Tape saturation, and what people mean by “warm”
Half-inch at 15 ips: a head bump in the low end, a soft top, and transients rounded off a hair before the limiter has to work for a living.
Half-inch at 15 ips: a bump in the low end where the head is, a soft top above 15k, and a curve that rounds transients off a hair before the limiter has to work for a living. Everything that came out of a studio before about 1995 went through one, which is most of what people mean by 'warm'.
The controls
Every range and starting value below is the one the processor actually uses — this page is generated from it.
- Drive
- How hard the tape is being hit. Past halfway it stops being colour and starts being an effect.
- Head bump
- The low lift a tape head gives around 55 Hz. Free weight — but check it isn't doubling up on bass the mix already has.
- HF roll
- Softens the very top. Good on digital-sounding mixes, bad on anything already dull.
- Blend
- Blend against the dry mix, for when you want the weight without the softening.
- Output
- Level out of the machine. Drive adds a little on its own, so this usually comes down a touch.
Sonic Station's mix finisher runs this entirely in your browser — the audio is never uploaded anywhere.
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