I have some audio gear from Universal Audio in my racks, and I rely on it heavily. Bill Putnam Sr. founded the company back in the 60's and a lot of his designs are still going strong, albeit with some modernization when his sons re-founded the company in the 90"s. Every year they send me a thick, glossy-paper catalogue of all their analogue gear, as well as their digital emulators, which fill more than half the pages.
Most of these emulators are devoted to reproducing analogue sounds that were originally produced by analogue gear. Their best-sellers right now are tape machine emulators of the 2-track Ampex ATR-102 and the Studer multitrack 2" A800.
They've made a life's work out of going "back to the future..."
Check out their wares. Definitely not cheap! (and they definitely work best with one of their accelerator cards!)
http://www.uaudio.com/uad-plug-ins.html