Recording - October 2012 - 55

Also, VTM has not had any version upgrades yet and there are a number of internet reports of bugs in various DAWs. However, I have been using it for a few months in Cubase and have noticed none. Sound VTM actually reminds me very much of my work experiences with the Virtual Console Collection in overall use. You can hear it doing something pretty amazing, but you are not sure what that is until you hit Bypass. Like VCC, the VTM sounds best when driven just into the red, and with the linked input and output stage it’s hard to make it sound bad. If you want more grit, you can drive it into tape distortion by turning the input linking off. As you would guess, the FG456 tape formula is a tad darker and “obvious”, while the FG9 is pretty transparent and open. For Bias I found the high position added a very nice aggressive yet musical sizzle to the highs; the low bias setting has a fairly “choked” sound for which I have yet to find an obvious use. For tape speed I found myself sticking to the cleaner and brighter 30 ips for most things folk and jazz, while 15 ips coupled with the FG456 formula was amazing on the drum bus and electric guitars for a thicker rock vibe. In 1/2" mastering mode I found my tastes leaning heavily toward “the cleaner the better”. Less drive, FG9 and 30 ips is nice and wide and smooth. But what does it sound like? To my ears it does sound like tape, but it may not sound like what many of us think tape “should” sound like, meaning that it’s not dark, fuzzy and muddy. It sounds like a pristine, wellmaintained high-fidelity tape machine. Overall what impressed me the most about the VTM, and frankly sets it apart from the competition, is its soundstage. Of the Tape Machine plug-ins I have used, the VTM does the best job of keeping the spread and perception of depth of the mix intact, especially in the high end. The competition Speaking of the competition, in this arena the other big players are the Waves KMT (Kramer Master Tape) and UA’s Studer A800 (reviewed August 2011) and Ampex ATR102. If you are looking for a better/worse scenario, you will be disappointed, as choosing one of these plug-ins becomes similar to choosing an 1176LN over an LA-2A over a Fairchild. Each one has a sound, and it becomes a subjective taste issue. For instance, on a recent fusion session I preferred the subtle warmth and width of the VTM, while the guitarist on the session preferred the more centralized glue of both UA versions. Neither was bad, just different. Overall, the VTM is not as thick and heavy-handed as the KMT, and it is more pristine than the weightier UA A800. With some tweaking I could get it closest

to the UA ATR-102 for clean mastering duties, but there were still differences, again mostly in the soundstage. Internal settings The VTM’s Wow and Flutter is surprisingly conservative. Its Bass control is just the right amount of bold, that adds supportive warmth to the sound, or pulls it back if need be. The VTM’s tape noise is the most pronounced yet the most believable of the bunch, and the noise reduction slider does a good job of reigning it in to taste. The noise automation control is a unique feature that places an auto fade on the tape hiss when no signal is present at the input. I found this brilliant when used on the master bus, but depending on how you cut and mute your tracks it can be disorientating if noise levels fade in and out randomly on different tracks. All of the tape noise controls are global, and because of the above reason, I wish they weren’t. It could be handy to treat instances of VTM separately, especially when using one machine on individual tracks and the other simultaneously on the master bus.

The last thing to note: VTM is not an effects box. Unlike the Waves and UA ATR102 it cannot do old-school tape delay, and unlike the other three it is not well suited to lo-fi tape-eaten or wow-and-flutter effects. You may be tempted to interpret that as the VTM being limited, but it is more a case of having a plug-in that does what it sets out to do and does it impeccably well with a level of coding that staggers the imagination. Sure, I would like to see a 7.5 ips tape speed, variable bias and more over the top wow and flutter, but only if they can be added without compromising the VTM’s current level of quality. Wrap up This plug-in has a realistic warmth, detail and depth that needs to be heard to be believed. There is a free 14-day demo (that requires an iLok2), go hear it for yourself. Since I got Slate’s VCC I have not completed a mix without it and I expect VTM will be right up there in my arsenal as well. As you can guess, VTM and VCC are a match made in heaven... well, in France, actually.
RECORDING October 2012

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Recording - October 2012

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