Ik Multimedia tape machines is oversampled to 384kHz, its personally my favorite. I agree it could use auto-gain, but after doing a shootout myself with them the IK sounded the best to me. Felt like it had more depth and a nicer glue than the others. Great video as always!
The model he chose on this shootout is my least favorite of the T Racks tapes haha. The T Racks 80 has been pure magic on the mixbus for me on a slew of recordings I’ve done.
After recent shootout review.....have to say the Softube is better for a Mastering Situation...it adds a more subtle open tape color....perfect for the whole mix....
Okay, due to this video I downloaded "chow tape model". As I know tape machines and actually know what those parameters refer to it is not too overwhelming to set it to my preferences and liking. Gotta say: I love it! I didn't expect it to sound that good! It was the result of a university research project and damn, it is really, really great! The "drift" parameter is pure magic - as long as you dial in tiniest doses and don't overdo it.
Yeah, agree. I’d like to hear each plugin being used on a simple loop - both on the individual parts (bass drums vocals etc) and the mix bus. The complex program (sandstorm by darude) may match Wytse’s workflow, but it’s ever changing nature means you can’t always follow what’s in the mix vs what the plugin does. Whereas a simple drum loop, a bass sound, a short vocal sample, makes it pretty obvious what the effect is.
I use the Slate and Softube tape plugs every session. I think the "best" option really depends on what you want the tape to do. Subtle saturation? Fattening? Bringing out the high mids? Blown out tape compression? De-harshing cymbals? Softube (particularly the B tape) really adds smooth fatness to anything. And it shines brightly when saturated. It is AMAZING on hammond and other organ/key sounds when pushed hard. Good on a drum bus. Slate VTM maybe does more than just what a tape machine does. On the master bus it enhances the stereo image, brings things "forward", and does have a bit of tapey HF rolloff. Used at 15ips it has the subtle LF bump, especially on the 456 setting. Good on drums, bass, vocals but not so much kick drums. Where I use it all the time is on hand percussion, acoustic guitar and sometimes snare - it tames transients like no other "soft clipper". Apply it to a clip and watch what it does to the waveform. It does sound pretty screechy when driven hard, unlike the Softube Tape which warms things up. Nice video bruuuh
Sup , tape should be like the last plug in the master chain? Like instead of compressor? Cause i use some eq and then ssl comp, so i can use tape instead of ssl comp?
Thanks for shootout. I’ve been usin* Softube Tape and Airwindows Tape for years. However, the shootout didn’t really help as were hearing different parts of the song with different plugins. It would have been far more helpful to just loop the same 2 or 4 bars of different parts of the track for each plugins.
The best emulation is the one that matches aesthetically with the track you're working on.There's no good or bad with all of the above plugins. Back in the day you use to go to a studio with a specific console and specific gear to acquire a specific sound.The same applies on these too.Great video btw
The tape machine Signal Noise SN03-G Tape Recorder sounds good and the guy let's you use it because you have a negative budget. Give it a try I use it on the slower speed always 7.5 ips. I like the sound it gives better than some of the more expensive options.
I use and am very fond of the UAD Studer A800, which is very versatile and flexible. Helps add warmth to a mix and sounds amazingly good. Many options.
After recent shootout review.....have to say the Softube is better for a Mastering Situation...it adds a more subtle open tape color....perfect for the whole mix....Ive got the UAD Studer and its better on Drums....than the whole mix...in my opinion
While the I don't work in the audio industry, I do work with software engineers and programmers. It's amazing how a programmer can focus so much on the function of something and they forget that an actual person has to use the thing they are making. So often, user experience is set by the side of a programming project. It's sad for the reasons you've described. I've seen you despair so many time on this one thing and when you get automatic gain compensation it just lights you up with joy.
Now I'm angry with myself for not giving a +1 to Airwindows offerings in the comment section of your previous video.. I thought they get mentioned enough by others :'( but at least Chow made it. Great stuff, Wytse!
Doesn't matter. He's looked at ToTape before, plus I added a much better flutter algorithm to the most recent TapeDelay, and best of all, Wytze is the one who put up a video not long ago where he shot out a bunch of plugins against a real, literal, tape machine. The audio reference of that is going to be a huge help when doing the new iteration of ToTape, and I'm very grateful to Wytze for that video. It's way more helpful than a shout-out :) anyway I got a shoutout from Andrew Huang in April when I was updating everything for M1. He's stuck using Ableton Live so to some extent he's waiting on Ableton to be M1 native (native plugins and Rosetta DAW doesn't work well) but I've got it covered for everything that's VST :) So, not a problem. Love you Wytse! :)
After recent shootout review.....have to say the Softube is better for a Mastering Situation...it adds a more subtle open tape color....perfect for the whole mix....
Very interesting video Wytse! It's good to hear your opinion on the different plugins. I have actually had some email conversations with the guys at u-he about the aliasing in Satin and it turns out that the artifacts are not supposed to be there. The issue has persisted since 2015 or earlier, but since apparently no one cared enough to report or point it out, it never got fixed. Since the developer of Satin left u-he last year as well, it will probably take a bit of time until the new devs can get around to fixing this issue. Some experimenting showed that the culprit might be the saturation stage before the actual tape emulation that might not be included in the OS path or have its lowpass filter disabled for some reason. The actual reason is not totally clear yet, these are just educated guesses that might or might not be true.
ChowTape all the way for me. 😀👍 1. I get to do any type of tape saturation I want [and it used to be just a Sony TC-260 emulation]. 2. It goes up to 16x oversampling. 3. Free of charge. 🤯👍
I'm using Softube Tape for a while now, it's almost on every mixes/masters i do when I do feel it needs it. I like to drive the input to get some more character. Really love it. Tried some more, but always came back to that Softube one. It sounds very good to my personal tastes.
After recent shootout review.....have to say the Softube is better for a Mastering Situation...it adds a more subtle open tape color....perfect for the whole mix....
@@aviatedviewssound4798 I've used them all, and I've tracked to real tape many times. Chow Tape is the most authentic emulation I've ever heard, and I don't mean as a special effect... Ik Multimedia is next, then Softube.
@@gulagwarlord Are you sure you've used them with the correct settings, i also use real reel to reel tape. with the softube i had to put the stability to 99.9, the crosstalk to 50% and the amount to 10 as it is just a dry/wet knob then just back down the input and compensate with the output or even use the headroom to calibrate it. while with fly wheel i could do more even tho it needed a little more tweaking it gave me more warmth and vintage flavor. i like chow but it is so hard to get that vintage warmth color but the artifacts that tape has it emulates them very well and you can go to the extreme compare to others, who knows the tape machine that i like you probably wouldn't like them as i like a little bit of color or sheen to material.
@@aviatedviewssound4798 I'll try those settings for sure... I usually like tape for the fat saturation and compression profile it adds... not really for color. It adds a lot of loudness and tape compression seems to sound better to my ears than just trying to get 6 db of gain reduction on my bus compressor... but it really depends on the source material. I also like the way it makes drums seem to pop out of the speakers and hype up the sound of everything else. Try the Clean and Fat preset in Chow on some sources or even the 2-bus to hear what I mean. The sheen from the tape emulations usually seems to come from the built in eq and I used to get fooled by that but I prefer to do that with separate eq's. Cheers.
I've been using TB Reelbus for awhile, it weirdly makes me feel more confident in my mixes. Don't think I could ever skip out on using a tape sim ever again.
I was extremely impressed with Chow! Generally I pull back the low end bass boost when using Slate. Softube had a great "syrupy" controlled sound. Taip sounded way too gritty and lofi grainy for me in general use (not what I go for tape plugins to do - it was more like a bitcrusher).
If you do some reading into Jatin Chow's Tape Machine, you find it is one of the more powerful and versatile tape plugins. There are papers and open source code available to get in depth with his process. He incorporates a choice of several types of mathematical Hysteresis algorithms for the plugin which is unique to this type of plugin. And he reveals that many plugin companies are using neural networks to create the algorithms in much of the plugin software being created today, his plugin included. I think its one of the most powerful plugins available for free. You could virtually dial in the sound of any physical tape machine ever created.
Wow the Slate was my least favorite sound, harsh (mid-highs) and yet dark (less airy highs) at the same time. Amazing that Chow is free! I found it not quite as smooth as the Softube and Satin but still lovely and clear (less lows and more mid-lows so perhaps not as powerful as the Sony...). Thanks for the tip, Wytse! Really appreciate this video. I think it's gonna be one of your most popular ever. "Wow" is pronounced "uau" perhaps in Dutch, not the same as "whoa" (uou)
Dunno is the shown settings for CHOWTape are representative for what WSS was using to process the track, but if they were, it was emulating essentially an "ideal" tape, so only really applying the hysteresis and not the "smear" filtering that tape introduces.
When you increase the input on the Slate Digital (depends on the modelled tape machine ), the sound waveform slowly turns into an analog style square wave, it can distort really hard specially with the bias control and creates aliasing (Satin is the best plugin because it has internal oversampling). I checked how the plugin behaves with Plugin doctor and the lack of oversampling is a huge oversight. You put VTM inside DDMF Metaplugin with 4x oversampling and sounds very good and a beast.
Headcrusher by Audio Assault (the paid version is good although the recent V2 update is buggy, they have oversampling), and Tape Cassette 2 by Caelum Audio are both free and really good. Both more limited than Chow, but I use them more than Chow
I have the Slate and the T Racks and the TRacks murders the Slate every time. Slate has some very good plugins that I use every day but for tape emulation the T Racks is on a different level IMO.
Wowwwwww your hardware tape machine is amazing!!!! What a sound!!!! 😳 Incredible. It's the first time I hear a real tape machine, i never liked tape emulation plugins, i think they sound unnatural, but after this video I'm shocked with the hardware. It's like a magic texture. Wow. Great video! Saluti dall'Italia 🇮🇹
Out of all these I liked the sound from slate, & baby audio taip, of course the hardware sounds amazing, but I can’t believe Kramer tape from waves on here that’s my personal favorite tape emulation plugin!
I own TAIP and the default settings are super crunchy on the mix buss. If you turn the drive down to -3 to -6 db, turn the noise off, turn the glue down, and turn the hi.low shape up a bit, and you get a much more subtle effect on master. In this shootout, the glue setting is what I'm hearing and the glue setting is a really powerful tape compression knob, but it is set too high for a mix buss in this example.
The Chow Tape Model does have presets. You should've used the TC-260 preset in your testing as a baseline. The default settings have everything turned off basically. Also, Chow's plugins are free AND open source, which puts them immediately head-n-shoulders above everything else that is proprietary and DRM-riddled.
Yup, it still applies the hysteresis model, but other than that, the "default" preset is pretty much an "ideal" tape - you get none of the smearing that attenuates the highs, the fattening from head bump, etc.
Very cool video! i don't know if is commented in here but what i like about SATIN is the compander (multiband or full band compression -- expansion), you have the mix, encoder, decoder controls, and its magic is that compresses the signal before it hits the tape, and then expands the signal after the tape, then you have the mix control to mix the amount with the original emulating parallel processing, love this how it sounds in percussive elements.
I totally agree with you! What makes Chow great for me is the sound and the "price" (free). Sure, it would be nice if a simple control interface would be added and only if you want to dig deeper to click a button and open this interface. Softube sounded really great, easy to use. Slate is pretty great too, the interface is really good, easy on the eyes.
I know the guy who does Chow! He's Jatin Chowdhury and we both help out with the Surge Synth project. Chow contributed the cutoff warp and resonance warp filter types, which might be my favorite in Surge. Big fan! His Chow Tape is also built into Surge Synth as a native effect, BTW :)
All of the Chow plugins are amazing. Quite often using Tape, Matrix Delay and his Centaur clone. (his new "Build Your Own Distortion" plugin is also fun).
Not surprised Softube is on top. I listened to a podcast with the founder Niklas. He's a mathematician, with a masters degree in computer engineering and signal processing. It was really interesting because they spend so much time on math and calculating the signal flow for each component. Think about that for a second... each component. That takes time.
- Wytse Gerichhause: repairing, calibrating, baking tape for hardware tape machine on a regular basis; - also Wytse Gerichhause: can't handle couple of options and the manual for the best VST tape plugin (which is u-he Satin, of course). Epic And by the way, u-he Satin has convenient presets for the most use cases if you do not want to dial parameters yourself. But you need to at least inspect the plugin, or RTFM. Wytse is really an anecdotal example of high engeneering competence and incompetence at the same time. Guess we like him for that :) For those who is still reading this: forget all tape plugins and use either Satin (this is really the best tape plugin, even better than hardware tape machines) or free Chow plugin. Do not waste your money and time.
I picked a clear winner- the one with the purple spools. Then I realised that your "real" tape machine was in the shootout. The Softube was my favourite from the rest. I agree with another comment here that the Slate can sound a bit harsh (as can the T-Racks) On this track the U-He sounds less punchy than the rest. Difficult to tell with just one track.
The T Racks 80 (Studer A80) is phenomenal. I’ve never done a direct A/B but years ago I made a record through a Studer A80 and the IK version feels soooo much like it to me. The Softube gets used on every single production I do, usually on individual elements I want to “de-digitize” and add some syrup to. It’s just a nice sounding plug-in
T-racks is the most natural emulation of this and you can test it by yourself just to try stereo sine wave through it and check natural phase distortions in oscilloscope on output. It's what you see while calibrating heads on real tape machines. Other ones does not have that and sound of that plugins often seems static. Besides, it has a pronounced glue effect. But, yea - slate sounds very, very cool.
I use Satin almost on every mix on the master and on tracks. Very nice sounding emulation, very useful subtle and musical controls. I recommend to see Dan Worrall’s video about Compander feature in Satin, no any other tape simulation plugin has it. What Satin can’t do is overdriving the tape the way IK tape emulation plugins does. When I need hardly saturated tape sound I can’t get it from Satin. It saturates but in different way. So I use it for clean sounding needs and that’s what Satin does very well. Not having auto gain in IK Tape is very annoying, that’s so true. But it drives very nice and Bias knob works more dirty than in Satin, that can add to character if needed. After this video I really want to try Softube emulation. Seems like it’s very good. Thanks for your video!
Some plugins solve every auto gain issue, but I agree with you. It should not be a big deal to integrate it into the plugins. Thanks for the great review.
Yup. That and the Studer A800. I have way too many (but I’m not sorry) tape emulation plugins, and I’ll use different ones for different purposes. After all, they all emulate different machines, different tape models, etc etc. So comparisons unfortunately can be done so far. But I can’t remember the last mix where I didn’t use the ATR on the master, regardless of the genre. Same with the A800. That said, the Softube is usually my next best (especially since I only have a single core dsp on my UAD interface). Still, I have to say I was surprised by the Chow.
I have to say that I barely heard any difference between the plugins when listening with closed eyes (I listened with the extremely resolving Sennheiser HD800 headphones). Without a blind listening test we have to be extremely careful to not get biased from the interface, the manufacture we like and thus expect better sound or just the simple fact that we expect a change when we see the next plugin playing. Maybe a follow-up blind listening test could be interesting :)
couldn't agree with this more. I think in this world we live in today, the tools are NOT the issue. not saying my ears are the best, but while I can hear VERY subtle differences, they aren't so far apart that one vs. another will make or break a mix. want control? get THAT one. want less options? get THAT one. but they ALL sound great to my ears. so agreed that we have to be careful with manufacturer/developer and GUI bias when measuring these things. because when I closed my eyes, all I was thinking was "great sound and great mix"!
I thought I was the only one! With only careful listening the only thing i could tell was the crunch of the snare but honestly that's because I was looking for difference otherwise I wouldn't have known
Listen closely to what it does to the snare! Especially his analog tape machine makes it warm and when you switch to TAIP it makes it more harsh and less warm, same for the Slate one. Would've been better to just loop the same part for comparison though
I cant say which one is the best as I have never used a hardware tape machine to compare, but if u are asking which one sounds the best the U-HE Satin to my ears wins hands down
I thought the IK sounded the best with chow in second place. I know the lack of auto-gain is a sticking point for you but there is a possible solution, because you mentioned being able to use both hands on the physical real machine. You could assign to hardware controller knobs to in and out gain. They probably would be too sensitive for getting it right but there is probably a way to do scaling, so the 128 midi range gives say just 5 db =+/-. There are velocity scaling plugins, there are also probably midi CC scaling plugins or something that comes with your daw. I used to use Nuendo/Cubase and they had tons of stuff like that. I appreciate your video and especially that you knew to just go back and forth between units multiple times without stopping. So many people seem to not know to do this and stop while playing the same section on another device/plugin. By that point your mind has forgotten the sound. Great also you compared against the real machine, which to me showed up most of these plugins other than the IK and Chow. I like softube and use it as a thickener or gloss, but I don't think it sounds like tape at all. Thanks again.
Slate VTM has setting for 2 inch or half inch tape, your own machine uses 2 inch, half inch is best for final mix, while 2 inch is better on individual tracks. nice shootout.
I've been using the Waves J37 plugin for a while, and I'm able to get a nice warm distortion with it. Not sure how close it is to the actual Abbey Road machine, but it's useful anyway. Great on a master bus after the compressor to "glue" it all together.
The Softube one when used with Studio One can be used as MixFX and that's just amazing. I tend to use that all the time while mixing. I like the IK Multimedia one for single tracks.
I have been using Slate VTM almost 10 years now. I have used T-Racks tape machines and at first I had trouble using them. Sounding good but a pain to use, So i created my default presets for example 15ips 456 with different bias, in levels HF LF etc , then 30ips 456 with same variations etc etc etc... took me a few hours to figure out the configurations i wanted. So now I just recall instantly and it has become one of my best tape plugins. Also I did demo satin when it came out, felt it was too much for me. Felt like i was inventing the ideal tape machine from the ground up, didnt think of making my own presets so i didnt dive more into satin. havnt tried the soft tube nor the baby audio taip. Just checked out Chow tape and im impressed by the options. its also free. I have to make my own default presets of custom tape machines - tape stock and see how it goes. For now anything i do just makes my sound more lo fi so i have to be thinkful of what parameters to modify.
Oh, watched it again on the monitor and now I see - Satin is in Vintage mode - that's why it sound "smaller", also pretty high crosstalk setting make it more narrow.
I'm 100% positive the IK tape machines are internally oversampled to 384kHz. That's the reason for the high CPU usage. Fun fact there is also some Convolution going on! 🙂
here's my thing, and it really is a "my thing" thing. when i want tape qualities, i want it to be a special effect. which is why i always reach for AudioThing's Reels. Old worn out tape, super slow (1.75 ips). when using tape i want it to sound old. not just "warm" or adding "more weight." i want the sound to be messed up. for getting that analog sound, well my audioscape's d-comp just sits on my master bus. but i will say, your tape machine, to my untrained ears, sounds better. it's "darker" without getting muddy, which i always prefer.
Yes same here, I keep an old Marantz laying around to really really degrade things. And half the time when I think I want a “tape sound” I actually just want some parallel compression and a low/mid boost.
Softube Tape FTW. I used Kramer Master Tape for years but was never totally convinced. You can do some cool things with Kramer but never really felt like it really added that “magic sauce”. Bought Softube Tape on sale, dropped it on a track and it was an epiphany.
@@payso1382 I have not tried it to be able to compare - I have been on a move away from Waves because I think their upgrade plan is ridiculous - I've no problem paying for updates but the cost of their update plans isn't equal to the additional performance/feature set they deliver. Because Softube's Tape works so well for me, I also haven't been looking at other options either. Sorry I can't help you on that one!
I have most of these plugs, and use them all for different purposes. The T-Racks is unquestionably the best sounding one of the ones I own as it is the most naturally transparent and most similar to my 2" machine. Real tape machines are set it and forget it... So I don't really understand the argument that you need to be able to get in there and change settings and have automatic level compensation... That actually isn't a reflection of the real world, as nice as that would be to have in a plug-in. Both the Softtube and the Slate I've used for many years now and now they're relegated to duties when I want something to get obviously warmed up or dulled down, which they do very well.
It's scary how all the plugins sound great but the real one sounds just right. It's night and day when you switch from the plugin to the hardware and vice-versa. The plugins sounds more mid focused to me. The hardware machine kinda pulls the mids back and opens up the top end. I also noticed that the plugins might be a little louder than the real tape. Great, great video! Thanks!
Guys, get the Softube vst. What you heard here was the proper use of the vst. Subtle. BUT, the Softube vst can also give you wonderful saturation that is less subtle. And I mean wonderful. It is the best saturation I have ever heard. You can push it and push it and it will get better and better for a long time before it goes past its best. You can use on tracks and the master. If you have Studio One it integrates into the console and it sounds faberooti. I can't speak about the others, but I can tell you the Softube plugin is great.
I have....literally all mainstream Tape Emu's. Softube Tape is my most essential plugin, especially for orchestral strings. I can't say any one plugin is better than another. They all sound different. My philosophy: if one doesn't give you the sound you're looking for, try another. As a side note, Softube Tape can sound both super transparent or very driven. It is one of the best-developed Tape emulation plugins I have ever used.
@@kingivey4672 its really awesome, I think I got it for 39? It's not as CPU heavy as the IK one too so I use it a ton on individual instruments, awesome on the master
@@kingivey4672 It was the best decision I made in choosing an authentic sounding Tape emulation plugin. Like I said, it can sound very transparent or driven. It's the closest you'll get to actually buying a real Tape machine. You will NOT be disappointed.
Back in the 80's, The thing that caught my attention about Reel to Reel's was the stereo field. You could close your eyes and point at the instruments in the sound field. I don't see that happening with a plugin. I have always listen to music with great speakers and tube amps and preamps.
@@rpgaleksy I don't--it's in the description of the presets. For example, the A827 15ips preset reads: 'Emulates an A827 2" 24ch machine, based on real measurements by Riccardo Pasini (Paso). Tweaked using phase reverse, until maximum cancellation occurred.'
I tried Chow tape and I ended up not using it because the mix / dry knob doesn't actually work in the sense that I can still hear the plugin doing things. Also in your video it didn't sound as good as the Slate or Softube tape emulations which I agree with you are the best sounding. I give a slight advantage to Softube for allowing parallel processing with the wet / dry knob which is useful to me in a mastering context.
ChowTapeModel also has different hysteresis models, Wytse used the relatively simpler and less cpu-intensive RK2 in this video, the different models can sound quite different (and closer to real tape) depending on the input material. I like the high quantity of settings because it allows you to create your own (or model a real one) tape machine, save it as the default preset and then just slap it on everything, adjusting just the drive knob.
I worked (and published) on magnetic recording theory and modeling as a post-doc and at 3M in the early 1990’s, before the company nuked its magnetic tape program and spun it off to Imation to die a slow death. I worked on various types of vector and scalar hysteresis models, too. The general behavior will depend on the type of tape formulation used (magnetic particles vs evaporated metal, and the various chemical and physical composition and properties of these). Just looking at the parameters shown in this video, I guessed that the person who programmed the Chow plugin has some knowledge of the theory. The head-tape spacing has a huge effect on the overall frequency response of the recording/playback channel.
@@MathHammer Oooh, that might be the most valuable comment here! (at least, for me) That sounds to me like a kind of philosophy, and please correct me if I'm wrong: Is it legit to say that comparing real tape with digital emulations is per se pointless as it is like comparing custom-built machines, using custom tape formulas, with any given existing tape formula/machine combination, just to find out that they differ? I mean, considering that there are so many parameters being responsible for the dynamic behaviour and sound...isn't it futile to put one next to the other to check if an emulation sounds authentic? As long as aliasing is avoided and the authentic range of possible behaviour is retained , isn't it more like which machine/tape combination's sound do I like better.. than just focusing on the question if a plugin sounds like an analog Studer or Ampex or whatever?
Plus you can read his white paper on hysteresis modelling for free on his website, and I'd implore everyone interested to do so. He's an absolutely stand up guy. Big u-he fan in general, but I think in this demo the softube might have had the edge in sound as well.
Yes! NR8 is so good sounding, I have tried driving the Softube tape very hard, and it really cuts middle freqs and destroys high freqs with distortion, try driving chow at 16x oversampling and NR8 algorithm, it is so much better.
Any recommendations on setting and on what material? I would like to get more familiar with the deeper controls in ChowTape and understand the use case. Thanks in advance!
Pretty sure the inclusion of wow and flutter is more for sound design and creative production. I'm a big fan of the IK tapes, primarily the 80 which is truly awesome. Also surprised that neither the old faithfuls from Waves aren't here! Both the J37 and Kramer have their places in the toolbox.
Great comparison 😊👍. If you dont want all the hazzle with a real tape machine, I can recommend the Neve 542's, that emulates tape saturation. These are the best hardware I have ever bought and gives so much weight to your sound 😊.
great review. 10,000% on auto-gain compensation (once you get it, why would you want anything else). disagree about the deep plugins not being easy to use though - just load a good-sounding preset and play with the obvious controls (gain/saturation whatever). you don't have to use the deep controls, but you can (and I would).
I have the Softube Tape, IKMultimedia Tape Machine and the Slate Digital tape machine and I have demo’d the Taip and Satin plugins (I’ve never heard of the Chow tape plugin until now) and I have the Waves Kramer and J37 tape, Kiive tape face, Tone Empire ReelPro, Ozone 9 tape, Acustica Audio Taupe and more but my favorite is the IKMultimedia tape machine. But your real tape machine is clearly better than any plugin in my opinion
I’m not a reaper guy, but in a Dan Worrell video that I recently watched, he set up the controls in a plugin to be run by parameters and then saved it as an fx chain. I think you could do this for the TRacks emulator to link the input/output controls to get “automatic” gain control by making the input go from 0 to 100 while the output goes from 100 to 0. Perhaps?
Or you can buy a plugin that saves you the trouble, given that most sound good. Silly question: Do autogain plugins exist? It would be somewhat of workable workaround to just cram such a thing on both sides of a non-autogain plugin to adjust output to the input based on loudness parameters or whatever.
Your issue with digital plugins about not being able to turn two knobs at the same time. Can you not just assign them to your midi controller rotaries? Problem solve 🙌🏻
Ik Multimedia tape machines is oversampled to 384kHz, its personally my favorite. I agree it could use auto-gain, but after doing a shootout myself with them the IK sounded the best to me. Felt like it had more depth and a nicer glue than the others. Great video as always!
The model he chose on this shootout is my least favorite of the T Racks tapes haha. The T Racks 80 has been pure magic on the mixbus for me on a slew of recordings I’ve done.
also, IK has 8 of tape machines... c'mon
Satin is also oversampled to 384kHz depending on the project sample rate.
After recent shootout review.....have to say the Softube is better for a Mastering Situation...it adds a more subtle open tape color....perfect for the whole mix....
@@mrnelsonius5631you use any preset or just the default settings?
Okay, due to this video I downloaded "chow tape model". As I know tape machines and actually know what those parameters refer to it is not too overwhelming to set it to my preferences and liking. Gotta say: I love it! I didn't expect it to sound that good! It was the result of a university research project and damn, it is really, really great!
The "drift" parameter is pure magic - as long as you dial in tiniest doses and don't overdo it.
It sounds incredible. It does something magic to the high end and has a nice low bump.
What '"drift" setting?! It has none 😨🤔
@@MaximusAdonicus I guess is the flutter parametrer
I like this shootout but you should only loop a 2 to 4 bars section.
agree with this
yeah it would have helped to directly compare the same audio section.
100%. It would have been far more useful.
Yeah, agree. I’d like to hear each plugin being used on a simple loop - both on the individual parts (bass drums vocals etc) and the mix bus. The complex program (sandstorm by darude) may match Wytse’s workflow, but it’s ever changing nature means you can’t always follow what’s in the mix vs what the plugin does. Whereas a simple drum loop, a bass sound, a short vocal sample, makes it pretty obvious what the effect is.
Yeah, totally agree. I'm glad he did the shootout but as far as helping us make a helpful comparison it's kind of useless.
ATR 102 isn’t just my favorite tape plug-in but probably my favorite plug-in of all time. Definitely my most used. Very versatile
I use the Slate and Softube tape plugs every session. I think the "best" option really depends on what you want the tape to do. Subtle saturation? Fattening? Bringing out the high mids? Blown out tape compression? De-harshing cymbals?
Softube (particularly the B tape) really adds smooth fatness to anything. And it shines brightly when saturated. It is AMAZING on hammond and other organ/key sounds when pushed hard. Good on a drum bus.
Slate VTM maybe does more than just what a tape machine does. On the master bus it enhances the stereo image, brings things "forward", and does have a bit of tapey HF rolloff. Used at 15ips it has the subtle LF bump, especially on the 456 setting. Good on drums, bass, vocals but not so much kick drums. Where I use it all the time is on hand percussion, acoustic guitar and sometimes snare - it tames transients like no other "soft clipper". Apply it to a clip and watch what it does to the waveform. It does sound pretty screechy when driven hard, unlike the Softube Tape which warms things up.
Nice video bruuuh
Sup , tape should be like the last plug in the master chain? Like instead of compressor? Cause i use some eq and then ssl comp, so i can use tape instead of ssl comp?
@@daviddashian Before the limiter, my taste:)
@@mayzter8765 thx
Thanks for shootout. I’ve been usin* Softube Tape and Airwindows Tape for years. However, the shootout didn’t really help as were hearing different parts of the song with different plugins. It would have been far more helpful to just loop the same 2 or 4 bars of different parts of the track for each plugins.
The best emulation is the one that matches aesthetically with the track you're working on.There's no good or bad with all of the above plugins.
Back in the day you use to go to a studio with a specific console and specific gear to acquire a specific sound.The same applies on these too.Great video btw
good comment
Lol
Thanks for including Chow! For those of us on a negative budget it scratches the itch, even I have to work harder to get there :-)
nobody ever heard of chow...what's with that name?
@@levondarratt787 It's a free plugin called Chow Tape Model.
The tape machine Signal Noise SN03-G Tape Recorder
sounds good and the guy let's you use it because you have a negative budget.
Give it a try I use it on the slower speed always 7.5 ips. I like the sound it gives better than some of the more expensive options.
Variety of Sound Ferric is free and great as well.
I've tried every tape plugin listed here and UAD Ampex atr-102 is still the king 💪
Agree. I haven't heard anything that beats it yet. It produces a lot of latency, but small price to pay for such a great sonic quality.
I am using Softube Tape over a year, very handy and good sounding, don’t feel like to change it 😃
I use and am very fond of the UAD Studer A800, which is very versatile and flexible. Helps add warmth to a mix and sounds amazingly good. Many options.
After recent shootout review.....have to say the Softube is better for a Mastering Situation...it adds a more subtle open tape color....perfect for the whole mix....Ive got the UAD Studer and its better on Drums....than the whole mix...in my opinion
While the I don't work in the audio industry, I do work with software engineers and programmers. It's amazing how a programmer can focus so much on the function of something and they forget that an actual person has to use the thing they are making. So often, user experience is set by the side of a programming project. It's sad for the reasons you've described. I've seen you despair so many time on this one thing and when you get automatic gain compensation it just lights you up with joy.
Now I'm angry with myself for not giving a +1 to Airwindows offerings in the comment section of your previous video.. I thought they get mentioned enough by others :'( but at least Chow made it. Great stuff, Wytse!
Airwindows only does waveshapers and a lot of talking, not tape emulations.
Doesn't matter. He's looked at ToTape before, plus I added a much better flutter algorithm to the most recent TapeDelay, and best of all, Wytze is the one who put up a video not long ago where he shot out a bunch of plugins against a real, literal, tape machine. The audio reference of that is going to be a huge help when doing the new iteration of ToTape, and I'm very grateful to Wytze for that video. It's way more helpful than a shout-out :) anyway I got a shoutout from Andrew Huang in April when I was updating everything for M1. He's stuck using Ableton Live so to some extent he's waiting on Ableton to be M1 native (native plugins and Rosetta DAW doesn't work well) but I've got it covered for everything that's VST :)
So, not a problem. Love you Wytse! :)
Wow your real tape mashine sounds crazy good. I like the Softube a lot aswell. Great comparison!
After recent shootout review.....have to say the Softube is better for a Mastering Situation...it adds a more subtle open tape color....perfect for the whole mix....
Very interesting video Wytse! It's good to hear your opinion on the different plugins.
I have actually had some email conversations with the guys at u-he about the aliasing in Satin and it turns out that the artifacts are not supposed to be there.
The issue has persisted since 2015 or earlier, but since apparently no one cared enough to report or point it out, it never got fixed.
Since the developer of Satin left u-he last year as well, it will probably take a bit of time until the new devs can get around to fixing this issue.
Some experimenting showed that the culprit might be the saturation stage before the actual tape emulation that might not be included in the OS path or have its lowpass filter disabled for some reason. The actual reason is not totally clear yet, these are just educated guesses that might or might not be true.
ChowTape all the way for me. 😀👍
1. I get to do any type of tape saturation I want [and it used to be just a Sony TC-260 emulation].
2. It goes up to 16x oversampling.
3. Free of charge. 🤯👍
Do you use that Mix group feature?
@@paulopinheirosc yeah.that too.
From Satin manual:
• Internal sample rate: 352-384kHz (depends on project sample rate, 8 x oversampling 44.1kHz)
So how could you find any aliasing ?
I'm using Softube Tape for a while now, it's almost on every mixes/masters i do when I do feel it needs it. I like to drive the input to get some more character. Really love it. Tried some more, but always came back to that Softube one. It sounds very good to my personal tastes.
After recent shootout review.....have to say the Softube is better for a Mastering Situation...it adds a more subtle open tape color....perfect for the whole mix....
@@johnisrael5183 yes it really is a nice tool! Love it a lot and still using it a lot !
great vid but its much easier to compare if you loop the same bars for every emu without the song progressing.
Used a lot of tape emulator vst's, finally landed on the Softube Tape. Now my go to tape plugin, it just sounds good.
I think Chow sounds way better, download it and try.
@@gulagwarlordtape is more of a summing tape while chow is most a special effect tape, my favorites are softube tape and fuse audio labs flywheel.
@@aviatedviewssound4798 I've used them all, and I've tracked to real tape many times. Chow Tape is the most authentic emulation I've ever heard, and I don't mean as a special effect... Ik Multimedia is next, then Softube.
@@gulagwarlord Are you sure you've used them with the correct settings, i also use real reel to reel tape. with the softube i had to put the stability to 99.9, the crosstalk to 50% and the amount to 10 as it is just a dry/wet knob then just back down the input and compensate with the output or even use the headroom to calibrate it. while with fly wheel i could do more even tho it needed a little more tweaking it gave me more warmth and vintage flavor. i like chow but it is so hard to get that vintage warmth color but the artifacts that tape has it emulates them very well and you can go to the extreme compare to others, who knows the tape machine that i like you probably wouldn't like them as i like a little bit of color or sheen to material.
@@aviatedviewssound4798 I'll try those settings for sure... I usually like tape for the fat saturation and compression profile it adds... not really for color. It adds a lot of loudness and tape compression seems to sound better to my ears than just trying to get 6 db of gain reduction on my bus compressor... but it really depends on the source material. I also like the way it makes drums seem to pop out of the speakers and hype up the sound of everything else. Try the Clean and Fat preset in Chow on some sources or even the 2-bus to hear what I mean. The sheen from the tape emulations usually seems to come from the built in eq and I used to get fooled by that but I prefer to do that with separate eq's. Cheers.
8:58 Softube
9:04 Satin
9:09 Chow
9:14 IKM
9:19 Taupe
9:29 Slate
9:39 Real tape
9:49 Slate
10:00 Softube
10:10 Chow
10:20 Satin
10:30 IKM
10:40 Softube
10:50 Real
10:56 Taip
11:04 Slate
11:11 Chow
11:21 Real
Thanks, I needed this
I would love that 9:19 would be Taupe ;-)
I've been using TB Reelbus for awhile, it weirdly makes me feel more confident in my mixes. Don't think I could ever skip out on using a tape sim ever again.
Yeah, that one sounds the most convincing to me as well
And its free. The v3 is anyways
ReelBus is great. ToneBoosters is great in general.
I was extremely impressed with Chow! Generally I pull back the low end bass boost when using Slate. Softube had a great "syrupy" controlled sound. Taip sounded way too gritty and lofi grainy for me in general use (not what I go for tape plugins to do - it was more like a bitcrusher).
If you do some reading into Jatin Chow's Tape Machine, you find it is one of the more powerful and versatile tape plugins. There are papers and open source code available to get in depth with his process. He incorporates a choice of several types of mathematical Hysteresis algorithms for the plugin which is unique to this type of plugin. And he reveals that many plugin companies are using neural networks to create the algorithms in much of the plugin software being created today, his plugin included. I think its one of the most powerful plugins available for free. You could virtually dial in the sound of any physical tape machine ever created.
That tracks to be fair. Tape has a bit reduction. In fact that's essentially what tape hiss is.
Wow the Slate was my least favorite sound, harsh (mid-highs) and yet dark (less airy highs) at the same time.
Amazing that Chow is free! I found it not quite as smooth as the Softube and Satin but still lovely and clear (less lows and more mid-lows so perhaps not as powerful as the Sony...). Thanks for the tip, Wytse!
Really appreciate this video. I think it's gonna be one of your most popular ever.
"Wow" is pronounced "uau" perhaps in Dutch, not the same as "whoa" (uou)
Dunno is the shown settings for CHOWTape are representative for what WSS was using to process the track, but if they were, it was emulating essentially an "ideal" tape, so only really applying the hysteresis and not the "smear" filtering that tape introduces.
When you increase the input on the Slate Digital (depends on the modelled tape machine ), the sound waveform slowly turns into an analog style square wave, it can distort really hard specially with the bias control and creates aliasing (Satin is the best plugin because it has internal oversampling).
I checked how the plugin behaves with Plugin doctor and the lack of oversampling is a huge oversight. You put VTM inside DDMF Metaplugin with 4x oversampling and sounds very good and a beast.
Headcrusher by Audio Assault (the paid version is good although the recent V2 update is buggy, they have oversampling), and Tape Cassette 2 by Caelum Audio are both free and really good. Both more limited than Chow, but I use them more than Chow
I have the Slate and the T Racks and the TRacks murders the Slate every time. Slate has some very good plugins that I use every day but for tape emulation the T Racks is on a different level IMO.
I didn’t care for the Slate either
Wowwwwww your hardware tape machine is amazing!!!! What a sound!!!! 😳 Incredible. It's the first time I hear a real tape machine, i never liked tape emulation plugins, i think they sound unnatural, but after this video I'm shocked with the hardware. It's like a magic texture. Wow. Great video! Saluti dall'Italia 🇮🇹
Out of all these I liked the sound from slate, & baby audio taip, of course the hardware sounds amazing, but I can’t believe Kramer tape from waves on here that’s my personal favorite tape emulation plugin!
The important thing I have learned from this video is that OK the hardware is different class, but the others do all sound pretty good
The Satin to me sounded the best. It just left a good taste in my mouth. I don’t know how else to describe it.
satiny
@@MonkeyBars1 LOL
i A/B'd my old Studer A800 with the Slate and Satin ones. They're both very good
I love u-He Satin for its' capability to do the compander trick :)
I like how the Slate Digital leave all the transients intact!
Thank you for sharing knowledge on that!! Amazing vid!
Chow is one of the best plugins I know to get "lo fi" effects degrading the sound, it´s very complete and free!.
Every comparison always forgets about magnetite by black rooster audio! I absolutely love it!
I own TAIP and the default settings are super crunchy on the mix buss. If you turn the drive down to -3 to -6 db, turn the noise off, turn the glue down, and turn the hi.low shape up a bit, and you get a much more subtle effect on master.
In this shootout, the glue setting is what I'm hearing and the glue setting is a really powerful tape compression knob, but it is set too high for a mix buss in this example.
Holy shit dude that real tape machine DESTROYED some of my favorite plugins here.
You wrecked my future!
The Chow Tape Model does have presets. You should've used the TC-260 preset in your testing as a baseline. The default settings have everything turned off basically.
Also, Chow's plugins are free AND open source, which puts them immediately head-n-shoulders above everything else that is proprietary and DRM-riddled.
Yup, it still applies the hysteresis model, but other than that, the "default" preset is pretty much an "ideal" tape - you get none of the smearing that attenuates the highs, the fattening from head bump, etc.
The Clean Fat preset is awesome.
Very cool video! i don't know if is commented in here but what i like about SATIN is the compander (multiband or full band compression -- expansion), you have the mix, encoder, decoder controls, and its magic is that compresses the signal before it hits the tape, and then expands the signal after the tape, then you have the mix control to mix the amount with the original emulating parallel processing, love this how it sounds in percussive elements.
I like the ChowTape. It's in my budget. lol. I also got to use it on some detuned pianos recently and it worked really well.
Softube Tape...a must have in the collection...you can do a LOT with it!! Swiss Army knife of Tape plugins
I totally agree with you! What makes Chow great for me is the sound and the "price" (free). Sure, it would be nice if a simple control interface would be added and only if you want to dig deeper to click a button and open this interface. Softube sounded really great, easy to use. Slate is pretty great too, the interface is really good, easy on the eyes.
I know the guy who does Chow! He's Jatin Chowdhury and we both help out with the Surge Synth project. Chow contributed the cutoff warp and resonance warp filter types, which might be my favorite in Surge. Big fan! His Chow Tape is also built into Surge Synth as a native effect, BTW :)
This is the content we crave, Wytse.
Ozone 9 Tape Saturation. The best for me so far.
All of the Chow plugins are amazing. Quite often using Tape, Matrix Delay and his Centaur clone. (his new "Build Your Own Distortion" plugin is also fun).
True dat 😀
I'm surprised the UAD studer a800 wasn't among the most commented, that one seems to be one of the most popular.
Not surprised Softube is on top. I listened to a podcast with the founder Niklas. He's a mathematician, with a masters degree in computer engineering and signal processing. It was really interesting because they spend so much time on math and calculating the signal flow for each component. Think about that for a second... each component. That takes time.
- Wytse Gerichhause: repairing, calibrating, baking tape for hardware tape machine on a regular basis;
- also Wytse Gerichhause: can't handle couple of options and the manual for the best VST tape plugin (which is u-he Satin, of course).
Epic
And by the way, u-he Satin has convenient presets for the most use cases if you do not want to dial parameters yourself. But you need to at least inspect the plugin, or RTFM.
Wytse is really an anecdotal example of high engeneering competence and incompetence at the same time. Guess we like him for that :)
For those who is still reading this: forget all tape plugins and use either Satin (this is really the best tape plugin, even better than hardware tape machines) or free Chow plugin. Do not waste your money and time.
I am a big fan of U-He products. Their Diva and Repro synths are amazing. They sound almost identical to my Moogs and Sequential hardware synths
I picked a clear winner- the one with the purple spools. Then I realised that your "real" tape machine was in the shootout. The Softube was my favourite from the rest. I agree with another comment here that the Slate can sound a bit harsh (as can the T-Racks) On this track the U-He sounds less punchy than the rest. Difficult to tell with just one track.
The T Racks 80 (Studer A80) is phenomenal. I’ve never done a direct A/B but years ago I made a record through a Studer A80 and the IK version feels soooo much like it to me. The Softube gets used on every single production I do, usually on individual elements I want to “de-digitize” and add some syrup to. It’s just a nice sounding plug-in
T-racks is the most natural emulation of this and you can test it by yourself just to try stereo sine wave through it and check natural phase distortions in oscilloscope on output. It's what you see while calibrating heads on real tape machines. Other ones does not have that and sound of that plugins often seems static. Besides, it has a pronounced glue effect. But, yea - slate sounds very, very cool.
I use Satin almost on every mix on the master and on tracks. Very nice sounding emulation, very useful subtle and musical controls. I recommend to see Dan Worrall’s video about Compander feature in Satin, no any other tape simulation plugin has it.
What Satin can’t do is overdriving the tape the way IK tape emulation plugins does. When I need hardly saturated tape sound I can’t get it from Satin. It saturates but in different way. So I use it for clean sounding needs and that’s what Satin does very well.
Not having auto gain in IK Tape is very annoying, that’s so true. But it drives very nice and Bias knob works more dirty than in Satin, that can add to character if needed.
After this video I really want to try Softube emulation. Seems like it’s very good. Thanks for your video!
I loved the way you demoed all the plugins with the music, fantastic idea!!
Some plugins solve every auto gain issue, but I agree with you. It should not be a big deal to integrate it into the plugins. Thanks for the great review.
I’ve been looking forward to this comparison. I’m quite surprised there was a definitive answer… Top marks! 👍
Wait.. tape comparison plugins without the Ampex ATR102 from Universal Audio? Because that's literally the best plugin for that task I can imagine.
For me atr and oxid its the top tape emulation .
The only reason must be that Wytse does not have a UAD-audio interface? The Ampex is head and shoulders above the rest, and is a mainstay on my 2bus.
@@EirikHasselberg Ah that makes sense!
Yup. That and the Studer A800.
I have way too many (but I’m not sorry) tape emulation plugins, and I’ll use different ones for different purposes. After all, they all emulate different machines, different tape models, etc etc. So comparisons unfortunately can be done so far.
But I can’t remember the last mix where I didn’t use the ATR on the master, regardless of the genre. Same with the A800.
That said, the Softube is usually my next best (especially since I only have a single core dsp on my UAD interface).
Still, I have to say I was surprised by the Chow.
@@alessandro.favero It really shines on the master!
I have to say that I barely heard any difference between the plugins when listening with closed eyes (I listened with the extremely resolving Sennheiser HD800 headphones). Without a blind listening test we have to be extremely careful to not get biased from the interface, the manufacture we like and thus expect better sound or just the simple fact that we expect a change when we see the next plugin playing. Maybe a follow-up blind listening test could be interesting :)
This.
couldn't agree with this more. I think in this world we live in today, the tools are NOT the issue. not saying my ears are the best, but while I can hear VERY subtle differences, they aren't so far apart that one vs. another will make or break a mix. want control? get THAT one. want less options? get THAT one. but they ALL sound great to my ears. so agreed that we have to be careful with manufacturer/developer and GUI bias when measuring these things. because when I closed my eyes, all I was thinking was "great sound and great mix"!
I thought I was the only one! With only careful listening the only thing i could tell was the crunch of the snare but honestly that's because I was looking for difference otherwise I wouldn't have known
Thats because they are all exactly the same, same coding same shite.If you look 'under the hood' of these, they are digit for digit identical. Fact
Listen closely to what it does to the snare! Especially his analog tape machine makes it warm and when you switch to TAIP it makes it more harsh and less warm, same for the Slate one. Would've been better to just loop the same part for comparison though
I have the Softube and really like it, but DAMN your MCI sounds so much better.
Airwindows really is the secret weapon of the plugin world. His Bass Amp plugin is like an Ampeg in a box.
I’ve been using Airwindows plugins for 13 years. Chris Johnson is a mad genius and deserves way more attention + financial success.
@@ownedbymykitty270 You got that right!
I just checked, they're all free?
Yup! Big fan. I love his dithers too. Who knew you needed to live dither while mixing?
@@campar1043 That's right! He has a Patreon if you'd like to donate.
I can tell a massive difference in your hardware unit and the plugins. On my system anyways. Holy cow!!
5:05 You can use a MIDI controller with two dial-knobs in parallel. Like Arturia Keypad or NI Komplete M32 instead of a mouse.
So if I understand this correctly, you made the IK Multimedia the lowest not because of sound. But because two knobs don’t turn at the same time???
I cant say which one is the best as I have never used a hardware tape machine to compare, but if u are asking which one sounds the best the U-HE Satin to my ears wins hands down
I thought the IK sounded the best with chow in second place. I know the lack of auto-gain is a sticking point for you but there is a possible solution, because you mentioned being able to use both hands on the physical real machine. You could assign to hardware controller knobs to in and out gain. They probably would be too sensitive for getting it right but there is probably a way to do scaling, so the 128 midi range gives say just 5 db =+/-. There are velocity scaling plugins, there are also probably midi CC scaling plugins or something that comes with your daw. I used to use Nuendo/Cubase and they had tons of stuff like that.
I appreciate your video and especially that you knew to just go back and forth between units multiple times without stopping. So many people seem to not know to do this and stop while playing the same section on another device/plugin. By that point your mind has forgotten the sound. Great also you compared against the real machine, which to me showed up most of these plugins other than the IK and Chow. I like softube and use it as a thickener or gloss, but I don't think it sounds like tape at all. Thanks again.
Slate VTM has setting for 2 inch or half inch tape, your own machine uses 2 inch, half inch is best for final mix, while 2 inch is better on individual tracks. nice shootout.
Wow I was just asking my self this question last week and now this video shows up. Thanks.
I've been using the Waves J37 plugin for a while, and I'm able to get a nice warm distortion with it. Not sure how close it is to the actual Abbey Road machine, but it's useful anyway. Great on a master bus after the compressor to "glue" it all together.
yep i love the j37, it is used on alot of migos, cardi b , and other records by tillie, leslie brathwaite, etc for their big records
The Softube one when used with Studio One can be used as MixFX and that's just amazing. I tend to use that all the time while mixing. I like the IK Multimedia one for single tracks.
Thanks to your recommendation I went full trial mode on softube tape. The included mixfx version with crosstalk in S1 is crazy! Thanks again.
Slate´s one still adds an extra dB after the gain compensation so be careful on that. Funny wow factor there
I have been using Slate VTM almost 10 years now. I have used T-Racks tape machines and at first I had trouble using them. Sounding good but a pain to use, So i created my default presets for example 15ips 456 with different bias, in levels HF LF etc , then 30ips 456 with same variations etc etc etc... took me a few hours to figure out the configurations i wanted. So now I just recall instantly and it has become one of my best tape plugins. Also I did demo satin when it came out, felt it was too much for me. Felt like i was inventing the ideal tape machine from the ground up, didnt think of making my own presets so i didnt dive more into satin. havnt tried the soft tube nor the baby audio taip. Just checked out Chow tape and im impressed by the options. its also free. I have to make my own default presets of custom tape machines - tape stock and see how it goes. For now anything i do just makes my sound more lo fi so i have to be thinkful of what parameters to modify.
Oh, watched it again on the monitor and now I see - Satin is in Vintage mode - that's why it sound "smaller", also pretty high crosstalk setting make it more narrow.
I'm 100% positive the IK tape machines are internally oversampled to 384kHz. That's the reason for the high CPU usage. Fun fact there is also some Convolution going on! 🙂
here's my thing, and it really is a "my thing" thing. when i want tape qualities, i want it to be a special effect. which is why i always reach for AudioThing's Reels. Old worn out tape, super slow (1.75 ips). when using tape i want it to sound old. not just "warm" or adding "more weight." i want the sound to be messed up. for getting that analog sound, well my audioscape's d-comp just sits on my master bus. but i will say, your tape machine, to my untrained ears, sounds better. it's "darker" without getting muddy, which i always prefer.
Yes same here, I keep an old Marantz laying around to really really degrade things. And half the time when I think I want a “tape sound” I actually just want some parallel compression and a low/mid boost.
interesting, production is so unique and everyone has their style. I love it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts
Massey tapehead is my favourite.
Slate digital or softube for me. I think that this 2 tape plugin give a beatiful boost on the high frequencies
TAIPEI should have been on the list. I have TAIP, Softube Tape, IK Tape Machines & VTM and know those ones well but TAIPEI is my current favourite.
It’s the only tape sim that sounds convincing to me.
Softube Tape FTW. I used Kramer Master Tape for years but was never totally convinced. You can do some cool things with Kramer but never really felt like it really added that “magic sauce”. Bought Softube Tape on sale, dropped it on a track and it was an epiphany.
What about the Waves J37? How does the Softube tape compare to the waves J37, in your opinion 🤔??
@@payso1382 I have not tried it to be able to compare - I have been on a move away from Waves because I think their upgrade plan is ridiculous - I've no problem paying for updates but the cost of their update plans isn't equal to the additional performance/feature set they deliver.
Because Softube's Tape works so well for me, I also haven't been looking at other options either. Sorry I can't help you on that one!
I have most of these plugs, and use them all for different purposes. The T-Racks is unquestionably the best sounding one of the ones I own as it is the most naturally transparent and most similar to my 2" machine. Real tape machines are set it and forget it... So I don't really understand the argument that you need to be able to get in there and change settings and have automatic level compensation... That actually isn't a reflection of the real world, as nice as that would be to have in a plug-in.
Both the Softtube and the Slate I've used for many years now and now they're relegated to duties when I want something to get obviously warmed up or dulled down, which they do very well.
It's scary how all the plugins sound great but the real one sounds just right. It's night and day when you switch from the plugin to the hardware and vice-versa. The plugins sounds more mid focused to me. The hardware machine kinda pulls the mids back and opens up the top end. I also noticed that the plugins might be a little louder than the real tape. Great, great video! Thanks!
Slate digital sounded great
UA Ampex & Studer hands down.
Guys, get the Softube vst. What you heard here was the proper use of the vst. Subtle. BUT, the Softube vst can also give you wonderful saturation that is less subtle. And I mean wonderful. It is the best saturation I have ever heard. You can push it and push it and it will get better and better for a long time before it goes past its best. You can use on tracks and the master. If you have Studio One it integrates into the console and it sounds faberooti. I can't speak about the others, but I can tell you the Softube plugin is great.
Very true
Air windows “to tape 6 “ by far the best tape emulator
I agree , this one is amazing..
I have....literally all mainstream Tape Emu's. Softube Tape is my most essential plugin, especially for orchestral strings. I can't say any one plugin is better than another. They all sound different. My philosophy: if one doesn't give you the sound you're looking for, try another. As a side note, Softube Tape can sound both super transparent or very driven. It is one of the best-developed Tape emulation plugins I have ever used.
The IK one sounds amazing on strings too, particularly the Studer style one, I forget what model that is
i’m trying to emulate an 80s workflow in my daw and i’m thinking about picking up the softube tape
@@kingivey4672 its really awesome, I think I got it for 39? It's not as CPU heavy as the IK one too so I use it a ton on individual instruments, awesome on the master
Brodie yep about to get it right now. thanks👍🏽
@@kingivey4672 It was the best decision I made in choosing an authentic sounding Tape emulation plugin. Like I said, it can sound very transparent or driven. It's the closest you'll get to actually buying a real Tape machine. You will NOT be disappointed.
I use SoftTube or G-sonique sx-72 on almost every session and both are great.
Tried them all, and yes, I agree with all of you here: Taipei from London Acoustics is the one. ;)
Back in the 80's, The thing that caught my attention about Reel to Reel's was the stereo field. You could close your eyes and point at the instruments in the sound field. I don't see that happening with a plugin. I have always listen to music with great speakers and tube amps and preamps.
Would have preferred a comparison going from dry signal to wet signal, repeating the same section of the track for each setting for each plugin.
WOW. How did everyone miss Cranesong Phoenix II. That one kills.
Satin has several presets modeling real-world hardware units, some of which were nulled with the real thing. I just use those and slap it on tracks.
Out of curiousity, do you have a link or source to those null tests by chance?
@@rpgaleksy I don't--it's in the description of the presets. For example, the A827 15ips preset reads: 'Emulates an A827 2" 24ch machine, based on real measurements by Riccardo Pasini (Paso). Tweaked using phase reverse, until maximum cancellation occurred.'
I tried Chow tape and I ended up not using it because the mix / dry knob doesn't actually work in the sense that I can still hear the plugin doing things. Also in your video it didn't sound as good as the Slate or Softube tape emulations which I agree with you are the best sounding. I give a slight advantage to Softube for allowing parallel processing with the wet / dry knob which is useful to me in a mastering context.
ChowTapeModel also has different hysteresis models, Wytse used the relatively simpler and less cpu-intensive RK2 in this video, the different models can sound quite different (and closer to real tape) depending on the input material. I like the high quantity of settings because it allows you to create your own (or model a real one) tape machine, save it as the default preset and then just slap it on everything, adjusting just the drive knob.
I worked (and published) on magnetic recording theory and modeling as a post-doc and at 3M in the early 1990’s, before the company nuked its magnetic tape program and spun it off to Imation to die a slow death. I worked on various types of vector and scalar hysteresis models, too. The general behavior will depend on the type of tape formulation used (magnetic particles vs evaporated metal, and the various chemical and physical composition and properties of these). Just looking at the parameters shown in this video, I guessed that the person who programmed the Chow plugin has some knowledge of the theory. The head-tape spacing has a huge effect on the overall frequency response of the recording/playback channel.
@@MathHammer Oooh, that might be the most valuable comment here! (at least, for me) That sounds to me like a kind of philosophy, and please correct me if I'm wrong:
Is it legit to say that comparing real tape with digital emulations is per se pointless as it is like comparing custom-built machines, using custom tape formulas, with any given existing tape formula/machine combination, just to find out that they differ?
I mean, considering that there are so many parameters being responsible for the dynamic behaviour and sound...isn't it futile to put one next to the other to check if an emulation sounds authentic? As long as aliasing is avoided and the authentic range of possible behaviour is retained , isn't it more like which machine/tape combination's sound do I like better.. than just focusing on the question if a plugin sounds like an analog Studer or Ampex or whatever?
Plus you can read his white paper on hysteresis modelling for free on his website, and I'd implore everyone interested to do so. He's an absolutely stand up guy. Big u-he fan in general, but I think in this demo the softube might have had the edge in sound as well.
Yes! NR8 is so good sounding, I have tried driving the Softube tape very hard, and it really cuts middle freqs and destroys high freqs with distortion, try driving chow at 16x oversampling and NR8 algorithm, it is so much better.
Any recommendations on setting and on what material? I would like to get more familiar with the deeper controls in ChowTape and understand the use case. Thanks in advance!
Pretty sure the inclusion of wow and flutter is more for sound design and creative production. I'm a big fan of the IK tapes, primarily the 80 which is truly awesome. Also surprised that neither the old faithfuls from Waves aren't here! Both the J37 and Kramer have their places in the toolbox.
Surprised too. J37 and Kramer Master Tape are awesome.
Great comparison 😊👍.
If you dont want all the hazzle with a real tape machine, I can recommend the Neve 542's, that emulates tape saturation. These are the best hardware I have ever bought and gives so much weight to your sound 😊.
great review. 10,000% on auto-gain compensation (once you get it, why would you want anything else). disagree about the deep plugins not being easy to use though - just load a good-sounding preset and play with the obvious controls (gain/saturation whatever). you don't have to use the deep controls, but you can (and I would).
Gravelflood from Rüpel the song, auto-gain compensation is a must, I 100% subscribe the shoutout ! Grea show !
ATR 102 from UA is heads and shoulders at the top for me.
Opinions on IK tape collection ? For me it is the most interesting, nice warm, glueing together emulation. The best what I ever tried.
I have the Softube Tape, IKMultimedia Tape Machine and the Slate Digital tape machine and I have demo’d the Taip and Satin plugins (I’ve never heard of the Chow tape plugin until now) and I have the Waves Kramer and J37 tape, Kiive tape face, Tone Empire ReelPro, Ozone 9 tape, Acustica Audio Taupe and more but my favorite is the IKMultimedia tape machine. But your real tape machine is clearly better than any plugin in my opinion
Agree, it brought crispness to the vox. Tape face is though great on vox itself, rather than whole mix.
Kramer Master Tape is great for tape saturation. It also makes an excellent tape delay effect. You can link the input and output gain controls.
I’m not a reaper guy, but in a Dan Worrell video that I recently watched, he set up the controls in a plugin to be run by parameters and then saved it as an fx chain. I think you could do this for the TRacks emulator to link the input/output controls to get “automatic” gain control by making the input go from 0 to 100 while the output goes from 100 to 0. Perhaps?
Yes you can set up things like that with Reaper's Parameter Modulation
Or you can buy a plugin that saves you the trouble, given that most sound good. Silly question: Do autogain plugins exist? It would be somewhat of workable workaround to just cram such a thing on both sides of a non-autogain plugin to adjust output to the input based on loudness parameters or whatever.
@@Jeroen_K yes! Reaper has an automatic gain plugin, but you don't need it because of parameter modulation.
I wish Logic had better parameter modulation for plugins on audio tracks! Not a show-stopper for me, but it would be nice to have the same capability.
@@ronallen2458 you can do this via smart controls in Logic
Your issue with digital plugins about not being able to turn two knobs at the same time. Can you not just assign them to your midi controller rotaries? Problem solve 🙌🏻