I was about to suggest the same with LA2A in place of the 1176. It's not so much that this sounds like tape as much as it frequently sounds good to my ears.mjau wrote:a combo of a Pultec and an 1176 (just barely compressing, if any)
As far as the plugs that claim to sound like tape... I think people are chasing a red herring. Well-maintained and operated professional tape machines sound like what you give them. This is also true of good (24-bit or better) digital devices. Check how you're tracking if your sound isn't as you desire. Or, if you seek the sound of abused tape... abuse a tape machine! Some analog decks add a bit of a bump at around 100hz... but you can add that yourself in the digital realm, as well.
I think the primary sonic benefit of analog is that it's resolution is far finer than any digital approximation. It's the difference between film and digital video, or photographic plates and digital cameras. Both can look good... but the resolution (and resulting perception) of the analog counterpart is almost always more satisfying.
That said, the Voxengo Analogflux TapeBus can be a useful effect. I don't think it "sounds like tape," but it does smear transients in an interesting way that is sometimes beneficial for particularly "peaky" material. It's a sound I sometimes seek out... but I wouldn't say it's "like tape."