SpaceTape VST

There are a lot of FREE tape emulation VSTs out there already, so why another I hear you ask? Especially one that makes no claims to authenticity, let alone name-dropping obscure (yet apparently famous) machines as the donor of coolth?? Fair question. SpaceTape is designed from a musical approach (as in: it sounds good to me) rather than from technical numbers.

Sound in DAWs, esp those that are particularly clean like Reason, can be so perfect it is hard to get the sort of “grab” that you hope for. In the old days, these sorts of plugins were called “warmers”. SpaceWarmer sounds too much like a radiator even for my sense of humor.

Using a few features from existing VST of mine I created a single unit that focuses on being a single device to take any perfect-sounding Synth or whole Song and rough it up a bit. This is not designed to get nasty but to roll off those perfect highs that just never happen in analog (or the real world) and create a bit of imperfection with pitch movement and saturation overtones.

If you like to oversample, that can be done too, up to 32x. Although I shaw what is probably a smarter, more practical method on the video below. If you do that and have Oversampling set to x2 you get 4×2=8 times oversampling which is probably overkill.

Suggested Uses

SpaceTape can be applied to anything. If the material feels too thin or brittle or hangs a bit lifelessly, try SpaceTape with some Bulk and/or Saturation. The Tape Drift & Tone will also add subtle sparkle. Try not to overdo any controls for best results.

SpaceTape VST Manual

Please be sure to drag the whole SpaceTape Folder (within the VST 2.4 or VST 3 folder) into the relevant folder where you have your VST for your Host to find.

• Input Trim – allows for a bit of trim to the signal that runs through the whole unit. A lot of the features are very level dependent so try to drive it with a healthy (but not too LOUD) signal. If you are struggling to get enough input, try the
• Input Boost – which gives you a bit more welly to play with. It is a straight boost so you may need to start again with the Trim knob.
• Bulk – is a soft distortion with a very small amount of drive. So long as your signal is not too loud, it will tend to bulk up the overall sound.
• Drift – controls the pair of LFOs that make pitch wander like dubious tape machines. If you feel the need to take that into stupid territory thre is a button for you called
• Broken – that overblows the pitch wander to levels that no tape machine ever did (unless forced to watch Night Rider)
• Tone – switches in a secret sauce tone curve for a bit more swash in the buckle
• Oversampling – is for those looking for more frequency headroom. Try to see if it sounds nicer, it doesn’t always but it does slurp on CPU.
• Saturation – pushes the signal into a drive that adds nice overtones.
• Output Trim – lets you finesse the output level for A/B comparisons etc

Reason User Bonus

Included in the download is a Combinator II that duplicates all the controls up onto the faceplate. You will need Reason 12 (or higher) for this to work. And no doubt you will need to have Reason finding the SpaceTape VST 2.4.