Tape Heads! _ U-HE Satin

[Lost to the Void]

How does it compare against Waves Kramer MXP Tape plugin?

Kramer tape is poo

[Lost to the Void]

Been reading about this on KVR, not sure I get the point of it. What is different about the compression you get that makes it so desirable over say a normal bus compressor or the gelling effect of something like Satson? The audio demo's on the site aren't really making it that obvious. Genuine question...

I think the demo spits out some crackle every so often from what I've read.

Tape compression is mechanical. It happens instantly, it is the process of the heads working on the tape, there is no delay whatsoever, it is also very kind to transients, and with the right heads, tape and machine, tape compression is quite magical. You can`t compare it to a standard compressor in any way, the behaviour is different.
You get this roundness on the transients, a certain density, and a reduction in dynamic, almost a sort of soft clipping, there is a harmonic shift and also a pleasing textural change to the top end a little like acceleration limiting.

[wormcode]

How does it compare against Waves Kramer MXP Tape plugin?

Kramer tape is poo

Yeah so many people talk about it but I think they are just mesmerised by the animated interface lol. I prefer the Nomad Factory Magnetic over that. Still not perfect but you can't expect just 1 single plugin to do it all...

I've been beta testing Satin for a bit, it's definitely one of the nicer tape plugins and it's priced decently.
BTW this is the only version currently working fine on XP until Urs fixes it: http://www.u-he.com/downloads/Satin/Satin1807Win.zip

[rein]

my favorite technique using tape is to boost the transients a lot, and then record it... what you get is a super punchy sound with a rounded transient which doesn't take up all the headroom in the mix!

too bad i don't have mine... going to demo this plug for sure!

[Planar]

Tape compression is mechanical. It happens instantly, it is the process of the heads working on the tape, there is no delay whatsoever, it is also very kind to transients, and with the right heads, tape and machine, tape compression is quite magical. You can`t compare it to a standard compressor in any way, the behaviour is different.
You get this roundness on the transients, a certain density, and a reduction in dynamic, almost a sort of soft clipping, there is a harmonic shift and also a pleasing textural change to the top end a little like acceleration limiting.

Cheers. That's cleared it up a little. I may give the demo a go to see if I like what it does.

[msl]

How does it compare against Waves Kramer MXP Tape plugin?

So far its nicer. Never really liked MPX, something didn't sound right to me. The delays are really really nice on Satin also, its a bit more than just a tape emu.

[rein]

just bought it... sounds really good, great plug in!

[Planar]

OK, I've played around with it on my master bus of what I'm working on and I think I get it now. It seems fairly nice, but I'm turning down all the hiss and other stuff to get that slight gelling sound. I'm not convinced enough to lay down the cash for it just for that, maybe if my mix downs were really good I'd be hearing the benefits more.

[Lost to the Void]

YEah, this is pretty damn good actually.
It`s not emulating anything specific, so it is hard to compare to anything, but it is highly tweakable.
Better than Slate Digital I would say.
It`s still lacking the vita-live fizz you get from a well set up old valve machine, but damn.
The compression is pretty tape-ey. I've been doing a long haul studio session, and yeah, you can really work with this.
I'm genuinely surprised by this

I'm also purchasing.

[arc]

I sure wish my ears could hear what tape saturation does because honestly I can't hear the fucking difference.

I know that sounds ignorant or stupid, but I just don't understand it.

I might buy it still though since it's pretty cheap. I'm sure I'll eventually get it, but as for know I slap these things on my tracks just for the hell of it really...

[Lost to the Void]

I've had time to work this a little more now.
It's actually great.
One of the great things about tape is mixing in to it.
But with a real machine it's problematic as you need to tune the mix whilst recording, running the rec and play heads, and then go back when you are ready and record for for real. It's a pain and wastes tape.

This plug is good enough to run on the 2 buss. If you've worked with tape before you can pretty much cross the methodology over.
Push the transients forward a bit, then let them get rounded off by the tape comp. they end up really adding vitality but under control. Push the top end a little too, get some smearing and pleasing silky distortion.

And the front to back depth on this is pretty long too.

I'm genuinely impressed (enough that I bought it after 2 hours with the demo), this is the first software that sounds like a tape machine. It helps to have a little knowledge of working with tape to get the best out of it I think, but never the less, for the intro price, this is worth it, makes the Kramer tape laughable, and whilst as not immediate as the slate VTM (which has been tuned to very specific machines), it is far more tweakable and appropriate for the modern age.

Urs is a bloody genius.

I've not even tried using it as a delay yet.

[Mattias]

I read some small details about it.
Like that "it sounds tape but doesn't sound like the traditional tape machines". I guess the mean it doesnt care to emulate the standard stuff?
Im eager to try this when I'm sorting all that needs to be done before I can play around.

[Lost to the Void]

Yeah, I've used studer/revox, ampex, Otari and fostex, and I'm fairly familiar with most of the main tape types and what they are good for, and this doesn't match exactly any machines I have used, as far as I recall anyway (it's been a long long time since I used an ampex machine).

Tweaking the vintage settings it has a revox feel, or at least I have managed a fairly good reproduction of my old G36, but as it is so tweakable it's madness to try to totally reproduce all the foibles.
I got a nice clean modern Otari vibe out of it too, but I don't have an Otari any more so I'm only going on memory.

Essentially it doesn't matter, the characteristics are there, the missing piece I have been searching for, the way the compression works, the transient handling, and the high end smearing, is damn good. It's great being able to dial in the amount of each characteristic.

Not an essential buy, but I love tape, and this does it for me. 50 quid, a fraction of the cost of the waves tape plugin, and that is a piece of crap.

[msl]

Yeah I bought it over the weekend too after demoing it for a few hours. I really like it, on pretty much everything! Very nice compression, lovely on kicks and drum bus, and great delays. Highly recommended.

[bram2000]

Interesting, I'm demoing this now.

Steve (or anyone else); am I right in saying you would use this as well as Satson rather than in place of? The grouping bit of Satin confuses me a bit - is it trying to do the same thing as Satson?

[Lost to the Void]

Interesting, I'm demoing this now.

Steve (or anyone else); am I right in saying you would use this as well as Satson rather than in place of? The grouping bit of Satin confuses me a bit - is it trying to do the same thing as Satson?

No, Satson emulates the analog pathways of a mixing console, not the same as this plugin.
You place a satson on every mix channel immediately after your instruments as the first plug in your chain, and then a buss on every buss, master buss and fx send.
The satson interacts with itself so you can get a "desk" feel when mixing, ie saturation, crosstalk, front to back depth etc. It also effects dynamics and is a great way of getting your gain staging under control.

The U-HE Satin is a tape emulator that manages to emulate the "holy grail" of tape - the compression, transient smoothing, harmonics, smearing and so on.
Yes if you are using the Satson you would still continue to use them, you could just place the Silk at the end of the 2buss chain, as if you are recording to tape.

I`ve only had this for a couple of days now, but combining with the Satson is kinda super sexy.

[tdmusic]

This seems pretty cool, I also struggle somewhat to really hear/quantify the difference at lower drive settings but it does seem to "gel" things together and add some nice quality to the sound. Seeing as how all the knowledgeable folk on here are saying it's good, I figure I might as well pick it up while it's on sale and it'll come in useful one day

[SigEnt]

Yeah I bought it over the weekend too after demoing it for a few hours. I really like it, on pretty much everything! Very nice compression, lovely on kicks and drum bus, and great delays. Highly recommended.

Looks like I'm raiding my piggy bank and buying this, just tried it on the drum bus of 3 of the tracks I am currently working on, it sounds absolutly fantastic and is not a massive CPU hog.

Not bothered much with tap plug ins before , gonna make friends with this one.

[Planar]

I've caved in. Partly because I've had the demo on the master bus of my new track and can't not have it on there now, and partly because I wanna be like the rest of the cool kids.

[LaurentOrchard]

I have a major G.A.S for that plugin. I'v been using others here and there with various degree of sucess. It helps giving that '' lo-fi glow '' to things. I'll download the demo today and try to upload which diffenrece it makes before/after. If i have the time that is.