Confession: I LOVE PC Tape Emulation

I'm just finishing up a project and I had to post my undying love for the Pro Channel's tape emulation tool. Who needs to buy anything when we have this in the box? I love the quality of this plugin.

agreed.

Okay, I admit that this is a bit of a fanboi thread but I'm thinking Cake needs one of those once in a while, just to let them know they're doing something right. I used it for the first time on the master bus, popped the bias switch up to get the warmth but let the highs shine, added a touch of noise and voila! Magic. Well done guys!

Works great on acoustic guitar.

+1 for me as well

The Tape Emulator is always in use in the pro channels of all my tracks.  It adds a subtle vibe to the tracks and the sum of these tracks is always smooth. Great recordings, mixing and mastering are all about the subtleties and the Tape Emulator is a great way to add that cool vibe to a track.
 
Blackie

Maarkr
Not complaining, just suggesting...

It's an excellent suggestion. And it sounds like you're capable of writing the script 

Tape emulation is great. I use it to round the edge of distorted guitars. Works really well. Both Waves Kramer and Abbey Road Tape Ems. are great too. My only word of caution is that most times CW Tape effect is subtle. However, there are some frequencies it really exaggerates. When I turn it on I always solo the track to see if is jacking anything too much.

gswitz
I like bringing in the noise at the beginning and the end of a song when it is quiet and the listener can enjoy that old tape hiss.

When I bought our first CD player back whenever it was in the early 90s I remember putting a CD in for the first time and pressing "play". Which was followed by the player starting up, seeking the first track and.... absolute silence. For just long enough for me to think "**** it doesn't work" before the music started. The silence between tracks and lack of run in/out noise was really uncanny for ages. I guess I was so used to vinyl's high noise floor I never really noticed it until it wasn't there any more.

The only downside of CDs is that they enabled the loudness war that has plagued recorded music for years.

Tape hiss nowadays falls into the "effects" category, once upon a time it was something studios tried very hard to get rid of. Has it's uses in the same way fake vinyl noise, clicks and pops do.

Maarkr 
Now,  if the Cake videos would explain a bit more on the controls of their plugs and make the vids about 5 mins instead of 2, it would be nice... tell us what the benefits are to using 7.5 vs 15 ips settings?  OK?  not many of us know that the 7.5 slightly boosts the lows and de-saturates the highs, making it good for some harsh guitar or drum recordings... and that OverBias can improve the high frequency response and lower the overall noise level, ie more dynamic range.   Info like that and showing examples for the demo vids would be great.  Not complaining, just suggesting...

Noted.

Maarkr
beats spending $200 for the Waves Kramer Master Tape plug!  
Now,  if the Cake videos would explain a bit more on the controls of their plugs and make the vids about 5 mins instead of 2, it would be nice... tell us what the benefits are to using 7.5 vs 15 ips settings?  OK?  not many of us know that the 7.5 slightly boosts the lows and de-saturates the highs, making it good for some harsh guitar or drum recordings... and that OverBias can improve the high frequency response and lower the overall noise level, ie more dynamic range.   Info like that and showing examples for the demo vids would be great.  Not complaining, just suggesting...

I tend to agree here, since explaining the "why" and "application" it not always clear during the presentation of an effect. Tape Emulation is not something I use often, but I ran across this Groove3 video (5:08) a while ago that did the presentation I would prefer to see. The approach of using extreme settings per parameter is pretty stock to learn controls on any plugin, but I went searching specifically for the 15/7.5 ips explanation and got it there (4-tracks was about as "reel-to-reel" as I came before the digital era). Younger hobbyists are not necessarily going to understand a parameter that emulates anything "vintage" unless explained what that did and why those settings (even) existed.

kevinwal
That's a great point. I tend to forget that there is an entire generation of people who don't even know what a reel to reel tape machine is, let alone how it works.

I wonder how many people see a floppy disk image on a save button and wonder "What the heck is that?" 

mettelus

Maarkr
beats spending $200 for the Waves Kramer Master Tape plug!  
Now,  if the Cake videos would explain a bit more on the controls of their plugs and make the vids about 5 mins instead of 2, it would be nice... tell us what the benefits are to using 7.5 vs 15 ips settings?  OK?  not many of us know that the 7.5 slightly boosts the lows and de-saturates the highs, making it good for some harsh guitar or drum recordings... and that OverBias can improve the high frequency response and lower the overall noise level, ie more dynamic range.   Info like that and showing examples for the demo vids would be great.  Not complaining, just suggesting...

I tend to agree here, since explaining the "why" and "application" it not always clear during the presentation of an effect. Tape Emulation is not something I use often, but I ran across this Groove3 video (5:08) a while ago that did the presentation I would prefer to see. The approach of using extreme settings per parameter is pretty stock to learn controls on any plugin, but I went searching specifically for the 15/7.5 ips explanation and got it there (4-tracks was about as "reel-to-reel" as I came before the digital era). Younger hobbyists are not necessarily going to understand a parameter that emulates anything "vintage" unless explained what that did and why those settings (even) existed.

Thanks for pointing out that video Mettelus, I was just going to post my questions and that video was great. So timely for me.

Anderton
 
 
I wonder how many people see a floppy disk image on a save button and wonder "What the heck is that?" 

LOL! I get this kind of question asked almost every time I do my music classes for new students. )))