Try fixing it with tape
Do you have something that you’ve recorded that you just don’t love the sound of? Maybe it’s too brittle, or too muddy, or doesn’t have enough oomph in the low end, or doesn’t have enough sizzle in the top end?
The first thing I do in this situation is I try some tape plugins, to see if I can quick morph the sound into something cooler. Tape is great because it munches frequencies, but also it enhances frequencies, and it has some compression and clipping artifacts, but also it’s nonlinear — so it can react in a variety of different ways, some of which are a bit unpredictable, and many of which can help make problematic audio better.
If something needs to be a lot different, I’ll maybe try something more heavy-handed — SketchCassette II1, Magnetite, Tape Face V3.
If something needs less help, I’ll maybe start with UAD Studer 8002, Fuse Audio TCS-68, or Hornet Tape.
The effects of tape can be best (and most obvious) when you’re abusing it. So I tend to start by seeing what it sounds like with the input cranked, so that the VU meter is over on the right, up at the top of the red part of the meter, but still bouncing around a little, not completely pegged. (Make sure to back off the output gain commensurately before hitting play!) And then I’ll either back off the input gain or the mix knob, depending on how far in which direction the plugin has decided to take the sound.
Tape can be unpredictable, so it’s good to explore the range of the input gain knob to see what different treasures await you there. There are probably at least three distinct versions of the sound at low, medium, and high input gains, and lots of shades in between.
(This is the reason I buy a lot of cheap tape plugins — because odds are good that even the cheapest tape plugin will have one setting that really helps some sound or other.)
This is my tape face — jamie
Try the “cheap” Type II model, with the Age slider set like 3/4 of the way toward Old, and then play with the Dolby NR compander at bottom right.
The native version of the UAD Studer is currently on a steep sale!