Get the characterful sound of analogue tape in your DAW with these throwback plugins.
Before the world went digital, records were captured on magnetic tape, which has a particular frequency response and a certain amount of artefacts due to imperfect equipment mechanics and degradation. These sonic characteristics are the result of the physical limitations of the medium, but they also give it a unique quality that has fuelled a resurgence of interest in analogue-style recording in recent years.
As the golden age of tape recedes into the past, a new generation of producers are now looking to capture some of the magic of an era they weren’t even alive for in their mixes. There’s a special feeling that comes with the sound of tape, whether you want to call it lo-fi, retro, vintage or whatever else. Fortunately, plugin developers haven’t been slacking in this department, and there is a wide range of plugins on Plugin Boutique that will help you emulate the sound of tape in your DAW.
Softube Tape
One of the features of tape recordings is a pleasing warm saturation that makes everything sound like it’s had a bath in a butter dish. Softube are a developer who has built up a reputation for releasing award-winning software versions of iconic analogue products, and as saturation-based effects are very much their thing, it’s no surprise that Tape is a winner.
The plugin has three tape machine types on board, each precisely modelled on devices with their own distinct character. There are some premium modern features like a mastering grade high shelf filter, stability control and a Dry/Wet knob, but the main selling point for Tape is its realistic analogue sound, which will compare favourably to most alternatives out there. As an added bonus, Tape’s presets were designed by Grammy Award-winning producers Joe Chicarelli and Howard Willing too, so you won’t struggle to find the right sonic flavour.
Baby Audio TAIP
When science fiction lovers in the seventies were daydreaming about the artificial intelligence of the 21st century, they probably imagined a dystopian world of sentient robots and supercomputers. One thing they probably didn’t think of was that it would be used to emulate the tape machines of their own era. Baby Audio's TAIP is an AI-powered tape saturator that brings the true sound and behaviour of analog tape into your DAW by emulating a 1971 European tape machine.
Instead of using traditional DSP, TAIP’s AI algorithm deciphers the sonic characteristics that make a tape machine sound the way it does and applies its learnings to new audio. Like most tape emulation plugins, TAIP is quite simple in practice, with a flexible feature set that will allow you to create a custom tape flavour for any scenario. Use it to add musical saturation and glue to drums, instruments, vocals and whatever else you feel like.
Wavesfactory Cassette
While some tape emulation plugins revive the sound of the recording equipment used in professional studios, others concern themselves with a more humble medium: the cassette tape. Cassettes were the most popular audio format of the eighties before CDs arrived on the scene with far superior audio fidelity. However, in today’s pristinely digital world, the retro texture and low fidelity of cassette tapes has become desirable, and Wavesfactory Cassette is one of a growing number of plugins that you can use to achieve it.
Cassette offers four tape types modelled on the main cassette types, which each gives you an altered frequency response as well as a different combination of saturation, compression, hiss and asperity noise (a low-frequency rumble). The plugin’s interface is minimal and modelled on the look of a classic tape deck, but its set of controls enables you to modify the effect in quite a precise way.
Caelum Audio Tape Pro
We’ve covered a variety of different tape emulation plugins so far in this roundup, but most have either specialised in a specific area of the medium, whether that’s recording studio tape equipment or compact cassettes. Tape Pro is a multi-effect plugin that allows you to choose between Micro Cassette, Cassette, Semi-Professional and Professional tape impulse responses, making it an excellent option for both vintage effects and more subtle tape emulation scenarios.
As well as the tape Response Types, there are also six Saturation Types to choose from (Tape, Digital, Rectify, Half-Rectify, Sine and Smooth) which can be modulated heavily. All of this contributes to a large sonic palette, with a lot of potential for creative effects. Add to that the Wow/Flutter, Noise and a pretty flexible Delay section, and what you get is a comprehensive tape emulation plugin that does more than just sound like tape.
iZotope Ozone 10
An all-in-one advanced mastering suite that can help you to craft fine-tuned and polished projects, you can tell that Ozone is one of Massachusetts audio technology giant iZotope’s flagship products simply by checking how many iterations there’s been. Ozone 10 comes with a host of new features from the previous version, including a colourful collection of Vintage Modules, of which Vintage Tape is one.
Ozone’s Vintage Tape module delivers all the frequency colouration, saturation and phase effects of tape. Inspired by the innovative Studer A810 tape machine that was originally introduced in 1982, the Vintage Tape module carries the same excellent frequency response even at the critical high and low-frequency range limits where tape traditionally doesn’t fare so well. Clearly, Ozone 10 is a plugin that is built for much more than tape emulation (there are 16 powerful sound-shaping tools all in all) but Vintage Tape is definitely a welcome addition to its arsenal.
u-he Satin
You might know Berlin-based audio software company u-he for their luxurious virtual analogue synth Diva, which picked up a bundle of awards and five-star reviews for its stellar sound quality. The fact that Satin was developed by the same team is definitely a good thing, as it manages to capture the essence of magnetic tape recording and translate it into the digital world in a similar fashion to their much-lauded synth.
Satin charts a path through the history of tape technology with a mix-and-match emulation approach that covers everything from top-of-the-line multi-track consoles to humble cassette decks. That’s not all though, there’s a 2 or 4-tap delay and a true tape flanger to play around with, as well as full control over all the good and bad characteristics of tape. Satin’s Group panel also allows you to control up to eight instances of the plugin at once, a really handy feature when you inevitably start spraying it over all your tracks.
Klevgrand DAW Cassette
If you’re looking for straight-up cassette tape emulation and nothing more, Klevgrand’s DAW Cassette is the plugin for you. Klevgrand released DAW Cassette as the VST version of a web app experiment that was met with a hugely positive online response, and it doesn’t mess around. The plugin’s interface is super minimal, with an illustrated style that immediately feels warm and old school, and that’s before you even get to how it sounds.
Whether you’re looking for a dash of vibes or a wobbly pile of scuzz, DAW Cassette has you covered with three tape modes (Normal, Chrome and Metal) and some simple controls to customise the effect. There’s a four-band peak EQ, a choice of noise types, and Tape, Head and Motor quality knobs. Flip the plugin over on its back and you also get a Tape Head angle slider to introduce some phase issues.
Spectral Plugins OCS-45
Newcomers Spectral Plugins take their seat at the tape table with OCS-45 Cassette Simulation, which brings all of the lo-fi, vintage feel of cassette tapes to your sound. The cheapest priced option on our list, OCS-45 is a bargain if you’re looking for instant retro character, with four authentic tape modes modelled on the major cassette types – Ferric, Chromium, Ferrichrome and Metal.
What sets OCS-45 apart from the competition though is that it also functions as a rich distortion processing unit with five precisely programmed distortion types (Tube, Diode, Soft Clip, Saturation, Downsample) that are perfect for adding extra life, warmth or nasty grit to anything you put it on. The other components of the plugin are a Wow/Flutter module which simulates the pitch warbling and tonal degradation of tape, a Noise module with an envelope follower and a Dropouts module that introduces periodic volume breaks to the signal.
Arturia Tape MELLO-FI
After releasing Mellotron V, a software recreation of the legendary Mellotron keyboard that had a tape playback mechanism under every key, Arturia decided to build the fluttering, grainy and compressed sound of the instrument into an effect plugin. The result is Tape MELLO-FI, a feature-packed tape emulator that blends the past and the present.
With a simple interface that’s straight out of a classic studio, Tape MELLO-FI provides all your lo-fi needs within seconds, from subtle analog fatness to dizzy pitch flutters. The Preamp section allows you to add crispy distortion, with colour determined by the Tone knob and grain texture by the Noise control. There’s a spinning tape reel that can be adjusted to different speeds, Flutter/Wow, Wear and Mechanics dials to season your tape recipe to taste and a 12dB low- and high-pass filter section to boot.