PNW Section’s regular December meeting, held on December 11 2024, was a Zoom only presentation from Seattle exploring tape sound vs. tape emulator plug-ins. John Metzler (Quiet Please Recording) and Matthew Sutton (Matthew Sutton Technical Audio Services) put together a comparison of an Ampex multitrack MM1200 at various reference levels, and two Universal Audio tape emulation plug-ins, “Studer 800” and “ATR102.” 29 AES members attended, along with 2 non-members.
PNW Chair Dan Mortensen opened the meeting, and John and Matthew gave a rundown of the methodology. Matthew noted that with more interest in analog sound/tape today, he thought it would be interesting to demonstrate tape emulators. They created many example files recording a real band in the studio in ProTools 24/96, and ran them through two emulators and a real tape machine. They explained the setups, using an Ampex MM1200, with ProTools and two software emulators, Universal Audio’s ATR102 and Studer 800.
Operating levels were also changed and loudnesses matched by John Chester to hear level dependent behaviors. Matthew carefully calibrated the tape machine. Because of the Zoom audio limitations, the original WAV files are currently (2025) available here.
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Next, self-introductions were given by attendees (20 minutes). Then it was back to John and Matthew. ProTools was 24bit-96kHz, tape operating levels of +3, +6, +9 and +12 (re:185nWb/m) were used, and the emulators were set to “15IPS” and “900” tape. No hardware emulators were able to be tested.
They played examples of a local band playing live in the studio. The tracks were recorded onto ProTools, and John could play mixes, could solo instruments and hear tape at different levels. First, there was the passthrough sound of the MM1200, then tape at +3 level, +6, +9, and +12. Next, the UA emulators sounds were played, first “Studer” at 15IPS/+6, then “ATR” at 15IPS/+6.
Questions were asked about the setup and calibration, and any dropouts. Attendees could ask for other things to listen to (various tracks, mixes, switching between items, etc). John Chester explained his level/loudness matching.
John Metzler played a quick mixdown, switching around to various sources, and gave his opinion of the usefulness of the emulators, as did John Chester.
After the guitar track playback, with more switching between levels and emulators, there was further Q & A and discussions, including the future of analog tape.
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Our Presenters:
Matthew Sutton is the owner of Matthew Sutton – Technical Audio Services, LLC in Seattle. Matthew’s first exposure to analog tape was at age 7, a little deck his dad brought home from work. The first tape decks he worked on were Ampex 351, Ampex MR70, and a Scully 280. Matthew provided warranty services on Ampex, MCI, Otari and Tascam decks through the 1980’s and helped implement the first digital recording systems in the Seattle area, both tape and hard disk.  He continues to provide repairs and maintenance on studio equipment in the Seattle area.  While his discography is somewhat limited, Matthew has engineered recordings on analog and digital over the years.
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John Metzler is the owner and engineer at Quiet Please Recording in Seattle. John has owned and operated Quiet Please since 2013. Prior to Quiet Please, John worked in many phases of audio engineering and production in and around Seattle. At Quiet Please, John records in analog on his Ampex MM1200 16/24 track and Ampex ATR102 mixdown deck using his Otari/Sound Workshop 54 mixing console with moving fader automation. In the digital domain, John utilizes Burl converters into Pro Tools Ultimate HDX and can marry analog to digital with his Endless Analog CLASP system.
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Reported by Gary Louie, PNW Secretary.
