There's nothing quite like the saturation you get from real tape. Some tape plugins do a fairly decent job of emulating that but I haven't heard one that doesn't fall short of real tape. I have a pair of the Neve 542 units. I like them but I think they work best if you mix into them. Adding them after the fact often doesn't quite feels right. Things sound overly saturated and force you go back and make adjustments elsewhere, essentially mixing the song a 2nd time.
At about the 5:45 mark you can hear a song A/Bed with the tape machine and without it. There's a bit of a volume difference that makes the comparison a bit unfair, but I can absolutely hear the nice creamy saturation the tape machine is delivering.
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Jim
2023 Iris ND-200 maple/adi
2017 Circle Strings 00 bastogne walnut/sinker redwood
2015 Circle Strings Parlor shedua/western red cedar
2009 Bamburg JSB Signature Baritone macassar ebony/carpathian spruce
2004 Taylor XXX-RS indian rosewood/sitka spruce
1988 Martin D-16 mahogany/sitka spruce
along with some electrics, zouks, dulcimers, and banjos.
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