ToTape6
TL;DW: ToTape6 is Airwindows tape emulation for 2020!
It’s nearly 3:00 AM as I post this. I’ve been at it all day. Worth it.
Here’s ToTape6. There are still things I want (simplification) but this is all the things you wanted :)
ToTape6 brings in tech from UnBox, from Mojo, from BiquadOneHalf… it’s quite literally the culmination of all the stuff I’ve been doing over the last year (or indeed three years). I think it’ll register immediately as a killer tape emulation, perhaps THE killer tape emulation to beat for all that it’s an abstraction and not meant to be any specific tape machine. No GUI, no brandnames: just the tone, and the ability to soak up intense audio gracefully. And of course those delicious tape-machine lows, courtesy of the new head bump.
Unlike ToTape5, the new ToTape6 is extremely well behaved in the sub-octaves. By that I mean it has them, tons of them, it’s got that ToTape/BassKit ability to uncork profoundly deep subs, but thanks to the interleaved biquad filters it cuts them right off and doesn’t let DC through. It’s got a special kind of servo damping built in because I found when you stacked them up four deep, the tape machines started subtly motorboating around 20 hz, so I fixed it. Even in its fixed state, be cautious about pushing the head bump beyond its default halfway setting as it’ll produce a LOT of serious lows, with an interesting compressed quality you won’t hear outside of ToTape and the real thing.
Due to the influences of UnBox and Mojo, the new ToTape6 puts forth a lot of sonority when you hit it: warm harmonics stand out and project, due to the boosting happening in an overall midrange band that covers most of the audio range. The Soften control is subtly improved as well: if you’re looking to tape to warm up digital overtones and edges, ToTape6 does that effortlessly.
Flutter is so profoundly improved that ToTape6 defaults to having it on, at 0.5. That causes the plugin to run a small, varying latency (bear this in mind). It’s also a step into a weirder realm: I was being asked to do a ‘trashed tape’ plugin. This might not be ALL of that, but the new Flutter algorithm is both clean up to extreme settings, and more capable of bonkers warble and wacky over-flutter. Check that out at the far reaches of the Flutter control. At settings below 0.5 the flutter is more usable in serious contexts, and as always if you set Flutter to zero you bypass the whole thing and get zero latency and a lack of interpolation between samples, giving you clearer highs to use Soften on. For serious mastering purposes I still recommend not using flutter, plus there are some electronic genres where it’d be disruptive.
The dry/wet control has a trick in store: it only works in the normal way if you’re NOT using flutter. If you’re full-wet you can flutter as you please, but as you bring dry in, you’ll get a striking flanging effect that’s different depending on where your flutter setting is (flutter changing can cause sonic artifacts, but you can still do it for effect). The AU is ‘N to N’ meaning it will randomize stereo or even 5.1 surround: the VST runs true 2-channel stereo so it will more accurately resemble a stereo tape flange. Either way, it’s more of a stunt than an important effect, but it does mean you can be running subtle tape flutter effects and then seamlessly fade into an obvious full-mix flange, and then back to the solid, loud tape effect. This will work differently each time you do it, so be sure to print your results: flutter is a random process.
Oh, one more thing: ToTape6 has the guts of ADClip built into it as a safety clipper. So you can use it as a final loudenator, at which it ought to be about as good as they get: if the tape slam isn’t getting you there, you can push the output volume past 0 dB to intentionally clip harder, or pull it back to make sure ToTape is the only distortion stage. If you’re seeing extended periods of -0.09 dB you’re seeing ADClip working.
Hope you like it, and I hope it’s been worth the wait. As you can see, a bunch of other plugins came together to be functional parts of this one, and I believe it’s going to work out well for people.
(This was originally released with a bug where attenuated input gain produced a change in tone: if you need that version it’s now called originalToTape6.zip. There’s also a tweak with how the head bump works, to try and reduce an artifact of the algorithm centering itself. You should be using the current one, you can’t run both at once and this is only in case you needed the original release for some reason)
This exists because people supported my Patreon. Care to see what I can do given another three years? :)
Any plugins that do about exactly what this does, but doesn’t level the hell out of a sound? Could use the Soften and Head B features at full wet without the heavy leveling going on.
Nvm, found one. Does exactly what this does, minus the leveling. Thanks for this for giving me the idea!
Also, I’m sure you’re probably tired of me asking for it, but you described a Soothe vst plugin in your ResEQ release. Still hoping for that, the idea sounds great, and it’d sound very useful and revolutionary at that.
Thanks Chris! So amped to try this out!
I can See this being used to add flutter to a stereo slap back vocal delay, with maybe Highpass to cut the extreme frequencies.
Thank you very much for this new version of ToTape.
It’s expected the same behaviour in 44.1, 48 or 96 kHz files? Because I’m having different results depending on the input sample rate.
Hey mate, this is superb for thickening up my guitar. I’m so happy to find this it’s inspiring me to play more because my tone is the best it’s ever been. Thank you so much I doubt this will ever come off my signal chain.
Thanks for the great add-on in theis ToTape release. Your work is something many will better understand with time :-)
Thank you for this excellent sounding plugin. Hope you’ll release a soothe-like plugin in the future.
Tim and John – if you see this, just FYI the Soothe plugin is not coming and won’t ever: Chris has said a few times that he fundamentally disagrees with the idea of Soothe, so I wouldn’t expect an Airwindows Soothe :)
Question on the flutter mix ToTape6. Using AU version on drum buss with a slow flutter if I pull the mix down I’m hearing a high freq roll off that sounds really nice – reminds me a lot of the sound of attenuating at 3 or 5 k on a pultec emulation so I guess its something like 6db low pass? It moves around with the flutter and I really like. It doesn’t sound so much like EQ though – more like the effect of your Slewing stuff. Does not sound like a flange I get with other tape emulations. Is this truer to the real ‘tape’ sound in your experience or is this just a happy accident of this plugin? Is it phase cancellation and how does that differ from EQ? Just curious what’s going on -like to try and understand nice effects. Cheers and thanks for all you do.
Hi Chris, I just discovered you. Cool stuff, one thing and I know it sounds crazy but… How easy is it to support higher sample rates? I’m trying to find a tape saturation plugin for mastering that adds no aliasing at all, and been experimenting rendering out at 480kHz (I work at 48k but then the project renders out at 480k and the export downsamples to 48k again in case the x10 factor helps the downsampling a tiny bit). In reaper you can set the project rate to whatever you like, I even tried 12288kHz for a laugh but my plugins cried to death although reaper could still do it if the plugins could have.) At 480k it’s pretty good for the aliasing but the bass gets rolled off. Is there any easy way to fix this or to have some sort of oversampling option? I have one compressor plugin which can oversample x64 times to 3.1MHz and it really does help get closer to analog. I really feel this is one of the big things between analog and digital but I don’t mind waiting 20min for a 5min master to render if it can sound analog. Cheers, Tris
Awesome sounding plugins! ToTape6 has kind of this strange noise that’s audible after a loud noise has gone through it (“Loud” but peak is less than 0dBFS). Have you noticed this? Can it be fixed without harming the sound?
I used two of my presets and they both do it:
Preset 1 “Hifi Tape”
input -3.6
Soften 0.18
Head B 0
Flutter 0.2
Output 0
Dry/Wet 1
Preset 2 “Butter Smooth”
input -3.6
Soften 0.333
Head B 0
Flutter 0.333
Output 0
Dry/Wet 1
They’re NOT stacked one on top of the other in any way but are instantiated on 4 different and unrelated tracks
I’ve attached a sample of the noise that I mentioned here: https://filetransfer.io/data-package/sGcwvJsI
Hi Chris! came across Airwindows a couple weeks ago while looking for a new clipper and your plugins have since been replacing mainstays of my work process that I would have never thought would be beaten with such ease. This totape6 in particular makes other tape emulations just feel embarassing in comparison, I’m so incredibly impressed. The flexibility, ease on cpu (and on the eye!) and outright incredible sound simply blow every other tape plugin away. What I’m finding with Airwindows plugs is that they aren’t just very smart and sound great, but happen to be very usable. For instance something like Aura is just so damn effective in forcing stuff like pianos to sit in their place and not being annoying to other elements while being clearer at the same time. I’ve tried literally every tape simulation out there and settled on a handful that I liked, with some working better for certain uses and some for others – well this one to me sounds better (=more useful) that all of those in pretty much any situation, which is extremely impressive. I never thought I could replace the vintagewarmer as a last stage on a live drums bus but this is just too much better (and trust me, I’ve been trying to replace it for 10 years). wow. And how useful ALSO from a creative standpoint with all the more unconventional plugins you make, I love how you go “will it work? I don’t know…but you might find it useful” and also leave extreme and weird behaving characteristics there if someone decides to go there. Technology and music innovation have always gone hand in hand and it’s wonderful to see someone trying to push the world forward rather than giving the same old soup repackaged under a good looking gui and not much more (however good that soup might be). I LOVE that you exist, always remember you’re doing a real impactful difference! Hope you have a wonderful day, lots of love and a big hug <3
SUPER TAPE!!! Flutter great! Wish Hi shelf to add air !
This one goes bananas on my new MacBook Air/M1/16Gb using Logic Pro (Rosetta2) 😞
Keep up the incredible work! Looking forward for an update.
Hi. Thank you for this superior tape plugin. A kind of “sweep” sound is added when headbump is on. Is it an expected effect ? you can hear it whil playing and it can be isolated juste by stoping the playback. il will be there for a second. Maybe an error caused by my DAW (reason 11) ?
Thank you for all your work and the high end quality of your products !! to vynil is incredible, such as console8. they make fell like heavy gears are heating the room
Hello,
I’m using a MacBook Pro M1 pro and I cannot use the plugins.
It is probably a problem related to the new apple chip.
Can you confirm it?
Hi, I really like this plugin, how can I make a user interface for it?
Hi, I have to just say that this plugin (and others I’m making my way through) are quite remarkable.
They are the quintessential “sleepers” of the plug-in world. Sure the GUIs of other things look shiny and impressive, but what is under the hood is what counts. That’s all that will be noticed in the end with sound.
Amazing work, you add value to a lot of people’s lives. Thank you.
I’m sorry… On a mac here… How do I install this!?
On Mac and also can’t get it to show on Ableton, would love to try use it! :)
What the man above said, can’t seem to load it onto ableton, the starter pack works but not to-tape or tape.