Anyone who knows much about audio production, knows that it's getting very difficult to tell the difference between analog hardware, and plugins..... some of the emulations available are in fact, better than the originals from a particular standpoint....
Knowing which is which is a bit of an artform, which only comes with experience on both sides of the fence.
Production devotees and audio purists know that as an example, the signal that comes from a vinyl sample into a piece of hardware, can never be accurately emulated by an algorithm. There are too many factors that make a lot of attempts at emulation get close, but not close enough.
We provide a pathway of access which allows for your chosen piece of audio to be processed by our sought after library of old school hardware. We provide this as a service we call Boutique Signal Processing. If a machine isn't in our suite, but you want to process audio via something like an ASR10, we have access to these machines through our network of audio professionals.
If you're a creative, a musician, a producer of audio content, a mix engineer, or anyone else who needs that warmth and flavour applied to a sample, a song, or an entire project - you've come to the right place.
Finding it hard to get that grit and dirt that only an s900/950 provides? There's a reason it's hard to reproduce it and you can't program that away with fancy mathematics or complex signal processing in a codebase. Even Roger Linn can't replicate many of his own older AKAI machines (probably for legal reasons), but it goes to show that it's a very detailed series of analog steps that produce the signals that come out of these analog works of art.
Old school samplers like the MPC60 (photo courtesy of Mu-Zines, from SOS 1991), the MPC2000/XL, MPC3000, as well as items like the SP1200 are now some of the most prized possessions by studios around the world. You can see the importance of these machines as they become harder and harder to find, simply by the price people are willing to pay to obtain them. Why not just buy a $49 plugin? If the plugin was equivalent, professionals would use them. However, the professionals are procuring the hardware (as well as the plugins, like most studios). As at early 2025, there are Roland TR808 drum machines selling for over AUD$20,000.
Some of us here at Aptiq had the opportunity to buy these for as low as $500 a piece 20 years ago, watched them fall way out of fashion, only to see the re-emergence of analog machines in the current era and massive price tags attached.
The reason is exactly what we've outlined above. Sure, you can add thump and knock to drums in the box..... but no matter how hard anybody (including us!) tries, you just can't replicate the dimension and body that comes out of the outputs of these machines. In order to do so, you would need to replicate every single component, and also replicate stages of component degradation, rather than do what most of the plugins do - which is process it through a 'vibe' concocted of filters, emulated aliasing, and frequency profiles which are great (and again, sometimes we have to admit it's very hard to tell through modern listening devices like yourairpods or bluetooth speakers), but if you sit down in a properly treated monitoring environment and you really listen - there is a world of a difference that you only hear when you're in the room with the real thing.
You may say, 'but what does it matter if the end point is an airpod or a bluetooth speaker?'..... We agree this is a fantastic question.
What is interesting is that you can actually hear the difference and it definitely comes out in the final product.
What about tape? Tape emulation plugins are one thing, and by gosh they are getting good (we know, we have all the plugins too!), but nothing can reproduce the real thing. What makes it more of an interesting thing, is the uniqueness of every single component within a machine that gives it its own special colorisation that can't be built into an algorithm. One machine off the Studer production line 60 years ago, had a different personality to the next one that came off the line, which developed over time.
We've gone even a step further into the cavern of obscure rarities, and assembled a handpicked suite of multitrack cassette recorders which operate in sync with the DAW and essentially act like a 24 track tape recording route, whereby an entire multitrack session can be run onto tape to be destroyed/improved (subjective!), with hiss, wow, flutter, and even intentional noise reduction on/off that provides you with a full and complete tape aux version of your tracks, sends, everything - that you can then meticulously layer back into your session to add dimension, depth, saturation, and texture that you simply can't do any other way.... We can do a total of 12 individual tracks to cassette, but here's the cool thing - you can route it straight back into the session, mute those tracks, run the next 12 off, and keep going. There's no limit.
Sure, you can go buy some ampex 456 and hunt down a massively overpriced facility with 2" 24 track machines that breakdown during every second session, people with limited experience maintaining and operating the machines, and all the struggles and expense that comes with this....or you can opt for a far more cost effective and in fact completely different sonic tool, that achieves something different entirely, but the same in principle. Saturation to your heart's content!
But, we also have to be pragmatic about this old gear thing - sometimes people do release new hardware that is as good as it gets in terms of emulating the sound of an old machine. The Isla S2400 is one such machine, but it also acts as a fully fledged production centre with new onboard effects, and the ability to function as a DAWless master brain, or act as its own blend of old and new for production sessions. We love it.
It's not an exact SP1200, but the sampling engine is the closest we've heard apart from the new SP1200 which is a beautiful replica of the original. We have access to the original and the new versions too if you need that extra assurance.
Anyone from all over the world can book us to do this service remotely, all you need to do is get the files ready, know what you are looking to achieve (or ask us and we can help), and we'll provide you a quote. All signals are processed by experienced production professionals and audio engineers. All signals are processed securely and privately, direct from customer to studio.
Want to be involved in the processing session in person? Awesome! Let's work together. We can come to you, or we can facilitate studio time at some of the most sought after facilities in Sydney. You bring your session, we bring the hardware, we collaborate on the process to get it just right for you, and you come away with an amazing added dimension to your mix or your production, you simply can't get any other way.
We know which machines do what. We know how to get the best out of them. We know all the dirty little secrets of the production masters who used these machines to make amazing records. Let us help bring the vibe and the warmth back to your cold and sterile mix!
