Monday, January 10, 2011

DASH the babies' heads against the rocks

http://www.nomadfactory.com/products/magnetic/

Seriously

Now I'm all for the fun of trying to emulate analog tape as much as the next guy. In fact, Nomad Factory has some pretty cool plugins, I like to look in on them from time to time.

But this line really caught my eye

"Mitsubishi's ProDigi and Sony's Digital Audio Stationary Head (DASH) were the primary digital reel-to-reel formats in use in recording studios from the early 1980s through the mid 1990's. With the MAGNETIC, Nomad Factory has captured the essence of DASH technology and made the sound of high-fidelity digital tape recording available in plug-in format."

Now, a lot of you know how much of a ProDigi and DASH nut I was, you think I'd be joyful over this thing. But lets look at that statement

"With the MAGNETIC, Nomad Factory has captured the essence of DASH technology and made the sound of high-fidelity digital tape recording available in plug-in format"

You know what the sound of digital tape is?

NOTHING

No sound, no nada. Digital tape is a storage medium. Whatever you put on it is what you get back...period

If you want a plugin to 100% faithfully, accurately and reliably emulate DASH or ProDigi, heres how you do it:

Let X=input
Let Y=output
Let X=Y

Done...or for the same result, don't put a plugin there.

Do they mean that they're emulating the sound of 250 pounds of early analog to digital converters?

Why???