Ampex® ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder
Customer Reviews
Ampex® ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder
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j. elliott
far and away my favorite tape emu.
permanently lives on my two bus for mix down.
D. Whittington
At the beginning of my Mastering strip everytime!
Even when I place this on my master strip it pulls my track together on Default. The presets are always good enough to find a sound I am after regardless of the style of music I am working on. Cheers UAD!
J. Pitcher
Great Finish
If you're looking for a way to polish the final mix or as a last step in your mastering chain, this is it. It's the final layer that buffs and polishes the overall sound. Love it.
F. Batiste III
Master Of The Two Bus
Just put it on the two bus and watch it turn a good mix into a great one. Best tape emulation period IMHO.
F. Vieira
Can't live without it
This plugin brings my mixing to another level... Great Character and impact!
Use it all time!!!!
M. Cartwright
great
I have been trying this plugin all over my mixes. I tried it with some keys and it added some incredible warble/vibrato effects when the wow & flutter were dialed up. It also sounds incredible for glue on the master when set with normal settings. Just push the input right where the signal pushes into the tape and pull back a little. I like some of the magic that happens there. It makes transients live in a happy place.
S. Gough
Adds life to dead tracks
Great for master and drum busses. Can make drums sound nice and fat. It added some life back into tracks that were cut on a less than impressive console. Reacts very similarly to a real machine
A. Meyer
This is the plugin that made me take the UAD leap.
This is a wonderful plugin. It comes very close to the original. This plugin goes deep in the amount of tones you can get out of it. I like being able to switch between the sync and play heads. This is a mandatory UAD plugin.
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Ampex® ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder Review
From the moment I first tried this plugin on my entire mix, I felt like I finally found the missing link to a GREAT sounding mix. The number of different sounds you can get just by choosing different combinations of tape speeds, head widths, tape formulas, calibration levels, biasing, wow/flutter, hum/hiss and input/output record levels is astonishing!
A huge range of tape sounds are covered from lo-fi (3.75 IPS, 1/4" head) All the way to Ultra Hi Fidelity (30 IPS 1" Head)
A really cool add on is the tape delay control, which gives you tape delay effect, with variable time control.
A MUST HAVE plugin. Great Job UA!
J. Banfield
Fantastic!
I worked with tape for many years and was happy to abandon it when digital caught up. Tape is a major headache and hope I never have to touch it again. This plugin brings back some of that special "warmth" that those old machines and oxides used to give the sound without ANY of the hassle of a real tape machine. While not necessary for every application (I am a fan of clean digital sound), it is great on some tracks to add that dirt and classic sound. Very flexible and faithful recreation of the "tape" sound. UA has done it again. A bit pricey but if you catch it on sale, totally worth it!
A. Suanlarm
An Absolute Must!
I use this along with the other two tape plugins. I wouldn't mix without them. Everything just sounds better.
N. Dayan
My go-to mix bus plugin
The Ampex ends up on most of my mix busses as a last insert and gives that finishing touch to a mix. It glues the track together and smooths out the top end for that analog sound. I'm also very pleased with the tape delay effects that it can produce and along with the wow and flutter settings, I've been able to recreate that 60s tape flange effect I was looking for.
a. vt
the only tape emulator i need
this is it, when im after the warmth of the tape, the extra glue i need on my masters
W. McCurdy
Copious Amounts of Fatness
I always marvel at how people describe treatments that effect sound, so I'll give a crack at it for the first time here. The sound is fat, and delicious! its warm and rich, its amazingly good =] soooooo tasty... How'd I do? Pretty good, yeah? I thought so, but yeah this plugin is that good. Love it! I never leave reviews, but this thing is so good I couldn't resist! Do not hesitate to purchase this one and enjoy! Cheers
S. Hill
Just make it sound cool!
Put it on the master bus and be happy :-D
E. Wohl
Great Purchase!!
I was spending hours and hours on a mix and couldn't get the low end right. Things were fighting and wasn't really jelling right. I was just about to play a low sub keyboard along with the bass to fill out the bottom but before i did that I put on the ATR 102 and bam magic, not only did it fix my low end but made the high end come to life too, well done UA!!!!
O. Us
One of my top 5 plug-in
I've tried both Struder and ATR and first i bought ATR and probably a week later i got the Struder. These are my go to plug-ins and the thing they do with transients is incredible. Smooths, thickens, saturates, polishes and finishes your mix. I do not feel like the mix is finished if i don't use ATR.
If you work on the speeds, you get what you need, bright? ok go faster, jelly glue and warmth and thick low end; ok go 15..
The delay is incredible. Just for the delay this plugin would deserve it's price. Yes pricey, i recommend you to catch a sales... It shines between countless plugins. Totally pro. If you do not have Struder it'll do all its job, if you have Struder they are brothers in arms..
.
The finishing touch on the mixdown bus
I am now using the UAD Studer A800 on my individual tracks with the Ampex on the mixdown bus, which feeds the print track. I'm an old analog gal (dating back to 1988) and now, thanks to UAD I am once again faithfully analog all the way down my signal chain, start to finish. When I have time, I want to instantiate the Ampex on each of my stereo threads being fed to my hardware summing amp - I think it could be stellar. My projects are primarily blues related, pretty "old school" and they scream for analog. The Ampex gives me a mixdown sound that is faithful to the hardware, and frankly I could not be happier, nor could my clients.
Cindy
RedRaven-Sounds LLC
C. Holford
Subtle and deep tape emulation
this model is so detailed in terms of controls and options that you'll be able to tweak away endlessly to your heart's content -but it can also be as quick as you want it to be. Every new tool lends a different possible flavor, but this plugin is probably close to as subtle and variable as actually having one of these machines. Really looking forward to trying the ATR out on new mastering projects coming up.
S. ÖZER
Feeling Analog
This is amazing...I can't belive what I hear when I use ::)))