Avid Reel Tape Saturation

This is a Digidesign made plugin. It's the Avid Reel Tape Saturation plug-in. It comes with the ReelTape suite which also features the Reel Tape Delay and Flanger. It's a pretty easy plug-in to install and get started. I didn't feel as though I really needed to use the manual, as I've basically just been testing out the different features to get a feel for it. The manual is informative enough though. The basic idea behind the plug-in is that it's supposed to replicate the sound of a tape machine on your digital tracks. There have been many attempts to get this pattern right, and they've all had different results as far as I've seen. This is probably one of the better attempts at nailing this sound that I've come across. It has controls for drive, speed, noise, bias, output, and calibration adjust. These all give it characteristics of tape machines, but actually also allow the flexibility of getting a variety of tones as opposed to the specific sound of one tape machine.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I haven't had any issues with this plug-in at all. It's never crashed Pro Tools on me (unlike some other plug-ins i've used). It's never really bogged down the system for me either. It's been a quick, satisfying performance the whole time. I use it with my Pro Tools LE 8 home system with a Digi 003 and have yet to experience any issues, and there have been times when my system has had a hard time keeping up with a plug-in.

OVERALL OPINION

I really like the way that this plug-in recreates the tone of a tape machine. While that's certainly not going to be useful for everybody, it's pretty nice to use when you are working with any sort of retro-themed band, or anything with a folkier, more rustic feel. It can also be used really effectively in electronic music, if you need something to bring a warmer contrast to whatever you are working with. All in all, it's got a variety of uses, it can be used on individual tracks plus busses with equally good results. Perfect for fans of analog recording who don't want to have to maintain all that gear!

The Avid Reel Tape Saturation is a plug-in that is present in the Avid (formally Digidesign) Reel Tape Suite of three plug-ins. The bundle consists of this plug-in along with the Reel Tape Delay and the Reel Tape Flanger. I'm pretty sure that this plug-in and the others in the bundle are only compatible with Pro Tools and other Avid video sequencers, so I'd only continue reading if you're got Pro Tools or are planning to! As far as installing this plug-in and the full bundle goes (it's done all at once), the process was not noteworthy as it was easy and nothing went wrong. Learning how to use the plug-in shouldn't be too difficult for most users as it's definitely on the easier side of plug-ins. It's got a cool looking interface that consists of plug-ins for drive, speed, noise, bias, output, and calibration adjust, just like a real tape machine! It also has options for choosing the type of machine you'd like to use. I haven't seen the manual for this or any of the other plug-ins in the bundle.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I'm running the Avid Reel Tape Saturation plug-in within my home recording rig, which consists of a Mac Book Pro and Pro Tools LE 8. The computer has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM, and I'm running Pro Tools LE with a Digi 002R audio interface. I can't say that I've had any issues related to performance with this plug-in, as this is a pretty powerful LE rig and can run a good amount at once. I wouldn't think that too many users would have a problem running this plug-in, but of course it all depends on your system.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, Avid's Reel Tape Saturation is a nice little plug-in for a number of reasons. Let me start off by saying that I do believe that the only way to get a true 'tape saturation' sound is by actually recording to tape, but when something like that isn't possible and you working in the box, something like the Reel Tape Saturation plug-in will definitely come in handy for you. It's not a replacement for doing your job as an engineer in the tracking or mixing stages, but it can help to add a bit of warmth to your tracks. While this certainly sounds pretty good and there are a good amount of controls available, I'd always recommend using analog/hardware gear for getting this type of sound, but when not possible Avid's Reel Tape Saturation plug-in is one of my favorite to use.