Waves : Kramer MPX tape emulator.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Fri May 27, 2011 10:24 pm

I got it today...

So far it is interesting.
It sounds too "tapey", but this was the default setting, which has some knobs at the 100% setting.
Will experiment more next week. With and without the HEAT from Pro Tools.

Cheers

kinger · Post by **kinger** » Sat May 28, 2011 8:26 am

Yeah, I got it too. It's the only plugin I've ever heard that IMVHO actually sounds like tape. Now back to abusing it...

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Sat May 28, 2011 9:54 am

Dang! At $99, it'd have to be pretty useless to not be worth it!
Can't wait to check it out!

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:55 pm

Me likey as a "mixdown" effect.

I'm learning how to hit it just right, so it does NOT saturate, just like in the old days where I used to avoid distortion on the Master tape at all costs.
It's a bit tricky, but doable.
And I have use the 7ips setting on one song, which really benefitted from the bigger low end, and less top end.
I can see though how anyone who has not used tape much, if at all, might totally overdo it and distort their audio.
My "trick" is to mix without it until I am ready to "print" a near final mix, then I insert it on the master channel, and do an overall volume adjustment to the whole mix until it sounds "right" going thru this plug in. Afterwards I do some final balance adjustments to a few instruments that get unbalanced by the plug in, like bass and some guitars, top endy stuff. the middle does well with this plug.
It has helped a couple of mixes, in getting an interesting texture on them.

Cheers

EarlSlick · Post by **EarlSlick** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:09 am

I just picked this up as well. I agree 100% with Nick, that if someone doesn't, for example understand what a reasonable level of magnetic flux is through an real tape head is, that they will over do it, and may not be too happy with the results.

Overall, it does a really nice job of adding some nice analog-type flavor.
I enjoyed the results fo sticking it on the master, as well as throwing it on a snare, drum overhead, or bass. Though I was just dicking around, I liked what I was hearing. For $99, I would say it's worth it, all day.

Anyone want to comment on how close it comes to an actual Ampex 440? I've never used one, but am curious.

sessionsatstudiom · Post by **sessionsatstudiom** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 8:46 pm

About to check it out this week. Just upgraded Mercury to 8. So we will se what it does. Looks interesting. Might be fun.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:58 pm

EarlSlick wrote:I just picked this up as well. I agree 100% with Nick, that if someone doesn't, for example understand what a reasonable level of magnetic flux is through an real tape head is, that they will over do it, and may not be too happy with the results.

Overall, it does a really nice job of adding some nice analog-type flavor.
I enjoyed the results fo sticking it on the master, as well as throwing it on a snare, drum overhead, or bass. Though I was just dicking around, I liked what I was hearing. For $99, I would say it's worth it, all day.

Anyone want to comment on how close it comes to an actual Ampex 440? I've never used one, but am curious.

I have a friend who has one in his studio, and I have mixed onto it.

This plug in seems to overdrive a little sooner than the real thing... but that is my memory talking, so take it with a grain of sea salt.

I like it better than the Digi Reel Tape Suite for a mix buss, but, as with all plug ins, they have a use for certain mixes. I won't use it on al the record I am mixing now, unless it ends up really making a good enough difference to warrant using it as a "master deck".
I still have to compare with / without this plug in being used on the same songs, and listen and compare and contrast.

Cheers

Bob Olhsson · Post by **Bob Olhsson** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:14 pm

Nick Sevilla wrote:
EarlSlick wrote:...This plug in seems to overdrive a little sooner than the real thing... but that is my memory talking, so take it with a grain of sea salt...
Yes it does! It's a good idea to make sure the signal going into the plug isn't too hot. Tube line stages saturate very gradually and clip at higher levels than solid state devices. One would normally never come closer than 10 dB of clipping. That curve was matched very closely but the average signal reaching the plug should be no higher than -18 RMS and I like -20 or even -22. Then you use the liinked gain controls to find the sweet spot.

Mixwell · Post by **Mixwell** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:15 pm

Yup, keep your levels low.....

Sounding good over here, keeping a judicious amount of headroom everywhere.

Sean Sullivan · Post by **Sean Sullivan** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:57 am

I've been digging on it. I usually have it around -5 to 0 on the input with flux around 185. Sometimes on bass I'll crank it up, especially on DI stuff, to give it a little futz. I think it's fun. The delay feature sounds good, it was cool of them to add that on.

route-electrique · Post by **route-electrique** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:14 am

Yeah, for a $99 it's nice deal. Probably nothing like real thing, but worth to check out.

sessionsatstudiom · Post by **sessionsatstudiom** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:08 am

I have been using on individual tracks. Does some interesting things. I like it more often then not.

Have yet to make the mix bus work for me though. Not digging it there. But just me.

groover · Post by **groover** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:04 pm

Have any of you tried using it as a delay line? I am just about to pull the trigger on the Massey TD5, but for an extra $20 this seems very interesting. Plus if I read the info correctly it has wow & flutter settings which the Massey doesn't.

Edit - Reading the info on the Waves page more thoroughly it appears that the delay times are not adjustable, so nevermind...

kinger · Post by **kinger** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:28 pm

Delay times are adjustable up to (if memory serves) around 600ms but there's no wet/dry feature so it's no good as a send effect. The delay sounds great and you can pick between feedback and slap. This is easily one of my favourite plugins ever.

kingtoad · Post by **kingtoad** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:00 pm

This plugin seems to excel at taming the transients of individual drum tracks. I have been using it on most of my drum tracks during the mix and it's been a real help.

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Waves : Kramer MPX tape emulator.

Waves : Kramer MPX tape emulator.

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