- #Softube tape review manual#
- #Softube tape review pro#
- #Softube tape review software#
- #Softube tape review professional#
Automation also lets you reap massive rewards by shaping and shifting the echoes around lines and gaps.
#Softube tape review manual#
In concert with the Dry/Wet and delay Output Level knobs, these lower portion knobs are well worth breaking out onto a controller for a more realistic manual balance as the quality is ripe for tweaking. The Feedback knob will get you into full-blown overload, so it requires some care, but it is easy to find the sweet spot where the echoes are sounding spacious and washy without tipping over into howling meltdowns.
However, with less rhythmic sources, the extra taps bring a gorgeous diffusion to the echoes all across the Delay Time slider range. For neat rhythmic delays, just the one tap is best as bringing in the other two adds a flamming effect that widens as the delay time increases this can wreak havoc on a percussive line. Feedbackįeedback is linked to a ‘number of taps’ knob, which provides a smooth mix from one to three playback heads accompanied by three red signal level LEDs to indicate the nature of the mix. Though it’d be nice to control some of these parameters separately, its simplicity promotes creativity, allowing quicker results – and these are excellent. Shifting it from ‘clean’ to ‘bad’ reduces the high-end, brings up tape noise and flutter, and increases the occurrence of dropouts. The Dirt knob has a more complex effect as it controls the tape and machine quality. These simple one-knob filters are part of the feedback circuit and dictate much of the delay’s flavour without any noticeable cutoff frequency resonance. Drive adds saturation with the low and high-cut filters (accessible via a switch below the VU meter) helping tame a blown-out low end and harsh highs when things get cranked. The dominant knobs are Drive, Dirt and Feedback, which do most of the heavy lifting. The delay sound-shaping tools in Tape Echoes are powerful and live in the lower section of the UI. Running it pre-echo can also soften transients entering the delay feedback path. That said, the spring reverb brings pleasing Space Echo vibes for dub and beyond. Still, plug-in capabilities like this help the emulations become a creative tool in their own right as opposed to an analogue of the analogue. It is hard to equal the mojo of real tape echo machines. Shifting the slider to the right in the sub 30ms range brings the comb filtering to the fore, which you can shape to work wonders on percussive instruments in particular. With a 50:50 mix this super short delay (1.5ms) turns out some handsome flange effects. Outside of the strictly echoic effects, there is a ‘Just Dirt’ label at the far left of the Delay Time slider. It controls the input signal’s path to the (virtual) record head, and like the Delay Time and Tape Glitch controls, is well worth automating or assigning to a controller. The result is an intensely rich, lo-fi mojo machine and quality that exceeds expectations.For those utilising Tape Echoes as a dub tool, the Echoes On button will prove essential. It’s this legacy-and the spirit of Softube giant Tape-that Tape Echoes calls back to.
#Softube tape review software#
Softube’s record of perfectly recreating classic hardware in software form is rock-solid.
#Softube tape review professional#
In nearly two decades of emulating award-winning professional audio gear, Softube has collaborated with such premium audio brands as Weiss Engineering, Tube-Tech, Solid State Logic, Chandler Limited®, and Trident.
Used in Modular, Softube’s modular synth platform, Tape Echoes can be virtually patched to any of the modules from Doepfer, Mutable Instruments, Buchla-to name but a few.
#Softube tape review pro#
In Amp Room, Softube’s pro audio guitar and bass platform, Tape Echoes can be combined with other studio effects, classic amps, cabs, and pedals to create studio-quality, record-ready tones. Tape Echoes is available for use in Amp Room and Modular. Simple to use and plush with color and character, Tape Echoes makes it simple to realize the revolutionary sounds heard on records from Elvis to King Tubby to Radiohead-or to take the effect to radical new fronts. Many tape delays make realistic tape effects, but most cannot easily create the heavy distortion, tape wobble, and crushing feedback of old-school dub sounds. While the Just Dirt setting can take a hi-def loop to a lo-fi vibe with old-school, gritty tape sounds. The Drive & Dirt features of Tape Echoes provide the ability to achieve as much wobbly, glitchy, distorted delay as desired. Skillfully modeled to capture the sound and behavior of vintage tape delay, Tape Echoes offers both classic tape sounds and massive amounts of wow, flutter, drop-outs, and more-all in one easy-to-use plug-in. The new Softube Tape Echoes delivers old-school tape sounds that are finally as dirty as expected-with the ability to go even dirtier. Ape delays often sound much cleaner than envisioned.