Reel Tape Still Relevant?

[ViciousBliss]

I've been considering whether to look at Reel Tape since it's one of the few plugins left on my to buy list. It's silly that Avid is asking us to pay for a 7 day trial at a rate of almost a dollar a day. I've already got access to VTM, Satin, Tapedesk, Analog Channel, Hornet Tape, Magnetite, Kramer, Phoenix, Reelbus, pretty much every Tape plugin out that aside from Softube's that isn't on UAD. So I'm wondering if Reel Tape would be of any benefit to me or if you guys who own it and some of the others think what I've got makes Reel Tape redundant

[Sardi]

No.

Totally redundant now.


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[YYR123]

Agreed, not relevant, unless......you use aax-dsp

[Will Russell]

IMHO Reel Tape is still "relevant" in that it is a great sounding versatile plugin, but given your current collections I would agree with other posters that it is "redundant"

[Stephen Bond]

I've probably used Reel Tape Delay and Flanger more than the Saturation plugin itself.

Stephen

[Bob Olhsson]

Not at all redundant in an HDX system! It also sounds better at 96k.

[ViciousBliss]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I don't run an HDX system. And I haven't done anything at 44/48 in years. For a while I'd been thinking of starting a thread somewhere about how some people post as if we're all running the same computer processor at the same sample rate. Lots of people saying "__ only takes 2% cpu" when that figure is going to vary on each person's setup. Maybe stuff was a lot more uniform 15 years ago. I'm not sure what the objective technical terms are to describe why tape plugins operate better above 48k, but it wouldn't surprise me if the experience was significantly different for someone running these plugins at 88/96. I know Dave Hill says his stuff runs better at 96.

Right now I'm generally favoring Magnetite on the master aux, with Phoenix as my tape plugin for tracks. I seem to like something bigger and bolder on the master as opposed to subtle. Magnetite seems to give a wider and deeper stereo image, maybe smoother high end too. At least with what I'm using. Maybe the result would be different if I wasn't using BX SSL E, Dopamine, and Phoenix all over everything. Just added StoneEq4k here and there, sometimes just for its drive. It's hard to describe, but all these things have to be balanced with each other.

But there's things that can be determined without regard for how something interacts with the rest of your workflow. One of these days I may just have to try it out with that rental as there's only something like one video out there of Reel Tape. Not a lot of info either.

[jsvalmont]

I think Reel Tape is great, but I don’t use the Saturation a whole lot, I tend to lean more toward Crane Song’s Phoenix since I have both.

[ViciousBliss]

I ended up finding the Avid Complete Bundle subscription for $4.99 a month and tried it. So, Reel Tape is not redundant at all for me so far. It's tighter-sounding with a boost in the highest frequencies that I haven't heard in other tape plugins. Very different from AC202, Satin, Voxengo Tapebus, Phoenix, Magnetite, Ferox, Tapedeck, and either version of Reelbus. It's sorta like comparing Autotune 5 to Autotune 8 inside Autotune Pro. Reel Tape also fits into a mix really well. It's not sludging things up and adding way too much. A lot of times I'll prefer older plugins like Phoenix, Echo Farm, and AT 5. Still have some more comparisons to do.

I'm only using it on the master before either the Weiss DS-1 or the Tube Tech MKII classic channel. It can't begin to replace Phoenix on Dark Essence for my vocal tracks.

[Bob Olhsson]

ReelTape is the only model of a 3M machine I'm aware of.