Big reels keep on turnin’ The allure of tape machines is easy to understand – the iconic character is part of the sonic signature of so many of the greatest songs ever recorded. The T-RackS Tape Machine Collection gives you the true sound of 4 iconic analog tape machines, all together in one bundle.
Using a careful mix of convolution and physical modeling, the Tape Machine Collection re-creates the complex interplay of machine, tape, and audio to capture even the smallest detail of each machine.
Glue your tracks together, add warmth and character, low-end weight and ear-pleasing high-end. With the T-RackS Tape Machine Collection, you’ll have access to the most sonically- and musically-authentic tape machine sonic textures.
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 pieces of history
Tape Machine 440 The Ampex 440B series dates from the late 1960’s and delivers an unmistakably soulful color that made this professional and historic mixing and mastering machine a legend. This superb blend of art and technology has the power to turn your mixes into finished tracks.
Tape Machine 80 The legendary Studer A80 Mk II, in its various revisions, is an essential part of countless influential records. Engineered and manufactured in Switzerland from 1970 to 1988, it became the de facto standard for professional high-end multi-tracking. The A80’s sonic signature is a perfect blend between transparency and subtle harmonic enhancement.
Tape Machine 99 The Revox PR99 Mk II is a stereo professional recorder produced by Studer in the 1980s. Engineered around a hybrid design that combines the best of discrete and op-amp topologies, this model offers a very smooth frequency response, especially on bass, with almost no-trace of the typical “head bump” phenomenon. A standard for broadcast and classical music, this machine was appreciated by audiophiles for its exceptional sonic quality.
Tape Machine 24 A model of the MCI JH24. First produced in 1980, the JH24 was a staple in US studios during the 1980s. This completely transformerless, high performance op-amp-based design delivers a pristine, phase coherent and remarkably true to the source audio performance. This results in a moderate and elegant polish to your music.
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.
The power of T-RackS Like all T-RackS plug-ins, the Tape Machine Collection offers you two ways to work: as a stand-alone plug-in, or inside the T-RackS 5 shell. Use these together with any of the other 39 T-RackS processors to mix and master faster than ever creating a powerful, lightning-fast workflow. The T-RackS shell offers a unique modular system with up to 16-processor chains, series & parallel routing, easy A/B/C/D comparison, up to 192 kHz / 32-bit floating point processing and much more, in both a plug-in and stand-alone mastering application.
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.
