1.x Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines

The authentic tone of two world class analog TAPE MACHINES

Digital recording is now the standard for professional music production. But many engineers and musicians long for the days of analog recording, and for good reason.

Analog Tape Machines have a SOUND.

Big, fat, warm, deep, rich, and exciting are just some of the terms used to describe what recording onto a piece of magnetic tape sounds like. Most of all, tape is more musical.

To capture the sound of tape is to capture a living, breathing sound that dynamically reacts to the music going on to it. Slate Digital Chief Technology Officer Fabrice Gabriel utilized his electrical engineering degree as a foundation for his comprehensive study of the physical processes that occur when recording analog tape through a tape machine. What began with science led to Fabrice’s discovery of the seemingly magical properties of tape and inspired him to create his most advanced, dynamic algorithms yet. Two industry-standard machines were precisely modeled. What followed was a year of critical listening and algorithm tweaking, with some help from the expert ears of Slate Digital CEO, Steven Slate.

The result is the Virtual Tape Machines plugin. We modeled two of the most famous tape machines in audio and provide them both along with options like bias, tape speed, tape type, and more in Virtual Tape Machines.

Choose Your Favorite Machines & Tape Stock

VTM emulates both a 16-track 2-inch tape machine and a 1/2 inch stereo mastering deck. Not only that, you can also choose between the two most popular tape formulations. Different formulations have different properties and headroom, and ultimately will give you different sonic results.

Control Your Speed

Virtual Tape Machines accurately emulates the behavior of both of the most common tape speeds of 15 and 30 ips. Engineers who use tape sometimes choose which speed to use based upon the material they’re recording, since the bass response can differ a great deal between the two speeds. You can further refine the bass response using the bass alignment slider in the Settings module.

Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines Features

• Two tape machine types:
• 2″ 16 track
• 1/2″ mastering deck
• Two tape formulations
• Two speeds: 15 ips and 30 ips
• Noise reduction control and auto mute
• Wow & Flutter control
• Bass alignment control
• Normal, Low & High Bias settings
• Level Calibration
• VU ballistics
• Grouping control
• Settings global or per channel
• Tape reels start and stop in sync with DAW transport