Apollo
Native
sale
Oxide Tape Recorder
Experience our easy-to-use, groundbreaking tape emulation.
- Inject the warm color and punchy low-end response of analog tape to your tracks
- Apply tape saturation and circuit overdrive via simple Input/Output controls
- Choose among 7.5 and 15 IPS Tape Speeds and two emphasis curves for colorful tape textures
- Experience in-the-box recording “through” tape in real time using Apollo interfaces
Experience our Easy-to-use, Groundbreaking Tape Emulation
What They Say
Mark Needham
The Killers, Neon Trees, P!nk
Jacknife Lee
R.E.M, The Cars, Snow Patrol
Reviews
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Oxide Tape Recorder is one of the fastest ways to add the warmth, punch, and glue of analog tape to vocals, drums, bass, guitars, and full mixes, with only a handful of controls to learn. It was developed by the same UA team behind the company's flagship tape machine emulations, so the core sound comes from the same modeling expertise in a much simpler package. With a 4.8-star average across more than 700 customer reviews, it's a plug-in a lot of producers keep on every session.
Oxide Tape Recorder is built around the essential controls of a tape machine rather than every calibration option, so you can get a musical result in seconds. You choose a tape speed, an emphasis curve, and a noise reduction setting, then set the Input and Output to taste. Under the hood, it models both tape compression and the color of the machine's circuitry, which is where much of the glue and character of real tape comes from.
Oxide Tape Recorder recreates how recording to magnetic tape shapes a sound, adding gentle compression, harmonic saturation, and a characteristic low-end response. Transients get softened just enough to feel natural rather than squashed, and the low end gets fuller and punchier. The overall effect is that tracks feel more cohesive and "finished," like they were recorded to a real machine.
Oxide Tape Recorder is the right pick if you want great tape sound quickly, with simple controls you can set and forget. UA's full-featured tape machine emulations give you deeper control over things like tape formulation, calibration, and head behavior, which is ideal if you enjoy tweaking every detail. Plenty of engineers use Oxide for speed across many tracks and reach for the deeper emulations when a specific source needs fine-tuning.
Yes, Oxide Tape Recorder is included in UAD Spark Studio, UA's subscription that bundles 60+ UAD native plug-ins with LUNA. That makes Spark Studio a simple way to get Oxide alongside a full collection of compressors, EQs, reverbs, and instruments. If you'd rather own it outright, Oxide is also available as a standalone perpetual license.
Yes. When you purchase Oxide Tape Recorder, you get a license for both the UAD native version and the Apollo/UAD-2 version. That means you can mix with it in your DAW on any supported computer, and run it on your Apollo interface or UAD Accelerator when you want DSP-powered processing.
Oxide Tape Recorder offers two tape speeds, 7.5 and 15 IPS (inches per second), and each gives your track a different flavor. 7.5 IPS tends toward a rounder, more vintage character with softer highs, while 15 IPS keeps the top end more open and the low end tighter. Try both on the same source; the right choice depends on whether you want obvious color or a more polished sheen.
Oxide Tape Recorder includes two emphasis curves, which change how the tape's EQ is applied during recording and playback. Each curve gives a slightly different tonal balance, particularly in the high frequencies and low-end response. Switching between them is a quick way to fine-tune how bright or warm a track sits in the mix without reaching for a separate EQ.
Oxide Tape Recorder's Input control sets how hard you drive the tape and its circuitry, which determines how much saturation and compression you hear. Low Input settings add subtle warmth and glue, while higher settings push into thicker saturation and circuit overdrive. The Output control lets you balance the level afterward, so you can compare the processed and unprocessed sound fairly.
Yes. Oxide Tape Recorder runs natively on both macOS and Windows computers, including Apple Silicon Macs. It also runs on Apollo interfaces and UAD Accelerators if you want to offload processing to UA DSP hardware. License management uses an iLok account, with three activations per license on your computer or an iLok USB key.
No. Oxide Tape Recorder runs natively on your computer, so no UA hardware is required. If you do own an Apollo interface you can run Oxide for realtime tracking and lower CPU load.
Yes. Oxide Tape Recorder works in LUNA on both Mac and Windows, and in all major DAWs that support standard plug-in formats (VST3, AU, and AAX). You can use it on individual tracks, buses, or your master bus in whatever recording software you already use.
Yes. With an Apollo interface, Oxide Tape Recorder runs on Apollo's onboard DSP so you can record "through" tape in realtime, just like printing to a machine in a classic studio. You hear the tape color while you perform, and you can choose to commit that sound to your recording or monitor with it and keep your recorded track clean. It's a great way to capture drums, bass, and vocals with character from the first take.
Oxide Tape Recorder works well on almost any source, with drums, bass, electric guitars, and vocals being especially popular choices. On a drum bus it adds cohesion and punch, on bass it thickens and rounds out the low end, and on vocals it can add presence or be pushed into grittier saturation. Engineers also use it to gently tape-compress bright sources like hi-hats, taming harsh peaks while keeping transients natural.
Yes. Oxide Tape Recorder on the mix bus adds a subtle layer of glue, warmth, and low-end punch that helps a whole song feel cohesive. Keep the Input conservative for gentle color, then compare with and without the plug-in at matched levels using the Output control. Many producers leave it on the mix bus from the start of a session so they mix into the tape sound.
Yes. Tape emulation plug-ins like Oxide Tape Recorder remain one of the most useful tools in modern production, because tape's compression and saturation solve real mix problems like harsh transients, thin low end, and tracks that don't sit together. Real tape machines are rare, expensive to maintain, and use costly, hard-to-find tape, so plug-ins make that sound practical for everyone. Oxide gives you that character on as many tracks as you like, with instant recall.
The UAD native version of Oxide Tape Recorder runs on your computer's CPU, while the Apollo/UAD-2 version runs on UA's dedicated DSP inside Apollo interfaces and UAD Accelerators. Both deliver the same tape sound. The DSP version adds the ability to track through Oxide in realtime with Apollo, and it keeps processing off your computer so your CPU is free for other plug-ins and instruments.
Tape saturation, like the kind Oxide Tape Recorder produces, is a gentle, musical form of distortion that adds warmth, harmonics, and soft compression while keeping a track's character intact. Heavier distortion pushes further into obvious grit, fuzz, and clipping. With Oxide, you move between the two with the Input control: subtle settings add polish and glue, while driving it harder brings in thicker saturation and circuit overdrive.