The Studer company, founded in Switzerland in 1948, initially made oscilloscopes but gained fame in the 1950s for high-quality professional tape recorders. In 1964, it introduced the J37, a four-track recorder on 1" tape, delivering exceptional audio fidelity. Abbey Road Studios purchased two J37s and famously used them to record The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, where producer George Martin layered tracks by bouncing between machines. This success led Abbey Road to acquire eight J37s. The J37 also played a key role in engineer Ken Townsend’s development of artificial double tracking (ADT), a technique that thickened sound by recording passages on two machines with a slight delay.
Arturia has long been known for meticulous reproductions of classic instruments and effects. We wanted to bring the sound of the iconic J37 to your musical explorations. Needless to say, the costs and hassles of finding, purchasing, and maintaining a classic multi-track tape recorder — for the main purpose of lending its sonic “X-factor” to tracks — put this kind of project out of the reach of most musicians in the real world.
Tape J-37 puts that “X-factor” inside your DAW. It can put its retro signature on an individual track, give a common character to a group such as vocals or drums, or even be the glue that makes your entire mix warmer and more coherent.
To clear up any possible confusion, Tape J-37 is not a recorder itself; it does not sample and play back audio like a looper. Instead, it makes any or all of your tracks sound like they were recorded on a Studer J37. That puts you in esteemed company.
Tape J-37 puts that “X-factor” inside your DAW. It can put its retro signature on an individual track, give a common character to a group such as vocals or drums, or even be the glue that makes your entire mix warmer and more coherent.
To clear up any possible confusion, Tape J-37 is not a recorder itself; it does not sample and play back audio like a looper. Instead, it makes any or all of your tracks sound like they were recorded on a Studer J37. That puts you in esteemed company.
The main features and functions of Tape J-37 include:
- Color: Four selectable sonic profiles based on EQ curve, tape type, and tape age
- Modern mode: Bypasses the Studer J37's inherent EQ curve while retaining tape color
- Drive: Varies input gain and therefore tape saturation
- Speed Control: Simulates the characteristics of 7.5 and 15 ips (inches per second) tape speed
- VU Meters: Meters display level and total harmonic distortion (THD), three calibration levels
- EQ: Three-band EQ with low shelf, bell, and high shelf
- Instability: Variable pitch drift and subtle modulation to simulate analog tape
- Noise: Adjustable level of tape hiss
- Delay: Looping delay with adjustable feedback, tempo sync, and stereo offset
- Oversampling: Select Studio quality for working on your project or Render quality for final mixdown
- Stereo Offset: Uses different modeled J37 tracks for left and right channels, subtly widening stereo dispersion
- Presets: 25 factory Presets for tape effects from subtle to dramatic
- A/B settings: Two sets of parameter settings per Preset; can be copied
It is very easy to activate and install any software instrument/effect from Arturia thanks to the Arturia Software Center (ASC).
Simply download the ASC, and follow the instructions found in the Activate and Install from Arturia Software Center FAQ article.
Simply download the ASC, and follow the instructions found in the Activate and Install from Arturia Software Center FAQ article.
If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us.