McDSP have announced the release of their newest APB plug-in, TAPE, a faithful emulation of magnetic tape recordings from tape machines made primarily in the 1970s and 1980s. We have the details…

McDSP say that TAPE it not like most other tape emulations because ‘it is an ANALOG tape machine emulation’. It uses a four-stage analogue process to recreate the compression-like effect of recording to tape. Different tape formulas (types), playback head configurations, low end ‘bump’ amount, low frequency rolloff, tape compression and input/output levels are all controllable by the user.

Features

• Analogue emulation of magnetic tape recording systems

• Four stage analog process

• User control of magnetic tape type, playback head characteristics, and tape compression

• VU style metering of input, output, overall gain reduction

• Double precision digital processing

• Sample accurate automation of analogue processing

A Closer Look At The Controls…

TAPE features a playback head configuration with two choices - 1970s and 1980s - which incorporate characteristics of magnetic tape machines made in that era.

Users can experiment with the TAPE and COMP controls to achieve a range of tape compression sounds. Use the OUT control to amplify the effect further, or dial it back to maintain levels close to the original input signal.

Most of the tape compression stages can be bypassed by turning the COMP control to 0%. This causes the input signal to hit the final output stage much harder, and possibly generate some subtle mid range saturation.

TAPE includes two VU meters - one for each channel of processing. Metering can show input level, gain reduction amount, or output level.

and more!

Back in 2023, we were lucky enough to get our hands on McDSP’s APB and were pleasantly surprised by its ease-of-use and effectiveness. You can read more about it in our article here. Similarly, we also reviewed another of McDSP’s APB plug-ins in Luke’s article We Check Out McDSP KD1 Kinetic Drive.

Pricing & Availability

TAPE APB is available now with APB-8 or APB-16, along with a suite of other APB plug-ins to route audio to the APB hardware and control the analog circuitry within.