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It's something that engineers fought for decades to remove. I don't really see an advantage of adding it in artificially. Some "Analog" buttons in plugins do stuff other than simply add noise, though. It depends on the plugin. But the ones that are strictly noise or tape hiss...those get turned off permanently in my projects.

I don't usually turn on anything which purposedly adds noise, wow, flutter or similar. But depending on situation I can use saturation effects, harmonic generation. With some effects like compression that can happen anyway to some degree. To me this is a matter of aesthetics. If certain instrument or part would benefit from hiss, hum or what ever kind of noise, I wouldn't hesitate to add it. It's just that I don't want to make my recordings as a whole to sound like coming through old noisy gear.

I'd consider it as just an effect. Like EQ'ing to make something sound like it's coming from an AM radio...if you can use it somewhere, cool. Otherwise - nope, stays off. If I want that, I'll build or buy the original box...

I'd say that the inclusion of any analog noise/artifact on a plugin that isn't specifically a distortion creation device shows a fundamental misunderstanding of nearly everything to do with recording, mixing, and producing audio. No exceptions.

I just can't wait for the next edition of the Wow & Flutter, Dirty Tape Head, Turntable Rumble, Dirty Vinyl Crackles, Power Line Hum Harmonics, and Tape Hiss plugin suite to come out! O:) (Satire, of course!) As a former tape guy, I don't miss any of them.

I think if you're going to emulate tape noise it should NOT be on individual tracks but probably the 2 buss would be best. That way you get the effect you're looking for but you don't get the nasty buildup of noise.

That is really unbelievably absurd! For decades, since audio technology has even existed, engineers have worked out everything possible to suppress the noise floor: There were NRS circuits, Dolby A, Dolby B, Dolby C, dbx-dnr and the Telefunken High-Com. And the last analog cassette machines were actually really good and achieved almost 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio - with High-Com or dbx. And today? After some time in the digital kingdom of heaven, where everything really sounds the way you record it, some people want the analogue noise, rumble and crackling back? The nimbus of the old analogue times is hung extremely high, as if it were about paying homage to a deity long past. As if an earlier zeitgeist and an earlier magic could be captured. I believe that an earlier zeitgeist and old genre can only be revived by composing music in the previous way and using its sounds. Rumbling, rustling and crackling only worsen everything - then and now. :D

Hum is in good supply for most of us...I'm surprised to hear it comes as a feature...

If I want to make something sound completely vintage then I grab Cassette by Waves Factory. Even then though, I'll still usually bypass the tape hiss. It's kind of a slap in the face to audio engineers and electrical engineers that they spend time to create hardware with super-low noise, and then we add noise back in? Might as well just record onto a walkman and re-record the output

I have a bunch of that kind of thing, I keep forgetting to use it. :D The meme for many years was digital mixed ITB will never sound as good as tape mixed on a console... anyone still think that? Jack White, maybe? :D