Do you use a tape emulator on all of your tracks?

i never use tape emulators,
or 'saturators' or any of that.
 
if i need high end roll off,
i use a good linear phase EQ.
 
if i need something distorted,
i try to record it that way,
or use a VST to simply add distortion to the one track i need.
 
otherwise,
i see these types of plugins as a way to go backwards, to the shortcomings of recording with tape.
 
that is a specific sound.... that a lot of times, was simply a happy accident.
 
the tools now, are much more fine tuned,
and therefore you should be able to dial in the sound you want WITHOUT emulators.
 
unless you just like that old tape sound.
 
heheh

I'm with Beeps on this. So I guess that makes me with Danny too.
 
Maybe on a drum or bass buss.
 
Or not on anything but the final buss.
 
If and only if I was going for that "vintage" sound.
 
 
IOW, I've rarely used TapeEms.

Never.
 
I didn't like what real tape did to my recordings, either. Digital recording was (literally) a revelation. It required a little more work to blend everything nicely, but that was a small price to pay for crisp high end, snappy percussion, complete track separation, precise tone control, punchy bass and pin-drop silence in the quiet parts.
 
At one point I succumbed to popular online GroupThink and bought what was widely regarded as one of the best tape sims, on the assumption that I must have been missing out on something. I attempted to use it on anything and everything, but every time the mix sounded better without it. It's still there on disk, just in case I ever figure out what I was doing wrong with it.

See James, you're not alone. I share every word bit says...as I too welcomed digital with open arms. I just think it offers so much more and you can get close enough to an analog sound if you need to. As for tape sims....the only one I'd even consider using would be the UAD Studer. I've said it a million times.....I really believe UAD has it down as far as anything that simulates driven components like saturation, tape drive and even the compression you got from it.
 
I've not felt the same with anything else I've tried. The saturation I hear in other plugs is digital distortion that isn't even usable or musical. Anyone that has REALLY used tape knows that these plugs claiming to do it fall way short. It's almost like the guys that code this stuff are looking at sheets of stat info only and haven't experienced what it's like to use Ampex 456 at 15 or 30 ips running hot. It doesn't sound like what I've been hearing other than the UAD stuff.
 
Whatever the case, remember we talked about remedies for things before we use a plugin? This is another one of those situations where you can warm things up just right without using one of these things. In that area, I'm with bats.....I drive what I need to drive the right way as I record using something that was made to distort the right way. If I need to use a tube pre, so be it....at least it will do what I want it to do without giving me digital distortion that just sounds bad.
 
That said, you WILL find little gizmos here and there that just do "something" to your mix. There are a few hardware pieces that can do this if you run out of your pc into them. Though I don't use them anymore, a few made a difference. And that's just it....they made things sound "different" not necessarily "better". I don't think you need these tape things unless you are really shooting for an analog sound for something specific. If you insist, the only one to use is the Studer and then master through the UAD Ampex machine. You'll be close enough to analog without destructively having it. :)
 
As for the Slate stuff.....I've paid for the pieces I have so I have the right to say they are terrible. LOL! :) Never thought his drum samples were good enough let alone his processing plugs. His video's are entertaining though...and he can sing pretty well. :)
 
Anyway, remember....find the cause and come up with a remedy that doesn't entail a band-aide. It's sort of like side chaining.....there are uses for it, but you always lose something. A lot of new guys use this because they simply can't make a kick and bass work at the same time. So they think they fixed the problem with side-chaining when all they did was trade off and cover something up while something else plays. What did they learn? Nothing. It's best to learn how to fix frequency masking before we start throwing side chaining around, ya know? Sort of like throwing on a plug because it seems to "fix something" or make something more appealing to you.
 
Granted, we can get away with that for certain things. But it's always best when we know what it is fixing and how as well as how we can get the same sound without using devices that degrade our audio. That said, there are times when you may want that. I'm not trying to sway you or anyone else from using this stuff....but as you can see, there are a few respected members that feel the same way. Not that any of us hold any additional weight even in numbers....but as you heard yourself, mixes seem way better without these things.
 
It reminds me of the BBE days. The BBE came out to be the competition for the Aphex Aural Exciter. Then one day, some dude ran one through his guitar rig....and they couldn't keep these things in stock. Everyone I knew bought one including me. I thought it was making me sound better....but yet I always messed with my tone on a daily basis. One day, mine died....at least I thought it did but I came to find out it didn't....and I took it out of my signal chain and BAM.....I loved my sound again! Now some guys really made it work well....and it did a fair job for me too, but I sounded way better without it. It depends on what amp you use as well as what your core tone had in it before you used it, know what I mean? Anyone with excessive mids usually had success with it.
 
This is a lot like that. You use something and think you like it...until you shut it down and listen to your core tone. My buddy did that recently with the UAD Ocean Way plug. Yeah, it sounds great....but use it too much and well, your drums will suffer. When he turned it off, his drums sounded good again. We buy into so much hype brother....we miss the obvious....myself included as I've been there and still fall for it from time to time. :) The more I learn....the less I use.
 
-Danny

Danny Danzi
 The more I learn....the less I use.

Whoo Hoo! That is good news!
 
For me it has become, the less I earn, the less I use :)
 
I was worried I was missing out on the really good stuff...

What was not so great about the whole tape thing in the past is that everything had to go to tape and everything ended up with that sound.  Which can be fine of course but today we have much better options.  And the main one being we can now effect only part of a mix and that is where using things like this can be great.  Just create a buss and send stuff there that you want to have this effect on and apply it there instead of all over everything.  That sort of defeats the purpose actually.
 
It is a bit like if you have everything in your mix sounding trebly and toppy then what actually happens is nothing in the end is trebly or toppy.  Nothing stands out because everything is toppy.  (and you also end up with a horribly toppy mix which many do!)  What can really work great in a mix is that most tracks have a warm smooth sound and you only make a few things trebly or toppy.  Then it is like looking into the night sky and seeing most stars at a lower level of brightness but only a few are really bright and they tend to stand out.  (You actually only need extended high end on very few parts!)
 
You can apply that to tape emulation too.  Just use it sparingly here and there over just one or two parts and then you stand a much better chance of hearing it.  I have a Revox B77 half track high speed mastering machine and to be honest not many tape emulators sound as good really.  I still find it is better to just send that track or buss over to it and back.  (but even so that is a hassle)  But I am sure there are some really great emulators around but then they might cost more too.
 
I am in the Danny and Bats camp too on this.  Switch it all off and revel in how clear and fantastic your mix actually suddenly sounds.  Who says analog tape recording is the becnchmark.  It might not be actually.  Get back to making the composition, the playing, a fabulous live sound and the capturing really good.  Then you may loose interest in tape emulators.  They may not be important.  Having said that though sometimes some tape saturation can be just the ticket on some parts. But you don't have to do it over the whole mix though.

I like to replace compressors with Tape sims sometimes if the comp seems too much or if the drums sound like they have too much high end. (Toontrack products all seem to bright to me for example), but I have found a good thing to do before mixing is to turn everything off (Eq's, comps and reverbs) and just listen to it for a while. I tend to mix as I go...so having this new clear picture is always eye (or ear) opening.
Of course...Danny, Jeff, Bat and Bitflipper far exceed my talent.

Dan, that's an interesting approach and one I'd like to play with.
 
I am DEFINITELY convinced not to use these things everywhere as just a matter of course. In fact, I already sold my Slate VTM and I'm selling the VCC on KVR right now. I really appreciate everyone sharing their thoughts here - veyr good stuff! This dialog has been very different from the hype found everywhere else.
 
If you're interested, you can hear the final song (without all those saturators) here: https://soundcloud.com/jamesfoxall/ultraviolet
 
Special thanks to Danny for all of his help! :)

This thread does make me wonder how many of you have tried Harrison Mixbus? It of course has console emulation and tape saturation. You can choose to not use the tape saturation.
I haven't done much but play around with it, but it does seem to have a very nice sound. I don't ever use the console emulation in Sonar.
I've always thought Harrison would be good to have, but I have only kept my Sonar stuff so far.

I was having issues too. The interim release 1508 seems much better.
I think Harrison will find it's place with somethings here in the future. I like it. I may use it for mastering more than mixing though. We'll see. It was cheap.

I do like what tape does to some specific tracks, so I think I'll experiment with trying it for effect at times. Going to try the Studer in place of the Slate though.
 
I have broken the habit of putting it on everything! :)