Softube Tape Vs Slate
Time to get reel! Softube’s Tape plug-in adds cohesion and weight to your mixes. But Tape goes far beyond your average tape machine emulation. It includes three distinctly different tape machine types, and it offers the ease of use and low CPU strain that today’s music creators rightfully expect. Even in this day and age, it's common practice for computer based professional studios to run their mixes through at least one generation of analog tape. Because even when used subtly, analog tape has a smoothing effect and adds cohesion and weight to a mix—it takes the recording from a collection of individual tracks into a song where everything is connected and works together. With Softube’s Tape plug-in, you can have all that and more.
Jun 29, 2017 - Also, what have you found more useful, tape saturation or console. It's also the cheapest tape machine out of the big three (Slate, Satin, and the other Waves tape plugins). Anyone compared with Softube´s 'Tape'?
Tape Saturation Plugin By Softube
Three Machines in One Tape includes three different tape machine types in one plug-in. Type A is based on a classic Swiss high end reel-to-reel machine, known and loved for its precision and linearity. Type B is much more colorful—it’s a transformer based machine which adds extra weight and cream to the low end.
Lastly, Type C is based on a British tape machine with a distinct vintage vibe. Ease of Use Select your favorite tape machine Type, and adjust the Amount knob to taste. In most cases, that’s all you need to do to soak your tracks in analog tape sweetness. Easier still, load up one of the included presets, made by award winning engineers such as Joe Chiccarelli (Beck, U2, Strokes) and Howard Willing (Smashing Pumpkins, Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson).
But Wait, There’s More Feeling tweaky? Why not start by trying the different tape speed settings—you’ll find that the slower the tape speed, the more pronounced is the so-called tape head bump, which adds low end to the mix.
Or open the Remote Control panel where you can control the selected tape machine’s speed stability, crosstalk amount and several other tape-a-liscious features. Dense Sound, Light on CPU Add a single instance of Tape on your master bus to emulate what most computer based studios do today—mix in the computer, then mix down to a stereo tape machine—or go vintage style by adding Tape to every single track in your mix. Yes, your computer will be able to handle it.
As most Softube plug-ins, Tape is uniquely light on your computer’s processor. Extras for Studio One Users If you run Presonus Studio One, you can not only use Tape as a standard plug-in.
Adding Tape to your MixFX slot gives you Tape Multitrack. Tape Multitrack includes all the goodies of Tape, but in addition, you get selectable crosstalk between each individual track—and you can easily control the Tape Multitrack settings from a single interface. The Tape and Tape Multitrack license is one and the same. This means that if you’re not a Studio One user but at some future point decide to switch to that DAW, you will already have Tape Multitrack installed, licensed and ready to go. Realistic analog tape sound Three tape machine types included Easy to use Low CPU usage Includes Tape Multitrack which can be used in the MixFX slot of Presonus Studio One—adding individual channel crosstalk and singleinterface control of all tracks. I find Sofftube Tape a little buggy when playing with underthehood buttons: for instance, woobly fx stay activ for a while even when the pot is set to 'stable' position Do you guys are experimenting the same issue?
I'm currently testing ' tape' against 'UADAmpex' ' UADStuder' and UADOxide' Really nice work from Softube but my first feeling is that 'Tape' is NOT a game changer for UAD 's tape sim trilogy owners When you lake dsp / time. ( I personally have to pre treat nearly all my tracks with Studer ) 'Tape' is surely welcome Even I cannot affirm that 'Tape' is playing in the same ballpark than UADs tape sim I'm pretty confident Softube's Tape will outperform Slate's VTM ( but I can't no longer compare ) Take all this with grains of salt: I'm still in the discovering phase.
Saturation-based effects have always been Softube’s bread and butter, so it was only a matter of time before it brought us a tape emulation. Tape (VST/AU) is about as simple as this kind of thing gets, sacrificing the configuration depth of, say, u-he Satin, for a simple interface that boils the architectural minutiae of its three modelled tape machines (each complete with unspecified tape) down to a streamlined set of controls that no one’s going to have any trouble getting to grips with. Deck hand The three vintage decks in question aren’t specifically named, but A is described as “Swiss” and popular in the 60s, and therefore can only really be a Studer; B is “transformer- based” and thus, we reckon, probably the Ampex ATR102; and C is “British” - an EMI, we suppose.
Switching between them is done with the Type button, and the Amount knob increases the depth of processing - ie, tape saturation - with separate input overdrive available in the Remote Control panel (see below). Like the machines they mimic, each model has its own distinct sound: Type A is the flattest and most versatile in terms of frequency response, while Type B delivers a fairly hefty boost to the lows and highs, and Type C tilts a touch towards the top end. Clicking the Remote Control bar down Tape’s right hand edge slides open a panel containing an additional set of parameters. Speed Stability simulates wow and flutter, dialling in wholly convincing pitch and volume wobbling, and opening Tape up to flanging and chorus effects when used in conjunction with the Dry/Wet mix knob above. High Frequency Trim boosts or attenuates treble response, rather like a shelving filter; while Crosstalk bleeds the left and right channels into each other, profoundly boosting central punch and weight at high settings. Finally, activating Noise adds in emulated tape noise that increases in loudness and low- end emphasis as the Tape Speed is reduced, but is effectively imperceptible at high speeds; and the Run and Stop buttons trigger very cool tape start and stop effects, the lengths of which are, annoyingly, entirely dependent on the Tape Speed setting. The Tape Speed knob steps between five settings, starting at the studio standard 30 inches per second, halving down through 15ips and 71⁄2ips, then dropping all the way to 33⁄4ips and the snail-like 17⁄8ips.
Softube Tape Saturation
As the speed decreases, the top end response rolls off, the distortion increases and the signal progressively deteriorates, from bright and smooth at 30ips to dark, lo-fi and fabulously crunchy at 17⁄8ips. The VU meters respond smoothly and accurately to changes in Amount and Input gain, showing you exactly how hot you’re running your virtual tape, and can be flipped to THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) mode to visualise the weight of saturation being brought to bear. It’s on, Tape Having worked the aforementioned Satin deeply into our retro production workflow some time ago, Tape had its work cut out impressing us, but we fell in love with it pretty much instantly. Satin might have the advantage in terms of power and configurability (not to mention its deployment as a delay effect), but Tape just sounds incredible - as close to the real deal as we’ve ever heard.
On the master bus at 30 or 15ips, it warms the mix and glues its component tracks together beautifully, with each Type yielding very different results; while on individual instruments and vocals, it’s ideal for subtle saturation or creative effects, thanks to the slow speeds and wet/dry flanging. Also worth mentioning is that Presonus’ Studio One DAW can load Tape as a Mix FX plugin (called Tape Multitrack), with the Crosstalk control (see boxout) bleeding discrete tracks into each other rather than just left and right channels. A dazzlingly authentic tape emulation plugin that you’ll want to build into your template DAW project for use on just about everything (particularly if that DAW happens to be Studio One), Tape is unmissable.