Here, for you, are some very useful tips and tricks + reviews from Gearspace and the AA FB page, meticulously collected by our kind power-user David Gary in one thread for our TAIPEI plug-in.
TAIPEI Studio Tape Recorder is a 16-track, 2” tape machine & a stereo track 1/4” tape machine master buss transposed into the digital realm.
TUTORIALS
TAIPEI Studio Tape Recorder tutorial – Settings, gain staging, usage tips and sound test
TAIPEI and TAIPEI LITE comparison and audio test on different kind of tracks
TIPS & TRICKS
a) TAIPEI is calibrated to -18dBFS=0VU to the machine factory-settings, then if you feed the plugin around that RMS you have just to tweak the LOWS and if you want the HIGHS (basically to set the wanted IPS).
In this way it will behave just like any real tape (or other N4 library).
What TAIPEI gives us more is that you can also modify a lot of parameters if you want. But you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to!
I.e. I often pass all my tracks to a batch session (in Wavelab), just with a gain staging plugin @ -18dBFS placed before TAIPEI, set to 30 IPS. That’s all. Then I start my mixing session as normal.
b) TAIPEI in the master channel, as well like in the track channel, should be placed at the first insert slot and not at the end of the chain, or second-last just before i.e the limiter.
As first insert, you can enter into TAIPEI gently and then manage the resulting signal with the other mater buss plugins.
Otherwise, as last insert, you’ll hit TAIPEI with a cannonball of sound and inevitably you can have serious signal integrity troubles.
c) The REC. LEVEL controls the level of “tape” in your sound, in the middle it should be a nice average, lowering it you’ll obtain an increasingly clean signal, increasing you’ll obtain tape saturation until tape distortion (to be not confused by the digital crackling of a too high signal). The LOWS QUAL. also controls, along REC. LEVEL (the 2 knobs are interconnected) the type of tape distortion (counter clockwise cleaner, clockwise grittier).
Of course, like a real tape machine, increasing the tape distortion you will increase consequently the tape compression effect, and in the extreme zones of the knobs also the pumping effect.
Said this, TAIPEI is calibrated to give a nice effect at zero (even if you don’t raise the knobs to the coloured markers), then if you enter already with a hot signal, you’ll obtain a lot of tape saturation and pumping.
If you hear crackles, lower the PRE SAT. (no matter if you go in the grey area, just lower until you’ll hear a good signal, without digital artifacts.
If you hear too much tape distortion (and even pumping) lower the REC. LEVEL until you will hear a satisfactory signal.
If you want to be safe and avoid to tune that knobs, place a gain-staging plugin before TAIPEI or lower the gain of the track.
d) The PRE SAT is a trim, then the REC LEVEL is a volume in to tape, and the PLAYBK LEVEL is the volume out of the tape.
– if you hear artifacts, lower the PRE SAT until they will disappear
– if you want a clean tape saturation, go counter clockwise with REC LEVEL
– if you want a tape distortion go clockwise with REC LEVEL
– with LOWS QUAL you can select the tape saturation/distortion character, as well going until an interesting tape compression effect, when fully clockwise.
e) To achieve a better controlled gain stage, you can do one of the following:
1) The best move would be to gain staging all you tracks before starting your mix, in order to have -18dBFS at the start of the mix buss.
2) Enter in TAIPEI with any gain you like and tune on green the PRE SAT. (that is the preamp trim).
Then lower the REC LEVEL until you like the result (you can literally silence the track!).
With LOWS QUAL. decide your tape distortion character.
With all other controls you can sculpt the tape sound.
Finally, at the end compensate with PLAYBK. LEVEL the probable loss of volume. If +24dB are not enough then place a gain plugin after TAIPEI or better, use the next plugin in series to raise up the gain.
TIP 1 FROM LONDON ACOUSTICS: In some rare cases of very pushed, fast and dense music genres (of which one wonders in any case why they want to go through a tape effect…) someone may perceive slight inconsistencies of volume on the master. In this case, it seems counter intuitive, the suggestion is to switch from ‘Master’ to ‘Multi Track’ in the OPERATING MODE. It is also always worth experimenting with a different formula and brand of tape.
TIP 2 FROM LONDON ACOUSTICS: ALWAYS READ THE MANUAL there is a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up the plugin and there are tips on how to use other libraries (Nebula or AA) in Taipei.
Highlights from reviews
1) Taupe: a LOT of fixed different tape and pre, channel strip with 3 console, compressor/limiter. Is a powerful and flexible suite.
Taipei: 2 tape, 2 deck, vari speed, bias and more. Less emulation but 100% control of signal, tone, distortion… is more “real” tape emulation.
2) For me Taipei is the final touch on group or on master, soft saturation, smooth or gritty top end, fat bass, vintage roll off …the complete tape formula (with only 2 tape and 2 head)
Taupe for me work well in mix. one Taupe Channel for each channel in daw with same tape and small difference on Eq replicate well “analog console flow” (r2r machine and mixer)
16 Taupe channel + Taipei on Master? Welcome to 1980.
3) This is beyond amazing. The amount of sounds this can produce with just the LOW and HIGH saturation knobs is incredible.
4) What a beauty.
I am loving that incredible refined and open high end which can be achieved using 30IPS/RTM/RED and a little (-) Bias. It’s like it provides a ‘top down’ view of the music so that everything cascades from the highest highs all the way down. Very cool!
5) A favourite use of mine in a mastering context is at flat default settings, 30IPS, RTM Tape, using only the Lows Quality dialled back about half way to Expensive, pushing the preamp to sweetness. The balance of the source is retained but sounds so much more lively and more listenable. That feeling of making a record, I guess. Sounds really great.
6) Taipei is extremely impressive, as expected from a company like London Acoustics. It’s absolutely glorious! The amount of separation and 3D space you can get out of congested stuff is unreal!! And I have a high-end tape machine at the studio (Telefunken M15 master tape recorder).. I think I may actually have to consider selling it now. This is silly good.
Pro tip: The magic button is called “Tape phase”. Why on earth it isn’t enabled by default is a mystery to me.
↪ reply: Yes, this was my initial impression. I threw it on the master buss of a finished track I was about to send off and the sense of separation, detail, clarity and 3D it imparted was quite something.
7) The transients are finessed, opened and clarified without losing any of the up-front dimension and impact that comes from the early high end content.
Sounds like a record. Huge cliché I know, but I can’t say that I have ever heard this out of a tape plugin before – at least not to this extent.
I am looking forward to pairing this with the beautiful Verona pres.
8) I have pretty much every tape sim sans universal audio and the way you guys have designed this, it does things you can’t really get from other processors.
And you absolutely nailed the bias control. Most of the other tape emu’s really **** that up but with Taipei you can quite easily use it to thicken up lows in a vocal or increase snap in a snare, and it doesn’t appear to alter the dynamics much while it does so.
↪ reply: Yeah, the BIAS used in conjunction with the HI SAT. CHR. can give a lot of eargasm.
9) Basically, with TAIPEI full in order to operate correctly you must move the LOWS, HIGHS and HI SAT. CHR. away from the zero (possibly in the range between the zero and the coloured marks, in order to emulate the real tape. If you go further you start to experiment beyond the reality.
10) Q: Are the blue and orange arrows reversed on the “HIGHS” knob? You’d expect to not have to add more highs to 30 IPS, but more at 15 IPS, to compensate for roll off if desired.
A: Everything’s fine because you lower the HI SAT. CHR. too that cuts the highs. The consequent highs boost is to compensate and reach the target curve.
11) Found it indispensable on a recent mix where the producer had a TON of intentional aliasing from down sampling the bass and melodies. Cool creative choice but that **** was HARSH and if you try to EQ it out, the became empty and uninteresting. Threw Taipei with RTM tape on the aliased elements, noise reduction on and it smoothed off those harsh aliasing artifacts without actually removing them. Happy camper here.
12) TAIPEI is a really great product and meets what I was looking for in terms of sound. It is very versatile and it can be safely used with excellent mastering results. It goes without saying that when used as an AA plugin at 88.2 or 96 kHz it engages the turbo and greets everyone. I highly recommend it. It’s a plugin made for professional users because to use it and make the most of it you need to have a very clear idea of the concept of Gain Staging.
13) Got a chance to play around with Taipei on some different tracks and I am very impressed. This is the most natural sounding tape plugin that I have ever heard. It really does a beautiful job softening harsh tracks and just makes a mix come together. I’m using Brighton as well and I couldn’t imagine mixing vocals without it now.
14) I was very happy with IK’s Tape Machine 80 within the last 8 months. It just sat there as the final plugin in my chain. Now I’m doing a shoot-out with these 2 plugs on several mixes I’m working on. And wow, how easily and fast I can say, that Taipei is indeed something super special. It’s wide, open and clear, while staying true to the source. And yes, the highs are woohoo!
My biggest interest in this results in my love for the Verona from London Acoustics. I have it all across the place when I’m mixing. Character, pure love. Taipei follows up and will become a top friend.
15) Replaced CupWise tape (my fave) with Taipei, and HOLY SMOKES. REALLY REALLY sounds good. I haven’t used real tape in years so not sure if memory would be any good as direct comparison, but this sounds SO GOOD.
No mud, just blending and magicfying. I admit I am prone to GAS, but for the price this is, and what it does, I would gladly set up a template in Reaper that had ten plugs pre and post (not that I need to – just saying) just to milk this puppy.
This is the best tape ITB I have heard. I don’t post a whole lot, and will be the first to admit at times I am prone to hyperbole, but I will say in my opinion, this plugin is not at all broken and works beautifully. If it becomes more convenient to use later, I won’t be mad, but if it doesn’t – I will remain grateful it exists.
16) Taipei works like a charm!! I like to put the Acustica Black right before Taipei, so as to calibrate the input level to -18. As soon as the level is correct, Taipei sounds majestic. I add a Utility effect to raise the volume by 10 db, voila!
Not the fastest way, but still way faster than doing it with real tape. Algo tape plugins just don’t sound that much real to me to use them instead.
Q: Do black change out to -18?
A: Yes, you turn the INPUT knob right where the optimal input gain is (around -18) and you have a proper gain stage. Make sure you DON’T use Auto Gain. I also use the free geranium preamp on Black, does something to the sound that I like a lot.
17) As mentioned, it plays nicely with black and bitshift gain.
Stunning plug.
Especially in the high end.
Playing with the bias and high knob is an incredible amount of control on bright vs fizzy
Exactly what I’d want it to do.
18) Taipei for me is working best on the mix buss in the last slot. I have the Hornet VU Mk4 gain stage plug-in at the front of the mix buss set at -18dbfs, followed by Snow eq, Snow Master Buss and then Verona. Nothing problematic there apart from the need to add a bit of gain at the end of the chain due to the sensitivity of the Taipei input (which we all know about). Can’t believe how good this sounds!! With Sienna on the back end of that it’s magic.
Q: Do you set Hornet to do maximum peaks -18 too or stick with default -6? When I do max peaks at -18 I feel like it’s too low. I love Taipei but I can’t seem to do that overdriven tape thing even with Rec knob at max that I can with IK before it starts with the nasty artifacts?
A: Yes, I keep the max peak at -6db. And in Taipei I prefer to keep the Rec Level and Out Level to 0. The output light goes into amber at times but the sound is really dynamic. You get the full tape sound; deep punchy bass and the highs extended beautifully.
19) I spent several hours over the last few days giving Taipei a very fair and critical shake against my current tape forerunner and as much as I didn’t want this to happen because I was already invested in the previous plugin, Taipei has unseated it for me as an ‘every track’ processor. Damn.
My previous track level tape of choice was IK 24. Compared to this, Taipei gives me more warmth and clarity in the top end without taking any shimmer or presence away. It sets me up with a nicer canvas where I feel I could actually boost the top end more and get even more air and clarity without introducing any harshness. Taipei also adds weight to the bottom end in a way that I would describe as more dense rather than simply boosted. Again, I think this sets up a nicer starting point for the rest of the mix. Taipei also ‘wins’ in the midrange. Vocals and guitars are thicker, smoother, more focused and more forward without losing clarity.
PS – Honorable mention goes out to the combination of AA Pink preamps combined with Taipei. Absolutely killer combination of punch, weight and warmth across the full spectrum.
20) On the pure logic of emulation, you can have right, on paper:
[tape -> effects] x n tracks -> MIX -> master buss effects -> print back on tape.
But this can be valid for a kind of an old-school mixing, with just a glue comp and a master EQ.
Nowadays the problem is that we tend to make sounding the master buss (then the mix) almost like a first mastering, with a lot of things and tricks after the above -mentioned glue comp + eq.
Taipei reacts very well with a good-dynamics kind of track, so if you place it after all of that treatments there can be some downsides: the dynamics feeding Taipei can be a lot less interesting than placing it at first place in the inserts, and the fact that you can overload easily Taipei with a lot of loudness, obtaining easily artifacts.
I personally suggest to place Taipei as first in the master-buss insert-chain and not at the end.
21) Taipei is that icing on the cake that takes your artwork and makes it a masterpiece. I tried in every way to avoid the purchase but there was no way: I couldn’t find a suitable equivalent, let alone a combination of factors / parameters with other plugins that would lead me to the same result – yes even amongst AAs and 3rd party libraries, all great tools in different situations but still. I don’t know whether I can say what follows, as I’ve only had a 2-track Studer A77 in my life – even though I’ve listened to vinyls and tapes for 20 years from 5 to 10 hours a day as a DJ, so quite used to the analog sound warmth – but in my opinion it’s the first time I’ve definitely heard the sound of the tape I’ve always been looking for. It is the first time that I have the feeling that the promise of bringing the reel to reel sound into the digital realm has been fulfilled. So big shout-out to London Acoustics, you nailed it guys… I mean, really.
22) This is simply amazing. It reminds me of how I felt demoing IK Tape early last year, except this does tape even better than IK, especially nailing the saturation in the highs.
Having a lot of fun pushing HiSatChr and Highs with Tape Phase on…I can see not needing nearly as much high shelving eq from other plugs using this. I’m liking RTM and Silver in Master mode on the 2 bus (sweet and smooth), ATR and Red on MultiTrack for individual tracks (more hair).
↪ reply: I just tried RTM and Silver on my master where I was running ATR and red, and you’re right, it is nice and smooth.
23) If you want the cleanest setting, then try RTM + RED tape and bring low quality to one of the negative black squares. This latter knob has to do the most with how much squishing you get. And stay out of the green light with the input.
At least these are my findings.
I like this plugin exactly because it is a really really obvious tape sound, lending itself to an older, more lo-fi character that i could not find in any other plugin yet. It’s more 60s than 80s.
24) Using Taipei like this has led me to ditch many other VSTs I was using on separate tracks and the master bus in my frustration to “round the sound” so it’s more gain than loss for me and a great deal of time tweaking all those other programs has been saved and I get to my goal quickly which is always helpful for artistic reasons.
If I bypass it, my sound is thin and brittle, switch it back on it’s warm, solid and clear. I love this thing.
↪ reply: Don’t forget TAIPEI LITE that is equally interesting, especially placed on the single tracks. Instant 1980 on synth, drums and bass!
TAIPEI is perfect for the master buss.
Sometimes, ie. to recreating some 80s atmospheres, I personally end to prefer TAIPEI LITE over TAIPEI, but it’s a matter for taste, as usual.
25) I engineered in a tape-based studio in the 80’s. No other tape plugins ever really gave me a true sense of tape. They mostly made things thicker and grainier. I usually ended up taking them off.
This is completely different. I use it on everything. It’s better than the tape machines I used. No noise reduction or hiss. The highs aren’t flattened, just enhanced.
26) As a millennial audio engineering hobbyist, I’ve never used a proper tape machine. However… also as a millennial I think I’ve tried almost every tape emulation that has ever existed (almost obsessively). I decided to try this one out, so I read through the manual and downloaded the trial. I prepped a nearly finished track with some additional gain staging getting it to -18dBFS, turned on the plugin, and then aligned the high, lows, sat with the 30 IPS (red) settings. The results of this absolutely floored me (yes I volume matched lolol). An immediate pillowy low end, lush high end, and many other positive adjectives improved my mix drastically and I love it way more now. I tried to recreate this effect on other tape plugins I have while using a 30 IPS setting and matching some slight EQ shifts. They truly just aren’t as pristine as Taipei, and seemed a bit clunky or forced sounding (especially in the low end).
This plugin is a game changer for me. The only other time I’ve experienced this “holy ****” type moment is when I first set up a proper session utilizing an Airwindows Console 7 flow which also massively improved the depth of my mix.
27) Hey man, as a recognized Aficionado of Tape; what are your thoughts on the sound of this thing? My brain is telling me it beats everything I’ve ever heard on Planet Tape. Apologies if you’ve commented elsewhere with your thoughts and I missed it.
↪ reply: Brother, this thing rules. I honestly was bummed when I tried it because I have so many good plugins and was hoping it was just ‘on par’. But instead I had to buy it.
It’s something special. It’s got something very real sounding, can’t put my finger on it, but it does ‘the thing’.
I honestly paused my Mix:Analog sub because I think this is as good as real tape. Nothing else had got me to do that, I always reserved the real thing for certain tasks that none of the plugins quite have…
28) I didn’t want to like Taipei, especially because I had already settled on my ‘forever tape’. Alas, Taipei has now taken the number one spot. Had to buy it. It really is the best on the market right now (this is often said of new releases, but in this case, it really is true – standard ‘IMO’ disclaimer applies).
29) I put it (and the freebie Acustica Black) on the mixbus of a not even half mixed busy New Order-ish indie dance track and compared it to IK tapes 24 and 440. Taipei had a punchier bottom, more glue, silkier highs, more width… It sounded like I’d handed my mediocre mix to a mastering engineer. Voodoo magic! That thing’s never coming off. The track still needs a lot of work, but now I can see the light.
30) I’ve discovered that you don’t have to stay with yellow 30IPS settings on Hi Sat Lows and Highs.
For me, dialling the lows back a bit from Yellow works great.
I think Rec. Quality and particularly Bias Cal are very important to experiment with when dialling in the sound you want.
They can really shape the sound, you can find settings you really like.
There is something luxurious/expensive about the sound with Taipei at 30 IPS, with RTM Tape and Red Tape formula.
Bypass it and ….. sigh.
31) Q: How much is the REC. QUALITY knob affecting harmonic distortion? If I turn it all the way to the left (“expensive”), does that just basically turn way down saturation but keep everything else the same (e.g., frequency response, tape phase if I have it on, etc.)? Any light shed on this knob would be helpful.
A: Exactly, turning all counterclockwise gives you the cleanest tape passthrough, that means basically zero distortion and a very very light tape dynamic.
32) Even within a couple of minutes just on one setting (30 ips- yellow) it’s obvious how much glue and density this adds. I level matched against a previous fave (UAD Ampex) and in this case, my preference was clear.
33) (By MogwaiBoy from GS) I’ve made a starting preset I call “Pass-Thru” for what I think is the cleanest setting:
Pre-Sat: -24
Rec Level: 0
Rec Qual: Expensive
Hi Sat: Default
Speed: 30 IPS
Lows: 0
Highs: Just a touch above 0
Bias: Default
Playback: 0
Tape Brand: RTM
Tape Formula: Red
Operating Mode: Multi-track (has less harmonics according to Plugin Doctor)
Noise Reduction: Off
Tape Phase: Off
What do you get? Subtle depth, glue, 3D, all the cliches – but it’s REAL. I can smash tape for fun elsewhere, but just for that “to tape” finalizer on pre-masters, this is it.
↪ reply: I suggest you anyway to raise even of just few ticks the LOWS knob, it will not mess your mix balance, but it will give more bass consistency.
34) It seems to me that the LOWS control influences the amount of bass.
↪ reply: I suppose the genre of music can make quite a difference here!?
I mostly do bass heavy “club/underground” House & Techno (no EDM aiming at the charts) and also have quite a lot of processing going on before Taipei.
I noticed when i follow the orange dots @ 30 ips i also hear way to much added bass / ‘density’ in the bass.
I got to a setting earlier that was basically Mogwaiboi’s setting but with: Rec Qual around 9 o’ clock / Low’s: 1 o’ clock / Highs 2 o’ clock / ‘Master’. Something between Mogwaiboi’s setting and this. And i thought ‘Well that’s it then!’ And i believe it will be on the master like this for a long time
For this music I want the Subs to come through ‘clean/cleanest possible’ and from the mids and up more Sat, but Taipei just sounded fantastic on all the tracks i tried it on.
35) I noticed when i follow the orange dots 30 ips I also hear way too much added bass/’density’ in the bass.
↪ reply: Note that the arrows mark the maximum suggested setting of a range. Then setting the knob in any position before the marks is ok. Moving of even a tick over (or below) zero activate that stage.
↪ reply: It’s better make even the smallest movement in order to activate the stage. Anyway, again, just listen to what is better for you.
↪ reply: Just set the knobs in the arc of circumference between zero and the orange arrows”
36) i seem to find out more about the intricate interplay of the parameters every day – maybe especially because i near-routinely combine it with Verona EQ; first setting up Taipei roughly, play with EQ, go back and fine tune etc. The PRE SAT knob for example: half a tick to left may open the sound just right now, or half a tick to the right lets me boost the top end some more on the EQ, and so on.
Because I’m so familiar with all speeds from hw and their sound-feel is emulated so accurately, I tend to set these pretty much standard either 15 or 30, but notice I may fiddle a bit with the HIGHS and LOWS these days. All this is really saying I guess is that to me this baby is SUCH a treasure trove!
37) Don’t use the Rec knob as saturation, it won’t work. Put it way below where you hear artifacts.
Use the REC level as saturation, if you need more increase REC Qual too.
You can introduce serious saturation with this plugin. It will not sound fuzzy if you expect a tube like sound, but a very very smooth compressing saturation.
↪ reply: This is one of the most interesting and unique feature of TAIPEI.
38) I seem to have changed my bad habits since buying Taipei and generally stopped over loading ALL plug ins which has been is a good thing sonically! So now I naturally have less level into Taipei. You have also adjusted it’s internal gain structure since then I believe which helped enormously.
39) Airwindows Bitshiftgain is perfect for this and other Nebula or AA stuff that has input level sensitivity!
Just sandwich the AA/N4 plug between two instances of Bitshiftgain – the one above is -1 and the one below is +1. Due to Chris from Airwindow’s awesomeness, there is literally zero effect to your audio.
40) In my personal opinion ATR is better suitable for single tracks while the RTM gives zero risk for the master buss. Also use NOISE RED. (that sometimes is very cool to try) only with RTM.
41) At -5,-6 when hitting Taipei, and never had a problem. My only rule is if the green light shows up on the input, I lower the pre sat knob, until it doesn’t. That is plenty safe, and will never have artifacts.
↪ reply: True, they mean -18 RMS (LUFS) which implies peaks from – 9 to – 6 on average.
42) Taipei is constantly on my drums, there is nothing that comes close to it when it works. And I agree with the developer, its best position is earliest in the chain you can put it. It massages your sound so the following EQ and compressors have a much better material to react to. You can push the following compressor much harder, cause the edges are just so nicely rounded.
43) I’ve got an old Zoom H2 from 2007 still rocking, I have a habit of using it to record rehearsals or small jazz gigs. If you know about it, the high end really is something to contend with sometimes. My favorite trick at the moment is to smash it into TAIPEI to tame the upper end as the material allows. Can really take a harsh digital recording and warm it up, round it off, into reel-to-reel land.
I’ve avoided using this on all/most tracks at the start of a mix, saving it for the master bus at the end, maybe on the drum bus here and there. Can anyone who prints all tracks through TAIPEI comment on the process, choices, etc.?
↪ reply: Yes, I personally like to play with HI SAT. CHR. , HIGHS and BIAS CAL. to tame the high frequencies nicely.
The pushed Taipei can sound like an interesting limiter on the master.
44) To me Taipei is a “hifi-maker” with tape-attitude. It’s deep, high and low – covering it all. And all that wrapped up in superb quality. It’s the final sound making plugin in my chain, the one summing up everything that comes before it.
And I should add that I tried almost every tape-simulation since 2000. It’s about taste, right? Taipei does it for me.
45) Taipei has been a pleasant surprise. A beautiful, light, round body, with clarity, so nice on some acoustic tracks I started it out on. Very different than Taupe…yin and yang. It’s great to have both!
↪ reply: The best combo ever. There is an entire page on this in the manual.
46) Put Taipei to Silver tape, and crank Rec. Qual to almost max. Increase Rec level to taste. That is the best squishy lo-fi smash i can achieve in the box. I enjoy it FAR more than when i had my porta studio.
Always put it first in chain and you can smash this with a compressor or saturation. Just pure love on spiky drums.
Taipei is not subtle AT ALL when you want it.
47) For all users who, especially for TAIPEI TAPE and VERONA CONSOLE, have asked us for the link feature between the various plugin instances, to allow dozens of tracks to be set identically at the same time, we would like to point out the new plugin EXCITE AUDIO – KSHMR CHAIN, which is outstanding for this task and more. https://www.excite-audio.com/kshmr-chain
48) Taipei is rather CPU heavy is no secret , we chose in fact a no-compromise approach. With an M1 or a Ryzen 9 you can emulate (depending on the sampling rate, of course) from a 16-track to an 8-track tape machine in real time.
The best way to operate is to create stems, export them and use Taipei in multitrack on each stem. The freeze option is also a good companion (very rarely, once the tape is set, you need to edit it).
I personally think it makes little sense to use certain processes such as preamps, console and tape, in real-time multitrack. It is better IMO to pre-process the material before starting the mix project. The ability to do almost everything in realtime has made us quite lazy in optimizing the workflow in relation to resources.
49) (By Patrick Pleau from GS)
Taipei vs Tim Petherick 37J (Nebula) vs UAD Studer Tape plugins shoutout > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQqBTLCwVVA
The big boys all at 15 ips! for me Taipei wins! loving TimP but brighter and sometime the compression/saturation is tastier.
50) I find one of Taipei’s strengths to be it’s flexibility.
Listening to the results of how someone else used it is going to really limit your understanding of what it can do to YOUR music.
For instance- using clean high saturation cranked up, but the turning bias clockwise can be VERY different than using “Vintage” high saturation and turning the bias counter-clockwise…
add to that the “highs” knob setting… and we have yet a different set of results…
and that’s without having set the ips…and that’s independent of the “cheap/expensive” setting which doesn’t get into the pre saturation…and I’m only now menting (?) the bass knob.
Hopefully I’m helping paint a picture here… this is not just “a” tape emulation. It’s a mixing tool that will help you create a VERY custom result tailored to your vision.
And now think about what you can FEED that tool with.
For instance, sometimes I like to set it quite dark (vintage hiSat and clockwise bias) but then have a PurpleP1 or Pearl with a high shelf and try cranking up 4-10k bands to see how they react…
Taipei (for me) is by far the best and most flexible in this regard.
10/10. Best in breed.
51) Oversampling at 4x sounds better and using Taipei’s is the best choice. In case, you can activate it when rendering the final mix.
52) I liked it better than Cupwise’ AX102 for the mix bus, which has a certain punch on the low end that doesn’t really do it for me. Taipei with ATR, Silver, Master, Phase on and Lows & Highs on yellow is very nice.
(credit to AA users from Facebook & Gearspace)
***These are just guidelines. Free to explore further.