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Tape J-37
Tube-driven studio effect
Tape J-37 captures the complex architecture and non-linearities of the legendary Studer J37 tape machine in unprecedented detail. Whether adding subtle tape coloration to a master track or driving the input of a bus or insert with harmonic distortion, Tape J-37 is your go-to tool for bringing tube-driven depth and character to your sound.
Enhance your mix
with thermionic warmth
When we say thermionic, we mean the rich, harmonically pleasing incandescence of vacuum tube technology. When we say Studer, we mean uncompromising Swiss engineering.
Tape J-37 lets you experience both like never before. With an intuitive design, four easy-access tape modes and advanced controls - give your sound that high-end analog edge.
Unrivalled sound quality
Whether you're adding subtle harmonic richness, dialling in bold tape coloration or elevating clarity with Modern Mode, the Tape J-37’s precision and neural-based modelling set it apart from lo-fi tape effects, delivering the legendary sonic depth you’d expect from the original.
The most faithful recreation of the Studer J37
Experience the most authentic recreation of the meticulously engineered Studer J37 tape machine. We combined our expertise in virtual analog with machine learning to capture the J37’s lauded non-linearities, tape magnetisation textures and impressively rich sound signature.
Intuitive design for instant results
Achieve your desired sound in seconds with Tape J-37's user-friendly interface. With essential controls at your fingertips encased in a stunning animated skeuomorphic design - dial in the perfect amount of analog saturation on your insert, bus or master tracks.
Get creative with advanced controls
Further manipulate your sound with features like Delay, EQ, and Stability Control. Introduce discreet phasing and flanging effects, or simulate tape wear-and-tear to add unique textures to your music. These powerful yet easy-to-use tools offer flexibility that expands upon the original design.
Interactive
player
Try Tape J-37 for yourself and experiment with its 4 distinct tape color profiles and calibration settings and adjust the sound to your taste.
- Color 1 maintains clarity using fresh SM911 tape and European calibration
- Color 2 enhances warmth with SM911 tape and american calibration
- Color 3 utilizes decade-old SM468 tape for a grittier, vintage feel
- Color 4 intensifies saturation and texture with over-biased SM468
- Modern Mode removes natural high and low filtering for a less adulterated sound.
The advanced
panel
Bring even more character to your sound with custom calibration
Add authentic, tape-like imperfections to your sound with adjustable stability, noise, and delay settings. A touch of movement or delayed-phasing can add life to hi-hats, while full noise and instability can give your piano that degraded charm.
EQ
Shape each element of your mix with pre/post tape EQ options. Boost lows before tape for extra saturation or roll-off highs after tape for a vintage, softened feel.
Calibration
Use Noise and Instability Control to introduce authentic tape characteristics. Add tape noise for vintage realism and simulate mechanical wear for some wow and flutter.
Delay Loop
Add space and movement to any sound with built-in delay feedback. Introduce subtle phasing and flanging effects or create a slapback delay to bring life to recorded instruments.
The holy grail
of tape recording
The Studer J37 is part of a lineage of iconic recording equipment that shaped the sound of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
It isn’t just another tape machine - it’s an icon of audio craftsmanship and music history. Hailed for its exacting Swiss engineering, the Studer J37 was adopted by legendary artists like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix. As a result, its trademark warmth and clarity wove its way into some of the most influential albums in recorded history, cementing its position as the gold standard for mid-20th century multi-track tape recording.
A machine with
a storied past
The unit we modeled isn’t just any J37, it was once housed in Studio Barclay: the “Abbey Road of French music” that hosted iconic artists Édith Piaf, Serge Gainsbourg, and Jacques Brel.
Decades of recording sessions imparted this model with a unique musical patina and spirit, carrying the echoes of countless performances. Now housed at Studio D.E.S under the care and maintenance of Poussin Kechit, we got to go under the hood of this audio engineering marvel to gather key internal measurements and reproduce its tape states and calibration settings.
Tube-driven
precision
Beneath its robust metal frame, the J37’s greatest secret was its array of more than 50 vacuum tubes, each working in harmony and giving recordings a warm and distinct color.
The glowing triode filaments offer a manageable signal-to-noise ratio as well as producing a sound with natural compression. Combined with the machine’s impeccable design and studio performance, engineers were able to push recordings to their creative limits without compromising clarity. Using state-of-the-art modeling techniques, we’ve made sure to accurately reproduce the J37’s thermionic essence, preserving its rich tone and remarkable sound.
Recreated
like never before
By employing a neural-based modeling framework and conducting painstaking multi-stage measurements, we’ve methodically mapped the exact interactions, harmonics, and tape states that define the Studer J37’s distinctive sound.
The result is a truly authentic recreation brought to life with state-of-the-art digital signal processing, enabling us to capture every detail and idiosyncrasy of this legendary machine. Tape J-37 infuses any input with an analog sheen that is indistinguishable from the real thing.
Instant
results
Tape J-37 comes loaded with 25 specialized presets, from classic tape enhancement to drum bus coloration.
Drums Color
Designed to make your drum bus warmer and more cohesive.
Bass Emphasis
Adds harmonic content to your basses by pushing the low-mid range through the tape distortion.
Gentle Nostalgia
Wrap your instrumental tracks or vocals with this nostalgia-inducing tone.
Worn Piano
Chorus-like effect based on stereo offset, tape instability and slight delay. Great if you want to age your sound for a retro vibe.
Chorused Delay Keys
Unstable calibration settings and a sweet dotted delay effect in the mid-range to make your keys warm and endearing.
Old Master
Bad tape calibration creates a lo-fi master.
Make your
music glow
Whether you're making indie rock or working across genres as an audio engineer, Tape J-37 goes beyond simple tape emulation.
From adding cohesion to full mixes, to upping the grit and wear on individual sounds - have a 1960’s studio legend at your fingertips.
Master bus saturation
Transform your entire mix with a cohesive tape glow. Use Tape J-37 on the master bus to add richness and depth, subtly enhancing each element and giving your track a gorgeous reel-to-reel feel.
Elevated drums
Add punch and character to your drum bus, intensifying each hit with authentic tube-driven saturation. Tape J-37 enhances transients, adding body and grit, perfect for giving your rhythm section a warm, analog edge.
Textured leads
Infuse your vocals, guitars, and synths with some tube spirit. Use the Advanced Panel to age your sound or take it into more experimental terrain with added noise, tape flutter and delay.
Artistscorner
Howie B
Producer (Björk, U2) / Pussyfoot Records
This plugin takes me back to my analogue days in a beautifully warm environment. I'll be using it on drum, vocal buses and everywhere. The color is really subtle. I'll keep working with it. Really good job Arturia!Alan Meyerson
Immersive Mixing Engineer (Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Henry Jackman)
What a useful, beautiful, subtle, extreme fucking plugin this is.Craig Bauer
Producer / Mixing engineer
I own every single tape machine emulation ever released. This BLEW them out of the water. Seriously. I had tried all the usual suspects out there. It's just fantastic.Joe Chiccarelli
Mixing engineer
The J-37 delivers all the character of a classic analog J-37 tape machine. It can easily add some subtle analog warmth to a mix or switch the tape speed to 71/2ips for a great low end bump to add to a overall mix or a bass track. The Drive feature let’s you push the tape Saturation well beyond the typical analog tape overload. Perfect tool for coming up with some great vocal color or even guitar distortion.Katie May
Mixing Engineer / Producer (Foals, GoGo Penguin, Maggie Rogers)
I'm a big fan of the J-37. It's great for adding a touch of warmth to a track but to me it really shines when you dive headfirst into the drive control! There's an incredibly wide range tones to work with.Tom Lord Alge
Composer
Tape J-37 is great for adding just that bit of warmth & saturation. Perfect for fattening up tom toms, bass guitar and vocals. The delay function gives a great vintage slap sound. The user interface is easy to use with the ability to really tweak the sound and come up with something completely unique.Marc Urselli
Producer / Engineer / Mixer / FOH Sound (Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Mike Patton)
I recently was working on a ‘vintage’ mix that needed that something-special-and-vibey and so I reached for the J37 to add a period-specific analog tape feel to the mix and the client loved it.Rik Simpson
Mixing Engineer / Producer (Jay-Z, Portishead, PJ Harvey)
This thing is great, it really feels like the higher end tape machines I used back in the day. I currently have it on my mix bus and it's definitely glueing everything together, bringing the mid range forward in a lovely smooth way.Michael Beinhorn
Producer
This plugin is interesting because compared to the other tape recorder emulations I have, it has a much different tonal characteristic. Overall, it seems to be a slightly broader and bigger in the sonic field it’s reproducing. It also sounds a bit smoother. It does something really nice with certain low end information and in some cases, seems to make the lows, low-mids and mids pop in a way I really like... The richness of the J37 added a wonderful tonal color and made the sounds even more present.Jacknife Lee
Producer / Mixer: U2, The Killers, R.E.M
Another brilliant emulation! The drive is great. The graphic and design is beautiful. Much better any other I've seen. The stop and start is very fun. Touching the tape to mess with is great! The EQ is so smart and musical. The instability feature is also very musical. And I love the delays. Really intuitive and 'analog' sounding. It's remarkable. You have written a hit single!Emre Ramazanoglu
Engineer / Mixing / Noel Gallagher, Carly Rae Jepsen, Sia
This is UNBELIEVABLE.Sul Ki Son
Mixing Engineer (Lil Wayne, Coi Leray, Chief Keef)
As a mix engineer, I'm usually getting source material from various different studios. Tape saturation has been one of my go to techniques when dealing with tracks that may sound a bit dull or two dimensional. I found the new Arturia J-37 tape machine to be extremely helpful in those instances & it also adds some depth, dimension & warmth back to the sound.Steve Levine
Producer / Engineer (Culture Club / Beach Boys)
They have a special sound, it’s not just the fact it’s tape, it’s the pre amps- they had a certain “mojo” that’s been perfectly captured by Arturia, the plug in gets you the sound you want. It’s really a secret sauce for low end.Ali Staton
Mix Engineer
I was instantly captivated by it’s warm, gooey charm. Drums, bass, vocals, it works beautifully on all sources.Ilan Rubin
Drummer/Nine Inch Nails
Tape J-37 does exactly what you want it to but goes above and beyond as a creative tool on any source.Brian Kehew
Tape expert
IT WORKS! I'm definitely going to use this. I really like the overbias and vintage ones. It's good sounds we need, slight compression. This is very useful.
The features
you need
However you use these plugins; for the amazing tone of their reverb, for the gritty preamps, or for their incredible sound design abilities, you'll be safe in the knowledge that they are fully compatible with your setup. These plugins work with all major DAWs, and on both Windows and MacOS.
Developed with
machine learning
We combined our expertise in virtual analog with machine learning techniques to perfectly emulate the J37’s complex architecture and non-linearities
The Studer J37, with its 50+ vacuum tubes, is a complex machine to handle directly. Therefore we combined detailed measurements of units that were used in the Studio Barclay with our virtual analog expertise and state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. This allowed us to replicate the intricate non-linearities of the device, including the tube-based distortions, magnetic tape behavior, and the tape magnetization process.
TAE® Powered
The exclusive analog modeling technology that makes our emulations indistinguishable from the originals.
By accurately mimicking the characteristics of analog oscillators, filters, and soft clipping, we can provide astonishing component-accurate detail and authentic analog charm in equal measure.
Gallery
Main Features
A recreation of the holy grail of analog tape machines.
Color control with a range of tones from clean to gritty.
Modern Mode retains bright highs while adding analog warmth—perfect for crisp, punchy sounds.
Drive knob controls input level with saturation and distortion, with auto gain compensation.
Speed Control to switch between high-speed clarity and low-speed warmth.
Authentic VU meter for monitoring input levels and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).
Play / Stop to add tape-stop effects for realistic playback control.
Stereo Offset adds natural stereo width with subtle channel dispersion for extra depth.
Advanced Panel to adjust EQ, delay, noise, and instability for additional sound shaping.
25 Quality Presets: Designed to help with various source material, from vocals and guitars to bass and master mix enhancement.
Platforms specifications
Windows
- Win 10+ (64bit)
- 4 GB RAM
- 4 cores CPU, 3.4 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo-boost)
- 1GB free hard disk space
- OpenGL 2.0 compatible GPU
- ARM processors not supported on Windows
Required configuration
- VST, AAX, Audio Unit, NKS (64-bit DAWs only).
Apple
- Mac OS 11+
- 4 GB RAM
- 4 cores CPU, 3.4 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo-boost) or M1 CPU
- 1GB free hard disk space
- OpenGL 2.0 compatible GPU
Work with ASC
- An elegant and simple solution to help you install, activate, and update your Arturia software.
* All manufacturer and product names mentioned on this page are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Arturia. The trademarks of other manufacturers are used solely to identify the products of those manufacturers whose features and sound were studied during the development. All names of equipment, inventors, and manufacturers have been included for illustrative and educational purposes only, and do not suggest any affiliation or endorsement by any equipment inventor or manufacturer.
*NKS ready
