https://watape.com is offering giving access to everyone this weekend. Simply, you send them your digital record and they'll record it on tape. Then they'll record it again to digital and send back to you.

I don't know if it's better than a saturation pluginafter those converting but if you wanna try...

 

This weird, I wouldn't send my work without knowing anything about them,

there is absolutely nothing regarding them on their webpage (can't call it a website),

Sorry Spidervis, but this doesn't sound serious/professionnal at all.

 

lol Im sending one of my first track uploaded to bandcamp, let's see.
i don't have any money either so can't be robbed, horray

EDIT oh i still need an invite, ok

 

Don't be sorry. I didn't send anything too. I just want to share such a service I've seen first time. I'm sorry if it's just a waste of time.

 

I think I'l send them some pbthal vinyl rips and then when I get them back I'll post them on reddit so kids today will have an idea of what it was like to listen to cassette dubs of vinyl records

 

personally speaking.. virtual tape machine does what I need... it's not real tape but I like the results! ultimately people are listening to the final product digitally from their digital media players and PC speakers and iphones and ear buds (and yeah CD if ya still press em) it's not like most people are actually pressing vinyl when it really made a difference to the listeners... granted recording to real tape will always give you that safety net and added flava which is lost in the digital world but I much rather just purchase a cheap Reel 2 Reel or one of those tascam 4track cassette things from back in the days (hell even a cassette deck) if I wanted some raw analog flava.. for example I used to record drums to a cassette tape and then sample them from the cassette for that dirty grit.

I wouldn't go crazy trying to send my music to somebody else just so they can record it to tape and then record it back to digital for me.. sounds like something people who aren't sure about their music would do... as those who like that classic analog tape magic probably still use old gear or have settled for what's available digitally.

 

too many ways to DIY it... why bother..

 

There are SO many factors involved with recording to tape that have to be right in order to get what people think they want from it... I have used it a lot in the past, as it was what we did before we would simply export digitally, print through other convertors, or use dat etc... But machines have to be calibrated, alignment, test tones, azimuth, all these things that require intelligent (at least competent) engineers etc to get right. You can't just willy nilly print crap to tape and expect it to have the desired quality as a "master".... (another thing altogether if you are trying to distress it etc, and sometimes you just don't care)... but I can't imagine this service is spending the money to have competent people there on hand all the time, cleaning the heads, dealing with decent stock of tape etc...

will look at the site, but seriously, I would rather trust a plugin then the idea of sending my musical assets to some rando's with a tape machine...

 

thanks for making me feel like a grandpa..

 

What tape machine brand/model? Speed? Hot or cold?
Meh. I have tape (and plugins) myself.

 

Costs money, maintenance and time to provided a service like that for free. Bet they record to two tracks of an old Tascam 4-trk cassette recorder.

 

.....back......in minutes.

 

Hi, I am the developer behind watape. I am an electronics engineer and I've been working on acoustics and audio for a time now.

This is not intended to master a track. And yes, there is no calibration, alignment, test tones or azimuth. Well I use some tones and sweeps to test balance, levels and distorsion. This is just the raw machine playing and recording tracks.
This is a MVP, not even a startup. The machine is in my room and I clean the headers myself. At night I can hear the machine switching on by itself while somebody else in another part of the world is waiting to get it back.

Your data and tracks are safe and will never be distributed. After reading some of the comments in this thread I have added two sections to the landing page "How it works" and "about" in order to answer some of your questions.

Here I have found the hardest comments about the idea and I think is where I can learn the most. I wish you could try it and give me some comments about it.

I would also like to ask what would you expect for a service like that? what features should at least have? What about another type of hardware?

https://watape.com/how-it-works

 

I think its a brilliant idea.

 

I received the track. It's only the 3 minute version because the .wav was more than 50 MB
If you guys want I can upload both versions ("taped" and original) just to compare? It's a dance-y track

EDIT: I don't even know how it worked or if it's legit. There's some differences but I have only listened once and not carefully yet

 

I'd Rather Put on Kramer Master Tape, if you feeling extra nostalgic, just sample white noise from vinyl and cut off 15kHz, you only need pops, the hiss from kramer master tape is good as it is

 

Upload please. Thanks.

 

I remember how it was to make records with a Fostex 8track tape machine. It was in the early 90ies. I was very young and stupid member of an indy band then. I learned a lot because we did everything by ourself. And believe me, everyone dreamed about todays technical capabilities because you had a hard time fighting noise and watching signal levels. You needed midi click to synchronize to an Atari and sometimes it was bleeding into other tracks. And you always had to bounce tracks because 8 tracks weren't enough. There was no quick deleting, if your instrumental part had no breaks you had to play it perfectly from start to end. (Or risking bad cut points.) And at the end this fucking Fostex machine needed love like a snotty diva. (Many maintenance repairs.)

But if i listen to the sound today i can't believe how smooth the records were. Especially hihats, drums and guitars sounding amazingly tight and glued. And if you ask me, i never heard a true recreation of that sound. Thats because the peripheral devices back then are never considered. Everything was hardware: Mixing console, compressors, eq, effects etc. And of course there were still other components involved wich leaded in the typical 8track sound.

To remember how it was to use all this stuff brings me always in a reminiscent mood. To sit all night long in front of hardware towers with blinking lights, using knobs instead of mouse clicks, fighting cable tangle and humming signals, drinking al lot and feeling rebellious. It was amazing. But back then you didn't realise how good the time was you were living in. ;)

 

This idea remembers me someone who put a speaker and a microphone in an empty tank, somewhere on this planet.
You could send a sample and get it back from the real thing ;)

It was funnier than impulses.

Good idea !!!
It is not a matter of getting something "closer", but getting the real thing, even not perfect.
Real world vs virtual.

 

@Elisea I figured that out a couple of years ago and went from completely digital studio to a hybrid with a console and some outboard FX [compressors and limiters only] and DAW used for tracking and mixing with FX. Very satisfying results. Best of both worlds.

I also used to work with all analogue in the 90s. I wouldn't go back 100% to that. :D It's best to combine the strengths of the anlaogue with the strengths of the digital for best results. Depending on what you consider the best results, of course. Some people can work wonders ITB, but some of the people I know still have all analogue setups and those just sound better to me.

You know that good old "getting it right at the source makes mixing easier", or something along those lines? I even route VSTis through an old Alesis AI3 into an analogue console and back to another DAW. It makes them sound better and more similar to my hardware samplers. The best part is - I don't even have to touch VSTis if I don't want to, or vice versa - I don't need to turn on the hardware to make a track and it won't sound so different.

Regarding tape emulations I really like ToneBoosters Reelbus. Wonderful plugin and cheap. I don't think Waves' emu is any better. Still, for best results it's best to have a real tape machine, of course. I've been considering getting one for a while...