Ekssperimental Sounds: TAPEFUNK M10 RE released

[rorystorm]

Oh! But I'm definitely noticing some hiss even with the hiss turned off.

[rorystorm]

I just put this across the top of an early 70s style krautrock project I'm working on atm and its super tasty. Man that overdrive is fantastic.

Sounds like a perfect match!
Do you post these krautrock projects online somewhere?

Yeah, ill be putting it on my bandcamp when its done in a week or so and ill post the link in the Reason Music section on RT. I can pm it to you when when its done as well.

[rorystorm]

(Its a 52 minute long thing I'm doing for my 52nd birthday and indulging my dreams of being in Harmonia).

[crimsonwarlock]

I just put this across the top of an early 70s style krautrock project I'm working on atm and its super tasty. Man that overdrive is fantastic.

Oh man, now I do have to try it out as well. Grabbing the trial later tonight.

[joeyluck]

Oh! But I'm definitely noticing some hiss even with the hiss turned off.

Are you sure there's nothing else causing it? When I turn Hiss off, I hear no hiss. Is this while running or stopped?

[Ottostrom]

Sounds like a great update for this device!
Kinda sad now that I didn't pick it up during the sale

The update is now available in the shop, and for those who missed it on the spring break sale there is an update offer (save 33%) just this week!
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... -recorder/

Cheers!

That's super nice!
Will pick it up

[ekss]

Oh! But I'm definitely noticing some hiss even with the hiss turned off.

Are you sure there's nothing else causing it? When I turn Hiss off, I hear no hiss. Is this while running or stopped?

It shouldn't be possible, it was rejected by reasons acceptance because it didn't go completely silent when hiss was off, I had to put 15 maximizers all att full boost (no limit) to even hear something. The signal was not hiss but some artifact from the convolution reverb and it had to be eliminated by adding a gate that opens when the level rise above -100dB. After this it passed the test and by that it should be confirmed to be silent (technically it stop transmitting audio what reason detect absolute silence, thus saving cpu).
I did some more testing just now and all seam ok - there should not be possible that hiss could be heard when set to off, the hiss generating sample & noise generator is switched off so there is nothing active that could create it. So in that case you can hear hiss it most likely comes from something earlier in the signal chain. There is of course a tiny possibility that a weird bug has happened, if so please report exact steps to generate hiss when the hiss selector is set to OFF and I'll look into it!

[Theo.M]

1) You do NOT need a wet/dry on this plugin, as if you dial the input right back and just compensate with output for level, that's much better than a wet/dry, RS audiomatic sounds nothing like tape whatsoever - it can be a wonderful effect but that's what it is, an effect, not a tape simulation, so the wet/dry is more applicable in that case.

To be fair, RS Tape IS a tape emulation, of an Ampex tape machine to be exact with 15IPS modeled at one end of the transform knob and 30IPS at the other. I disagree it sounds “nothing” like tape, but I’m bias as it is my work we’re talking about here!
Plus, I would not recommend using dry/wet on ART Tape setting due to the phase issues caused by the filtering.

I’m with you on not needing a dry/wet control for any tape emulation effect. In fact, I was pushing for an input control (in addition to the output control) on ART so you can control the drive the effect to your liking – luckily they agreed and added it!

Oh I didn't know you did audiomatic.
Sorry about that but to me it doesn't sound like tape but I think it's because I am not understanding what the knob does. I just presumed left would be less and right would be more, but it doesn't seem to operate like that. I'll read the manual on that one. Sorry Giles.

[ekss]

...

Sorry for all the spelling/grammar errors, too much time has passed to edit and correct them now... Will try to remember to read through before posting in the future, especially when writing on mobile!

[Steedus]

Now that I'm looking into this it does seem that I have to go out of my way for the hiss to be audible - but I when I was messing around last night I just threw it on a mix and heard it - it's possible that whatever else was in the signal chain was greatly amplifying the sound.

I made a quick video (sorry for no audio - I guess the Apple screen recording function doesn't record the audio?), but you can see from the meter, although I have to add a crap ton of gain, it is still there when in Off position.

So if this is digging too deep to call it a real bug no worries, but initially it was just natural usage when I first happened to notice it. Anyway, loving the update!

https://i.imgur.com/SVSNQJv.mp4

[selig]

Oh I didn't know you did audiomatic.

For the record, I just did Tape and Wash on ART.

[ekss]

Now that I'm looking into this it does seem that I have to go out of my way for the hiss to be audible - but I when I was messing around last night I just threw it on a mix and heard it - it's possible that whatever else was in the signal chain was greatly amplifying the sound.

I made a quick video (sorry for no audio - I guess the Apple screen recording function doesn't record the audio?), but you can see from the meter, although I have to add a crap ton of gain, it is still there when in Off position.

So if this is digging too deep to call it a real bug no worries, but initially it was just natural usage when I first happened to notice it. Anyway, loving the update!

https://i.imgur.com/SVSNQJv.mp4

The noise in the video is most probably coming from your Scarlet 6i6, try disconnecting the input of Tapefunk and I bet you'll see the noise disappear

[Steedus]

Ummm ... you were right ...

Sorry about that haha ..

[dvdrtldg]

Thanks for this very generous update!

One feature I'd still like to see implemented if possible is some sort of automatic input/output gain compensation, always very handy on this sort of device

[Theo.M]

So I only have a couple days demo left, and last night I spent a couple hours comparing tape funk to all my VST tape emulations. I however used Pro Tools and Tapefunk via Reason rack plugin (worked just fine), and I pit it against Steinberg vintage open deck (via blue cat patchwork as only vst3), Black Rooster Magnetite, Slate VTM, Avid Heat, all the IK Multimedia models in T-Racks, Softube Tape, Overloud Tapedesk, Waves Kramer and Waves J37.
I will say this. For the task of taming transients/reducing peak levels whilst increasing perceived sound volume, Tapefunk was the clear winner. It was able to achieve ridiculous amounts of perceived volume boost whilst maintaining very clear source material whereas all the others (bar IK & Softube) went into unpleasant distortion.
IK sounds very hi fi and pleasant but the cpu usage is prohibitive and it lacks the natural compression of tape almost completely, until driven obscenely hard, but somehow it just sounds good. It is unorthodox though in that it increases peak output level just by being enabled, and needs to be really tweaked for best results.
Softube is a very good contender for a multitrack situation as it adds some very subtle mojo and is different from the others in that it's got an amount of tape saturation dial rather than in/out and is not designed to be driven that way. Moreso, it offers just a nice bit of natural transient taming and harmonic warmth.
Waves Kramer by far had the most severe compression of all and can be a very useful effect in some situations but I don't think I'd use it as a multitrack.
In a multitrack situation, I thought however the bass bump of Tapefunk was a little too pronounced, but then, that's easy to mix fix.
I am not sure what voodoo is going on here with Tapefunk, but more people need to know about it and realise that Reason hosting RE's is a very viable option as an insert effect for any DAW and gives us a legion of effects that we'd not have access to otherwise.
Something is going on under the hood that is able to produce some real magic.

I wish I had access to a tape machine now, the last time was a long time ago, so it's hard to remember which sound like actual tape in a mix so I am just going to go with what sounds good.

I think for a multitrack mix glue/enhancer, Softube is there along with Heat.
I think for all others purposes it's tapefunk, for slamming full pelt into it for tape compression or increasing perceived volume whilst decreasing peak output - I would definitely see myself using it on a few tracks of every song, so it's gone on my wish list for sure.

[moneykube]

The noise in the video is most probably coming from your Scarlet 6i6, try disconnecting the input of Tapefunk and I bet you'll see the noise disappear

Weird... I have a Scarlet 4i4 3 generation. No noise appears to be coming from my device at all. Is this exclusive with Tapefunk, or has this "hiss/noise", moved into the range of frequencies I can no longer hear > due to aging

[ekss]

The noise in the video is most probably coming from your Scarlet 6i6, try disconnecting the input of Tapefunk and I bet you'll see the noise disappear

Weird... I have a Scarlet 4i4 3 generation. No noise appears to be coming from my device at all. Is this exclusive with Tapefunk, or has this "hiss/noise", moved into the range of frequencies I can no longer hear > due to aging

Try hooking up an audio track with an input from scarlet and add a device that add gain (like the output knob on Tapefunk) you could try a maximizer or scream, make sure monitoring is on. If you boost it enough there should be noise, however so slighty, no matter what audio interface you have, due to the nature of analog circuitry and electronics. The noise level may vary, but add enough gain and it will become apparent sooner or later. In other words, nothing to worry about!

[Steedus]

Yeah sorry for sparking that worry ... just the first time I had inadvertently heard the noise coming from my own system! Oops.

[Ottostrom]

So I only have a couple days demo left, and last night I spent a couple hours comparing tape funk to all my VST tape emulations. I however used Pro Tools and Tapefunk via Reason rack plugin (worked just fine), and I pit it against Steinberg vintage open deck (via blue cat patchwork as only vst3), Black Rooster Magnetite, Slate VTM, Avid Heat, all the IK Multimedia models in T-Racks, Softube Tape, Overloud Tapedesk, Waves Kramer and Waves J37.
I will say this. For the task of taming transients/reducing peak levels whilst increasing perceived sound volume, Tapefunk was the clear winner. It was able to achieve ridiculous amounts of perceived volume boost whilst maintaining very clear source material whereas all the others (bar IK & Softube) went into unpleasant distortion.
IK sounds very hi fi and pleasant but the cpu usage is prohibitive and it lacks the natural compression of tape almost completely, until driven obscenely hard, but somehow it just sounds good. It is unorthodox though in that it increases peak output level just by being enabled, and needs to be really tweaked for best results.
Softube is a very good contender for a multitrack situation as it adds some very subtle mojo and is different from the others in that it's got an amount of tape saturation dial rather than in/out and is not designed to be driven that way. Moreso, it offers just a nice bit of natural transient taming and harmonic warmth.
Waves Kramer by far had the most severe compression of all and can be a very useful effect in some situations but I don't think I'd use it as a multitrack.
In a multitrack situation, I thought however the bass bump of Tapefunk was a little too pronounced, but then, that's easy to mix fix.
I am not sure what voodoo is going on here with Tapefunk, but more people need to know about it and realise that Reason hosting RE's is a very viable option as an insert effect for any DAW and gives us a legion of effects that we'd not have access to otherwise.
Something is going on under the hood that is able to produce some real magic.

I wish I had access to a tape machine now, the last time was a long time ago, so it's hard to remember which sound like actual tape in a mix so I am just going to go with what sounds good.

I think for a multitrack mix glue/enhancer, Softube is there along with Heat.
I think for all others purposes it's tapefunk, for slamming full pelt into it for tape compression or increasing perceived volume whilst decreasing peak output - I would definitely see myself using it on a few tracks of every song, so it's gone on my wish list for sure.

Thanks for taking the time to test this RE so thoroughly against the VST competition
Interesting results for sure. I'm excited to smash some drums through it

[Steedus]

I'd say Tape Funk and the IK tape emus are kinda in different categories. The IK stuff is meant to be super high end, super clean mastering processing (the Tape Machine 80 model is fantastic for finishing off with a juicy bass bump) - whereas, like alot of Ekss devices, Tape Funk intentionally has more grit and character. More old school. At least that's my take

In other words, both are great at what they do and don't cross over that much I think.

IK VSTs are indeed very CPU hungry though!