TAPE SATURATION — general discussion about "tape-saturators" etc

[Feral Feline]

Inspired by Captain's recent build, and by Almondcity's saturator-build about a year ago, I'm revisiting what was once almost an obsession for me...

TAPE SATURATION SIMULATION.


I thought a "catch-all" type thread could be a good resource for those interested in the topic and possible build options etc.


Would be fun to pair a "Tape Saturator" with Aleph Null's Tape Delay MKII, for example. Would the faux-saturation be too subtle and get lost behind the delay's circuitry? Or would it add that certain "je ne c'est quoi" to proceedings?


Here's a few things pulled out of the ethers and onto my HD and tossing them back out into the expanding interuniversenet...

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So if I wanted to follow suit with Captain's build, but make it MONO, would it be as simple as chopping the following out of Zadvitsky's schematic?

 

[Nostradoomus]

Just build a SHO clone with added clipping and a master volume tacked on like Jupiter fx did with their Jive Reel thing

 

[Feral Feline]

Just build a SHO clone with added clipping and a master volume tacked on like Jupiter fx did with their Jive Reel thing

DANG! I purposely avoided adding that contraption in the OP.


Thanks.
Thanks a lot.
I got a broken heart.
That's all I've got.
You made me cry,
And I cried a lot.
Nostra, thanks, thanks a lot.

 

[Nostradoomus]

Sorry baby gurl, didn’t mean to make you cry.

 

[Fama]

Just build a SHO clone with added clipping and a master volume tacked on like Jupiter fx did with their Jive Reel thing

Don't forget 16 germanium diodes!

If I understand it correctly, doesn't adding more diodes just change the forward voltage? So it clips less? Surely there has to be some other way to do that? Or would the massive number of diodes do something different to the sound?

 

[tegendemuur]

You consider the miniscule random vibrato to fake worn / old tape to be part of a saturator? Or are we going too far into lo-fi modulation with taking the wobble and warble in account?

 

[Fama]

You consider the miniscule random vibrato to fake worn / old tape to be part of a saturator? Or are we going too far into lo-fi modulation with taking the wobble and warble in account?

I definitely consider it a part of tape simulation, but not saturation.

That being said, I don't think the circuit described here is as much tape saturation as it's just "saturation", the same circuit was called speaker saturation too. That's not a knock on it of course, I'm sure it's nice during mixing - there are 5 million different saturation plugins for a reason.

 

[tegendemuur]

I definitely consider it a part of tape simulation, but not saturation.

That being said, I don't think the circuit described here is as much tape saturation as it's just "saturation", the same circuit was called speaker saturation too. That's not a knock on it of course, I'm sure it's nice during mixing - there are 5 million different saturation plugins for a reason.

Agreed

One thing about tape saturation is that you can't really toss them together. Reel, cassette, vhs even, each have their own quirks (no idea what to call them, except... Voicings?) It's much more about what records them, than the medium itself. Tape saturation on a memo recorder is a whole different thing than a home consumer reel recorder... Because of its purpose.

 

[rossbalch]

Don't forget 16 germanium diodes!

If I understand it correctly, doesn't adding more diodes just change the forward voltage? So it clips less? Surely there has to be some other way to do that? Or would the massive number of diodes do something different to the sound?

A pair of Zenners is probably all you need, maybe a bit of series resistance to soften them even more, 2v4 for instance would be about the same clipping threshold.

The lowest sensible Zenners I've found are 1v8 https://nz.mouser.com/ProductDetail.../1N4614-BK-PBFREE?qs=u16ybLDytRY8XcfBXMZIfA==

 

[rossbalch]

A nice thing about the DIYRE circuit is it has the head bump https://support.diy.re/article/60-15ips-mkii-change-filter

I think if you want the ultimate tape saturation simulator you want the following elements:

Hi frequency tilt -> Compression -> Saturation -> Expansion -> Low freq tilt

If you really want to simulate the whole tape process then I guess a subtle vibrato, flutter is harder to emulate and is probably not that desirable, a studio tape machine should display almost undetectable amounts of both, so unless you're going LoFi you might want to just ignore those effects.

I'll throw this in here, why not add some actual Iron into proceedings?

TM79 Multi-Stage Saturation Colour

Eisen Audio is a Brooklyn-based, high-end audio design firm whose credits include the DIY500 preamp and designs for Purple Audio, AwTAC, and NonLinearAudio. The TM79 is a new analog saturation design from Eisen released exclusively for the Colour format. Instead of attempting to replicate a...

www.diyrecordingequipment.com

 

[tegendemuur]

A nice thing about the DIYRE circuit is it has the head bump https://support.diy.re/article/60-15ips-mkii-change-filter

I think if you want the ultimate tape saturation simulator you want the following elements:

Hi frequency tilt -> Compression -> Saturation -> Expansion -> Low freq tilt

If you really want to simulate the whole tape process then I guess a subtle vibrato, flutter is harder to emulate and is probably not that desirable, a studio tape machine should display almost undetectable amounts of both, so unless you're going LoFi you might want to just ignore those effects.

I'll throw this in here, why not add some actual Iron into proceedings?

TM79 Multi-Stage Saturation Colour

Eisen Audio is a Brooklyn-based, high-end audio design firm whose credits include the DIY500 preamp and designs for Purple Audio, AwTAC, and NonLinearAudio. The TM79 is a new analog saturation design from Eisen released exclusively for the Colour format. Instead of attempting to replicate a...

www.diyrecordingequipment.com

Even more on point....

15IPS mkIII Tape Saturation Colour

The compression, saturation, and tone of analog tape. (Everything but the hiss.) For decades analog tape was the sound of records. Then the technology changed, but our ears didn't. Things tracked on tape just sound fuller, warmer, and more "finished" by default than things tracked digitally...

www.diyrecordingequipment.com

And for the medium...

TAPE•C Analog Tape Colour

TAPE•C is a fully-analog tape machine emulation module for the Colour format that captures the magnetic magic of 15 IPS tape. Drawing upon many years of combined experience working with real tape decks, the Louder than Liftoff team set out to capture the essence of how tape transforms sounds...

www.diyrecordingequipment.com

Way too pricey. Needs a trace

 

[rossbalch]

Even more on point....

15IPS mkIII Tape Saturation Colour

The compression, saturation, and tone of analog tape. (Everything but the hiss.) For decades analog tape was the sound of records. Then the technology changed, but our ears didn't. Things tracked on tape just sound fuller, warmer, and more "finished" by default than things tracked digitally...

www.diyrecordingequipment.com

And for the medium...

TAPE•C Analog Tape Colour

TAPE•C is a fully-analog tape machine emulation module for the Colour format that captures the magnetic magic of 15 IPS tape. Drawing upon many years of combined experience working with real tape decks, the Louder than Liftoff team set out to capture the essence of how tape transforms sounds...

www.diyrecordingequipment.com

Way too pricey. Needs a trace

With the LTLO stuff all the interesting stuff is SMD on the bottom too, so it's even harder to see what's going on from the pictures.

 

[bluedmc777]

When I think of tape saturation I mainly think of subtle softening of the highs with some extra harmonics thrown in. I would look towards a light preamp going into a light compressor as being the easiest option to simulate something like this. I don’t think warble is necessary. I like the Diamond Comp with its soft knee compression.

And for something in a similar league you could look at the EHX Analogizer. Always thought that was a cool pedal for some reason yet I’ve never owned one.