T-RackS Tape Machine Collection by IK Multimedia

Re-live the golden era of recording and infuse your productions with the rich, warm, and musical sound that only analog tape can provide. The IK Multimedia T-RackS Tape Machine Collection is an excellent bundle of modeled tape machines, offering a true digital replica of what happens on real systems. It's designed to bring the allure of tape machines, rooted in both their physicality and sound character, right to your DAW.

This meticulously crafted collection brings the iconic character of four classic tape recording machines from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s directly into your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW):

• Tape Machine 440 (Ampex 440B): Dating from the late 1960s, this model delivers an unmistakably soulful color that made it a professional and historic mixing and mastering legend. It has the power to transform your mixes into finished tracks.
• Tape Machine 80 (Studer A80 Mk II): Engineered and manufactured in Switzerland from 1970 to 1988, the Studer A80 Mk II became the de facto standard for professional high-end multi-tracking and is an essential part of countless influential records. Its sonic signature is a perfect blend between transparency and subtle harmonic enhancement.
• Tape Machine 99 (Revox PR99 Mk II): A stereo professional recorder produced by Studer in the 1980s, this model boasts a hybrid design that offers a very smooth frequency response, especially on bass, with almost no trace of the typical "head bump" phenomenon. It was a standard for broadcast and classical music, appreciated by audiophiles for its exceptional sonic quality.
• Tape Machine 24 (MCI JH24): First produced in 1980, the JH24 was a staple in US studios during the 1980s. Its completely transformerless, high-performance op-amp-based design delivers a pristine, phase-coherent, and remarkably true-to-the-source audio performance, resulting in a moderate and elegant polish to your music.

Unparalleled Realism and Comprehensive Control: IK Multimedia invested two years of full-time research and development on real, meticulously restored world-class machines to ensure incredible accuracy. The collection employs a careful mix of convolution and physical modeling to recreate the complex interplay of machine, tape, and audio, capturing even the smallest detail of each machine. The internal magnetic recording physical model operates at a remarkably high 384 kHz sampling rate, enabling authentic replication of true tape characteristics that other "tape saturators" may miss.

Each plug-in within the collection shares a consistent set of comprehensive controls to enhance ease of use and facilitate quick A/B comparisons:

• Signal Path Selection: Choose "Input" to route the signal only through the electronic stages, bypassing the tape for a transparent or slightly colored sound, or select "Repro" to engage the full analog recording system, including the recording amplifier, recording head, tape, playback head, playback preamplifier, and output stage.
• Tape Speed Control: Adjust the tape transport speed between 7.5, 15, or 30 inches per second (ips), depending on the machine. Higher speeds offer greater fidelity, while lower speeds deliver a warmer and more saturated tone.
• Transport Modeling: Precisely models the behavior of the mechanical transport, recreating small irregularities in tape movement (known as wow and flutter) that create various degrees of sonic alteration, especially between channels. This can be disabled for a perfectly steady performance.
• Record Bias: Adjusts the amount of bias in the recorded signal. Overbiasing is a common technique to produce a warmer, gently saturated sound, while underbiasing can be used to nicely boost high frequencies in a unique way and add distortion.
• True Stereo: Recreates the subtle level, EQ, and distortion differences between the left and right channels found in real analog machines, contributing to the "analog recording mojo". This feature can be disabled if perfectly identical channel processing is preferred.
• Four Tape Formulas: Select from distinct tape formulations, each with its unique tone:
  • 250: Modeled after 3M/Scotch 250, offering a warm tone with slightly more distortion and saturation.
  • 456: Modeled after Ampex 456, providing a warm, round tone with a slight touch of saturation that responds well to recording levels.
  • GP9: Modeled after Quantegy GP9, accepting higher signal levels with minimal distortion and compression, resulting in a very punchy sound, ideal for modern, high-quality analog recordings.
  • 499: Modeled after Ampex 499, designed to handle high levels with minimal distortion, exhibiting added high-frequency definition for "digital-like" recordings that retain an analog sound.

Experience the "Tape Thing" Like Never Before: The T-RackS Tape Machine Collection is perfect for tracking and mixing and can be used to add subtle warming through to full-on classic tape wobble effects. It excels at gluing tracks together, adding fullness without dullness, rounding off poky transients, and providing light compression. Users often describe a "3D" sound, enhanced stereo image, depth, and added body while maintaining clarity and separation. For those seeking an authentic tape feel, the IK Tapes deliver a similar sensation to recording on high-end Studer and Ampex machines.

While these highly detailed emulations require significant CPU horsepower due to their intensive modeling, this compute is essential to faithfully reproduce the true characteristics of real tape machines. The collection can be used seamlessly inside the T-RackS application or as standalone plugins in your DAW. With its "gorgeous tape sound" and reputation as one of the best tape emulations out there, the IK Multimedia T-RackS Tape Machine Collection stands as a top contender, delivering a truly authentic and musically pleasing analog experience.