16 Oct
2024
16 Oct
'24
4:44 p.m.
On Wed, Oct 16, 2024 at 04:03:36PM +0200, Lorenzo Sutton wrote:
From more of a LAU perspective (I know this is LAD,
but still hopefully
useful), the sort of 'basic' question is: what would the use case for this
be?
Well, some people claim that recording their mix on analog tape
'improves' it, typically the result is described as being 'warmer',
and having other difficult to measure 'qualities'.
There's a high number of delusions and hypes circulating in the
audio world, so I wouldn't be surprised if this just turns out
to be one more.
If I understand correctly by 'simulated' you
mean using more 'traditional'
effects like EQ etc.? Would you share what you did? Just 'reverse
engineered' the final sound resutlt?
I did both - the 'full one' emulating the complex process that
puts a magnetic signal on the tape, and a very much simpler one
based on the result of the first.
The conclusion so far is that the full one is a waste of resources -
you can get the same result using some very simple saturation algo
plus some EQ. Also the results of the full emulation do not confirm
the supposed 'smooth saturation and compression'. And if you really
want 'smooth saturation and compression', that can be done by very
simple algorithms whithout emulating the very complex magnetic
effects.
In other words, apparently tape saturation seems to be much less
sophisticated and magical as it is sometimes presented.
A totally different direction could be using a plug-in
like this to
'simulate' accurately tape and different tape types / parameters to conduct
listening tests (e.g. A/B/X) without having to use actual tape and tape
machines, eventually to (try and) study in a more scientific manner what are
the basis of claimed 'superiority' of tape (in some cases even cassette (!))
by then linking the results to audience demographics, music genre,
measurable or observable sound qualities etc.
That can and should be done using actual real tape recorders.
Ciao,
--
FA