes close to the WANTED sound, my Reel to Reel machine gives me. Still, nice GUI though.
I don't have a tape recorder but I used to record on an Otari mtr-90, 2 inch. It was great although I didn't have to do the maintenance the studio did that.
Many of these analog emulation plug-ins operate in degrees of minuscule percentages of difference (~1%). It's the je ne sais quoi factor that most engineers would prefer to do without.
I think it would've been a better demo if you repeated the same passage for both settings rather than let the track play and turning the plugin on and off during that continuous play. There's very little difference to my ears, perhaps because the very process of uploading videos to youtube adds it's own compression which probably masks what you hear in your studio. This is a problem with many subtle effect audio demos on youtube.
i bought it over a year ago, on sale for $29. then i had trouble with the installer. then i went to install it today. then waves says "no. you don't actually OWN it. you have to pay the update fee of $40 dollars." they're good plug-ins, but i really hate the way the company operates.
You didnt demo the presets appart from the flutter /delay hiss etc its just subtle compression less than 2,1 put it on the master (save cpu) (if you have allready bought it, just to make you feel good...
did i not add some tape modulation, i don't remember? if you ccheck the manual, if i recall, it is designed to be used on instrument tracks, rather than master, but of course, no fast rules :)
It is funny how years ago we strived for the cleanest digital sound possible and today we try to get back that dirty, fluttery, noisy sound of years gone by. Today’s music is so over processed and compressed, and to top it off people listen to it through those tinny earbuds. Where we go from here I do not know but you cannot beat the vintage natural sound of the past. To me this is just more processing to mask a recording.
I definitely hear it, but not on all instruments. I just wonder: Do you need 299 dollar for a VST that change a track so 'slightly'. Ofcourse you need slight change, in order to get a perfect master. But aren't there vst's already implemented in most DAW's, which archieves the same result? ( or almost the same thing? ) I mean: Is it really worth 299 dollar?! I am just a person who believes 'slight' changes shouldn't be so expensive. 50 dollars should be a great price, though. With this, they are making musicians almost impossible to do a decent job. Hardware, I understand. Software, not so. ( They expect their biggest customers to be musicians with high incomes ? )
I have this plug and I'm not impressed. It gives you SOME .....analog sound, but it sounds kinda weak on full mixes and overloads and distorts quickly for some reason before ever getting a strong gain going. I thought I had some gain staging issues going on when I had it on my master bus but it's the plug. Lol..just ran into the part of this video where you mention that at about 5 mins. If you're going to use a Waves plug for analog sound, I personally prefer the Kramer tape version. But of all of them...I have the UAD Ampex 102 and the Oxide and they're head and shoulders above the others IMO. But whatever works for folks.
Maybe it's just me but, it sounds almost like The King's New Clothes. "Only the clever ones are able to see it" - in this case, tô hear it. I've expected much more dramatic changes on final results... Maybe if they try a not só transparent tape recorder... ...who knows?
so tell me why using windows 10 and 7 64 bit cant i get this plug in to work at all ? anyone care to address this ? i bought the plugin and cant get it to work ive been using daws plugins for years and ive never ran into this issue before
Well, I'm going to buy one at $68 - I have Slate and Kramer, now I've heard Joe Carrel say he uses a J-37 n the 2-Out I'm intrigued to try it - I've never been totally ecstatic about VTM or the Kramer, but I do like them well enough to use them quite a bit. Until you play back your record on a '60's Garrard reference deck with the EMI 'Bumblebee' cartridge through Quad Monoblocks and big Radford speakers who cares anyway?? ;-) LOL
To me SLATE DIGITAL's Tape Machine sounds a bit better than this one . . . . even though i use both (slate digital tape on individual channels + j37 on busses) . . not critisizing j37 at all . . but it kind of have a different flavour to it . . it is much more coloured then SD tAPE MACHINE . . but both are amazing . . . and yes , i prefer j37 over kramer tape :) . but most importantly try for yourself and get to conclusion. cheers .
I think that it brings a warmth to the digital recording. It doesn't make a huge difference in the sound, but that is the point really; not being overbearing. That is what I like about WAVES plugins i.e. their subtle approach to perfecting digital audio. Price of $300? Nope, not a chance. I am sure that a ton of work goes into these plugins, but the majority of us are on tight budgets, and that means you're going to have to appeal to the starving artist's price range. Keep up the good work Woody!
Hi and thanks for the thoughtful analysis. There's some good advice here and I'll pin the comment. Couldn't explore all the settings in length, the video was long enough already. But as always. I would encourage people to download the demo and try it for themselves.
Honestly this makes a pretty massive difference. Its subtle sure, but without the sound is cold and lifeless. The real trick is to play with the wow and flutter and bias.
It's on sale right now for 29$. :)
Has anyone EVER paid Waves regular price? J37 is always $39 (USD)
Always buy it when on sale only 29$
Imagine ever buying a waves plugin not on sale 😵
Who ever thought we'd be nostalgic for tape hiss :)
Heard a bunch of hiss on a track I was just working on mastering. tried to pin it down, track recording? Effect in the chain? Oh yeah, it was AbbeyRhode’s compressor. Very authentic.
This plugin is amazing on vocals, especially when the vocals natural EQ is heavy around the 250-1K range. Best vocal plugin I have used to warm any vocals. Love a little bit of the hiss too c:
I'd like to first say that I've been a mix engineer since the mid 80's, so I am not a noob here. That being said, I had a very difficult time hearing much of a difference enabled and bypassed, etc. I am listening on ATH-M50X headphones as well as Focal monitors in a treated room. The effect is so subtle I have to ask myself if it's worth the money, even at $29. I'd have to say no. I think people think they hear things that aren't really there. A lot of plug ins today are too subtle to be worth bothering with.
Micael L. Is correct!! Read every word he said 2x! You need to go no further! End of story! You can do the same or even better with a saturation & eq plugin. The point is that there is no tape or machine involved! Face the facts. Get a good ssl piece or something etc.. You will get a lot closer to a smooth analog sound. Humble M.E. & mix engineer for decades.😉
I'd like to first say I have no experience with anything at all and I'm just fucking around with a hobby project. I also found it really hard to hear any difference at all in this video, but I did test the plugin out as it was recommended in a thread for what I wanted to do and I can safely say it can add very noticeable effects. Good or bad? I can't say, especially not to someone like you but it did what I wanted it to do.
The plugin definitely makes a difference. If you use some different settings, such as the tape speed, you can definitely get an "opening" effect, like someone lifted the blanket from your song. He used the default settings, which aren't very aggressive. Trust me, this plugin can make a good (and bad) effect on your music. You just have to spend an hour or so with it.
I do use it on the 2 bus, unlike Waves says. Oh well. I like it there.
A lot of these Vintage Hardware Emulations that waves makes are absolute snake oil. Waves makes decent everyday utility plugins like RVOX, H-Delay, H-Comp etc. but all of these one knob, abbey roads, and SSL emulations are average at best. Such a money grab. I have been trying to tell people this for SO LONG. This plugin saturation on this plugin is so unnatural. So what you want about RC-20 but it is a MUCH better plugin and can do SO much more.
Honestly Micheal, with all due respect, you absolutely know more than me about engineering, no doubt. Im using the same headphones too, but when i put it on a mix i can absolutely hear a difference, well more so feel it. This is my favrouite plug in and i pretty much mix 75% of a song with this. Fair enough loading it on 1 channel isnt a crazy diffrence but if you load it up on every channel individually on your song (like they recomend) thats where the €300 price is worth it in my opinion. This plug in ramps up the emotion in a song for me.... But i love tape on everything..... Ive made records on tape before and it fairness it doesnt drive anywhere near as nicely but in moderation it beautiful....also the delay is out of this world
At "15 IPS" the difference is super subtle. I always set this guy to 7.5 IPS. I think the top end rolloff works great on the drum bus.
I’ve been using it a bit and when you do add it to all the track it is amazing.
Hello. I bought this plugin a while ago for $29 and used it a couple of times on whole mixes and thought it was OK but not extraordinary. When I saw your video I wondered whether I'd wasted my money on something that might "do nothing" so I started to re-use it to give it another chance. First I used tone generators and oscilloscope plugins to see what it did. This was since I didn't hear much difference on laptop speakers. From what I saw, it sprang into life when the central mix wheels - usually linked - were used. Sonically a good starting point (in my opinion) was to use the "Abbey Road Default" setting on a single -18db or so track and listen to what it does. On good monitors or headphones you can hear the warmth it brings. So I think its just a little fussier over gainstaging to bring out its character. For $29 I think its fine.
subtle but definitely makes a huge difference in the spirit of it IMO
The subtlety of the plugin is where it best shines. I use this plugin in my mastering chain and it works nicely by adding a slight warmth evening things out with a nice transparent sheen. A small touch of magic. My advice is if you cannot hear what it is actually doing to your mixes, I suggest do not use it until you can hear the differences. More so focus on getting better studio monitors. Headphones really do not cut it and they never will in my opinion when mixing. If that was the case I would have bought the best headphones on planet earth. Instead I invested in some of the best studio monitors.
The effect is definitely there, remember there's no rules in music!!! There's tons of different possibilities you could unravel here. The demo failed to show the flangin/fluttering effect you can get with it. Would I pay 299 for it? heck no, but they're constantly on sale for like 29 bucks., and at that price I would definitely consider it.
I liked the difference. Even though it's digital trying to emulate analog, and really, we're chasing our own tales, just even the hint of a sound that I grew up with is better than none. It added something. I was on the fence, I'll get it for $29, and won't put it on every track, but strap it across the mix bus. Thanks for a great and illustrative video.
Hi Woody, thanks for another great review. Here's a Reaper tip for you friend... If you go to the left hand side of the VST frame, double click on the VST title, and the frame will disappear. The vst will now float without the frame. This way, your vst doesn't take up so much of your screen.
thanks for sharing that! i do that sometimes, even then you get an ugly reaper window around the plugin, but haven't found a way to get rid of that. (like you see on the waves VU meters)
I hadn't tried it on all my channels. Made a huge difference in my rhythm guitar tracks for sure! Really brought out the clarity even at a very low amount..love it. However, this is the "only" plug-in that goes into every Mastering project. It was a night and day comparison for trying to have sonic continuity throughout my album. Worth every penny and then some to me.
The main problem with these "plugin sound tests/comparison" is that while you're listening on >$1000 studio monitors and expecting people to hear what you hear, most everyone isn't and so they think it's not worth the money. The truth is, this plugin IS one of the best tape emulation and analog saturation plugins on the market. Anyone that can't hear the difference or isn't impressed, doesn't know what to listen for or has no experience and most likely can't afford studio monitors to really hear the difference. These tools are best in the hands of people that know what they're doing and what they're talking about. Good review.
the thing is, if you need to be an engineer with 15 years of experience and a $3000 sound reproduction setup in order to hear the difference, who are you engineering for? folks listening to 160kbps mp3s over spotify in their ear buds aren't sound engineers.
to give an answer to that i'd say that mixing is more about a lot of subtle changes summed together, than a couple of heavy moves of eq, comp and saturation etc. the set up is needed to inform you to make accurate decisions in the effort to make a mix translate across every medium, shitty earbuds to top quality set ups. If we were to engineer on shitty earbuds then mixs would only sound good on shitty earbuds (not even). That's how i would justify my set up. and as for the 160kbps thing, every medium of presenting music compresses it in some way. radio, tv, youtube, soundcloud etc. if music were produced in 160kbps and was then ran through the compression of all these mediums i suspect the end result would sound more like an angry fart than a song.
"mixing is more about a lot of subtle changes summed together, than a couple of heavy moves of eq, comp and saturation etc." I totally agree with you on that.
@@matrixate There's also the concept of A/B-ing the mix on the super high-end monitors and the grot-box speakers that are crap and comparing if it still works.
Headphones too. The total stereo separation of headphones is a huge thing in any mix still working on headphones.
It needs to work in the highest possible variety of delivery devices.
Luv and Peace.
Super video! 1st AB test, J37 effect on separate tracks vs. bypass: difference was subtle but I definitely preferred the former. 2nd AB test, J37 effect global vs. bypass: preferred the latter, less subtle; the former just sounded like increased mud/distortion. Very interesting different test conclusions IMO. Again, great work.
I bought it. Not for trying to "warm up" the sound, but rather for a different kind of distortion. If you drive it a little bit, it sounds great on guitars, or if you want a really old sounding distorted vocal track.
Asking if the difference is $300 is quite ridiculous considering that the plugin is on sale more than available for full price. While it is subtle, I can hear a difference, and think that the mix is a little deeper and the low and top end seem more defined with the plugins enabled. Clearly you are using it correctly in a pretty standard way. The actual question should be does #29 or $70 get you closer to a desired "tape sound" without the compared investment of buying, calibrating and maintaining a tape machine, let alone the knowledge of operating in another medium format and buying/properly maintaining tape. Overall its a decent review of the plugin and everyone individually should make their own decision. I personally don't own the plugin... but have several plugins that are meant emulate hardware (2A style , 73-pre's, shadow hills comp, 1176 comp) and am using many of them. For most of us small-project home studio types, of course I think many of us would LOVE to have the real deal instead of plugins, but if you say that software doesn't compare the real thing than you might as well go to a real studio and spend your money to use someone else's gear. Personally I love being able to be at home and work on new ideas without having to book time somewhere and wait for an opening or til I have the funds. Anyway, rant over. Cool song by the way
It adds a decent amount of warmth and character to the sound. I think it's worthwhile, especially at the sale price.
Hi Woody, thank you for this amazing shootout! I can definitely hear the effect both on individual tracks and on the mix. It is significantly more pronounced on some tracks compared to the others. Also, on the mixbus it seems more subtle. I would like to point though that you say "enabled" or "disabled" soon after the change in sound path happens and that makes it harder for me to compare the sound before and after the change - my attention is drawn to your voice and to some extent I forget what the sound was before you enabled or disabled the effect. May be this simply indicates that I am an unexperienced listener. Alternatively this may be a proof that the effect is very subtle. Now, whether it is worth $299 or not - I'd say J37 Tape definitely makes sound warmer, richer and more interesting. Given the current wide choice of options for saturation / enhancement plugins I would price it at $100. But since every now and then it becomes possible to get it for $29 I believe it is totally worth it. I am planning to buy. Thanks!
User manual from Waves says that J37 has best performance when input signal hit plugin into red zone between 1 and 2 db. Then you trim output so you have the same level volume between engaged and bypassed plugin.
The Wow and Flutter effects are to die for. 👌
While I don't think any plugin is worth $300, I only buy bundles on black Friday which saves a shit ton but anyway I use the waves Kramer tape and was disappointed for the first six months until I decided to actually read the manual and am blown away by the difference it makes. The best way to see what it is doing and what levels it is affected at most is by using a 1k sine wave into the tape plugin and spectrum analyser. You will be able to see the harmonics or any distortion it creates and if you see none or too much when you flip the plugin on your levels aren't set right for it and you're right it will do absolutely nothing or create ugly distortion. 0 on the Vu meter should be -18 and is about where you should have your track sitting when it hits the plugin. You can also use a trim gain plugin before the tape and try boosting a few above -18 dbvs and I think anyone who tries this will get way different results and you will be able to hear the effect. Gain staging your plugins is extremely important when it comes to any saturation plugin or emulations even though you might get away ignoring levels with others. I'm far from pro but this lesson made a huge difference for me.
Actually pretty impressive! Thanks for doing that. I will be picking this up today!
To my opinion it does add warmth, but it goes at the expense of some dynamics and hi-freq. It's a choice... and gets more obvious once you have something sounding too clean. But essentially it's a bit of a compressor-like result with a slight more muddy low end. But personally in this song therefore I would rather slash/fatten the vocals a bit with a compressor to get a similar feeling, while leaving the guitar definately untouched to keep max overall dynamic experience and clarity. It's worth the money however if you have a major hit record in hand, and some too clean recordings, while don't know how to solve that.
I use it in all of my mixes and I can definitely hear the difference. I use the mastering options
I couldn't hear much difference except when he saturated the signals but I've used the plug-in in my mixes and it makes a big difference. This plug-in is just not a magical fixer, but if you dig into it, it will be worth the money.
I can certainly tell a difference in that acoustic guitar! Everything else is very subtle, but it makes the acoustic guitar way better, in my opinion. Thanks for this video :)
The settings that work best for me is 815, 7.5 IPS with a +5 Bias... I dunno, that just sounds best on the piano/vocal tracks I mix at church. Thanks for the demo! And yes, I got it at $29 also, during one of 47 sales Waves has per annum. ;-D
Great video. The difference is subtle (but pleasing to the ear) as it should be. J37 and Kramer Master Tape aren't lofi emulations, they're emulations of high end gear so the way they can subtlely help a mix gel together and "fill out" is exactly what they should do. Obviously for the most intense results, low tape speeds and the oldest tape format should be chosen in J37.
It adds a tiny bit of warmth and presence. So I guess it’s the perfect tool when you need, well, a tiny bit more warmth and presence 😂
I got it for free after buying 3 plug ins. Its amazing.
I picked this up after buying the waves diamond bundle. I keep this on my master chain as an option. I’ve found that it ads a bit of warmness and glue to my mixes.
There’s been a time or two that it ended up emphasizing some distortion on the low end. In this case I side chained the mids and highs and paired it with a compressor With make up gain.
I think it’s well worth $29.
It's getting a little 3D dimension, for the price is very good, thanks for sharing!
Hmmm, closed my eyes and tried to hear the difference, but I am not sure I can. What changes I hear is probably coming from you telling me that you are switching the plugin on or off (bypass). I love that you took the effort to do this, though, and especially that you dealt with the volume differences that would otherwise mask the effect of the plugin (though, this might be thanx to the plugin itself). Keep up the wonderful work!
thanks fredrik, i was just as curious as my viewers about the effect that the plugin had, so it worth doing. i thought it was most effective on the master bus actually where it did a bit of compression and saturation, but difference was negligible, at least with these settings.
I should first point out that I'm listening through headphones coming out of my phone. And secondly, it's really important to note how much audio quality is lost on a UA-cam video compared to a normal audio recording. When listening to these examples, I notice changes on some instrument tracks more than others and I think this might be because of how the frequencies of each instrument respond differently to harmonic distortion and saturation caused by the J37. I think you'd have to tweak each track individually to achieve a consistent change that you can hear. I don't think default settings will give a consistently audible change. I appreciate this video though because I was interested to see what others think as I own the plug in. As one guy said however, the UAD tape emulations are superior to waves ones in my view. Thanks for the video man. Love your synth videos too, were very helpful to me in the past when trying to choose a synth to buy! Peace Woody :)
If you are curious about what those plugins actually do to your sound, you can use a spectral analyser and a sine wave (say, at 440hz). Most of those plugins add harmonic distortion in the form of odd harmonic content, with some (often optional) even harmonic. Even harmonic substantially alter the sound adding frequencies that can transform the color, this is a reason why in modern music we have often distorted guitar chords that are either power chords (lack of 3rd) or major chords even when the key normally requires a minor. Another plugin that does very nice and subtle synthesis of odd harmonic is Kush Audio Omega N, also at 29$. It requires the ilok nonsense, but at least just the ilok manager, no dongles. Izotope has Ozone, Neutron and Trash 2, I highly recommend to get Ozone with some special offer since their Vintage Tape is really good, and they offer a bunch of other module that are really superb.
I definitely hear this plug. It is probably more subtle than the magic of the real machine, but on sale it's great I think. To the folks that don't like the character of the distortion when it's cranked: that's what tape does. For the most part it sounds like garbage when pushed that hard. Yes, I own a reel to reel. It's meant to emulate one of the most famously used machines of all time. I think there is interest in that.
For everyone who's saying "I'm an experienced pro and I can't hear any difference at all", I'm not going to argue with you whether you can or can't.
But on the bass track I hear a 3D effect going on. Its subtle but its there. And honestly, the "magic" of good things ARE subtlety. The plugin sounds great.
There is also a slight de-essing effect going on with the vocalist. It's definitely there. What I did was not pay attention to the screen at all...and when I great it I looked at the screen. Enabled. When it sounded a little flat, I looked at the screen again...Disabled. Its there for me guys. Clean your ears.
That was bleed you were hearing maybe you wasnt well that day
I can definitely hear a slight but positive difference on my laptop speakers, but then again, I have good ears for overtones
With the J37 enabled, the song sounded a little more present to me, but in much the same way that a "coloring" compressor would. Given the choice, I think I'd go with a good vintage tube compressor vst instead. As for the delay feature, I think there are better tape delay emulations that offer more options for sonic variance and overall control. Another thing I noticed... Most tape and tube emulations roll off a little bit of the high frequencies. That's part of the character of the old hardware. It sounded a little like the J37 was compensating for that. Please don't get me wrong, I liked the J37, but it probably wouldn't be my first choice if I had other options. Thanks Woody, and have a great day friend.
very good analysis, thanks!
i think i read somewhere that it does compensate for the highs and lows with a broadcast curve that would of been use at that time period
Here's a quick guide to which plugin vendor to choose:
Waves if you have caught the "analog is better" bug but struggle with concepts like pitch, amplitude and frequency
Slate if you have a lumberjack beard, wear a brown leather jacket and drink jack daniels with your coffee
Joseph Puig if you are over 50, drive a buick and have a Genesis shrine in your basement
U-HE if every time you turn a knob, your knob turns also, your bedding has printed knobs and dream each night of knobs
Sugar Bytes if you are under 21, want make edm, go to timewarp each year and your role model is David Guetta
Rob Papen if you live in Berlin, dress in black and attend weekly sunday sermons at the church of Berghain
UAD if you strongly believe you are a man, need to prove to yourself that you are a man and also have fat bank account
I see, you are man of culture
Vinyl only Dj putting his 5 cents :D
I like it. I don't care about "analog warmth" as such, but I found it to be useful and fun to work with. Not Worth 300 dollars though I would not spend that Money on any VST at this Point. For the price of 29 it is however almost Worth it just to look at the Visuals...
I could just sit and look at those spinning reels all day long...
But as usual, I Think it is better to Think of these things as their own rather than the emulations they are claimed to be.
Subtle, but made me buy it for the next production. Apart from the tape sound, it's a nice warm distortion and a very well-sounding tape delay!
I heard the difference immediately, and I mean, I threw it on two problematic tracks I've been struggling with, and in both cases, the J37 kicked it out. It is a difference maker.
Some companies do a really great job at emulating tape warmth like DUY but unfortunately all i hear in this plugin is saturation(OL) not really that true tape warmth character we'r all looking for.. it really is a great looking DUI tho that i must say hehe!! Great video Woody!!
i can definitely hear it. that's what u call glue, guys! :-) #sold
One quick tip for this sort of rather sublime plug-ins: Pick a track of your favorite music, which you know very well, and listen to it through the plugin(s). Then you'll be able to quickly understand what it does. And in many cases you might say: No, I don't want that in my music! (You could also try this with your typical mastering or mixing channel/bus..)
Not enough time is given to the piano and vocal to hear the difference. Switching back and forth so quickly prevents us from hearing the same passage with and without the effect.
I knew that those exact mix files as soon as I heard that acoustic guitar hahahaha
I understand that it gives some warmth to each instrument and saturation to taste. But it depends a lot on the recording and trimming of the high frequencies in the mix
Thank you for doing this. The differences are subtle but there. Used as recommended (an instance on each track), you get a cumulative effect which interestingly enough, seems to gel all tracks together.
What was interesting though is having it on the master bus didn't do it for me. Without it it sounds much more open, while with it on, the mix sounds somewhat muddy.
I hear clear difference when I use it for mastering or at the end of a complete mix. It brings a unique kind of musicality to the mix.
i admit that at this mix In do not hear much.
Maybe distorted guitars are better suited for this.
Be sure to try the presets to get an idea what is possible.
I own the j37. But I prefer the Kramer tape. But I still use the j37 from time to time. Yes, it is very subtle. This plugin sounds best when it is dialed in subtle. I always use it when I have 2 or 4 acoustic tracks running to a buss. The Kramer doesn't sound as good on a acoustic buss. But the Kramer is much better on a electric guitar buss.
Also, I find that the J37 performs best when it gets -12db, rms. With the Kramer, best performance is -18 rms, with the input turned down even farther and the output turned way up to make up the volume loss.
So I think the J37 works better than folks give it credit for. It really needs to have a hotter input, and sounds better in a treated room with some quality monitoring. A UA-cam video is not a good representation of this plugin.
If you want a heavy handed tape plug, go with the Kramer.
This is an excellent, informative, well done video. Thank you!!
Yes! Directly! Warmer tighter sound on the flat VST Sounds!
I have been using overdriven 10 band EQ on my digital synths for an analog sound. Outboard analog graphic EQ overdriven (+db) coupled with 10 to 31 bands of EQ really fine tunes the synths sound making the instrument larger or smaller. I would guess this technique could be used with any instrument.
The turning reels are cool. Formula/Speed; subtle yet audible. Level Link/Noise Level ; like having separate volume and gain knobs on an amp. Bias; worthless. Delay; who needs another delay? Modeled Tracks/Wow/Flutter; good for trippy and creative automation (Electronic/House/Trance, etc.) Nice VU meters. I wanted to use the J37 for mixing dynamics, but, no-go. it's saving grace is that the lower half controls have somewhat unique features 2 B explored. Otherwise, just use an Aural Exciter...and DON'T use it as part of your final mix bundle. Condolences to all who spent the $299. Peace.
Really just slightly compressed. Thanks for sharing! Almost wasted money on this.
Thanks for the video, nicely done although I wish you had run a little harder into the headroom for even more saturation. It would have really made the warmth even more obvious, yeah it may sound a little dirty if you go too far but I remember when CD's came out; I refused to buy them for quite a few years because of what was missing in the sound. Going to buy this pluggin
i think i pushed it pretty much into the sweet spot, any more and you get some unpleasant sounding dist, grab it when it's on sale, waves have a sale every other week :) cheers
@@WoodyPianoShack There's more to this plugin than pushing the input/output wheels. The most obvious sweetness is in bias and saturation adjustment. Plus, it's quite an amazing tape delay. In my opinion of course. Thanks for the video btw :)
A plugin needs tweeks to serve its purpose not simply setting it to the default settings, different musical instruments and elements require different tweeks to get a great result. Appreciating the work of software developers is very important, calling the J37 Tape crap as some of the subscribers say isn't cool and it actually reveals how much a person knows about music production.
In this song it brings alot of warmth and smooths out the highs but in this mix maybe that doesn't work so well as there is alot of low mids, Ive found it works well on something that sounds a little harsh and a little thin. Also not alot of transients in here maybe a little bit of the guitar but tape does have a bit of an effect on transients especially in the high end.
I saw a video with Butch Vig and he said it sounded vibey!
Some say to use this after NLS .. but even when running at 96,000hz I think too many "analogue" plugins will start add up and show aliasing and dullness on the treble, mid range and bass
If you want saturation - you need to push the volume on the inputs to the red
that's how you achieve saturation - saturation will sound different with each tape formula
hi yotam! this is exactly what i was doing. there is a very fine when pushing into the red between some slight pleasant saturation and very ugly sounding clipping.
it seems more useful to me as an effect that could be used on anemic sounding track but not on everything. It seems to make the low end a little more up front. Not quite as creamy as real tape. You could probably get close to the same results with a compressor that includes saturation. It would have been interesting if the plugin included a 30ips setting with the proper equalization curve. Also, a tape width setting might have been nice, but to be fair, the plugin was designed to emulate a certain tape machine with all of its idiosyncrasies. All of this is IMHO of course.
The only tape machines worth getting in my experience are the UAD plugins. The Studer A800 is great on individual tracks, and the Ampex is fantastic on a master.
The only tape machines worth getting in my experience are tape machines.
I like it on the tracks, but not the overall mix- if not on sale, $300.00 is up to the buyer. The difference does not slap you in the face. The high frequencies are there, no atten at all (except on the + bias settings at the end) A misconception about tape, is that the highs are not as prominent. This simply isn't true, if the deck is lined to the tape optimally. The difference is in the more organic, analog sound. The light compression occurs on the low end first, and well before distortion sets in.. This is the sweet spot as the bottom end warms. I preferred each track with the effect, vs. the entire mix. (applied overall sounded bad.. no deck distorts that much at 0 VU) The only effect not demonstrated well was the wow/flutter feature. A very slight amount really does add to the feel of analog, but not enough to detect critically. (it's not heard directly, but rather in a sense the music sounds good) I really like how the electric guitar adds color and tonefulness to this mix, otherwise an ok mix!
This plugin worked best on the electric guitar and vocal track where some transient smearing might be a desirable effect. However, it is a "no-go" for the acoustic piano, acoustic guitar and drums due to that effect. All this said, used appropriately and sparingly, this plugin could be useful to have in the DAW tool kit.
one of the best keep the rest...
With the 888 formulation, 7.5 IPS, +3 bias and adding noise you were sounding great... In reality, the 7.5 IPS would have sent the bass to the roof... and (in the old analog days) vocals needed to be recorded at -10 peaks to keep the harmonic distortion within reason... IMHO, it's worth $29 but no more.
I'm listening on my shelf speakers. Then on my K702s. But I'm only hearing a little change. There is some "fill" in there, and a little addition to the dynamics. But I'm in agreement that its not worth 300$. 50 (current sale price) I might spring for. I think this might be something I reach for if I want a little extra something if I want to play with the dynamic signature of the recording. I could see using it on thin sounding synth patches or on my nasal vocals. I did like the slight bottom end punch in the drums. Wasn't expecting that.
I still want to get a pair of Never 542s in a 500 series box. I like how they destroy the audio signal vs this plugin. The real trouble for me is finding the perfect comp and line level amp VSTs to use with it. I tend to swing to hardware comps for that kind of work.
Trust me, this plugin is very obvious on anything. But I have real tape machines, but you cannot emulate that deep open sound they have. However what you can emulate and what they also emulated (mind that the J37 is a super old machine, and later tape machines are much better actually at NOT coloring the sound) is the transparency with slight fuller low end, As real tape (a calibrated machine) is supposed to be flat with very little coloring and well beyond the range of human hearing (mine goes up to 30khz, you can measure this). This matters because the speakers can translate this and it changes how they operate (especially on the low end), even if you cannot hear the range the speakers will act differently. Anyway once you put this plugin in 7.5ISP its a big difference due to high end roll off, and you can also hear the formulas (888 being the oldest, 815 being the newest). I'd say if you cannot hear it its just lack of experience, its really just about practice, same with compressors (and like different compressor types). On a real machine tape saturation comes in much better and at much higher volumes. I haven't heard a plugin which really does it well.
Guitars really pop out at you when the j37 is enabled
I'm glad so many professional mixers with such great ears are always weighing in on these sorts of plugin demos **smdh**
Meanwhile listening to a compressed and normalised youtube audio stream
Hi Woody, I've tried a lot of these Tape Saturation vsts (admittedly not on every single track) but nothing i have heard comes close to the WANTED sound, my Reel to Reel machine gives me. Still, nice GUI though.
yeah I agree I think its almost impossible to emulate that tape sound.
djGreen -I'm getting out of digital. What tape machine are you running?
I don't have a tape recorder but I used to record on an Otari mtr-90, 2 inch. It was great although I didn't have to do the maintenance the studio did that.
Hi Russ, a Pioneer RT909. It doesn't distort so much, it growls at you!
djGreen -Have you ever slammed drums into it?
Many of these analog emulation plug-ins operate in degrees of minuscule percentages of difference (~1%). It's the je ne sais quoi factor that most engineers would prefer to do without.
I think it would've been a better demo if you repeated the same passage for both settings rather than let the track play and turning the plugin on and off during that continuous play. There's very little difference to my ears, perhaps because the very process of uploading videos to youtube adds it's own compression which probably masks what you hear in your studio. This is a problem with many subtle effect audio demos on youtube.
i imagine if you really want that tape sound you'd go 7.5 ips
I like U-he Satin. While not $29, it's reasonable and excellent.
so good, trust me
i bought it over a year ago, on sale for $29. then i had trouble with the installer. then i went to install it today. then waves says "no. you don't actually OWN it. you have to pay the update fee of $40 dollars." they're good plug-ins, but i really hate the way the company operates.
Nice video Woody
You didnt demo the presets appart from the flutter /delay hiss etc its just subtle compression less than 2,1 put it on the master (save cpu) (if you have allready bought it, just to make you feel good...
did i not add some tape modulation, i don't remember? if you ccheck the manual, if i recall, it is designed to be used on instrument tracks, rather than master, but of course, no fast rules :)
It is funny how years ago we strived for the cleanest digital sound possible and today we try to get back that dirty, fluttery, noisy sound of years gone by. Today’s music is so over processed and compressed, and to top it off people listen to it through those tinny earbuds. Where we go from here I do not know but you cannot beat the vintage natural sound of the past. To me this is just more processing to mask a recording.
I definitely hear it, but not on all instruments. I just wonder: Do you need 299 dollar for a VST that change a track so 'slightly'. Ofcourse you need slight change, in order to get a perfect master. But aren't there vst's already implemented in most DAW's, which archieves the same result? ( or almost the same thing? ) I mean: Is it really worth 299 dollar?!
I am just a person who believes 'slight' changes shouldn't be so expensive. 50 dollars should be a great price, though. With this, they are making musicians almost impossible to do a decent job. Hardware, I understand. Software, not so. ( They expect their biggest customers to be musicians with high incomes ? )
many slight changes are the thing that turns a bad mix into a good mix. Or a good mix into a perfect mix.
It’s crazy, because you can’t really hear it, but you notice that it’s missing when bypassed.
Well you can hear it if you know it's missing, you have to listen to what it changes exactly.
I couldn’t hear much difference at all, really, before you added the artefacts at the end.
I have this plug and I'm not impressed. It gives you SOME .....analog sound, but it sounds kinda weak on full mixes and overloads and distorts quickly for some reason before ever getting a strong gain going. I thought I had some gain staging issues going on when I had it on my master bus but it's the plug. Lol..just ran into the part of this video where you mention that at about 5 mins.
If you're going to use a Waves plug for analog sound, I personally prefer the Kramer tape version. But of all of them...I have the UAD Ampex 102 and the Oxide and they're head and shoulders above the others IMO. But whatever works for folks.
Does anyone actually ever pay full price for Waves plugins? I always figured it was like Udemy course prices in that regard.
yes i can. one of the best plugins in market.
nice video man. just subsribed to your channel. this helped in making my choice on whether to buy this or not :)
Maybe it's just me but, it sounds almost like The King's New Clothes. "Only the clever ones are able to see it" - in this case, tô hear it.
I've expected much more dramatic changes on final results...
Maybe if they try a not só transparent tape recorder...
...who knows?
i started paying attention at 1:38 :)
so tell me why using windows 10 and 7 64 bit cant i get this plug in to work at all ? anyone care to address this ? i bought the plugin and cant get it to work ive been using daws plugins for years and ive never ran into this issue before
Well, I'm going to buy one at $68 - I have Slate and Kramer, now I've heard Joe Carrel say he uses a J-37 n the 2-Out I'm intrigued to try it - I've never been totally ecstatic about VTM or the Kramer, but I do like them well enough to use them quite a bit. Until you play back your record on a '60's Garrard reference deck with the EMI 'Bumblebee' cartridge through Quad Monoblocks and big Radford speakers who cares anyway?? ;-) LOL
It’s a big difference.
To me SLATE DIGITAL's Tape Machine sounds a bit better than this one . . . . even though i use both (slate digital tape on individual channels + j37 on busses) . . not critisizing j37 at all . . but it kind of have a different flavour to it . . it is much more coloured then SD tAPE MACHINE . .
but both are amazing . . . and yes , i prefer j37 over kramer tape :) .
but most importantly try for yourself and get to conclusion.
cheers .
I would put my money in a de-esser...
De-esser from RX8 Elements is also good.
How many you want?
Nevermind, lol.
Awesome! review thanks for sharing your video was so heplful