I was jealous of the some of the 424 sound I was hearing in pedals and tunes, so I rolled my own. Available for iOS and Mac VST3/AU (with windows coming when I figure out how to set up a build environment). $2.99 for iOS, 4.99 for desktop, cheap!
It’s not an accurate recreation of any particular machine, but gets some of the crunchy 4-track vibe, adds warble, hiss and dropouts, and the same shitty automatic gain compression your walkman had. For me, it’s great!
Demos and links at
iOS:
VST/AU:
Why TAPESCAM? Well… it reminds me of another 4-track manufacturer, and most importantly: there’s no tape in here! What a scam.
I’m working on some updates to toggle the innate stereo widening, and open up all the gain stage and other controls in an advanced mode for anyone who wants to tweak away.
Disclaimer, if important to you: the DSP code for this was AI-assisted. UI is hand crafted in the Affinity mines.
It’s “inspired” by the 424 gain stage, and I have the same sequence of amp modules under the hood, but it’s much more “overloaded 4 track vibes” then “a/b with a 424”. I still think JHS does that best.
This is the second AI-generated vst I’ve seen this week, the first was quite bad, I wonder if yours is any better? Sorry but I’m not looking forward to the plugin market being flooded with low-effort slop like everything else.
I’m a fan of Tapescam, instant purchase as TB Reelbus is on almost everything of mine, this has a totally different quality and the settings are nice quick and direct.
Well done @charlesv
I’d describe it as AI-assisted as I sorted through writing DSP and learning JUCE, but it definitely was not just a “please write plugin prompt”, with a couple of months of effort put into it. I mention it though as I know some folks are sensitive to it so want to be up front!
Arturia Tape Mello-Fi is a plug-in I use a lot!
Yours sounds pretty good as well, I love how it breaks the sound apart when pushed too far.
Pretty inspiring to be honest.
I would call this a proper and open use of AI as it should be used - as a tool to help the creator, increasing efficiency and reducing cost. In this case it seems that savings is being passed onto the consumer with its low cost.
In a world of copious Lofi/tape/saturation apps of wildly varying prices, it’s refreshing to see this balance.
I also agree I’m not looking forward to low effort slop. Or AI hooking me into the Matrix to steal my BTU’s. But the Bladerunner inspired doom loops I’ll create on my iPad then sample into my MPC seasoned with this new app are gonna sound epic as I meet my destruction at the hands of my AI overlords.
Nice looking plugin and cheap as chips - I collect lofi plugins like calories. And yea agree great name!
On the subject of AI I think some folks are a bit oblivious to the fact that as a technology it’s used pervasively in the tech world. Developers, testers, architects, designers, project managers - they’re all using AI assisted tech to some degree. In this year of our lord it’s a bit like being angry that a copywriter had their spellchecker turned on.
not only does it come “complete” there have been a few fantastic additions, (wow/flutter), compressor, 4 diff noise sources -pink,-vinyl…) and it just sounds amazing and really forms the vintage vibe of the SP1!
