Hi AudioSexuals, I hope you shed some light on this. I am interested in buying U-He's Satin tape emulation plug-in. I've tried it, and to my ears, it is the Swiss-army knife of warm, analog vibe that adds very from subtle grit to I've-removed-the-cloth-off-my-speakers spark. However, I'm interested in knowing what your likes are. I'm two steps away from my purchase (just waiting for the mail to deliver my coupon after the U-He survey). Meanwhile, I'd love to read if I'm missing something by not choosing Slate Digital's VTM, for instance. I'm on an Apollo Twin, so I'd also like to know if it's worth it to wait till the end-of-year sales and shell out around over 200 bucks for the Studer or Ampex machines.

Or maybe I'm missing anything else?

Peace to you, guys, and thanks a lot.

 

yes, Satin is the bomb for mastering. i also like/use sdrr, spl twintube, saturn, ozone exciter, reelbus, depending on the simplicity/cpu need of the project. but yeah, Satin is the king.

 

VTM is good, here's a free demo:
http://cdsoundmaster.com/site/cds-software-online/demos.html

 

I like it its useful to sprinkle a little of it to get some tracks to blend better, but if I want tape on whole project I'll batch all files through nebula and saturate the lot with some really good stuff, my favourite is alexb's modern white tape, its so silky smooth and rounds the sound off very nice, plenty more I tried and my library covers any type of tape sound I could wish to have, algo's are fine but these are sublime IMHO auqua vst plugs are in the same class to my ear but a bit more pricey, satins quite versatile on its own, its got that in its favour, so nebula plus libraries vs satin Satin would be cheaper and rightly so

 

Saturn for multiband saturation.
For tape I use 3 depending on the track:
Ferrox - adds tape style compression and bottom fatness with very little saturation and tape-y frequency response, low cpu
Reelbus - same as above with moderate saturation, tape-y response, slightly more cpu
J37 - full on cassette you found in your parents attic from the 80s (not the same tape, I know), cpu whore.

 

Klanghelm!!!!!

 

I use mainly Ferox in tracks where I need saturation (bass, drums) and ToneBoosters ReelBus in mastering. If quality is the main concern then the Trio of CDSoundMaster R2R + Tape Booster + VTM2 ends all discussions together with the CPU.

 

hey, everyone,

besides every excellent plug-in mentioned, there is harrison mixbus whith its really outstanding tape saturation emulation (channel, buss, master track, using somewhat different sounding nonlinearities), worth to try as the last expedient during the search for perfection...

there also are two plug-ins, the urs saturation, the urs classic console strip (professional version), capable of producing good results. *yes*

there was one thread here, couple of years earlier, with one similar sounding topic, perhaps worth the search (with favourite listings even). *yes*

all the best for all of us (plus then some through mixbus's channels, busses, master tracks)...

later edit, post scriptum, if interested, the topic mentioned above is linked here... *yes*