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Hatsubai « Adds that vintage tape sound »
Published on 06/15/11 at 05:23This is yet another Eddie Kramer product that Waves has released. This time, they made a plugin based off of the famous Ampex 350/351. For those that don't know, this was a very famous master tape device that was used for some saturation and other cool effects on the master bus and even individual tracks at times. The device is a bit complex, so I'll break down what everything does:
Speed - this selects the tape speed that you want
Monitor - there are various monitoring modes you can select with this
Bias - adjusts the overall bias of the sound. This is mostly used for fine tuning everything.
VU Meter - simply displays the meter
VU Calibration - this sets the overall limit of what you're going for
Delay Time - this is probably the coolest feature as you can add some real neat delays to enhance the quality of the mix or add a totally unique sound
Delay Tape - this simply selects different modes for the delay
Feedback - this controls the amount of the delay signal
Lowpass - just as it says, it's a lowpass filter
Record level - this is simply the input level
Link I/O - links the record and playback levels
Playback level - controls the total output
Flux - this emulates some of those more bizarre sounds that would occur with the real units
Wow & Flutter - controls different modulations
Noise - you can actually add noise with this for that more vintage feel
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
Waves plugins are pretty well known for being the industry standard plugins out there, and for good reason. First of all, the plugins are cross platform. That means that both PC and Mac guys can use them. Given that I'm a Mac guy, that's a huge plus for me. The plugins themselves are very stable. I've never experienced a crash directly related to inserting a Waves plugin into any audio or MIDI bus in Logic. I've never read the manual, so I can't really comment on that. However, most of these plugins are fairly intuitive when it comes to their usage. While the names may be a touch convoluted if you don't know what they're modeling, you can get a good idea as to what they do if you just mess around. It doesn't take up much memory when in use, even with the 32 bit bridge application in Logic, and I've been using these for quite awhile now.
OVERALL OPINION
This works great on the master bus for that more vintage kinda feel, but I find it works especially nice for guitar lead tracks. You can get some really killer effects by placing this on the guitar bus, adding in some delay, cranking the wow & flutter knob and going for it. Definitely try it out!
Speed - this selects the tape speed that you want
Monitor - there are various monitoring modes you can select with this
Bias - adjusts the overall bias of the sound. This is mostly used for fine tuning everything.
VU Meter - simply displays the meter
VU Calibration - this sets the overall limit of what you're going for
Delay Time - this is probably the coolest feature as you can add some real neat delays to enhance the quality of the mix or add a totally unique sound
Delay Tape - this simply selects different modes for the delay
Feedback - this controls the amount of the delay signal
Lowpass - just as it says, it's a lowpass filter
Record level - this is simply the input level
Link I/O - links the record and playback levels
Playback level - controls the total output
Flux - this emulates some of those more bizarre sounds that would occur with the real units
Wow & Flutter - controls different modulations
Noise - you can actually add noise with this for that more vintage feel
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
Waves plugins are pretty well known for being the industry standard plugins out there, and for good reason. First of all, the plugins are cross platform. That means that both PC and Mac guys can use them. Given that I'm a Mac guy, that's a huge plus for me. The plugins themselves are very stable. I've never experienced a crash directly related to inserting a Waves plugin into any audio or MIDI bus in Logic. I've never read the manual, so I can't really comment on that. However, most of these plugins are fairly intuitive when it comes to their usage. While the names may be a touch convoluted if you don't know what they're modeling, you can get a good idea as to what they do if you just mess around. It doesn't take up much memory when in use, even with the 32 bit bridge application in Logic, and I've been using these for quite awhile now.
OVERALL OPINION
This works great on the master bus for that more vintage kinda feel, but I find it works especially nice for guitar lead tracks. You can get some really killer effects by placing this on the guitar bus, adding in some delay, cranking the wow & flutter knob and going for it. Definitely try it out!