Wavesfactory has introduced Cassette, an audio plug-in designed to emulate the sound of vintage cassette tapes and decks.
Cassette – available for MacOS & Windows – is an audio plugin that ‘imparts the unique character and sonic imprint of an often maligned recording medium.’
The plugin models four tape types. Each one delivers different sonic characteristics:
- I: was the standard and most compatible tape format. Featured a ferric-oxide coating (Fe2O3). First appeared in the 1960s.
- II: with a chromium dioxide (CrO2) formulation was introduced at the dawn of the 1970s featuring an undeniable increase in high frequency response.
- III: living a short period between the mid 70s and early 80s, the ferro-chrome (FeCr) never made it into the golden era.
- IV: metal-formulated hit the scene at the end of the 70s. Features firmer bass as well as louder high frequencies.
Changing tapes will have an effect in the frequency response of the plugin but also in the saturation, compression, static noise (hiss) and dynamic noise (asperity noise).
Cassette also models wow, flutter, random high-frequency loss, crosstalk between channels, stereo unbalances and more.
Audio Demo:
This audio demo demonstrates cycling through the various presets:
Pricing and Availability
Cassette is available with an intro price of €29.00 (normally €59.00).
Recording stereo to tape and then digitizing that is still one of the nicest things you can do for your gear.
Chrome tapes used to squeak terribly if used with the wrong kind of playhead. That would be entertaining to emulate. That goes doubly for the sound of your cassette’s tape getting backed up still driven by the actuators then chewed by the guide posts next to the playhead. That sound would be awesome to have. LOL
If the deck was kept clean, including heads, pinch rollers, and capstans, then it wasn’t a problem. The problem was mostly down to car stereos because they were harder to clean, and they got dirty quicker because of the environment of a car’s interior.
That’s a really cool demo video. Lots of info about exactly what the plug in is doing.
I completely agree. This video does a great job of going through the functions & gives useful examples.
Got this one and Love It. It takes some gear-page tweaking to dial in the desired effect per application but when you lock that in: magic.
Yeah, I think this is the best of the tape emulations I’ve used. Or my favorite, anyway.
It does subtle mastering mojo just as well as it does extreme FSU.
Wow, this sounds great, and the video explains the whole plugin quickly yet thoroughly.
I think I need this plugin.
Put Your Casio Tone VL to Rock 2
I know why you ran away, aha
Understand you couldn’t stay, aha
Wonder where you are today, aha
After all was said and done
It was right for you to run!
DAW DAW DAW
Very interesting concept which seems well engineered and researched. Seems like a shame that they dropped the most interesting controls into a settings menu. The UI does look really nice but more knobs are rarely a bad thing.