What important feature do analog tape simulators lack?
It's a strange world where you can buy a secondhand analog tape recorder for less than the price of some tape emulation plug-ins and devices. But which will give you the most authentic sound?
Follow RecordProducer.com on Twitter...
The early days of digital were so exciting. Suddenly you could record without discernable noise and distortion. Prior to that, an important part of the recording process was managing the vast amounts of noise and distortion produced.
And weren't those ultra-clean digital recordings sooooo good?
Err. no. They were not good. It was interesting for a time to be able to record cleanly. But after a while the novelty wore off, and the 'dirty' sound of analog became a longed-for attraction.
So we started buying old vacuum tube gear. That helped. Then plug-ins became available that would 'grungalize' our squeaky-clean digital signals.
And then came analog tape emulators.
But what is it that analog tape emulators actually do?
Analog tape recorders produce a certain kind of distortion. It increases with higher signal levels. It is also symmetrical on positive and negative peaks in the signal, leading to the generation of strong odd-order harmonics.
A single-ended tube amplifier on the other hand is asymmetrical and produces a significant quantity of even-order harmonics.
So a tape emulator sounds different to a tube emulator (or real tubes) and adds another useful tool to the audio toolbox.
Of course, analog tape recorders were also noisy. Tape emulators generally give an option whether you have the noise or not. Believe it or not, it is sometimes useful to have it.
But there's one feature of analog tape that emulators lack. And that is wow and flutter.
One tape emulator actually says this is a good thing, to lack this intrinsic component of the analog tape sound!
Let's be clear... wow is a bad thing. Wow is a noticeable cyclic up/down change in pitch. It is truly horrible.
But flutter is another thing totally. Flutter is a fast and mostly irregular change in pitch. It's far too fast to be perceived as a pitch change. Instead it adds something wonderful to the signal...
Sidebands!
You get sidebands with tubes. Put a clean 1 kHz sine wave into a tube amplifier and turn up the gain. You will get additional frequencies at whole-number multiples of the input frequency.
You will also get intermodulation products with more complex relationships.
But the thing is that they don't move. They are frozen and locked to the input signal.
In analog tape, not only do you get sidebands due to the distortion, you get massively more, and more complex, sidebands due to the flutter. And they change continually.
This is what gives analog tape its incredible rich, warm and involving sound.
But the emulators often miss that. So far...
Publication date Monday August 10, 2009
(You can unsubscribe quickly and easily.)
Discussion on this article's topic...
There is no discussion on this topic yet. You could be the first!
UPDATE - Posting of comments has been disabled. RecordProducer.com has been targeted by a botnet posting spam comments. The facility to post comments will return when this problem has been resolved.
We welcome your addition to the discussion on the topic of this article. If you feel that the article is inaccurate in any way, please let us know by e-mail at . We read all messages sent to this address but we cannot promise a reply.
 |
You've got your recordings in hand, you've done your networking and have finally made contact with that one industry professional that can help you launch your career... then here it comes, "I need you to send me your multitrack files so I can remix it." Now what do you do to make that happen? Read more... |
 |
Jamhub is a totally new concept - a rehearsal amp for the whole band. RecordProducer.com asks inventor Steve Skillings all about Jamhub - what it does, where the idea came from, and why you should want one. (There's a prize too!) Read more... |
 |
The artist known as Prince is giving away his new CD. You can't buy it in the shops, you can't buy it online. So in which universe does this make commercial sense? Read more... |
 |
A RecordProducer.com visitor asks whether a good analog-to-digital converter is necessary. Or will any old converter do? Read more... |
 |
What is it about your studio that makes it look and feel like a recording studio, and a nice place to work? Or is it just another room in your house? Read more... |
 |
The microphone used by Dusty Springfield on many of her hit records is up for sale. Vintage tube AKG C12 microphones don't come up for sale very often. This could be your big chance! Read more... |
 |
Anyone still using pre-2005 software? Pre-2000?? Pre-1995??? Can anyone go back even further than that? Read more... |
 |
We used to be in love with MIDI. But you hardly hear of it these days. Has it gone away, or is it just keeping quiet? Read more... |
 |
'If you don't ask, you don't get!' That's a good old proverb. But have you asked anyone recently? This guy has... Read more... |
 |
An RP reader has worked out an interesting way of connecting his compressor. Will it work? Or is something going to blow? Read more... |
 |
Pro Tools is considered by many to be the king of digital audio workstation software. But it might soon be time for someone else to wear the crown. Here's why... Read more... |
 |
It's a topic of endless debate, but really there is no way a stream of digits can beat the real vinyl experience. Read more... |
 |
Aldo Caballero has recently opened a small commercial recording facility in Mexico, right on the border with the USA. Here is Aldo telling us about his studio in his own words... Read more... |
 |
Low-pass and high-pass filters often have a 'slope' control. What is the slope of a filter? How do you select the right slope? Read more... |
 |
While the iPad might be something less than a computer, it is definitely something more than many of the other computer-like devices in our lives. Read more... |
 |
An RP reader who is already a pro recording engineer wants to become a (highly paid) mix engineer. How can he achieve this? Read more... |
 |
Capacitor microphones used to come each with their own power supply. Then phantom power was invented so that any number of mics can be powered from the mixing console. So why are some manufacturers returning to the old ways? Read more... |
 |
You're watching a live music show on TV, but something doesn't seem right. Should live music be live? Or should we just expect it to be fake? Read more... |
 |
When super-accurate capacitor microphones are available, why do we cling to the past and still often use dynamic mics? Shouldn't we be moving on? Read more... |
 |
Probably anyone can make it in music, as long as they have sufficient determination. Plenty of people have achieved great things in music even though they had very little ability to start out with... Read more... |
