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Tape

Oxide Tape

Universal Audio

Where to get itAvailable from Universal Audiouaudio.com

Oxide Tape is a magnetic tape emulation plugin that brings warm, punchy analog tape character to individual tracks and mixes within the DAW. Engineered by the team behind UA's professional tape machine plugins and designed with magnetic recording expert Jay McKnight, it delivers tape saturation, harmonic coloration, and the cohesive "glue" of analog recording through simple Input/Output controls and tape transport modeling. The plugin enables near-zero latency tape processing through Apollo interfaces during tracking or adds multitrack tape sonics during mixdown.

Written from the manual and checked against it. How we check

Key Features

01Two monitoring paths (Input and Repro) for circuit-only or complete tape playback sonics
02Two tape speeds (7.5 and 15 IPS) with distinct head bump and distortion characteristics
03Two emphasis EQ curves (NAB at 60 Hz and CCIR at 50 Hz) for regional tape machine character
04Noise Reduction switch to remove tape hiss and electronics hum
05Input control range -12 dB to +24 dB for tape saturation from clean to heavily colored
06Output control range -24 dB to +12 dB for gain compensation
07Artist presets by engineer/producer John Paterno with Warm and Drive sonic qualities
08VU Meter display showing signal level after virtual tape before output stage

Things to Try

  • 01Lower Input levels for cleaner, warmer sound with more headroom; raise Input levels for more harmonic saturation and tape compression
  • 02Use 15 IPS for rock and acoustic music due to its low frequency head bump and warmer character
  • 03Use 7.5 IPS for a more colored tape experience with greater frequency shift compared to 15 IPS
  • 04Select a Warm or Drive preset, adjust Input to match the preset's target VU value shown in the preset name, then adjust Output for unity gain if needed

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Oxide Tape by Universal Audio | Plugin Library