The Ultimate Tape Shootout! - Roger Mayer 456HD vs Handsome Audio Zulu!

[@LosFicosMusic]

I GOT THE ROGER MYER! Excited to see this.. IN FACT: I FEEL LIKE ITS THE PREMIER TO A MOVIE

[@thenihilistmillennial8245]

id like to see rogers vs neve 542 if you cna get around to that!

[@officialreijn5003]

Always very interesting to watch these types of comparison videos. The Zulu took it for me. A lot more excitement and energy in the mids (more complex harmonics). It also sounds like it's increasing the soundstage a bit. Both hardware pieces sound like a tape machine but the Zulu sounds like a tape machine that has been kept in "pristine" condition. As for the plug-in...it sounds like an emulation (boo). Edit: I think the Zulu has a bit more definition. The Rogers sounds more round and full with more bass and smoother highs. I personally would buy both. I'd use the Zulu for individual tracks to add some saturation, decreasing the dynamic range while maintaining definition and tightness. I'd use the Rogers on the mixbus to soothe the high end and add some fullness. I personally wouldn't use the plugin. I've had it before and found that overuse tended to flatten a mix. Slate's tape emulation plugin sounds a bit more interesting than UA's A800. Softube's tape emulation plugin is very good also.

[@Venci2014]

Can we get a video on the V3A's please?

[@OliverShillito]

We sure can!

[@langstonmasingale3365]

Thanks for giving Zulu desktop a spin! ❤

[@MixedByDotRob]

Great comparison! I've had a Zulu for a few years and my tip would be to have a line amp or something with a make up gain before the Zulu, so you can drive the Zulu's input. It can handle a lot of level! ;-)

[@langstonmasingale3365]

Hi all, a great preset that Joel Hamilton (Studio G - The Black Keys, Nora Jones, Lettuce, Highly Suspect), he puts Deck and Headroom on Lo, Bias on (12 oclock or -) and Enhance on 3 oclock. He then hits this really hot with his SSL 4000 console. Zulu can take rather hot input levels and while it's counterintuitive, you can recover the perspective of lost gain by going in hotter to Zulu. Super hot, occasionally peaking over 0db hot. 😅

[@OliverShillito]

Excellent information! Thanks for sharing!

[@emilhach6264]

These settings are no joke. It just flipped around how I had set my Zulu, but I tried this and whoa! I'm now hitting it hotter than ever out of the Silver Bullet Mark II driving with the Mojo C engaged along with the tone with the highs slightly boosted to make up for the Zulu's softening. I tried shooting it out against the Satin plugin on my master bus and then I did at first prefer Satin. Then I tried them both together. It was pretty dang good so I followed with the instance of Satin after the external hardware and then WOW! Now that's a secret sauce!!!!!! Using the Zulu this way is the best way it's sounded so far! It somehow adds depth and makes things way more natural.

[@vminator]

The real differences are in the high end and low mids. I prefer the Zulu but both sound cool.

[@sparella]

Thanks for the comparison. I assume bypassed was omitted to avoid the trolls, but it would have been nice to hear. Not being able to get unity gain out of these two was a turnoff for me when deciding which 500 series tape emu to get.

[@OliverShillito]

Yeah the volume loss is annoying to be fair but you get used to it after a while and a good trim plugin. The Zulu being 10db is pretty brutal though haha

[@sparella]

@@OliverShillito This Zulu has a good excuse being passive, but Zulu 500 could have unity gain if plugged in and not unity if unplugged. The RM just strikes me as... lazy. I want a 500 module to be compatible with the modules in series before and after it. I don't think an option for balanced I/O is too much to ask for considering the target market and asking price.

[@OliverShillito]

@sparella I agree to be honest! Fair points!

[@Gabes10]

Hi mate, any chance you could tell me the height of the unit? Wicked video.

[@OliverShillito]

Unfortunately I loaned the unit for this video and don’t have it anymore but leave it with me and I’ll try and find out!

[@OliverShillito]

If I was to guess I’d say about 10-15cm at its tallest

[@Gabes10]

@@OliverShillito There seems to be NO info on the dimensions anywhere! I was going to buy the one that came up on MN and Sam mentioned it was a review unit. Kicking myself I didn't buy it. Thank you man!!

[@OliverShillito]

@@Gabes10 it’ll have been this very unit haha I’ll see what I can dig up!

[@VinceJackson1]

Great Video as usual but I have one question. Would you add the new Zulu 500 in a future shootout? They have some enhanced features & would love to hear your opinion! 😁

[@OliverShillito]

If I can get my hands on a review model then for sure!

[@Rhuggins]

Thanks for this. I havent started this vid yet, but I'll share my experience with the Zulu. I really WANT to like it. Would be so great if I could just buy a $1,000 box that sounds like tape...my experience is that it doesnt emulate tape very well at all, and I struggle to notice the effect when volume marched. It certainly does NOT emulate tape compression. I shot it out several times with plugins, and other "tape" hardware, and it always fared poorly...worse than many plugins even

[@dougleydorite]

Have you ever used real tape?

[@Rhuggins]

@@dougleydorite not extensively, but I have a lot of material that was processed on several different machines and types of tape. I use them when i compare tape plugins and hardware

[@Chaos-Dynamics]

I like the Rogers but a bit expensive for my budget

[@Javarrockamore]

no Rupert Neve Designs 542????

[@OliverShillito]

Unfortunately not this time but it’s on my list!

[@Truth565]

@@OliverShillito If you do get your hands on a pair, it would great if you could use the same backing track, full and mix to demo it, and may be even use these audio files to do a side by side comparison. I have the 542's and I'm also liking the sound of both the Zulu and Roger Mayer's. Thanks for a great comparison by the way.

[@AKMacintyre]

The RND 542 is very nice. Best to mix into it ime

[@niekdriesschen3376]

hmm, so the zulu, is a bunch of transformers and filters? Bizarre that it's passive, so, it also doesn't really distort, right? Like if you'd push tape, and really get tape saturation, it's not really gonna do that right, especially with the circuit being passive. Tape machine's are full of amplifiers, witch also colour the sound. Also, it's not gonna make any tape wow and flutter obviously. i find all the settings quite suddle to be honest, it sounds great, like running sound through a bunch of fat transformers and passive filters, but it doesn't really do what tape and active amplifier circuitry does to tape. at least the roger's you can really drive it.

[@OliverShillito]

Yeah the Roger’s will definitely saturate more! I guess nothing will sound as close to tape as actual tape but to be fair the Zulu isn’t bad as a “colour” box. It’s definitely pleasing on the ear! I’m not a huge fan of the form factor but I believe they now make a 500 series which could be great!