How to use TAPE COMPRESSION?

How to compress a tape :O
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[@michaeldia2164]

You hear all the time about tape and how amazing it is, but to really never heard it before, or should I say demonstrated like this before. It really blow my mind right now, hearing the magic of tape. The distortion is useable unlike digital distortion, but the harmonics are where the gold is. It almost sounded like a stereo wider was placed on the track and all the nuances pop-out. Really cool thanks for making this video!

[@parkamark]

I learnt this as... you are driving the signal beyond what the tape can handle. It thus ends up distorted, but, rather than a harsh clip/flatline distortion you would get digitally, the tape distortion adds the harmonics/colour into the signal, which is the "warmth" that the listener hears as a result. Many audio engineers go to tape and back to digital just to achieve this warmth, as no matter how accurate a plugin maybe in its attempt to simulate tape distortion, you can never beat the real thing. Great video!

[@johnmellor932]

It's millions of rusted particles being displaced compared to a finite amount of 0's and 1's in a limited sample string or word length. One is limited the other is infinitley variable. The wider the tape the harder you can push it and the fatter warmer the sound. It's ashame that tape is coming to an end. One of the last tape engineers near where I live said there's roughly another ten years left and then it's all over. No one is making spare parts and all the tape engineers are either dead or retired.

[@slamcrank]

+john -- Whoever the "last tape engineers near where" you live is, is dead wrong. There are tons of people making parts for machines. Even the original companies still make parts in the case of Studer/Revox, Ampex, etc. if you need something specific that the hundreds of second-hand tape shops don't already have for cheaper. You can readily buy brand new blank tape in many formulas and sizes through RMGI or ATR... they're still going strong. Tape engineers are not dying or retiring, they are simply passing their knowledge on to younger tape-ops. Mara Machines are still selling the MCI tape machines and decent Otari's, Tascams, Studers/Revox's are readily available if you just look around. (They aren't cheap, but then, they never were).

[@matthewp3709]

This is correct

[@joshuabloodsworth9495]

100%

[@somanshu]

Literally Amazing! Never knew what a tape compressor actually did! :D

[@curtis_chip]

Somanshu Agarwal because you use ableton and macbook pro :) sorry mate

[@giano6343]

I've seen a lot of you in the last few weeks. I think yesterday I finally subscribed if I had not done it yesterday I would do it now! I'm thankful that you showed that with a chart-ready song. Now I want to buy such a Tape Machine: D haha This is really the first time I have to say magic happens here! And i saw a lot of videos.

[@dermatze2309]

Fantastic video! Truly the best, most honest one on the subject I have ever seen. Is there a way for you to release the A/B tracks seperately (without the KZbin compression), these tracks would be awesome for comparing digital tape emulations both to each other and to the real thing.

[@ApexArtistX]

The rubbery compression sound of tape 😁.. I have been searching for 20 years about this.. now I know it's tape

[@matthatmusic]

Great vids man! I’m addicted to your channel. Any advice on getting info on adding analog hardware to an in the box system? Suggestions for hardware to begin with? I’m thinking an eq and comp being the most important but I’m just getting interested in the idea. Currently I’m running a UAD system. Thanks and keep it up!!

[@jazzpote4316]

Very good presentation, demonstrative and straight to the gist. Thank you for that.

[@CPUTests]

I've noticed that on the TAPE sample the higher frequencies were more present and the low frequences were more warm and plesent to ear on the TAPE sample. So the analog way to record and playback a music peace is much more enjoyable for our ears. I'm sorry about my poor english. I don't even know if "enjoyable" is a real word but I think that everyone understands what I am trying to say. Best regards and take real good care of that Telefunken M15A machine you have there. It is a real peace of art in terms of technology for the time it was sold.

[@0e0]

Great demonstration

[@BlackenedNL]

Absolutely love the tape sound

[@SanderLite]

LOVE THIS SOUND AND THIS CHARACTER!!

[@heinrichsmit2]

I tried doing a +12db or so high shelf and pushed that into a brick wall limiter and then pulling the high shelf down -12db again, nice results ;)

[@housemachine509]

Love your videos brother 🤙

[@alexalfasync8650]

The tape sound amazing

[@SoundManStudio]

You just got yourself a new subscriber!

[@matbell1514]

Would be nice to see you do this with a comparison with the Neve 542's. Sorry for coming late to the table with this vid. Hope the house hunt is moving on!

[@sundamusik]

Good post again, verry informative.

[@adrianmutimer5022]

Hail! That was ****ing amazing! My Dad had a reel-to-reel in the 70s and it produced exactly(!) this kind of sound. You can also hear this sound on many old recordings. Here is a story...I love the production on Machine Gun by the Commodores, but it became even better when I put it on cassette tape. I could play that track in my car time and time again and my face would get red I was so excited by the sound. It is a huge pity that you need a real machine and the emulations all suck, because it is one of those magic ingredients that makes you want to jump up and down with excitement when you hear it. But I don't want to pay the money they now cost, and I don't want such a thing in my house. And what if it went wrong...

[@Mikas_Emil]

Wow. Really appreciate your videos! Would it be possible to ask you to run my track through your tape machine? I just tried my dad's old teac a 6100 tape machine, but it was definitely not working correctly anymore. Don't know much about how to calibrate or repair it unfortunately. Again, thanks for the videos!

[@fifofififo]

ty Wytse....do u tape over what u have already recorded on the tape machine to conserve tape use or should we use fresh tape every time? ty

[@chatolars]

Great video , Suscribed!

[@liamhebden8857]

Do you think you can use tape simulators to figure out what setting you should record with in a real one or are they just nothing like the real thing when it comes to the settings?

[@nandoblondemobydick5438]

my Antelope Audio Zen Tour does something very similar to this, i´m not joking, the compressors in special the tubes ones emulations PuigChiild and the infamous Ba-6A drive in a very similar way as your tape does

[@charlesbonkley]

So how are you looping the in/out of the tape machine so we hear it (and the effect is heard) in real time? Is the play head after the record head?

[@MyManDan]

So are you doing this in reel time ;) and able to listen to the compression happening as you push the level going into the tape machine? Don’t you have to record the sound onto the tape first and then listen back to see what happened? That is what I’m doing at the moment, I have a tascam 424 mkiii so maybe this machine has functions that mine doesn’t. Awesome video!

[@TheGurner1]

I like it!

[@ashkansh1989]

Thank you for video,by the way,does another comoressors like plugins make harmonics when we push it hard?! Or maybe hardware compressors,i just heard that vintage compressors like la2a and 1176 do the same thing with the sound!!

[@Whiteseastudio]

+Ashkan Sh yes! Some do!

[@28rwags]

I was wondering what tape machine do you have and you are just playing back a 2 track mix right from a half inch?

[@Whiteseastudio]

+Richard Wagner a quarter inch Telefunken M-15 ;)

[@cartofgiant]

Does the tape machine have to be running

[@shahrozattari841]

Hi! I'm Shahroz from Pakistan. you should do a review of Nomad Factory plugins... please do a reviwe...

[@ScottK4NE]

Magic!!!

[@15bleach51]

Which tape emu plugin will you choose if your hardware become broken? Which of them is closest to real thing? (except Nebula)

[@slamcrank]

without a doubt, the best tape emu plugins I have used are the UAD Studer A800 and UAD Ampex ATR-102. Having used Nebula offerings, Waves, Softube, Slate, etc... nothing even comes close to the sound of tape that UAD does. It would probably be worth it just to buy a UAD Satellite if for only their tape emu's... a little bit cheaper than buying a nice tape machine, and a whole lot cheaper in the long run.

[@Nullllus]

That open hi hat is pure madness. Tape makes it even more 'white-noise'-like. But tape is more exciting, no doubt. :)

[@MrRoberacer]

Different kinds of tape sound different too. Where in the world did you get Agfa? I thought they were gone by the late 80's. I remember the last studio I worked at with analogue tape. We could only get Ampex 499, 456 and the odd time 406 (which we never bought because I hated it) and that was dying fast. 456 was a little cheaper but had that 70's tone where 499 was the modern sounding tape. I did a lot of tape baking as Ampex was very prone to ageing. Especially 456. The studio owner was cheap. LOL.

[@johnmellor932]

AMPEX 456 before the 90's I think, were affected by sticky shed syndrome, it wasn't ageing as such it was a manufacturing defect that caused it to absorb moisture in the atmosphere and the iron to lift from its backing. It wasn't spotted until it was far too late, so it had a very short shelf life if it wasn't stored properly. A veteran tape technician told me that once.

[@slamcrank]

+Rob Chapman -- that's just an AGFA flange. The tape on the flange is more than likely RMGI or ATR. They still make many of the AGFA / BASF formulas. ATR makes their own formulas still ... probably the most widely used right now are the RMGI SM-900 (BASF) that is a +9 tape, and the RMGI911 which is +6.

[@eugeniocarrasquillo303]

I never understand this concept how can be Compressed and Sound Bigger and Natural that Digital

[@adrianmutimer5022]

Yes, OK, a question; can you get this kind of sound using cassette tapes? I seem to remember you can, but it was 30 years ago since I made recording on cassette tape. A cassette machine is a much less cumbersome beast...and I have one...somewhere...

[@liegon]

Sure, a similar thing will happen with a cassette tape. You will also lose a lot of quality compared to a tape machine, however.

[@johnmellor932]

No you cannot, it is simply not wide enough, technically it will do the same thing but there are not enough iron particles on a cassette tape to get appreciable results, it would distort horribly before you got musical harmonic distortion. It is also why cassette tape was always so noisy, because it simply wasn't wide enough to add dolby compression to denoise it like you had to with upwards of half inch tape. Cassette was awful sound quality and was only successful because it was cheap to produce, it made a semi comeback purely because of nostalgia.

[@slamcrank]

+Adrian Mutimer -- yes, absolutely you can do the same thing with cassette tapes. You must be mindful that a standard cassette recorder records at 1 7/8 inches per second, and this will have a much more dramatic effect on the sound than compression (loss of quality). Your best bet on cassette tape compression is to find a "high speed" cassette machine that can do 3.25 or 7.5 IPS (look for a few of the Tascam models that could do this). Then, the process is exactly the same as with a tape machine: the harder you push levels into the recorder, the more compression will occur... but eventually it will just distort. Lots of engineers will use this technique with cassettes on digital delays or reverb channels to add tape compression to that effect.

[@erpu5645]

It feels fuller and somewhat warmer and maybe little bit more forvard

[@famitory]

Will tape compression done on a compact casette machine sound like it does on a reel to reel, or are the speed differences important to the harmonic generation?

[@pac0re]

yes it will sound very different...very very different.. all tape machines differ quite drastically in sound even the high end studio ones

[@Mansardian]

first, with speed also the frequency response changes. most noticeable at high and low frequencies. (bump/roll off) Next, every tape brand has its own sound. That all, however, does not mean you are not allowed to experiment with cassette decks. could be fun.

[@Whiteseastudio]

+Johannes Mazur correct!

[@ApexArtistX]

To me I say tape sounds rubber like in compression . And the high frequency sounds wet .. like a feet running on wet ground .. miss those tape player days..

[@xaosnox]

This is one of my favorite videos that you've done next to the Neumann console EQ v FF Pro-Q v. ProTools stock EQ vid. While I really liked the fatness and warmth in the tape machine version, it sounded to me like it was driven a little too hard. There was static-like distortion at the peaks that didn't sound good. The other version sounded too "perfect" and lacked the richness, but I think I would have rather looked for ways to fatten that up rather than introduce the distortion. It could just be that you're really used to the tape machine, so maybe there's some "ear blindness" to the distortion. There are tracks that I would like to hear with some of that distortion, but this isn't one. Really informative. Thank you again!

[@CodexII]

Hmm... as a completely in-the-box producer that makes me think which plugin comes closest to the effect of the real thing? Any well-founded advices?

[@Whiteseastudio]

Fabfilter Saturn

[@robert_uhlmann]

I do believe that Softubes Tape is a good bet too.

[@memoraphile3623]

@@Whiteseastudio the fabfilter saturn is outstanding, as with every other fabfilter software

[@alexbusoni]

Really, the difference is noticeable! Tape sound is more interesting!

[@franklinkoo1716]

how big is that tape?

[@danielaros9138]

I prefer how the clean signal sounds, the tape destroys the transients and the fidelity of the recording.

[@malachitv5878]

Peace which tape maschine is that?

[@antoinelablanquie3827]

Sutter Kain Telefunken M15A

[@avdwerff]

The faders show a bit more yellow, for track B... louder?

[@Whiteseastudio]

+Alexander van der Werff which faders?

[@YEE941]

Alexander van der Werff think he met meters I thought track b was a lil louder too but sounded better

[@Whiteseastudio]

+OG Jawdinz i did the leveling on percieved loudness, not metering ;)

[@avdwerff]

Perceived is for sure better :).

[@heavymetalmixer91]

Not something I would use in the mix buss or when mastering tbh, Getting the frequency balance is already hard and adding a lot of harmonics breaks that balance. Something I would do is to use it on individual tracks or groups.

[@Whiteseastudio]

+heavymetalmixer91 There are a millions ways to implement the tape machine in the production, Its also great to use in parallel.

[@Leo_Vulkan]

I much prefer de A, sounds cleaner and more balanced, while the B, although sounds louder (which may trick someone's ear), have a distortion which doesn't fit the nature of that track.

[@pleutverkeulen8843]

So you're recording on tape AND playing back at the same time?

[@nigolt.4345]

A+++

[@victor.marchenko]

that snare-clap change is most obvious

[@UmasPapa]

Whoever mixed that track... have you ever heard of a de-esser?

[@christopherdunn317]

And that's why i use tape and digital.

[@jonnystanley8720]

Great video what is this song?

[@danielsturgmizell]

Great video what is this song? (2)

[@theod0r3]

Don't Hate Me (with lyrics) - Jingle Punks free to use on videos from youtube audio library

[@AudioReplica2023]

a Marron 5 rip off😂

[@user-gg1vf8ko9s]

Is that Adam Levine on vocals???

[@RealHomeRecording2]

Tape is cool but not for everything. Thumbs up to your video demo good sir!

[@solotravis9427]

Who would "down" like this instruction vid?

[@matthewp3709]

Solo Travis it has some inaccuracies. He’s comparing digital distortion to analog distortion and referring to it as compression. Tape doesn’t actually compress the wave, it distorts it in an aesthetically pleasing way when the distortion is moderate. Leveling amps and compressors don’t work this way because they are not designed to. On the other hand, what he’s saying about the sound is pretty interesting and from experience, imo. I like the video overall, but just pointing out why someone else might thumbs down it

[@Yootjoob]

Wat voor mengtafel is dat???? een MBI.

[@thesoundresidence]

Let's level match... and didn't :(

[@ImpedanceEurobeat]

The levels actually were matched, LUFS wise that is (percieved loudness was matched, not dB. Matching dB would be pointless in this case).

[@steelcantuna]

Your looks & mannerisms remind me a lot of Dana Carvey. Especially when he has on a long haired wig for Waynes World. Imagine your console & recorder using tubes!!!!! Compression Heaven!!! Talk about getting a warm & fuzzy!?!? I like you & your videos, but I've always hated disco dance music. Shake, shake, shake... shake your bootie. :(

[@jamespatrick8386]

can all be done digitally. don't let gear fantasy damage your creativity!!!

[@2amsounds]

the beginning of this video sounded very sexual, i'm confused

[@IliasPanteliasGR]

It actually sounds worse with the real tape...! You overdrived it too much

[@curtis_chip]

Ilias Pantelias ...saturation... never heard/used before? come on

[@schnuersenkellabor9248]

your overdriven tape recording is way too distorted. sounds terrible.