The title of the thread says tape emulator, so i assumed cassette applies as well not just reel to reel.
If i'm wrong just ignore it. Although sketch cassette II is pretty nice. As well as that caelum audio tape pro. ( i think someone mentioned it)

 

Cool mate, glad to help!

It is super easy to get caught up in worrying about "Is there something better?" - that's when having access to so many amazing tools can almost become paralysing.

Satin is a solid choice - it sounds great, and as you dig deeper with it, you'll be able to create a huge variety of different sounds/effects, and you'll learn how to use those sounds in your workflow.

And for sure, you can always try out different plugins if you feel you're missing something (or if you just want some variety) but yeah, don't worry about having "the best" - much better to have something that gets you excited to make music!

Ps: Satin works great as a vocal exciter too - you can basically do the 'Dolby trick' with it.

 

Ableton's Saturator

 

I had a huge surprise using this, without any stellar expectations, I found it exceptionally realistic at behaving like a real tape, transport-wise. Especially when playing with the wow and flutter options. It really gave me a "real tape" feeling, since I use it often to give some movement to "over static" tracks. Subtle and yet giving a great difference.

If you're looking for the most realistic one, the closest to come next to my few reel2reel experiences is without doubt IK Multimedia Tapes.

After that, as it has been clearly demonstrated through this thread already by the @Lube Bag , to make it short, it depends if you want to colorize your records with the cliché of a tapey sound, degraded, 70's-esque, with the low mid bump, ect, or give your tracks the sound of a professional and maintained tape machine, which will effect your sound dynamically, frenquency-wise, harmonically and spatially but in a subtle way.

Spoiler

And yeah Slate is shite, sympathetic ir tone but pre-rings and aliases, Reelbus is very great for classic expected tape sound, U-he is full of options and great sounding but hard for me to get to the sound I want as easily as IK Tapes, Wavesfactory cassette is soothy too but careful to tame the awful bumps it produces, great for lofiying stuff more than last sheen before master delivery.

 

Last edited: Sep 7, 2021

"Best" simply means closest emulation of the real deal. Which is hard to determine by a non experimented person. He didn't asked "Which Tape plugin I like the most?" (which is a dumb question) he said "the truthfulness of the tape recorder is important to me"

 

try GhZ Tupe. for me this beat u-he satin and Softube tape

 

The most realistic nebula/cupwise ax102 tapes, tim p 37j, IK tapes.

 

I've got to give props to most of you. This thread is a nice example of constructive feedback and criticism

Also, like @Stevie Dude said, Chowdhury Analog plugin seems to be very good and not only is free but open source:
https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/AnalogTapeModel

 

Last edited: Sep 7, 2021

then I must be the only one who likes Slate, I must add the apShaper from apulSoft that has very great features ...I also like Softube but its too thin sounding for me, Daw Cassette from Klevgrand.se

 

In my young ages, I've worked a LOT with tape machines. Some of them were professional (Otari, Studer), others where semi-pro (Revox) and customer/hi-fi grade (Technics). All were loaded with BASF Studio Master 911 or Ampex 456 Grand Master (both professional grade). Recordings were always conducted to avoid as much as possible any distortion/saturation/artifacts... in fact, all these defects which "digital generation kids" are today curiously looking for. We never used tape machines to "warm up" a record session. We never exceeded 0dB. This is why:

And this is why the most accurate tape emulation of the best professional tape machine loaded with the best professional tape and tuned/used by the best technicians will give you this:

=> The perfect tape recording process = 100% transparent.

Now if you want to "warm up" your sound, you should rephrase your question and ask what is the best plug-in to screw up your recordings.

 

Last edited: Sep 7, 2021

"the best" is subjective.
Why don't you actually try a few and compare the sounds?

 

Are you talking about the Service section?



I don't think they use IRs, I don't remember reading anything about it in the manual

 

My picks are :


for transparent tape mojo - Black Rooster Magnetite
for fx - Wavesfactory Cassette

Also, the tape saturation in Pulsar 1178 is pretty awesome.

 

interesting. do you have your favorite tape emulation plugin?

 

Ain't no best you dum dum
Studer is nice, Satin has insane customization options and sound, rather unknown but look at Henry Olongas Q-Clone collection he got interesting tape presets, J37 is decent

What a Henn or Egg problem, lol. How did the first engineer ever gain his experience then?
Just be like him, don't give a fuck and be creative with your exercises!
I mean you're a musician after all.

 

I use Slate its one of the best sounding tapes.....it gives that warm effect without all the extra blablala u get it with other tapes

 

We can understand that his favourite one is Softube Tape

 

The tangible material "tape machine" is old and expensive and fragile.

Thank goodness the analog becomes the digital. Rustproof, cheaper and more durable.

You too can switch to the new tape emulator plug-in from the T.A.P.E. Group.

 

You will end up spending many years, it's not a productive solution

 

My favorite emulation of...

... is none, since digital recording was developed to outperform the best analog recording processes.
I'm not looking to add defects in my recordings.

 

Last edited: Sep 8, 2021