Some tape emulator plugins are very expensive costing $500. Hardware emulation versions costing $2000!!! If you just want to warm up your recording, then they may not be worth it. With this method its possible to get a warmer sound on any setup. Just use something close to it on your gear as a single mastering effect chain.
This is the primary chain that we will be using on our master channel (1-->2-->3)
Overdrive (tube) ----> Flanger ----> Phaser
Lets quickly go over the settings for each effect in the chain!
Overdrive
20% Wet 80% Dry
Drive 0% to 12% (Depending on how your effect works. On the Alesis I'm using 0%)
Low EQ +8.7 db
Mid-Low +2.3 db
High Eq +6.2db
The overdrive effect here simulates someone jacking up the sound past the tape's magnetic range, clipping the audio when it gets too high, but in a warmer way than a standard distortion.
Flanger
10% Wet 90% Dry
Notch 50%
LFO Rate 0.604hz We want the LFO rate slow. This simulates defects in the tape rollers speed.
Shape: Sine
Mod Depth 100%
Phaser
12% Wet 88% Dry
Num of Stages 12
Notch 50%
LFO Rate 4.8000hz or higher. If you are able to make this effect random and fast it will be better.
The phaser effect simulates the tape moving through various mechanisms giving it a stereo presence.
Thats it. You might have to play around a bit, depending on your setup. The key is to be subtle. Just a little bit of all these effects routed through a single chain will warm up your track. You can even put a compressor with longer attack, and short release, before all these effects to give it a vintage compression sound. Try it out, it doesn't cost anything with the basic effects every software and keyboard now has.
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