Amp modeling vs. tape modeling

[Jeremy Garber]

I played in a band with a guy who had a POD. It was great. In fact, some of our last recording sessions were all done via direct line to his 8 track. He went through the POD, bassist through a direct box, and I was using my Roland V-Clubs.

Cakewalk has both amp and tape sim plugins. I have used the amp sim in a few songs with great results. I found that layering guitars with different amp sim settings and a little EQ and reverb really did the trick. I've used the tape sim before, but I only like it on a very light setting. Too much and it just clips everything.

I have recently picked up a small Peavy practice amp and a Digitech multifx processor, so I'm going to experiment with those.

[inverseroom]

there are about 8 pages to sift through on the topic here (by those far geekier than i):

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index. ... 1570/0/0/0

and a more succinct post from jakob erland here:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index. ... 04b24f8461

Awesome, thanks! And oddly, an hour after I posted this question, the new Sound on Sound came in the mail, and there was an interview with the folks who run Universal Audio. Here's a clip:

Your main focus so far has been on recreating vintage equipment, and the new plate plug-in follows in that direction, but what other vintage areas are left for you to conquer? My own view is that nobody has got tape echos and tape-flanging emulations quite right yet, but does this interest you?

"Absolutely. The focus we've had up to now has been on more linear processes such as EQ. Compressors are non-linear, but still lend themselves to being physically modelled quite easily. Things like saturation distortion are also fairly straightforward, but taking it to the next level, where you have distortion with no time dependent, such as in transformers, it gets more complicated.

"Going to tape modelling is also a big step, because nobody really figured out how tape worked. The best models that were available were two dimensional, but it's actually a three-dimensional process. To do that correctly requires a tremendous amount of effort, and it is something we're working on, but we don't want to do a compromise solution."

One thing that nobody seems to have modelled is the way the tape recording process changes phase ? and few put the record equalisation before the saturation process. If you put a square wave into a tape machine, you don't get anything like a square wave out of it, so perhaps that needs to be modelled first before the time processes, wow and flutter and feedback filtering are applied? What's more, the saturation elements need to be in the feedback loop so the sound deteriorates properly as it is recirculated.

"And many people do take the simple approach of just recirculating via a filter, perhaps adding some pitch modulation, but I think it's getting there now, and more accurate modelling will eventually happen. The other thing that's appealing to us is going into non-linear equalisers that colour the sound. This coloration comes from several different effects. Obviously you have amplitude and phase characteristics, but adding the right type of saturation is the next dimension to get into. One of the things we're trying to do first is cover all the bases so that the card we're offering gives the user a broad palette of processing they can use immediately, and then provide extra options within those areas. Frankly, a lot of the things we build is stuff that we want to have for ourselves."

[rimbaud234]

Great quote from UA. These guys are really doing great emulations and understand the complexities of the problem. I've talked with people there quite a bit and I'm very impressed.