Based on two well known Studer tape machines, NRG Recording's A827 and Howie Weinberg's A80, the Slate team took a solid year and a half to capture the idiosyncrasies of these two beloved machines.
Some back story before we continue...
I've spoken to a few engineers, such as Bob Ohlsson of the Motown fame about tape, and his thoughts were, that tape was a cumbersome experience that engineers fought with when it was the only medium for recordings. It had a 'sound', but sometimes that sound interfered with the clarity of the recorded performance. Other times it provided a rich low end and compelling low-mid presence that missed when everything went digital in the 80's.
In recent years, a generation who never experienced working with tape have become nostalgic for it and are incorporating tape emulation plugins into their mixes and productions.
In the early 2000's, first emulations of it were pretty bad...adding a saturation, but not in the least bit accurate to what it aimed to model.Years passed and companies like Waves and McDSP tried their hand at it and found more success in capturing a similar energy of the original tape machines. For my taste those plugins were too over the top and not consistent with my experience with tape machines, but to each their own.
But haste isn't something the Slate Digital team are known for, from 2010 to 2013 the Slate team only had 5 products in its lineup.
It wasn't until Christmas of 2013 that the VTM was released.
Their aim was to replicate; the dynamics, saturation, frequency response, and characteristics of these two machines. I've never worked with these two specific machines before for myself, but to my ear, I think the job was accomplished.
The specifics...
There's not a lot of controls on this unit which for my style is a good thing.
You get two 'machine type' options...
- 16-track 2" machine
- 2-track .5" with a quarter inch master deck
You can choose between 15 and 30 ips and there's controls for...
- Noise Reduction
- WOW
- Bias Alignment
- Bass Alignment
- Input/Output Trim
In my opinion it sounds great with drums and bass, but not all instruments and not all styles, as it was marketed.
I would likely never use it on a sub-mix and definitely not use it for mastering, but I'm sure there are successful engineers who have and do.
My recommendation is to try the demo and see how it suits your ear.
Verdict: The Slate Digital VTM is among the top 2 tape emulation plugins, the other being the UAD Ampex 102. It adds a nice robust low end to some instruments, but will alter your mid and high frequencies in a sometimes unpleasant way. I personally don't see myself purchasing it, but don't let that stop you. If it gets you to your preferred end result then use it however you see fit.
I found this video plenty informative if you want to spend the 8 minutes of your life watching it. Fabrice Gabriel, the head developer at Slate Digital goes into great detail on what it took to create this plugin.
