u-He Satin Magnatic Tape Emulation Software

Satin : Tape machine

Nothing else quite sounds like tape. Satin puts the legacy of a tape recording in your hands: from top-of-the-line multi-track consoles to humble cassette decks. All the good (saturation, transient smoothing, compression), as well as the bad (noise modulation, flutter, hiss) qualities, are under your control. Construct your (im)perfect tape machine.

Sum of the parts

The sound

Once reserved for major studios, digital recording has become widespread. It offers pristine sound and comfortable editing at a fraction of the cost of multitrack tape. Despite all the advantages, however, digital audio can easily sound too clean and impersonal. So musicians, producers, and audio engineers have turned to traditional analog tools to bring some life back into overly clinical recordings. A world of non-linear behaviors, distortion, saturation and much more arises during tape recording and playback. Bringing these coveted characteristics of magnetic tape into the digital realm, in unprecedented quality—this is what Satin is all about.

That tape sound depends on the interaction between the various parts of a tape machine. Each contributes in one way or another—enhancing, reducing, combining—to generate the final sound.

Satin models individual components and lets them interact in the same way. For maximum flexibility in sound shaping, Satin is a toolkit of alternative parts, not an emulation of a single machine. Build your own custom tape unit. The perfect final sheen for your mixdown, or “glue” multiple drum tracks together, decode old nr-encoded cassette tape, or misuse Satin for extreme effects.

Delay and flange

After developing the components for a tape machine toolkit, our minds turned to other popular tape-based machines. Delay and flange immediately jumped to mind.

Delay mode lets you construct your own tape delay machine rather than emulate any specific model. A few clicks and you will be deep in echo in no time. Choose between two or four “tape heads”, adjust tape speed, select tape material, turn up the feedback, select signal routing, add some filtering. You can add motion to each individual “tape head” for a more organic feel. Tweak the Service Panel options and give your sound the characteristic shimmer of a classic tape echo.

Flange mode emulates the special technique of running identical recordings on two tape machines, then lightly pressing a finger on the reels to move the recordings in and out of phase. It was a skill that required patience and a light touch. Luckily, Satin now makes it much easier and faster, all at the press of a button. For longer flanging effects or more precise control, you can use the slider, either manually or automated.

In service

Imagine opening up a tape machine, peeking “under the hood” and tinkering with the parts. That is what service technicians used to do, and it is what the Service Panel in Satin is for. It gives you detailed control over some of the more esoteric and characterful elements.=

In the Tape section are perhaps the more readily identifiable attributes of tape recording: hiss, asperity, wow & flutter, crosstalk, and bias. Dial in a little of each for a retro vibe or “glue”. Dial in the extreme settings and you can end up with the sound of poor quality tape left in someone’s basement far too long.

Decoding

Selectable Compander and Circuit settings make Satin useful as a format converter.

If you have a tape recording with an unsuitable EQ, using Circuit’s independent RecEQ and ReproEQ selectors you can set a new target EQ curve and make changes. Similarly, Commander can handle audio recorded with specific noise reduction (nr) encodings. Just run it through Satin with Decoder set to match the known nr encoding type.

"THIS IS NON-REFUNDABLE SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD! (NOT A PHYSICAL ITEM)"