Elaine Sy

IN the old days, when all audio recording was done on tape (well, I guess the “mid-old” days, since auio was recorded onto was and then wires in the REALLY old days), you recorded audio onto tape. Even though I wouldn’t trade those days for these, there were some interesting things you could do with tape that aren’t really do-able in the digital realm. So as you might expect, developers have figured out ways to simulate these “tape effects” via plugins you can use with digital audio workstations like Reaper.
In the below article from The Reaper blog, Nick Storr shares three cool things you can do to simulate some of these tape effects in Reaper.

• Varispeed – recording at half-speed and then speeding the playback up to full speed
• Reverse tracking – playing the backing tracks backward while recording vocals, and then flipping it back to normal
• Ramping up (or down) the speed of music at some point during the song. One of my favorite Lifehouse songs – “All In” – does this ever so briefly in the bridge

These different tape effects are shown in this video by Nick Storr on the Reaper Blog here by Nick Storr.  Click here for some exciting tips.

Are you familiar with the MixChecker plug-in from Audified? This thing is very cool. We’ve often said that if you can’t have a perfect listening room when mixing your music down, then you should listen to your test mixes on as many different systems in as many rooms (even your car) as possible. I always do that. The car listening tests are usually especially helpful.
So Audified’s MixChecker plugin allows you to simulate how your mix would sound on several different types of speakers and systems! I’m gonna be getting one of these. Here’s a video review by Audio Fanzine