AudioDeluxe offers the IK Tape Machine 80 tape saturation plugin as a FREE add-on with any purchase in October 2023.
Another month, another freebie, or so the saying goes. The good folks at AudioDeluxe have picked a fairly nice one for us this month.
Well, it’s nice if you can get past some of the IK Multimedia installer annoyances, but I digress.
The TLDR is: in October, you can get IK Multimedia’s Tape Machine 80 free with any qualifying purchase at AudioDeluxe.
So, what is Tape Machine 80?
You’ve no doubt probably fiddled with any number of reel-to-reel and cassette emulations. This is one of my personal favorites, as it emulates the famed Studer A80 reel-to-reel machine.
It is also one of the finest emulations I’ve heard, although admittedly, I don’t have much hands-on experience with these massive studio-grade tape machines.
You’ve got a variety of controls to play with, so let’s explore a few. Tape Machine 80 has four tape formulations, each with specific sonic characteristics. The 250 formulation saturates more easily and brings more high-end attenuation to the fore.
Conversely, the GP9 is more pristine, giving that sonic gloss you might expect with a high-grade tape.
Tape Machine 80 also has two tape speed selections, 15 and 30 inches per second. I find 15 IPS works better for busses or if you want a very saturated mix on the whole.
You’ve got bias and level controls, which help adjust the actual characteristics of the tape. More pronounced saturation and compression are seen with higher bias values. You also have low and high-end attenuation possible with HF EQ and LF EQ controls.
Now, I love this plugin, and I won’t make any secrets about it. I don’t use it quite as much these days since I started investing in my own physical tape machines, but I find it personally gets the closest to capturing some of the vibe you’d expect from nice tape.
It is extremely CPU-heavy, thanks in part to dynamic convolution and whatever insane sample rate it oversamples to.
As such, if you want to use it all over a mix, you’d likely want to bounce stems in place with the effect active.
Like the rest of the T-Racks suite, you’ll have to deal with installation annoyances. Still, if you want one of the best tape VSTs on the market and you missed the UAD sale, this is a fantastic choice.
Check out the deal: Tape Machine 80 (FREE with any qualifying purchase at AudioDeluxe)
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Last Updated on October 6, 2023 by Tomislav Zlatic.
