• 21 analog and digital tape machines - carefully sampled all around Europe - 40 finely crafted programs, 3 consoles, 2 compressors, a dedicated MIX control, authentic dynamic compression, real harmonic saturation, and more. It took us over 10,000 minutes of sampling time to craft Taupe. This is not just the regular analog tape emulation plugin.
  • The plugin can be used to add the classic sound of an old tape recorder to your tracks but also as an analog-style double-tracking effect thanks to its wow and flutter simulation. CHOW Tape Model is available as a free download as a standalone effect, as well as a VST, VST3, and AU plugin.
  • Virtual Tape Machines (VTM) by Slate Digital. The VTM plugin by Slate Digital provides a tape.
  1. Free Analog Tape Plugin
  2. Tape Machine Vst Free

Karlette by Steinberg (the developers of the VST format!) is a delay plugin offered for free as part of their classic collection. It’s a vintage tape delay with four independent delay heads and tempo sync. Props to Steinberg for updating this to 64-bit.

Article Content

Modern engineers are spoiled. We have keyboard shortcuts for making edits, crossfading and even quantizing. But back when engineers still routinely recorded to tape, they needed a pair of scissors and special tape to make cuts.

While most engineers don’t miss the hassles that come with using a tape machine, we all miss the sound. Tape machines impart a unique combination of equalization, compression and saturation to audio signals. The exact effect a tape machine has on a track depends on a number of settings.

Tape Machine Type

Before DAWs were popular, tape machines were the primary method for recording audio. Typically, studios would use multichannel tape machines for recording and then bounce the final mix to a 2-track master tape. Each of these machines effected the sound in different ways.

Generally speaking, fewer tracks requires a smaller tape size to maintain fidelity. So, 2-track mastering decks typically used 1/4”, 1/2” or even 1” tape. However, 8-track, 16-track and 24-track recorders typically used larger 1” or 2” tape. Each tape size has its own unique sonic characteristics.

Tape Speed

The speed of the tape also affects the sound. All tape machines offer a “head bump“, or frequency boost in the low end. Which frequency, and how much boost depends on how fast the tape is spinning. Tape speed is measured in inches per second, or IPS.

Free Analog Tape Plugin

Generally, faster speeds offer higher fidelity, less noise and more high-end. Slow speeds tend to roll off the high-end and boost the lows and low-mids. Slower speeds also add more saturation but tend to be noisier. Common speeds include:

  • 30ips: Typically considered more “hi-fi”. Low midrange boost around 200Hz. Slightly extended high-end.
  • 15ips: Low-midrange boost around 100Hz. Slight midrange boost for more “bite.” More saturation and “attitude”, but more noise. Favorite for rock.
  • 7.5ips: Typically considered more “lo-fi”. Significant high-end roll off and boosted low-end.

Tape Types

Of course, the tape machines themselves aren’t the only variable in this equation. The type of tape you use has an impact on the sound as well. Each tape type has “different frequency response, compression, and distortion characteristics.”

Tape types are defined by the amount of input they can handle before distorting. Early tape types offer more color and thicker low-end response in exchange for more noise and distortion. “Modern” tape types tend to sound punchier, have extended headroom and less noise/saturation.

Although each of these tapes has a suggested “calibration level,” most tape machine plugins let you adjust them. Calibration levels determine how loud the incoming audio signal can get before distorting.

Generally, the lower the calibration level, the higher the signal level needs to be to cause saturation. Here are the most common tape types, and their default calibration level.

  • 250 (+3): Distorts early. Highest noise floor. Highs are noticeably rolled-off. Big low-end boost.
  • 456 (+6): “Colorful.” Thick low-end.
  • 900 (+9): Punchier. More definition.
  • GP9 (+9): Minimal distortion. Least noise. Flattest frequency response. Minimal coloration.

Fine Tuning

The great part about tape machine plugins is that they offer many of the luxuries of analog recorders, with almost none of the drawbacks.

For instance, one of the worst parts about working with tape (aside from editing) was dealing with all of the noise. Many plugins simply offer a Hiss and Hum controls to reduce or remove the noise entirely.

As an added bonus, many plugins feature group controls. Which allow you to try a variety of settings across multiple channels. Instead of, you know, shutting down the session for an hour while you swap the heads and tapes on two machines. Don’t forget to recalibrate every channel when you’re done!

Here are the most common “fine tuning” controls seen on tape machine plugins.

  • Over-Bias: Introduces an ultrasonic signal to help prevent artifacts. Some plugins offer Normal/Over-controls. Over-Biasing adds an extra 3dB of the ultrasonic signal, which many engineers prefer.
  • Low/High Bias: Other plugins offer Low/High Bias controls, which causes the low-end to distort when set to Low, and the high-end to distort when set to High.
  • Flux: Flux is another control that dictates when the signal will distort. Higher flux settings mean you can drive the input harder before causing distortion. Low flux settings mean distortion will occur earlier.
  • Wow: Fluctuations in frequency below 4Hz caused by movement in the tape machine.
  • Flutter: Fluctuations in frequency above 4Hz caused by movement in the tape machine.

Signal Flow

Most tape machine plugins allow you to monitor the signal at different parts of the signal path. They’re typically broken down into four options:

  • Thru: Monitors the original signal. Bypasses the plugin entirely.
  • Input: Monitors the signal after passing through the tape machine’s circuitry, before it reaches the tape. Great for analog vibes without the effects of tape.
  • Sync: Monitors the signal after passing through the record (sync) head, but before reaching the playback head. Minimal tape effects.
  • Repro: Monitors the signal after passing through the record and playback heads. Maximum tape effect and maximum vibes.

Tape Emulation Plugins

Over the years, many different companies have modeled a variety of different machines from all over the globe. They each have their own unique sounds and shine in certain situations. Here are the most popular tape machine emulations:

  • Satin: U-He “Tape Construction Kit”
  • Slate Digital: Virtual Tape Machine (Studer A827 2” 16-Track Multichannel Tape Machine, Studer A80 RC ½” 2-Track Mastering Tape Machine)
  • Softube: Tape (Studer, ATR, EMI)
  • UAD: Studer A800 Multichannel Tape Recorder, Ampex ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder
  • Waves: J37 (EMI 4 Track 1” Multichannel Tape Machine), Kramer Master Tape (1/4” Tube-Powered Machine)
Tape – Softube

Modern engineers are spoiled. We have keyboard shortcuts for making edits, crossfading and even quantizing. But back when engineers still routinely recorded to tape, they needed a pair of scissors and special tape to make cuts. While most engineers don’t miss the hassles that come with using a tape

Most of these plugins offer a range of options, so it’s easy to dial in the sound you’re looking for. Just be warned, once you hear the effect tape can have on your tracks, you might have a hard time going back!

FREE Masterclass: Low-End Mixing Secrets

Downloaded Over 19,455 times!

Discover how to make your kick and bass hit hard by cutting (NOT boosting) the right frequencies! Plus, more counterintuitive ways to get fuller yet controlled low-end in your mix. Download this 40-minute workshop by Matthew Weiss, now for FREE!

Although we have all the tools we need to produce extremely clean and precise music without any unwanted artefacts there’s something about the imperfections of analog recording equipment that triggers certain emotions in us.

So if you want to produce lofi music it’s important to pick the right sounds and samples from the start. You could, for example, sample old vinyl records or buy an old drum machine. It would however be easier to just get your hands on a decent LoFi House or Hip Hop sample pack.

Once you have a selection of cool sounds & samples you can further refine your music to sound like it was recorded a few decades ago. Luckily there are plenty of cool lofi plugins available so you don’t have to actually own an old tape machine. Here are some of the best options:

Free LoFi Plugins

I want to start this list with a bunch of free lofi VSTs, because I know that a lot of producers are one a budget, especially when they’re still going to school (or music is their only income lol). That said, you don’t always have to spend money to get some quality software. The freeware in this list can easily compete with some of the paid stuff I’ll mention later on.

BVKER LoFi Rack

The “LoFi Rack” is a free Ableton Rack based on Live’s stock plugins. It comes with 8 macros allowing you to decrease the band width, add vinyl crackles, detune and distort the source sound. Unfortunately it’s only available for Ableton Live users, so if you’re using another DAW you have to pick some of the other options in this list. If you’re using Ableton however, hop on my newsletter and I’ll send you a free download link.

iZotope Vinyl

As the name suggests, iZotope’s “Vinyl” is a plugin emulating the characteristic imperfections of vinyl records. Since the freeware only comes with a handful of parameters it’s easy to use and setting it up won’t take much time. What I love the most is that you can adjust the year of your “recording”. A must have for every lofi producer if you ask me.

Spitfire Audio Labs

Labs is a free software instrument made by the London based sound design company Spitfire Audio. There are several extensions available, including pianos, brass, choirs and synths. Most of these instruments are rather unique and therefore a nice addition to the basic instruments libraries you probably already own. The cool part about Labs is that it comes with only a handful of parameters so you won’t spend 10 years trying to get everything perfect. The sound either fits your production or not.

Tritik Krush

Tritik’s Krush is an effect plugin with 3 different distortion types. A bitcrusher , a downsampler and an analog drive knob. It further comes with 2 filters and an LFO that can be used to modulate every parameter. It’s available for both Windows and Mac in VST, AU and AAX format so really everyone can get their hands on this.

Free tape vst

HY-Lofi2

This one is a free bit quantizer, waveshaper & filter plugin made by Tadashi Suginomori from HY-Plugins. It’s meant to process “audio to give it a low fidelity sound”. Just like Krush it combines different distortion modes with high and low-pass filters. More precisely it has one drive knob and a quantizer, which can run in different modes and qualities.

Legowelt Ableton Racks

Legowelt is a dutch producer known for releasing samples from analog hardware units, but you’ll also find some Ableton Racks on his website, including the Smackos Tape Station, the Smackos Lemuria Vintage Sampler Simulator, the Smackos 808 Simulator and the Smackos Amiga 909.

Sound-Base Audio Retro Boy

The Retro Boy is a Windows only VST synth. It comes with one oscillator, 7 waveforms and controls for ADSR, vibrato and decimation, which makes it perfect for Chiptune or 8-bit music. Since there isn’t much processing going on, the synth is quite CPU-friendly.

Best LoFi Plugins

Although you can definitely do some cool stuff with the freeware I mentioned so far there are some paid options no lofi producer should miss out on. A lot of them do more or less the same thing so in the end it’s up to personal preference (and budget), which ones you should get. Luckily most of these plugins aren’t that expensive compared to some of the stuff by other brands.

XLN Audio RC-20 Retro Color

Probably the most hyped plugin of this list is the R-c20 Retro Color by XLN Audio. It combines 6 different effect units, including noise, wobble, distort, digital, space and magnetic. Combining these options basically allows you to recreate any lofi characteristic you could possibly think of. If I could only pick one plugin of this list I’d probably go for this one, since it comes with the most features.

Baby Audio Super VHS

Considering that Baby Audio is a rather new plugin company, their products already gained quite much attention. Super VHS again combines multiple effects, including a distortion unit, a retro sounding VST reverb and detune knob labeled “drift”. All knobs sound surprisingly good and I really dig the design.

Tape

D16 Group Decimort 2

Decimort 2 is a bitcrusher on steroids. It offers two optional anti-alias filters, adjustable jitter, two quantization methods and controllable dithering. If you’re looking for a cool bitcrusher, this is definitely the one you should get your hands on. With less than 50 bucks it’s also pretty affordable.

AudioThing Vinyl Strip

The Vinyl Strip is just like RC-20 a multi-effect plugin consisting of 6 different modules: Distortion, Compressor, Bit Crusher, Tilt EQ, Vintage Reverb, and something they call Vinylizer. In contrast to most plugins mentioned in this list, you can change the signal flow simply via drag-n-drop. On their website is stated that you can activate your license without an internet connection, which is pretty cool if you still live in a cave 😉

Devious Machines Texture

Texture is a plugin I just recently found out about watching Virtual Riot’s production workshop he did for Cymatics. It allows you to add noise to any kind of source sound. The cool part is that unlike similar effects you can even load your own noise samples and can adjust the exact frequency range, amount, ADSR and stuff like that.

Cableguys ShaperBox

When it comes to beat making, there’s one plugin every FL Studio user slaps on their melodies: Gross Beat (you’ll find plenty of memes about this). The problem is that it can’t be used in other DAWs (at least on Mac). This is where the Cableguys come into play. Their ShaperBox combines different effects that can all be modulated. The Time one is especially interesting for lofi producers, because it allows you to play back your melodies in halftime, add cool pitching effects and mix everything in with the dry signal.

Initial Audio Analog Pro

Analog Pro is once again a plugin meant to bring your digital audio tracks to live by simulating analog hardware. It comes with a variety of adjustable controls, including Noise Level, Noise Type, Impulse Type, Impulse Mix, Emphasis, Stereo, Lowcut, Highcut, Wow, Flutter and Amount. While I’m writing this the plugin is on sale for €26.10 (which is 64% off) so feel free to check out if this offer is still available.

Aberrant DSP SketchCassette

SketchCassette is a VST inspired by 4-track cassette recorders. It comes with most features the other plugins in this list have. Since it’s however available for only $20 it’s particularly interesting for producers on a tight budget.

Goodhertz Wow Control

Wow Control focuses on the weird and random modulations of analog playback devices. According to their website Goodhertz has carefully studied the essence of three different tape machines to make sure their plugin is the most comprehensive tape model they ever heard. I haven’t tried it out to be honest, but there are some videos about it on YouTube so feel free to check them out if you’d like to learn more about it.

PSPaudioware VintageWarmer2

The PSP Vintage Warmer is a tool simulating the saturation of analog compression / limiting. It comes with classic compression controls, such as knee or release time, and since it can run in multiband mode you can further control the individual bands a bit. In contrast to most usual compressors it comes with a big drive knob. Since it also comes with a mix knob you can drive the compression / saturation quite hard and mix it in just a bit to make your drums or vocals or whatever a bit fatter.

Wavesfactory Cassette

According to Wavesfactory’s website “Cassette is an audio plugin that imparts the unique character and sonic imprint of an often maligned recording medium”. You can also get your hands on their free Cassette Transport plugin, which “simulates the sound of tape speeding up and slowing down”. Or with other words: it’s a pretty cool tape stop plugin.

Psychic Modulation EchoMelt

Tape Machine Vst Free

Echomelt is “designed for adding character, texture and warmth to your sounds”. It doesn’t look that stunning, but it comes with an echo and chorus unit, which sets it apart from the other options in this list.

Aphex Vintage Exciter

The Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter by Waves is modeled on a tube-powered hardware unit. It allows you to increase high frequencies without raising the level too much.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are plenty of lofi plugins available that make your productions sound like they were recorded with a toaster (or something like that). The free offers, especially Vinyl and Labs are no brainers, since .. well, they’re free, so make sure to download them straight away if you haven’t done so yet 😉