Early analog tape was the sound of rock’n’roll. Recording engineers pushed analog tape ever-further into distortion, creating a type of tape compression that made the music powerful and compelling. The tube electronics of that era also added warmth and character.

To this day, early 1/4" analog tape recorders are coveted—and extremely rare. Whether used on individual tracks or masters, these machines exemplify the sound of classic tracks, from Hendrix and Led Zeppelin onward. Now, Kramer Master Tape brings this sound to digital recording.

Tape and Tubes

Kramer Master Tape is a dual-purpose plugin—it models the tube’s harmonic distortion and mic preamp saturation separately from the tape compression and distortion, so you can also use it solely for adding tube warmth.

Vary Tape Textures with the Flux Control

The Flux control simultaneously alters tape saturation, tape compression, and harmonic distortion. Turn it up for aggressive grit and punch, or pull back to clean up the sound for just a hint of tape and tube coloration.

Saturation or Tape Emulation? Yes.

Although designed primarily for modeling tape, Kramer Master Tape is ideal for adding saturation based on tape’s sound quality. Help bass stand out in the mix, clip drums for more power, and add overdrive to keyboards.

Add Ambience with Analog Tape Delay

The built-in tape delay features delay times up to 500 ms, with feedback and lowpass filtering. It’s ideal for slapback echo on vocals or rhythm guitar, hardcore dub on drums, or adding ambience to keyboard and string pads.

All the Original Detail

We flew in virgin 3M Scotch 207 tape from Australia for the modeling process, because studios liked the tape’s extended high frequency response for reproducing the sparkle of acoustic instruments and voice.

Combine with HLS & PIE for That Hendrix/Zeppelin Signal Chain

Combine Kramer Master Tape with Kramer HLS Channel and Kramer PIE Compressor, to model the complete Olympic Studios signal chain used for recording tracks by Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones.