This is the most comprehensive UA A800 video I've yet seen. I've had it almost a year now and didn't know about the relationship between some of its functions. This really opens up the usability for me. Thank you for this, and yes more please ☺🙏
Great video as usual. Good explanation of real analogue tape recording. I have several comments and info about some of the shortcomings of real multitrack tape machines if anyone is interested. I worked at a studio (with 2 rooms) from 1982 until about '94 that had an A800 and two MCI JH24. Throughout that time almost every session worked at 30IPS (mostly with Dolby A noise reduction), Ampex (much later called Quantegy) 456 and NAB curve (always). In my early years, I wore out the knees of my jeans from kneeling, calibrating the machines several times a week. It was a massive time consuming hassle (carried out by the house engineers and assistants at our studio rather than maintenance dept). If a client brought in tapes to overdub, the machine would be totally re-aligned to match the 1kHz and 10kHz tones recorded at the top of their tape, both in repro and sync - then record aligned (including bias adjustment) using a blank bit of the tape that came in. (Not) funny story: An assistant working there before me once accidentally allowed the machine to run on from the blank bit (leadered up top and tail with plastic non magnetic tape) with all tracks in record onto the intro of the first song on the tape! No undo and seldom safety copies... Often the alignment tones would swing back and forth over a dB or two on the VU meters, generally caused by the tape weaving up and down a tiny bit - either on the original record machine or ours. This made me think about the erase head having a bad effect on the tracks adjacent to the one(s) you were recording on as well as the level moving randomly about. The Studer had a superior tape path and was much better built than the MCI (I remember being told that the A800 cost about the same as my house in London at that time!). However, I think the MCIs on a good day could sound better than the Studer, possibly because the electronic design was simpler. Our house maintenance guy was a bit of an MCI expert. This may seem astonishing - a couple of times he removed the heads and ground off the flat spots to get them back to the correct profile - the Whitesea machine could do with that but I can't imagine anyone daring to try sanding them with no replacements available! The ONLY time that the machines would be set to repro was during mixing or the occasional playback, otherwise of course they would remain in sync mode for overdubbing or 'comping'. It was very common to record several takes of a part (especially lead vocals) on different tracks, then compile them (with a patch from one track to another) making the overdub second generation and already degraded by the sound of the sync playback. While recording, I was generally disappointed that the sound became degraded and noisy. I was particularly appalled by the crunch added to a tambourine or hats recorded at any more than -10VU. I don't miss tape at all, especially as a plug in can now give you just the 'good stuff' from the real thing. Why anyone would want to add noise like tape makes zero sense to me. And seldom mentioned - crosstalk between tracks wasn't great - especially a problem on track 23 next to the timecode on track 24. I could go on much more about all of this but this is a ludicrously long comment already. Don't get me started on the massive hassle of a 48 track mix with two machines synchronised!
It's always been a thing in analog recording that tambourines barely register on the VU meters and so you're in distortion territory very quickly. Better to not even look at the meter in that case.
the 900 is BASF 900 ... I never really used it but people claimed it had better top end, and vocals sounded better on it.. IDK... I used GP9 extensively at plus 9, 30ips, like 2.5 over bias.. ish.. (I think) .. You could still hit it hot and get almost a vari mu sounding compression. Enjoying the channel BTW.. 🍻
You explain the impact that the different parameters have on each other better than anyone or anywhere I've ever heard. It is one of the greatest plugins ever, and I use it all the time.
This is perhaps the best overview I've found on tape technology and software emulation. The UAD A800 is an excellent lab for folks wanting to explore the technology imho.
This video was absolutely fascinating. I was just wanting to check out the plugin itself, and was blown away by the fact that he has that R2R machine. Very interesting, very cool, and very well done!
You're one of the best, man. You should talk about the relationship between cutting to the Studer and mixing down to the Ampex (if you haven't already in another video). That was the super sauce back in the day. I hear... I'm not that old lol.
Just finished with a demo of the A800, and yeah, I'll definitely be getting it when it goes on sale again. Really great plugin. The ATR-102 mastering tape machine is a winner as well.
I love your videos. It's so funny watching the A800 plug-in, I used to have to line these up ...hell...the the misery of feeding a kick drum to tape and listening to it off the repro head, whilst trying to get a level that didn't hiss like hell and had a transient !! ...well I LOVE digital
Have you visited, Welcome to 1979 studio in Nashville? I was headed to tape camp in 2020 when everything shut down. I will always love the look and sound consoles and tape machines. I always hated tape hiss and noise so Logic is fantastic too. So hybrid it is.
The VU meter is actually not just for looks at all. It's a guide for gain staging for those that aren't used to using a plugin like this. They are using either K14 or -18dbfs metering but I can't remember which off the top of my hat. For those that don't know what that means, K14 means that 0 on the VU is actually peaking at digital -14, so what Bob Katz did with the K14 was try to curb the loudness war and give us 14DB room in our gain staging. The other popular one is -18DBFS VU meter calibration, which you would think is the same thing but with -18 rather than -14, but it's not, not at all, there's a lot less headroom in fact but the general gist of the -18 spec is to peak max at 0 db on the VU meter that is calibrated to the -18 spec, and you'll have enough headroom on your tracks. But with the -18 spec this can be as little as 2 or 3 DB in some cases (heavily compressed sounds) whereas with the K14 spec you always gain 14DB of headroom as the meter is simply shifted down by 14DB. It's as simple as that. Sorry for the meter lesson but for those who might need help using UAD's metering, I thought this might be useful. I will go ahead and try the Studer plugin now and come back and let you all know which one of those two standards it uses. Personally, I use VUMT deluxe by Klanghelm to do all my gain staging using the VU -18dbfs calibration standard. I have found it works very well for pretty much everything. What UAD is saying here is that for just a subtle "track to tape" mojo feel, have the needle hitting about 0 on the VU. They are trying to provide a simple use case that "just sounds good" for everything.
That's a great vid man. Would be cool to see like 60 minutes talking about all these settings inside studer in order to learn all of these. From this point it's cool to know what these knobs are doing but will be much cooler to know when and why apply them.
Thank you very much for this. I got the Universal Audio Studer A800 plugin some time back but I haven't used it much so far but after your intro to it I feel ready to use it more. I did try some of the presets and was quite impressed by them, I guess one can use them as a starting point to creating one's own.
Bro u neva Miss!!!!! thank you for explaining the tape parameters OMG thanks alot. i run the ATR 102 and i love it and everything u spoke on each parameter i thought but wasnt to sure i just went with my ears and i now know i was right. except for the bias i now understand. thanks again
Hi! Thank you for this video which has the magical power of connecting younger generations to older ones (and I'm 52). I think the calibration explanation @ 8'34" is a bit blurry: back in the day if you had a given reference fluxivity and you wanted more signal printed to your working tape, you would first calibrate the repro head to read LESS decibels on the VU meters. Then you would match that by calibrating your record head to print MORE signal in order for the VU meters to show 0 dB. I'm sure you know all this because you have an MCI back there. I just thought it was good to mention to preserve information that otherwise would will be lost in a few years. That would be sad. Thanks again!
Man!! Good video, commentary and plugin. :) Personally, I've been enjoying mixing/matching various 'analogue' emulations of things. It took me years to realize, that since I was born in the 1950's, that analogue 'impression' is inside of me. I love the sound of pristine digital audio, but I certainly do remember the sounds of things back in the day (some of which was not so 'beautiful', but we worked around it as best we could). 🙂💙
Thank you for uploading such video. It is very comprehensive and explanatory. I wonder how much time a newbie has to spend to learn working with a real tape machine. Also I guess, when you work with different albums let's say, you would need different calibration.
Great video tutorial! Please can you do more UAD pluggins 🙏🏼 *love the recording you use there as the ex😅, the intro has lovely CAN vibes, especially the rhythm section.
Great Tutorial ❤❤❤ if you want to try some of the most loved on gearspace, and I second most, IK Tapes are insane, Taipei is awesome, Taupe you have tried and don't like, and Tapeface are all special to me. There's a bunch of Nebula that's also super great, but I don't think you'd do that. Lastly Ampex 102 from uad is also amazing.
Thanks so much for this. I have a noob question, never having worked in an analog studio... From tracking to mastering, in general, how many times is an audio signal printed to tape? My guess is 3 - once at the tracking stage, once at the mixing stage and once for the master? Or if you only had one of an analog box and it's mono, would one channel get printed twice? Or do you print just one channel and then the other using the sync? Sorry if these seem like stupid questions.
Would love to see your input on the engineering side on the recordings of Pink Floyd. Especially the ones that used and abused tape machines, recording technics and all the great things that they CREATED to achieve those espectacular sounds.
Great as usual! Only a question: what do you think about tape emulation gear such as Rupert Neve 542? Do you think it’s worth having a couple of them in 500 series? Have you ever thought of making some comparison between plugins, phisical tape emus and real tape machines? thanks!
900 is recording the masters Sm900 (Ex Basf). i have all formula tapes for my studer a80 (456,911,GP9,RMG900 etc) and 900 is the one i like the most. Also i have compared the original BASF 911 with the modern one from RTM and i prefer the new one in terms of sound
Sorry for off-topic but: I would be really interested to hear what a gearhead like you has to say about the MBSI Console Strip. You know your way around analog equipment and EQs. Maybe there will be another video?
Interresting video. Noob question: did there also exist chrome and metal based studio tapes or where these only ferro based? How do these professional tape machine tape formulations relate to consumer compact cassette formats? Some commercial audio cassettes in the 80’s and 90’s where chrome tapes but where often duplicated with a type 1 normal tape bias. The chrome aspect was often used as selling point of audio quality to the consumer.
![[DRAGON BALL LEGENDS REVEALS ＆ STUFF] LEGENDS FESTIVAL 2024 Special Edition Part 2](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/af0phKxitX8/mqdefault.jpg)
This is the most comprehensive UA A800 video I've yet seen. I've had it almost a year now and didn't know about the relationship between some of its functions. This really opens up the usability for me. Thank you for this, and yes more please ☺🙏
Please keep making these tutorial videos. This is fantastic!
Plugins have grown in nicely
Well, this is the most helpful thing EVER. I've used this so many times and had NO IDEA about most of these settings. Thank you for being awesome!
Great video as usual. Good explanation of real analogue tape recording. I have several comments and info about some of the shortcomings of real multitrack tape machines if anyone is interested. I worked at a studio (with 2 rooms) from 1982 until about '94 that had an A800 and two MCI JH24. Throughout that time almost every session worked at 30IPS (mostly with Dolby A noise reduction), Ampex (much later called Quantegy) 456 and NAB curve (always). In my early years, I wore out the knees of my jeans from kneeling, calibrating the machines several times a week. It was a massive time consuming hassle (carried out by the house engineers and assistants at our studio rather than maintenance dept). If a client brought in tapes to overdub, the machine would be totally re-aligned to match the 1kHz and 10kHz tones recorded at the top of their tape, both in repro and sync - then record aligned (including bias adjustment) using a blank bit of the tape that came in. (Not) funny story: An assistant working there before me once accidentally allowed the machine to run on from the blank bit (leadered up top and tail with plastic non magnetic tape) with all tracks in record onto the intro of the first song on the tape! No undo and seldom safety copies... Often the alignment tones would swing back and forth over a dB or two on the VU meters, generally caused by the tape weaving up and down a tiny bit - either on the original record machine or ours. This made me think about the erase head having a bad effect on the tracks adjacent to the one(s) you were recording on as well as the level moving randomly about. The Studer had a superior tape path and was much better built than the MCI (I remember being told that the A800 cost about the same as my house in London at that time!). However, I think the MCIs on a good day could sound better than the Studer, possibly because the electronic design was simpler. Our house maintenance guy was a bit of an MCI expert. This may seem astonishing - a couple of times he removed the heads and ground off the flat spots to get them back to the correct profile - the Whitesea machine could do with that but I can't imagine anyone daring to try sanding them with no replacements available! The ONLY time that the machines would be set to repro was during mixing or the occasional playback, otherwise of course they would remain in sync mode for overdubbing or 'comping'. It was very common to record several takes of a part (especially lead vocals) on different tracks, then compile them (with a patch from one track to another) making the overdub second generation and already degraded by the sound of the sync playback. While recording, I was generally disappointed that the sound became degraded and noisy. I was particularly appalled by the crunch added to a tambourine or hats recorded at any more than -10VU. I don't miss tape at all, especially as a plug in can now give you just the 'good stuff' from the real thing. Why anyone would want to add noise like tape makes zero sense to me. And seldom mentioned - crosstalk between tracks wasn't great - especially a problem on track 23 next to the timecode on track 24. I could go on much more about all of this but this is a ludicrously long comment already. Don't get me started on the massive hassle of a 48 track mix with two machines synchronised!
It's always been a thing in analog recording that tambourines barely register on the VU meters and so you're in distortion territory very quickly. Better to not even look at the meter in that case.
the 900 is BASF 900 ... I never really used it but people claimed it had better top end, and vocals sounded better on it.. IDK... I used GP9 extensively at plus 9, 30ips, like 2.5 over bias.. ish.. (I think) .. You could still hit it hot and get almost a vari mu sounding compression. Enjoying the channel BTW.. 🍻
I’ve used this plugin once and it made my drums sound so good. Watching this tutorial I’ll be able to use it on a new level now.
You explain the impact that the different parameters have on each other better than anyone or anywhere I've ever heard. It is one of the greatest plugins ever, and I use it all the time.
I started my career in tape world and I must say that you have by far made the most accurate description that I have viewed.
This is really the detailed overview of tape machines I needed
I really appreciate these tutorial videos. Please make more of them! Thanks for the knowledge
I grew up using tape machines, so I enjoyed the nostalgia of this video!
This is perhaps the best overview I've found on tape technology and software emulation. The UAD A800 is an excellent lab for folks wanting to explore the technology imho.
This video was absolutely fascinating. I was just wanting to check out the plugin itself, and was blown away by the fact that he has that R2R machine. Very interesting, very cool, and very well done!
You're one of the best, man. You should talk about the relationship between cutting to the Studer and mixing down to the Ampex (if you haven't already in another video). That was the super sauce back in the day. I hear... I'm not that old lol.
Just finished with a demo of the A800, and yeah, I'll definitely be getting it when it goes on sale again. Really great plugin. The ATR-102 mastering tape machine is a winner as well.
I love your videos. It's so funny watching the A800 plug-in, I used to have to line these up ...hell...the the misery of feeding a kick drum to tape and listening to it off the repro head, whilst trying to get a level that didn't hiss like hell and had a transient !! ...well I LOVE digital
Why not to use repro head for that?
@@anteshell so you actually hear what the sound on tape is. And it's always a schock !
Have you visited, Welcome to 1979 studio in Nashville? I was headed to tape camp in 2020 when everything shut down. I will always love the look and sound consoles and tape machines. I always hated tape hiss and noise so Logic is fantastic too. So hybrid it is.
One of the best videos on this channel!
The VU meter is actually not just for looks at all. It's a guide for gain staging for those that aren't used to using a plugin like this. They are using either K14 or -18dbfs metering but I can't remember which off the top of my hat. For those that don't know what that means, K14 means that 0 on the VU is actually peaking at digital -14, so what Bob Katz did with the K14 was try to curb the loudness war and give us 14DB room in our gain staging.
The other popular one is -18DBFS VU meter calibration, which you would think is the same thing but with -18 rather than -14, but it's not, not at all, there's a lot less headroom in fact but the general gist of the -18 spec is to peak max at 0 db on the VU meter that is calibrated to the -18 spec, and you'll have enough headroom on your tracks. But with the -18 spec this can be as little as 2 or 3 DB in some cases (heavily compressed sounds) whereas with the K14 spec you always gain 14DB of headroom as the meter is simply shifted down by 14DB. It's as simple as that.
Sorry for the meter lesson but for those who might need help using UAD's metering, I thought this might be useful. I will go ahead and try the Studer plugin now and come back and let you all know which one of those two standards it uses.
Personally, I use VUMT deluxe by Klanghelm to do all my gain staging using the VU -18dbfs calibration standard. I have found it works very well for pretty much everything.
What UAD is saying here is that for just a subtle "track to tape" mojo feel, have the needle hitting about 0 on the VU. They are trying to provide a simple use case that "just sounds good" for everything.
I bought this back in 2015 or so and yeah its been a work horse for years 🤘💀🍻🔥🙏
That's a great vid man. Would be cool to see like 60 minutes talking about all these settings inside studer in order to learn all of these. From this point it's cool to know what these knobs are doing but will be much cooler to know when and why apply them.
You had me at "groovy facts about tape in general" :)
Plugs have grown in nicely
this Is gold thank you!
I love it. Do it more frequently! Especially about analog..
Thank you for reminding me why I use presets - great video!
Great video. One note on NOISE:
You can turn “HUM” and “HISS” down and keep “NOISE” engaged for a touch of character.
Again, wonderful video!
Thank you very much for this. I got the Universal Audio Studer A800 plugin some time back but I haven't used it much so far but after your intro to it I feel ready to use it more. I did try some of the presets and was quite impressed by them, I guess one can use them as a starting point to creating one's own.
In / Out are linked if you hold Shift or Ctrl (can't remember sry I'm not at my studio)
You have a wonderful hair system. Great advice on the plugins ( no pun intended )
this, ik multimedia and the ua ampex are my favourites
Great tutorial. Thank you!
This is so useful. I've got loads of tape plugins over the years but I just use the UAD ones now, mostly this and the Ampex
Absolutely love it - subscribed
Thank you for your efforts!
My GOD I’ve needed this video for FOREVER! Thanks so much 🙌🙌
Excellent explenations. Thanks a lot !
They brought out the 900 after the Ampex 456. BASF Studio Mastering 900
That was very informative and up to the point. Thanks!
Great tuturial! Would love to see more of this kind of stuff
Bro u neva Miss!!!!! thank you for explaining the tape parameters OMG thanks alot. i run the ATR 102 and i love it and everything u spoke on each parameter i thought but wasnt to sure i just went with my ears and i now know i was right. except for the bias i now understand. thanks again
Hi! Thank you for this video which has the magical power of connecting younger generations to older ones (and I'm 52). I think the calibration explanation @ 8'34" is a bit blurry: back in the day if you had a given reference fluxivity and you wanted more signal printed to your working tape, you would first calibrate the repro head to read LESS decibels on the VU meters. Then you would match that by calibrating your record head to print MORE signal in order for the VU meters to show 0 dB. I'm sure you know all this because you have an MCI back there. I just thought it was good to mention to preserve information that otherwise would will be lost in a few years. That would be sad. Thanks again!
Thanks
Awesome! Thank you! Finally somebody that’s explain in my lenguaje 👌👍👏👏
Cool!! Love those kind of videos. Always something new to learn. Thanks 🤘
Your videos are so awesome extremely grateful videos like these...
It really amazes me how many gear is plugin inspired 🙌
Really appreciate this deep dive. Thank you!
yesss more tutorials!!!
I did my best to follow the nano weber bit but I went out as soon as that funky bass line was played
Muchíasimas gracias, porl fin entiendo como funciona este plugins... siempre lo he configurado con el oido...Gran explicación
Excellent video!... I always learn something watching your RUclips channel. Thank you!
Man!! Good video, commentary and plugin. :)
Personally, I've been enjoying mixing/matching various 'analogue' emulations of things. It took me years to realize, that since I was born in the 1950's, that analogue 'impression' is inside of me. I love the sound of pristine digital audio, but I certainly do remember the sounds of things back in the day (some of which was not so 'beautiful', but we worked around it as best we could). 🙂💙
Brilliant Video....Thank you so much dude
Thank you for uploading such video. It is very comprehensive and explanatory. I wonder how much time a newbie has to spend to learn working with a real tape machine. Also I guess, when you work with different albums let's say, you would need different calibration.
Thank you so much, the track that you used was very helpful to hear the different settings
Blackrooster Magnetite my go to tape plugin
I use this on a majority of my recordings. I like to use it in repo on my master bus!!
the only uad plugin i'll ever buy
Awesome explanation, thank you!
This was an amzing video, thank you!
By far, best video yet!!!
cant believe i never realised that some of the settings in the more advanced settings correspond to what head youre using
Great Video! Thanks!
amazing video bro 🔥
I love that plugin!
Great video tutorial! Please can you do more UAD pluggins 🙏🏼
*love the recording you use there as the ex😅, the intro has lovely CAN vibes, especially the rhythm section.
Great video, thank you man!
Great Tutorial ❤❤❤ if you want to try some of the most loved on gearspace, and I second most, IK Tapes are insane, Taipei is awesome, Taupe you have tried and don't like, and Tapeface are all special to me. There's a bunch of Nebula that's also super great, but I don't think you'd do that. Lastly Ampex 102 from uad is also amazing.
Great info.... I like this tape plugin a lot
Great stuff, man!!! keep them coming!!!
I really like this kind of tutorial, great!!!
I LOVE this version of Darude's Sandstorm :-)
Very valuable video Mr Snake Oil
I would think the 900 is the RTM SM900 tape. Used for mastering (high quality, very transparent). RTM also makes the SM911 which is more colored.
Really helpful … nice work !!!
Great Vid...learned a lot 👍
Thank you!
I have been to every country in Europe except Holland and I use Fabfilter all the time.
Hair system is no doubt clean glue
Thanks so much for this. I have a noob question, never having worked in an analog studio... From tracking to mastering, in general, how many times is an audio signal printed to tape? My guess is 3 - once at the tracking stage, once at the mixing stage and once for the master? Or if you only had one of an analog box and it's mono, would one channel get printed twice? Or do you print just one channel and then the other using the sync? Sorry if these seem like stupid questions.
thank you! good subject and video as usual
Nice video!....could you kindly make a video on Airwindows Consolidated (all in one plugin)....
Great video! Thank you
Please, let us know what the Artist music you are performing in your video, links are preferred. GREAT VIDEO AS ALWAYS!
Would love to see your input on the engineering side on the recordings of Pink Floyd. Especially the ones that used and abused tape machines, recording technics and all the great things that they CREATED to achieve those espectacular sounds.
You're saying you could throw your tape machine out of the room? Whoa, chill, Arnold!
@Whiteseastudio Give us review of that 200kg tape plugin behind you with examples.
Thank you for the video
Amazing video my friend ...... Thank U
Thanks!
Great as usual!
Only a question: what do you think about tape emulation gear such as Rupert Neve 542? Do you think it’s worth having a couple of them in 500 series? Have you ever thought of making some comparison between plugins, phisical tape emus and real tape machines?
thanks!
Outstanding!
900 is recording the masters Sm900 (Ex Basf). i have all formula tapes for my studer a80 (456,911,GP9,RMG900 etc) and 900 is the one i like the most. Also i have compared the original BASF 911 with the modern one from RTM and i prefer the new one in terms of sound
J37 fire to 🔥
Sorry for off-topic but: I would be really interested to hear what a gearhead like you has to say about the MBSI Console Strip. You know your way around analog equipment and EQs. Maybe there will be another video?
Excellent!!!Thanks!!!
Good stuff!
The 900 setting likely represents RTM SM900 Analog Tape.
Well done!
Interresting video. Noob question: did there also exist chrome and metal based studio tapes or where these only ferro based? How do these professional tape machine tape formulations relate to consumer compact cassette formats? Some commercial audio cassettes in the 80’s and 90’s where chrome tapes but where often duplicated with a type 1 normal tape bias. The chrome aspect was often used as selling point of audio quality to the consumer.
Thank you!
thanks for this video,, would you review voxengo toete and peakbuster?