What is tape emulation?

Tape emulation plugins are an easy and relatively inexpensive way to apply a close simulation of the sound of tape to your mixes, either on a track-by-track basis or on the master buss or a sub-buss.

What is a saturation plugin?

Tape saturation plugins emulate the sound of audio recorded through tape machines. They introduce odd order harmonics, subtle compression, and non-linear shifts in frequency response. Tape saturation also rolls off high-end frequencies and creates a small boost in the lows.

What is tape saturation?

Saturation or in this case tape saturation is a phenomenon which stands for analog tape recording. It describes a state in which voltage level is exceeding the tape`s ability to record it. When the signal is being sent to a tape recorded, the voltage is sent to an electromagnet in the recording head.

What is saturation in mastering?

Saturation is a combination of two distinct but related effects – soft-knee compression, and harmonic generation. Saturation occurs when a signal’s input can no longer be matched by the output in a linear fashion; it can be used as a creative and sonically pleasing effect during audio production.

What does a virtual tape machine do?

Virtual Tape Machines accurately emulates the behavior of both of the most common tape speeds of 15 and 30 ips. Engineers who use tape sometimes choose which speed to use based upon the material they’re recording, since the bass response can differ a great deal between the two speeds.

What is tape saturation plugin?

Is saturation the same as distortion?

Saturation, when talking about audio, is a combination of compression and distortion which is created from overloading the physical components of an electrical system. Distortion, when talking about audio, is the altering of the shape of a waveform which creates a different tonality from that of the original waveform.

Should saturation come before or after compression?

There are no rules to this, just what sounds good. The amount of saturation will determine how much, or if any, compression is needed. if your levels are all over the place, you might want to compress first so your signal hits the saturation evenly and you arent hearing saturation amounts changing.

What is the best tape emulator plugin?

Best Tape Emulation Plugins to Get. 1 Virtual Tape Machines (VTM) by Slate Digital. The VTM plugin by Slate Digital provides a tape effects on music recordings by emulating two authentic 2 Satin by u-he. 3 Waves J37 Tape. 4 Waves Kramer Master Tape. 5 TapeDesk by Overloud.

What is TAPE emulation?

This technique is known as Tape Emulation and can be typically implemented by adding plugins into your preferred track or t mix. The cassette saturation plugins may be put on every instrument’s output signal or maybe jointly applied to the master course, or perhaps both!

Do tape plugins emulate real hardware?

Some could emulate real hardware, though some will create a natural effect with no particular traditional unit in your mind. Generally speaking, the Tape plugin does what analog hardware did half a century ago – it chooses the sound signal.

What are the best Waves plugins for a virtual tape machine?

Quick answer: Check out the Virtual Tape Machines (VTM) by Slate Digital and Satin by u-he. Those two are our top recommends, with Satin being the cheapest. But there are some other great Waves plugins here for you if you’d want to take look at those.