so far that Free TB EZQ is a real nice one too!

Last night I popped Reelbus into several projects just to see where it might fit. One of the old projects I brought up already had a tape sim on the master, the ancient FX:TapeSim that's been bundled with SONAR since Day One. I was therefore able to A/B it against Reelbus and hear how superior the new TB product was - except that it wasn't. The old Cakewalk plugin sounded better.

Not sure what the point of this post is, except as a reminder not to dismiss the older effects you already have.

bitflipper,
I always appreciate your input on the forums.  This inspired me to do just a short video with the FX2 plugin you mentioned.
I thought the results were very interesting.  Check it out.

Tape Sim Experiments Cakewalk FX2

Man, I was going to ask if anyone even thought of comparing them. Thanks, Simeon (and Bit for mentioning it).

I don't know how much of a true comparison.  Just a little bit of the surface and seeing behind the curtain so to speak about what might be happening with the various approaches to this idea.
It seems that it is really just another attempt a a different type of saturation model.

Very interesting though when you get into the head of the developers and the inner workings of the  plugin itself.  A lot of times we get distracted by meters, lights and other GUI eye candy that influences what we perceive so having tools like this to actually visualize things is really a plus!
 

  Thanks Dave, and cool video Simeon. It's great to hear from folks that are capable of being more objective about the matter.

 

Nice  Simeon  - Thanks!


I like the old Tape Sim from Cakewalk, but I really like the ReelBus. It's subjective no doubt, but my 2 cents. Plus I had an instance when the tape sim disappeared from my plugin offerings for a while and left me wondering if I could count on it being there after that was resolved.




EDIT:

I just A/B both plugs again and I think the Tape Sim is slightly warmer while the ReelBus is warm and keeps more detail. I will be using both depending on the material. Good point to re-look at the Tape Sim plug again! 

simeon


I don't know how much of a true comparison.  Just a little bit of the surface and seeing behind the curtain so to speak about what might be happening with the various approaches to this idea.
It seems that it is really just another attempt a a different type of saturation model.

Very interesting though when you get into the head of the developers and the inner workings of the  plugin itself.  A lot of times we get distracted by meters, lights and other GUI eye candy that influences what we perceive so having tools like this to actually visualize things is really a plus!

Thanks Simeon that's a cool vid.

It certainly shows the similarities between these types of tools in that they all produce harmonics from the fundamental frequency, I've never stopped using the old Cakewalk sim, and you really showed up why I don't use the 'hiss' feature on it at all ever...  My favourite though is still the free one from Bootsy 'Ferric TDS' simply because it provides a fake ceiling to push against like tape but doesn't introduce a bunch of noise artifacts, just a nice amount of saturation which only bites if you push too hard.  If I want loads of distortion I'll use an amp sim...

I like what you say here to as you seem aware of the limitations of this particular test in not showing up the differences.  Like you say too it's hard to understand the rationale employed by the developers on a particular model.

Some of the things that the test wont show up are things like how the plug in is performing under different conditions as programme material is passing through it over time, and the effect of the different noise artifacts introduced (which you did show up) along the frequency domain and why they are included in a particular model.

The only real test for these kind of DSP algo's, because they have an abstract function aside from the harmonics, is to match output levels and use your ears, so they are always going to be down to a matter of taste to a large degree.

Some of them are resource hungry because of the amount of modelling going on and I'm sure some still are a big fuss out of next to nothing at all as an aid to get us to part with some cash but at least we have a choice...  It's a good reminder that you might save yourself a few bucks by not pretending to hear some magic going on that isn't there, although with some of these plugs there clearly is some good stuff happening.

Thanks for the vid, I enjoyed it.