Goodhertz / Tupe (Tape & Tube emulation)

[Piet De Ridder]

"A timeless pairing — vacuum tube amplification & magnetic tape recording — brought to you in one essential plugin: Tupe (/'tüp/).
From gentle harmonic enhancement to completely fuzzed-out distortion and saturation, Tupe was designed to reproduce some of our all-time favorite tape machines and tube circuits together. Combined with Tupe’s super expressive filter, an innovative emphasis section, and its Opto-style limiter/compressor, there’s an infinite range of analog color and vibe waiting to be discovered in just a few clicks."

Price: $129.



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[Lawrence]

If one owns Satin (which I finally do, and I like it) is there a need for this?

[Piet De Ridder]

Difficult to say, Larry. Satin does a number of tape-related things that Tupe can’t do, but Tupe, in my opinion, has a *much* wider colouring and sound-shaping range. If I had to pick just one, I’d go with Tupe every time. Every time. Not a second of doubt. In fact, at this point, I’m ready to happily say goodbye to all the virtual tape and tube simulators which I have, and continue with only Tupe. Very clever set of parameters, a sound that can't be faulted and I'm also finding it very useful for much more than its name would suggest. Seriously good.

And it’s certainly not one of those silly plugins where half of the experience of using them is fooling yourself that you hear a difference.

Which reminds me: I spent the past few weeks also testing and/or exploring nearly all of Acustica’s Aqua and a few Nebula plugins — rumour and tons of YouTube videos have it that these things do ‘virtual analog’ and ‘hardware creaminess’ more truthfully and convincingly than any other software currently available — but after these first hours with Tupe, I find that this single little plugin packs way more power, waaaaaay more power, and sonic possibilities than the entire Aqua range put together. And, of course, without any of the latency and strain on the processor that make using Acustica’s plugins often such a nuisance.
(I did end up buying one Aqua plugin though, latency and all: the Diamond Transient. Ironically, the only plugin in the Aqua range that isn’t an emulation of specific vintage gear. It’s a weird but really good expander-based device put together by Luca Pertolesi, someone who is mostly associated with contemporary dance music and such.)

Anyway, back to Tupe. There’s a 30-day demo available. I would suggest you try it out. But please do take the time to get to know what the parameters do and what they’re there for, otherwise you’ll be missing out on a lot. And it’s not always the case with plugins, but with this one, stepping through the presets (used on suitable source material, of course) gives a really good idea of what you’re in for.

I was thinking of doing a little Tupe video. If they leave me alone for the next few hours, maybe it’ll materialize.

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[scherzo]

That's quite an endorsement. I might have to pick this one up - I don't have a saturation plugin that I actually like, but I have a few other Goodhertzes that I love and use all the time. Great company.

Would love to see a video though if you have time.

[Lawrence]

Interesting. Satin is the first one I used where I really HAVE heard a difference, but I’m going to check out Tupe because, well, you’re Piet To this day a Piet recommendation, the great sonic enhancer Clariphonic, is my favorite plugin. One of the reasons is that it’s so simple. I love a “make it better” button and Clariphonic has so few controls.

[kpc]

A Piet Recommendation is certainly a killer feature. I will give it a, um, spin as well.

[Piet De Ridder]

It’s everything that’s in there that makes Tupe so powerful: on top of the tube and tape simulation (which by itself already covers a whole lot of sonic and textural ground), there’s an opto compressor (and Goodhertz knows a thing or two about good compression), a tilt filter, a second sophisticated dual ladder filter (the star of the show, in my opinion), an emphasis section (which operates like the filter but only affects the saturated portion of the signal), and a smart calibration sensor. And you can reorganize the order (in the processing chain) of most of these components too.

With all of this you can, should you wish so, mimick just about any kind of analog gear behaviour or whatever degree of “pushing the signal near or into the red” you could wish for. You can make things sound really messed up and dirty. Across the frequency range or in a specific one. Or remain on the more well-behaved side of the line and simply add a bit of oomph and warmth.

(I never demoed it and I’m not familiar with it, but from what little I know, I think Fabfilter’s Saturn might be a better choice to compare Tupe with than Satin.)

Haven’t managed to do a video myself yet, but there’s this one — from Robbie Moore, whose voice sounds a bit like Steve Coogan"s to my ears — which gives a good overview of the plugin. He describes Tupe as (Soundtoys) Decapitator Mark II.



Definitely going to do a video too, but it’ll be for sometime this weekend.

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[Guy Rowland]

from Robbie Moore, whose voice sounds a bit like Steve Coogan"s to my ears

Good lord he does, doesn't he? Alan Partridge - Saturating Me, Saturating You.

[Piet De Ridder]

That's funny, Guy.
Ah, Alan Partridge ...

"Kiss my face"
"Smell my cheese, you mother!"
"Well Sonja, that was classic intercourse"
"Not my words Carol, the words of Top Gear magazine"
"Lynn - they're sex people"
"They're only the band The Beatles could have been."
"Eat my goal!"
"Stop getting Bond wrong!"

- - -

Also from the British comedy front, but on an infinitely sadder note: I was shocked to learn yesterday that Sean Lock has passed away. Didn't know he was ill, so this news hit hard. Always liked Lock. All my favourite episodes of QI have Lock in them.

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[Piet De Ridder]

If you have 12 minutes to spare, here's a little video which, I think, illustrates rather well what Tupe can do. I'm using it on a Keyscape Rhodes patch, an electronic drums part I made with Softube's Heartbeat and a sine wave from Logic's EXS sampler.
I've improvised my way through these twelve minutes fiddling with the parameters, so it tends to be a bit boring at times, but you do get a good look at how this plugin works, what it's capable of and what it sounds like.

(Video file is 148Mb, just saying.)

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[kpc]

Great Demo Piet - thanks for posting that. I just downloaded the demo and will give it a go. Does seem like a nice tool to have available.

[woodsdenis]

Tupe really is a fantastic plugin as are all of Goodhertz offerings, well worth checking them all out

[Guy Rowland]

I simply cannot resist these tangents, I promise I will at least mention the plugin at the end of the post.

That's funny, Guy.
Ah, Alan Partridge ...

Shit! Did you see THAT?!
He must have a foot like a traction engine.

...and so many more. Namedrop 1 - I did a couple of the I'm Alan Partridge series 2 ("mentalist!"), which was a ridiculous thrill. They did keep rewriting and improvising all day. In the presence of comedy Gods.

PS - if you can VPN the BBC Sounds content, there's a Radio 4 show called The Reunion where they - hey - reunite people from various events or productions. They just did The Day Today, still an absolute high water mark in British comedy for me. Sadly recluse Chris Morris opted out as usual, but Steve Coogan, Armando Ianucci, Patrick Marber, Doon Mackichan and yes Steve Coogan were all present and correct.

Also from the British comedy front, but on an infinitely sadder note: I was shocked to learn yesterday that Sean Lock has passed away. Didn't know he was ill, so this news hit hard. Always liked Lock. All my favourite episodes of QI have Lock in them.

Deeply sad, and I had no idea either. I literally cried out "NOOOO". My favourite show of his was the little-seen 15 Storeys High, which I believe is all on YouTube. Haven't seen it for years, but thought it was just tremendous, a mostly 2-hander with the equally wonderful Benedict Wong who has since been in so many great films, not least The Martian. Namedrop 2 - I sat next to Benedict at an award ceremony where my little film was up for something it didn't win. I recognised his voice first, and plucked up the courage to say hello, as I'd not long seen 15 Storeys so I think he was rather pleased someone had even heard of it or him. We chatted all night, he was absolutely lovely.

I never worked with Sean Lock, but he was such a gentle but wonderful talent.

Now, this plugin. I watched the video, and of course it sounds brilliant fun. Automating the filter seems appealing, right? Some very cool effects there. Well, I can't buy it after all I bleat on about in the other thread... well I SAY I can't buy it, but I probably will in a sale one day, even though I have saturators literally coming out of my literal ears.

[Piet De Ridder]

Did you see THAT?!

I have the "Complete Coogan" set (14 dvd's) which the BBC released sometime around 2010, Guy. And the box sets of "The Day Today" and "Brass Eye".
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[scherzo]

Just wanted to say thank you to Piet for taking the time to make a video. Great demonstration. Looks like a very nice and interesting plugin - this goes on my list!

Ok, now back to tangents