[LAD] Re: Tape emulation - is it worth the effort ?

Hiss, Bias, & Speed.... Hiss in Digital is called Dither... is added on purpose at last in the master. if added before, 1st, before Eq & compressed, noise level will change. in Analog, Noise usually comes from AC power noise... Furman has linear filtering technology, lowers noise drastically, there are many other brands and methods to clean the AC power. i prefer AC Regenerators like PS Audio Power Plant Premier + MultiWave, or 12v / 24v /48v DC-AC inverters for Solar with Pure Sine wave out. or even some On-line UPS with Pure Sine wave out. Noise can have different shapes, Apogee Rosetta 200 converter or Nuendo DAW had a Noise shape, that sounds familiar to many people, at 18-Bit Noise "16-Bit + Low" gives more realistic sound to digital processing. CD 16-bit noise is too high, pro converters have 20-Bit noise floor or lower.. Bias is like a Road Flattening / Roller machine.... pave the way.. Iron molecules are not flat, are like an open road, Bias aligns all molecules in the same direction, outside the audible range... when the magnetic iron road is paved, has lower bumps in the road, more stable/smooth ride, vehicles can achieve faster speeds without extreme vibration, same but with sound and distortion. Speed: 15ips is nice, but a bit low, 30ips is cleaner but a bit too high. should be like movies 24fps/25fps, 24ips/25ips. maybe also 20ips. 30ips = 76.2cm/s. 15ips = 38.1cm/s 7.5ips = 19.05cm/s. 3.75ips = 9.525cm/s. 20ips = 50.8cm/s. 24ips = 60.96cm/s. 25ips= 63.5cm/s. 15ips and 30ips were chosen because Vinyl play back record Time was similar... 1x 10.5" tape at 15ips or 30ips has similar recording time, vs. 12" Vinyl at 33.3rpm vs. 45rpm. slow speeds are ussed in some music styles, for some instruments to give a different tone, like a magnetic EQ / Low pass filter. there was a format called Super Analog, made by jrfmagnetics, most pro 2-track recorders in the world, used for Vinyl cutting lathes, and Mixdown to Stereo in Studios, was 1/4" 2-tracks, some rare had 3rd TimeCode track, but Pro machines had a very tiny 3rd track, so tiny, that machines required a Brainstorm Distripalyzer SR-15+ to regenerate the TimeCode from the Tape machine... Pro-sumer tape machines like Fostex or Tascam that had 3rd Track, had a bigger 3rd track, almost the same as the other 2-tracks.. Super Analog was bigger, insterad of 1/4" 2-Track was 1/2" 2-Track, or 1" 2-Track, or 2" 2-Track. conversion heads were available for some machine brands. in Normal conditions: 1/4" 2-track = 1/2" 4-track = 1" 8-track = 2" 16-Track. a 2" 24-track = 12-track 1" = 6-track 1/2" = 3 equal tracks 1/4". Most Home Tape Recorders, like Pioneer RT-701 / RT-707 / RT-909 were 1/4" 4-track, but... only used 2-tracks simultanously, the other 2-empty tracks were used to record more time, some machines required to flip the tape, like cassets but open reel, other more expensive had reversible circuits, a 4-track head could record/play in the other 2-tracks while in reverse. extending tape time 2x. jrfmagnetics sold generic heads to convert 1/4" 4-track Stereo to True 1/4" 2-Track stereo. but some machines also required a Bias Transformer upgrade... Bias was Not strong enough. ________________________________________ From: Fons Adriaensen <fons(a)linuxaudio.org> Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2024 9:21 AM To: linux-audio-dev(a)lists.linuxaudio.org Subject: [LAD] Re: Tape emulation - is it worth the effort ? On Wed, Oct 16, 2024 at 04:08:41PM +0200, Robin Gareus wrote: Does it ? Anyway, you don't need a full emulation of the physical process to add a bit of noise... Ciao, -- FA _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-dev mailing list -- linux-audio-dev(a)lists.linuxaudio.org To unsubscribe send an email to linux-audio-dev-leave(a)lists.linuxaudio.org