Any TAPE Simulation Plug-In for Logic?

These guys have one -- been meaning to check out the demo:

http://www.virsyn.com/en/EProducts/E_VTAPE/evtape.html

Also, Massey just announced that their highly respected plugins are being ported to Audio Units -- they have a pretty good tape simulator.

And PSP's "Vintage Warmer" and Mixpack/Saturator kinda' do a tapey thing. I like Vintage Warmer which offers something different to all the UAD and Waves stuff I have.

Aside from DUY DaD Tape (rather expensive despite how good it is), Airwindows makes two tape plug-ins: Iron Oxide and Chrome Oxide

Another thing I like using as a tape simulation is Izotope Ozone.

jord

+1 on Vintage Warmer.

You might want to try Triton's ColorTone Pro. I liked that, but it runs via Pluggo which annoys me for some reason, but the ColorTone has some nice effects.

http://www.tritonedigital.com/productinfo.php?cPath=23&productsid=32

There's a rumor that the Crane Song Phoenix may be released as an AU - that thing is just great, so maybe in a month or two.

This approach worked really well for me and is free.

1) download the beamsonic impulse responses here: http://noox.sitesled.com/
Use the Studor +3 or +6 impulse with or without noise reduction in space designer (Load IR and init etc). Set to 100% wet. You will have to shorten the IR because it's very long. You can do that right inside space designer if you don't want to chop the wave file itself. This will give you the the tonal character and smearing of transients associated with tape.

2) Apply compression using Logic's comp since real tape automatically applies compression. I don't know the approximate ratio and threshold but you could look that up online. I would have to guess that the attack time would be very fast and the release time would be around 60 msec. I think Logic's compressor has a preset for tape compression.

Try the space designer and the compressor in different orders to see which way you like better.

Yep, I use exactly this method when I want that tape smearing effect, and it works better for me than the tape saturation plugins I've tried in the past, including Vintage Warmer which i've never really liked.

The first time I tried out the Beamsonic impulses made me go *that's the sound of tape* and I realised why I always disliked it (tape) so much.. 🙂

Nice news about the Massey plugs, those are supposed to be great...

I have been messing with these IRs. Very nice!
A Few questions.
1. When using the Tape IRs.. for example, do you always turn the dry signal completely off?
2. Do you guys use the Latency compensation on Space Designer?
3. What happens if you don't shorten the length?

BTW, I really like what the U87 IR does to my Martin recorded with my C414.

1. Yes. You want the sound of your audio "through" the tape, not the sound of your dry audio mixed with the sound of it through tape. So 100% wet it needs to be.

2. Sometimes

3. Space Designer will use way more CPU than it needs to, because each sample has to be processed 400% more than it needs to, especially seeing as that processing is having basically no effect because the tails are silent - it's just eating CPU for no reason. So the IR's should be shortened, either permanently by editing the impulse files, or directly in SD (you can save presets with this already done so it's only a one time thing).

Interesting.. .looking forward to trying these IRs out. Looks like quite a bit of detail there too!

the beamsonic ir:s...you can just as well do the same with an eq, there's no magic in the ir:s...

I tried the IR's. I must be doing something wrong. I loaded em up in Space designer by hitting the little arrow next to the "IR sample" button in space designer, and chose the file (on my desktop). I left it long, and also shortened it as well.

It definitely sounds different. The highs are muted somewhat like I would expect them to be, but the transients are really screwed up--mushy almost. Surely I missed something...like do I have to change the attack time of the IR or something?

That's what tape does - it mushes the transients to varying degrees.

If you don't want mushy transients, don't use tape or tape impulses... 😉

Bee Jay wrote:
That's what tape does - it mushes the transients to varying degrees.

If you don't want mushy transients, don't use tape or tape impulses... 😉

IMHO tape does not "mush up" the sound - usually it just makes the sound more urgent and lively.

~Rad~

Tape does indeed "mush" up transients - how much depends on the tape/format and how hard you are hitting it.

It's largely for this reason I never liked the sound of tape...

hi,
if i can't get enough mushiness normally, i pick up my favorite baseball bat and pound the tape to pulp.
i don't think any plug-in can do that yet.
it's either that or a nine iron....
seriously, DUY tape is about the best i've heard/used.
if you put even this plug on too many trks, things will get seriously dull sounding.
i like the edge digital has, but on some sounds, like o/d gtrs and strg sections a Tape plug can help.
DR9.

Bee Jay's right about the transients. That's what tape does. Your clack becomes more of a thwack with tape. I can remember the first time I heard a digital recording when I was like 16 years old and I thought, man everything sounds so clean and sharp. It's most noticeable with drums for obvious reasons. Depending on your preference, that sound can be very satisfying. What's missing from SD is the ability to have the transient smearing vary with dynamic level. It all sounds a little static otherwise which is why it's "like tape" only. Now if only someone would write an AU for dynamic based convolution switching.