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Baby Audio Super VHS Review

Baby Audio Super VHS Review

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By // Updated on Reviews

Super VHS is a lo-fi audio effect plugin by Baby Audio. Check out our Super VHS review and enter the giveaway to win a free copy of the plugin. We have two free licenses available for two lucky BPB readers!

Growing up in an Eastern Bloc country in the early 90s meant that we didn’t get access to popular culture. As recently as a couple of years up to that point, this type of stuff was considered imperialist propaganda. By the time I knew what a remote was, we’d stopped painting everything red, but there was still no legal way to consume any sort of western media.

See also: FREE Magic Switch Chorus Plugin Released By BABY Audio

Enter the bootleg video rental shop. I watched everything from Power Rangers to Italian Giallo films, all in terrible quality. Ever since then, the particular visual and aural aesthetics of bad VHS tapes have been so burned into my brain that I can’t help but react to them positively.

Super VHS Review

Now, regarding its uses for the latter, Baby Audio has taken a smart approach. One can vinyl and cassette tape their music into oblivion. But really, what genres like Synthwave and Vaporwave are trying to emulate is the kind of music you would’ve heard while watching an old VHS tape.

Super VHS by Baby Audio

Super VHS sports a retro-looking interface with an 80s sci-fi vibe.

Visually, the plugin evokes the look of a jazz cup with the car from Knight Rider and more triangles than an Illuminati geometry textbook, but the real question is, what does VHS even sound like?

Crackle, Hum, Drift

VHS was, as I’m sure you’re aware, not the most reliable format, and I don’t just mean catching someone’s more risque home video while trying to watch American Ninja 2: The Confrontation.

Being an analog format, the magnetic tape itself could go out of sync, out of tune, can pick up dust, and who knows what else. With that in mind, here’s what you can turn and press in Super VHS.

Static & Shape

The Static slider dictates the intensity of the noise generated by the internal synthesizer. It’s a charming musical noise that gets more rattly the more you crank it up. The Shape control connects to a bitcrusher based on an 8-bit sampler and goes from subtle to full tinny and digital. I found it more usable in its two lowest settings, but the option to go wild is there. A particularly creative use I saw for the two is that if you only stick to them, you can affect the noise synth’s pitch for recreating more realistic interference noise.

Heat

An analog-tape saturator based on consumer-grade tape machines. I am always on a quest for more tape saturators, and this one sounds excellent. It’s very subtle, as much as a good saturator should be, while starting to fizzle at its highest settings. It definitely goes on the list.

Drift

The Drift knob modulates the speed and pitch of the signal. It goes full nightmare funhouse when all the way to the right, but is incredibly pleasant on low to mid settings. It’s also very fun to modulate.

Wash

Based on the 1980s budget rack units, Baby Audio describes it as a “bad hall” reverb. If you told me this came from Valhalla DSP’s VintageVerb, I’d believe it. It’s a great way to round out the other effects and really bring them together.

Magic

Speaking of rounding out, the literal centerpiece of the plugin is the big Magic button. Turning it on applies a lush chorus effect to the whole thing that I’m willing to bet is based on a Juno chorus but with the depth turned up a bit.

Turning On The VHS

As a test, I used the theme for John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic Halloween and threw Super VHS on it. Immediately, without touching any of the knobs, the plugin has reigned in a bit of the high end and tightened the mids, making for an overall more workable sound.

Now, I’m assuming that this is what a brand new VHS tape would likely sound like, but I didn’t have original tapes back in the 90s. I had bootlegs of early 80s VHS tapes, which means cranking those bad boys up to their low mids.

I mixed in the original signal to about 50%, which gave it a more consistent feel. I then asked a few friends to listen to both the original and the processed recording and tell me what they think. All concluded that yes, this sounds like a VHS tape. That’s a win in my book.

The Verdict

Realistically, this plugin isn’t likely to be used as exclusively a VHS-’em-up, but rather as a creative effect plugin akin to the XLN Audio RC-20. Super VHS costs precisely half of RC-20’s asking price but comes with about a tenth of the features. Additionally, James Peck’s tried and tested VHS Audio Degradation Suite is free and works in NI Reaktor.

At the same time, I love how Super VHS sounds and can find a use case for each of its effects individually and as a set. Super VHS nails that 80s sound, and it instantly imprints a unique retro flavor on any piece of audio. The signal chain is very cleverly thought out, but I’m just aching for additional control, even just a little bit.

More info: Super VHS ($49, available as a 32- and 64-bit plugin for both Windows and macOS)

The Giveaway

Baby Audio has kindly offered two free Super VHS licenses for two lucky BPB readers. We are giving away one of the licenses here and one on our Instagram page. So, there are two ways for you to enter the giveaway:

Only one comment per entrant is allowed. You can enter the giveaway both here and on Instagram to double your chances of winning. Our Instagram page is still quite new, so there won’t be a lot of competition. :)

We will announce the two winners on Wednesday, October 7th. Good luck, everyone, and thanks for reading BPB!

UPDATE: The winners are Luis Arango (l*************@g***.***) and @_jiriblazek_ (Instagram). Congratulations to our two winners and THANK YOU to all of you who participated. We have A TON more free content coming very soon, so stay tuned.

More info: BABY Audio (get 44% OFF complete bundle)

More articles:

Super VHS Review

85%
85%
Awesome

Baby Audio has made a fantastic retro VHS plugin that sounds great. Immediately gratifying to use, Super VHS is a unique-sounding alternative to other free and paid audio degradation effects.

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  • Workflow
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  • Performance
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  • Design
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187 Comments

  71. JT

     on

    Great article; BPB is thee most comprehensive station on the web to find out about free VSTs, sounds, etc. Keep the information coming, even if you have to put it on tape.

    Reply

  87. Brett Hocking

     on

    If you don’t win a copy of this plugin and you have the $49, get it. If you don’t have the $49 get the Magic Switch freebie they have, which is the chorus part from Super VHS. Great plugins from Baby Audio, I have all 3 paid and the 2 freebies and use them on almost every production. (Please don’t pick me as a winner.)

    Reply

  91. jeffthedeathheft

     on

    I have the magic switch plugin and it’s great. I’ve seen J rent use this plugin and it looks awesome!

    Reply

  98. Max

     on

    Very cool! Makes me want to leave my VHS copy of Blade Runner out in the sun just the see what it does to the soundtrack!

    Reply

  125. Jeppespelar

     on

    Seems like a great cool tool! I use Izotope Vinyl all the time and this seems to beat and top that little oldie. Would come to great use over here!
    Thank you for an awesome site!

    Reply

  136. Altur Hardware

     on

    I always go for Waves Cassette on my vintage productions, but I get that I’m crossing the streams a little bit when I make something sounding like a 90s movie soundtrack but then put Cassette saturation on it. Looking forward to maybe having VHS in my arsenal too

    Reply

  138. Alessandro Siqueira

     on

    Here in Brazil for reasons of the dollar value it is very expensive at the moment, but I have already seen his demonstrations and it is wonderful.

    Reply

    • Bee Gee

       on

      Awesome, I’ve had my eye on this plug for quite a while! Baby Audio makes some good plugs and I’m sure this one is no exception.

      Good luck, everyone!

      Reply

  160. Ian / Nihil Quest

     on

    I grew up in Eastern Europe as well and some tapes were so bad I had to switch system on VCR from PAL to SECAM, because that made the picture in black and white. Why? The colours on tape were so messed up, the movie was unwatchable.

    Reply

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