Waves Kramer Master Tape: Tape Machine Plugin

Early analog tape was the sound of rock’n’roll. Recording engineers pushed analog tape ever-further into distortion creating a type of tape compression that made the music powerful and compelling. The tube electronics of that era also added warmth and character. To this day early 1/4" analog tape recorders are coveted—and extremely rare.

Whether used on individual tracks or masters these machines exemplify the sound of classic tracks from Hendrix and Led Zeppelin onward. Now Kramer Master Tape brings this sound to digital recording. Tape and Tubes Kramer Master Tape is a dual-purpose plugin—it models the tube’s harmonic distortion and mic preamp saturation separately from the tape compression and distortion so you can also use it solely for adding tube warmth.

Vary Tape Textures with the Flux Control The Flux control simultaneously alters tape saturation tape compression and harmonic distortion. Turn it up for aggressive grit and punch or pull back to clean up the sound for just a hint of tape and tube coloration. Saturation or Tape Emulation? Yes. Although designed primarily for modeling tape Kramer Master Tape is ideal for adding saturation based on tape’s sound quality.