What do you think about it’s sound characters vintage, cassette, mini disc?
I wonder, does tweaking drive/compression & eq also behave different from mode to mode, or are the tape-modes more like a filter/overlay?
1 Like
i’m glad the different modes exist and are probably useful in some situations, but i really only ever use the studio tape which doesn’t add any character.
i really liked the idea of the minidisc tape, but to me it sounds more mp3-like than minidisc. its hard to describe but atrac compression had a more squarish sort of quantized sound, but very subtle (almost like a terminal effect at very subtle settings), whereas mp3 has a glissy squirmy sort of noise-shaping glassy sound.
not sure about your second question, but i’d guess that the drive/comp/eq behaves differently from mode to mode only in the sense that the recording itself is different from mode to mode. for instance if you record something to the studio tape and then copy that recording to the cassette tape, the character of that recording will still be the studio tape recording not the cassette. i believe you have to “print” a recording to the tape for any character to be added and then the drive/comp/eq will likely have that additional character as well
1 Like
I
Love em
I find them to be a charming addition to the idea of this machine
It’s useless but very cool - actually no, it’s not useless -
Studio = clear DAW digital recording sound
70s studio = studio quality sound with warmth
Tape = cassette sounding quality and fuzzy warmth
‘Minidisc - cold , clear sounding high mp3 quality with sterility
They’re really fun to try for different uses Or song styles
Again not needed but nice to have
1 Like
I tried them a bit when getting the device, they’re fun! I particularly like that the rewind/scratching effects are different on each which adds a lot to the experience while you’re making your music and the visuals of the cassette, MD, etc. It’s a gimmick but makes it all more immersive and enjoyable.
Day to day though I only use the standard studio mode as its the one that sounds “better” to my ears…
Extra ball: If I remember correctly you can lift tape from one project and paste into another so it should possible to see what the actual audio changes are between modes if you really want to tinker with things.
1 Like
they are really great. the studio is the most useful given it is just a blank palate. but the other tapes really do add a certain character that if done intentionally really impart a vibe and energy to a track. one thing that folks dont talk about enough is how the tapes effect the master gain stage of the op1f. its not documented anywhere (lol te style) but the master compressor and gain stage of the op1f is dramatically different for each tape style, so that whole gain stage process can be really fun to experiment with. i mention this bc when using the studio tape, the master stage really doesn’t add much character at all, but for the others its super interesting. just my 2c.
7 Likes
I only ever use studio these days, I find the other ones excessively noisy myself and wish we could dial in how much character they add.
1 Like
That’s so interesting, thanks for sharing. I’ll be sure to check it out!
1 Like
I don‘t like that the tape styles cannot be changed afterwards. So i always use studio since its easier to decrease quality afterwards.
But I think it follows the concept of OP-1f. Commit before you know the result.
1 Like
I find most of the non studio ones to be too extreme and I would like to have some kind of dry wet control when printing to tape. For example, I like the vintage but it distorts the signal like crazy, not in a bad way but it’s not subtle at all. To me they are less emulations and more caricatures of different audio media.
3 Likes
If you look at the signal path the master stage is post tape so it’s really the other way around: the master compressor affects what is printed to tape. The different tapes are really like an effect that happens during recording.
I think you are correct that your recording input level has a big impact on the tape artifacts.
1 Like
Good catch - fascinating how this device emulates a mini studio and daw
1 Like
i see what you are saying, and i believe it is correct; however, my point might not have come across in what i wrote. effectively, what i was getting at is the ultimate effect that the master stage has on the resultant audio file at the end of the entire process is very different depending on what tape you are in. it does not have much of an effect on the studio tape other than simply getting louder, however on the other tapes, you can really hear the 2 stage compressor creating pumping and classic compression artifacts on the audio.
reason i mention this is bc i was one of those folks who complained a lot that the OG op1 master stage had so much more character than the field (which in some ways it really does) however, i failed to notice until rather recently that that statement is largely only true when comparing OG-1 to the op1f studio tape. when compared to the other tapes, the character is totally there and this for me went largely overlooked.
Pretty sure when this was tested out that the effects are established and baked in when initial recording takes place, e.g. it won’t matter if you lift a tape recorded on portastudio and paste into a project running minidisc, it will still sound like portastudio.
Meh. Tried it, got tired of it very quickly.
The amount of white noise tape simulations introduce is beyond reasonable. I don’t think that even cheap cassettes were that bad. Higher quality cassettes on higher quality players introduced very little noise of this sort. And it gets even worse with multiple tracks and overdubs.
Other aspects of tape simulation (coloration, distortion) are more subtle and interesting, but the obnoxious amount of pure noise makes everything sound bad.
I think the general idea of “record FX” is interesting, because it’s something that sits between insert FX and master FX without consuming CPU time during playback. I also think that different implementations of playback effects, rewind, stop and fast forward is a pretty clever idea. However, bundling them together in a tape “simulation”, confusing project management and giving us so little control of how it all works doesn’t seem like good design.
In terms of adding degradations, perhaps making this as an option for album playback would make more sense?
1 Like
What other “tape” styles would you like to see imagined?
i didn’t appreciate tape styles much until i really tinkered with them in different situations. i used to kind of think of them as meh but i think i was overlooking a lot of interesting character.
guess the tape style in this track:
1 Like
Vintage studio? Nice track too
1 Like
I love them, I really like the woofy booming distorted bass sound you get when sampling to the chrome tapes. i use them in different ways. For artistic sampling of heavy drum and/or bass loops, you can really drive the input to warp the vintage and porta 4 tracks and get that distorted tape sound. for pad sounds, they have a cool way of sitting “behind” the mix when “psychoacoustically” compressed on minidisc. i’ll even use the vintage tape as part of my final mastering chain, going gentler on the input gives everything nice warmth.
2 Likes
I like them a lot. The minidisc emulation is probably my least used. Having recorded on a Portastudio plenty over the years, I will agree that the cassette emulation degradation is over the top and I wish I could dial it back if I wanted to. But I still like it and use it for parts.
Since there is no crossfading in the tape section, I end up recording the same drums, for instance, on two or three tapes then save those files to the computer so I can mix and match (and crossfade, dammit) in the computer. That way I won’t have clicks between edits.
Hey TE- when you cut tape, you cut on the angle because you need to crossfade it. People have been doing that for decades. If you want a good, true to life, tape emulation please give us crossfading in the tape machines.
4 Likes
Good request
There’s so much potential to the quirks these posts are helpful for TE to see