In this article, inspired by a free video excerpt from PureMix, Julian considers virtual tape plugins. How the reality of using them compares to a real tape machine and however much we might wish we had the real thing, in some, less obvious ways, virtual tape can be better.

As someone who is just old enough to have worked in a tape-based studio when magnetic tape was still the natural choice because digital media were still expensive, esoteric and unusual, I always notice when I come across discussions of virtual tape formulations or the frequency responses of different tape speeds. In the days of real tape, for most of us, the sound wasn’t the deciding factor. When faced with the choice between 15 and 30ips the choice was dictated by the cost of the tape you were going to be using rather than the sonic benefits. Steely Dan may have been able to afford 30ips but the people I was working with didn’t have the same tape budget.

Tape Formulations

In the same way, when it came to tape choice, for anything but the “posh jobs” the choice wasn’t even between new or old tape. In the backstreet studio I was working in in the mid-nineties it was between quite old and very old tape. The brand of tape was dictated by which formulation the machine was set up for last time Graham, the tech, and the only person in the building who knew anything more about maintenance than which end of the soldering iron you shouldn’t pick it up by, had set it up for. That was dictated by which calibration tape he had. From memory, it was Ampex 456 until we mysteriously changed to 3M 996 which was obviously better because the spools were anodised gold!.

As a young engineer, the only setup I did on the tape machine was to clean the tape path. If I’d started to mess with the bias settings, I’d have been shouted at! The point I’m making is that people who are only familiar with tape in its virtual form might be getting the wrong impression of what using tape was like for those of us who were using it in the project studio space in the days when tape was a current technology rather than an aesthetic choice, or even an affectation.

I see similar potential in some guitarist’s attitudes to virtual amplifiers. Amplifier choice was limited to “Do you want to use the guitar amp or not?” in our studio. As for tweaking the bias of valve amplifiers, I’m glad we didn’t get curious about that as we did have a Fender Dual Showman (which was strictly for bass) and the idea of my early twenties self poking around the back of that with a screwdriver isn’t great and could have ended with a 450V handshake and a smoking pair of shoes!

Virtual Is Fast, Fast Helps In Comparisons

This isn’t supposed to rubbish the possibilities offered by the options presented by plugin versions of tape machines. Trying a different tape machine plugin doesn’t involve moving a couple of hundred kilos of precision engineering. Today we can make AB comparisons in a second that using the hardware would have potentially taken hours to swap out even if you had the hardware available (which almost no one did).

Experience that would have taken a career to accumulate, knowledge of what a particular console sounds like with a particular tape machine wasn’t knowledge, which was easily accessible and while some people who have actually used this equipment will justifiably claim that using plugins isn’t the same (and they would be right, it isn’t) it does move the sound in that direction. I’ll avoid making any definitive statements because like so many people I don’t have the experience of enough different tape machines, running enough different formulations of tape at enough speeds to have an opinion I’d trust. Particularly after decades of not hearing real tape every day.

Tape Wasn’t “Supposed” To Sound Like Anything

Everyone who designed, built and maintained the high-end analogue equipment being emulated in plugins intended it to be as transparent as possible, a fact that is often forgotten. For the first time in decades, I have a tape machine in my studio. A 1/4” stereo Akai reel to reel, which was donated to me. It’s in working order although it’s not properly set up and I’m happy for it to remain so. This is because If I use it, which frankly I don’t, it will be as a character effect, to sound as “tapey” as possible. Iffy frequency response, distortion and noise will be exactly what I’m looking for.

If you want access to a well set up, top quality tape machine, use one of the excellent plugins available. I’m a big fan of the offerings from UAD. As the effect of tape is cumulative, try running 24 instances across subgroups in your session rather than one across the output. The main thing is that the effect is subtle and it should be. After all, tape is supposed to be transparent.

If you want something unmissable then try something deliberately lo-fi. Wavesfactory Cassette, or if you are a Studio One user then try Retro Mix Legends, which features a model of a cassette multitracker. It won’t be transparent but if it’s tape you can really hear you’re after these will make themselves known!

In this free excerpt from “Start to Finish: Jacquire King - Episode 18 - The Mix Bus Processing,” Jacquire explains his choices when setting up a tape emulation plugin, in this case, the UAD ATR-102.

Jacquire sets up the mix bus processing for Oak & Ash's "Keep The Light On", and breaks down his approach. This episode contains one of the best explanations of the UAD Ampex ATR-102 available online.

Watch as Jacquire:

• Creates a general eq shape for the mix with the Chandler Limited Curve Bender

• Discusses mixing in an unfamiliar room

• Auditions different tape formulas on the Ampex ATR 102 and explains what he is hearing and why he settles on his choice

• Explains his choices for tape speed, width, biasing, emphasis and repro EQ

• Demonstrates how he uses a frequency analyzer to correlate what he is hearing with a visual representation

How Do I Watch Jacquire King - The Mix Bus Processing

This video tutorial is available to Pro PureMix members and can be accessed by signing up to a PureMix subscription for as little as $25 a month.

Sign up to get advanced audio tutorials where Grammy-winning engineers teach you mixing concepts by showing you their techniques and tricks while mixing song by Pharrell, Imagine Dragons, Ziggy Marley and more. 

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