Cassette tape effects

[TubularCorporation]

Also, VHS audio and video degrade really spectacularly if you bounce back and forth between two machines in EP mode enough.

[LimpyLoo]

"Mastering" to VCR sounds awesome when done right

I could never get mine to do it, though

But there's something really pleasant about the way it brickwall-limits and the way the "ext" setting tames high-end (and blurs low-end)...this was all the rage on boombap forums when I used to frequent them

[TubularCorporation]

It always sounds really good with the S-VHS deck I got a couple years ago, except that I get occasional clicks that sound like a buffer underrun or dust on a record. I'm not sure what it is but my working theory is that the ape passing over the video head builds up some static and the ndischarges when it hits the audio head. Anyway, it's not the end of the world but it means I have to run stuff through some kind of declicking noise reduction plugin , because it's not the interesting kind of bad sound usually.

 

 

Another cool thing about VCRs is that the speed is locked to the video's sync signal, so it's really stable, which means you can bounce individual tracks out from your DAW to VHS and back and when you line them up with the original they shouldn't drift out of sync at all like they can if you do that with audio tape (unless you have a machine that can slave to SMPTE with a synchronizer and also have the synchronizer, which is usually really hard to find and expensive - I've never seen one for the reel to reel I picked up cheap years ago, and there was actually one for the original Tascam 424MKi portastudio but I've also never seen one of those- THAT would be very, very cool to have - imagine being able to slave your portastudio to your DAW!

[joshuatxuk]

I've got a JVC VCR that actually has L&R recording input level knobs. It's not S-VHS but still VHS Hi-Fi and it sounds pretty damn good. I dubbed some cassettes off of it for my friend's hardcore punk band and it sounded really fucking loud and distorted - I had way too high in the red but it was a fucking cool effect for their music. I need to try it with some more quieter music and see how it sounds. A lot of people have given VHS praise as a format on gearslutz and elsewhere for making stuff sound "tape analog warm" is a way that isn't overpowering nor too subtle.

[joshuatxuk]

Also, VHS audio and video degrade really spectacularly if you bounce back and forth between two machines in EP mode enough.

 

 

ahh yss 

 

 

 

 

[Tricone RC]

Yes, this shit is great fun. Made a lot of use rubbing magnets over the tape, folding the tape over so you get loads of short reversals, also record the same loop to multiple cassettes from different brands. Or to same cassette on different machines. Then overlay the different sample versions. The very slight timing variations makes lovely subtle phase effects etc

 

Never tried any kind of chemical degradation but that might be fun. Piss on the tape?

[TubularCorporation]

I've gotten really lazy about this since the free VST ports of the Airwindows plugins started rolling out.  Console4 sounds so good I've been staying almost entirely in the box for mixing lately.

[Nil]

 

https://goodhertz.co/wow-ctrl

 

Seriously stunning. Sounds stellar (like most Goodhertz plugins actually), it won't leave my plugin folder anytime soon.

[mcbpete]

When that came out I went for this instead - http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-reelbus/

Did the same but was €20 rather than $129

 

Nowadays I use that if going extreme but Satin ( https://www.u-he.com/cms/satin ) if going for a more subtle touch for the final mixdown

[Nil]

I also own Satin. Wow Ctrl is quite different (and I'd say sounds equally good), you can use it as a proper Cassette/7,5IPS/15IPS emulation AND dial all kinds of lush, weird audio modulations within a few clicks,as if you were directly manipulating the manetic tape itself. I've owned/tried most (if not all) native tape emulations, and Wow Ctrl is quite unique.

[TubularCorporation]

When that came out I went for this instead - http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-reelbus/

Did the same but was €20 rather than $129

 

Nowadays I use that if going extreme but Satin ( https://www.u-he.com/cms/satin ) if going for a more subtle touch for the final mixdown

 

 

I use Reelbus a lot, too, but since the Airwindows stuff started getting ported I've been using a combination of Slew2 (for subtle high end rolloff) and PhaseNudge (for subtle transient smearing) and when I want to make a track just a bit smoother but without the saturation or compression of full-on tape emulation.  Most of the time I use Reelbus more like an EQ anyway, turn the wow and flutter, noise, saturation and clipping down really low, don't hit it very hard, and then use a combination of tape model and overbias to control the tone and soften transients a bit.