When it comes to the character of analog tape machines, most of us think of the massive units found in recording studios throughout the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.
But companies like Studer also produced smaller units, which became staples in broadcast and location recording.
The Tape Machine 99 re-creates the Revox PR99 Mk II, a compact, rack-mount stereo recorder produced by Studer in the 1980s under their Revox brand. Engineered around a hybrid design that takes the best of discrete and op-amp topologies, it offers an un-hyped, elegant sound with an extremely smooth frequency response.
The PR99 has almost no trace of the typical “head bump” effect, reducing the bass boost caused by the heads gap and making the overall response extremely linear. This unit quickly became popular in broadcasting and for on-location professional recording because of its impressive sonic performance. It also was a reference for audiophiles wanting to dub their beloved LPs on tape, without sacrificing the sound quality to those inadequate-sounding cassettes.
Using a mix of dynamic convolution and physical modeling, the Tape Machine 99 re-creates the complex interplay of effects taking place in the audio tape recording process, down to the smallest details of this machine.
You won’t believe how much character a clean and smooth analog tape recorder can add until you’ve tried mixing down a track through the PR99 Mk II.
Re-creating the magic Analog tape audio recorders are complex systems. They impart magic to the audio material, lifting the art within the music to a higher level. They add musicality to music. What a tape machine adds to the audio is the result of a number of interactions amongst several interdependent factors. More than just saturation, compression, or EQ alone, these factors work together, one affecting each other with the dynamics of music, adding a “movement” that goes into the soul of what we perceive. Decades of music produced on these pieces of artful human engineering have tailored the way we think music should sound. It’s imprinted in our DNA. Trying to recreate this magic in the digital domain has been attempted since the early days of real-time audio plug-ins, with various degrees of success.
The T-RackS Tape Machine collection is the culmination of two years of full-time research and development on real world-class machines. Each machine went through a complete electronic and mechanical restoration to bring them perfectly back “to spec” before the scientific modelling process started. Then IK’s DSP engineering team took each of the stages apart, studied and analyzed them in-depth, thus producing a model of the entire magnetic tape recording process. This model now works in symbiosis with a powerful dynamic convolution engine that captures the full essence of the real machines, creating what we believe is the only way to faithfully bring the complete picture of these complex analog engineering marvels to the digital realm. The program coming out a professional tape recorder is very similar to the one coming in, just better. It's subtle but you can feel that it is not. This is the essence, and the T-RackS Tape Machine collection faithfully bring all this magic right to your DAW.
4 magic formulas Choose from 4 different tape formulations, each with its own unique tone:
250: Modelled after the 3M/Scotch 250 formula, it is the most colored of the four formulas. It went in production around 1974 and delivers a warm tone with slightly more distortion and saturation than the other formulas included in the package.
456: Modelled after the Ampex 456 formula, this model went into production around 1974. Perhaps the most widely used tape, it contributed the most to what is considered “the” tape sound. It offers a warm, round tone with a slight touch of saturation that greatly responds to the recording level.
GP9: Modelled after the Quantegy GP9 formula, this tape accepts higher levels of signal with minimal distortion and compression. It’s very punchy and perfect for modern, high quality analog recordings.
499: Modelled after the Ampex 499 formula, this tape is designed to handle a great amount of level with minimal distortion and compression. It also exhibits added high frequency definition that makes it perfect for printing “digital-like” recordings, while still maintaining an analog sound.
Highlights
- Works within the T-RackS CS Standalone application and as plug-in
- High-quality oversampling
- High-precision and high-transparency digital processors
- Accurately analog-modeled vintage classic devices
- Full-latency compensation support
- Supports sampling rates up to 192 kHz
- DSM™ and SCC™ proprietary IK technologies for extremely accurate digital models of analog hardware devices
- Native compatibility with 64-bit applications and operating systems
System Requirements
PC
- T-RackS 5 is a 64-bit application and requires a 64 bit CPU and Operating System.
- Minimal: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2, 4 GB of RAM (8 GB suggested), Windows® 7, Windows® 8 or Windows® 10. Requires an ASIO compatible sound card.
- Supported Plug-in formats (64-bit): VST 2, VST 3, AAX.
Mac
- T-RackS 5 is a 64-bit application and requires a 64 bit CPU and Operating System.
- Minimal: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo, 4 GB of RAM (8 GB suggested), macOS 10.9 or later.
- Supported Plug-in formats (64-bit): Audio Units, VST 2, VST 3, AAX.
