I recently watched a video touting the new Studer® A800 Multichannel Tape Recorder plugin from Universal Audio. It features a surprisingly mediocre soundtrack, enough marketing hype to make Don Draper blush, and a bunch of talented audio engineers waxing poetic about a digital recreation of a 34-year-old electromechanical device. And as I watched it, something struck me: Those spinning tape reels are ridiculous.