Benedict Roff-Marsh, an independent plugin developer, has just released Looser Tape Movement as a 64-bit VST 3 plugin for Windows, and it’s available as pay-what-you-want.
The concept of applying deliberate time and pitch smearing across the tracks in your mix comes from the way analog tape works.
It’s not a new thing to emulate this behavior through plugins to inject some organicity and liveness in your digital DAW-only mixes, but it’s always something cool to experiment with.
Personally, I love to add an organic, warm feeling to my tracks, and I’ll typically look for an emulated analog-summing plugin to put at the beginning of every track’s chain of effects.
The non-linearities of the emulated analog circuitry are the secret to a more natural, interesting result since the imperfections of the analog world are usually more desirable than a plain, sharp digital result.
Tape wobbling and fluttering is another route rather than saturation alone, and Looser may be precisely what you’re looking for. The plugin is simple but effective, with only a few critical controls on the interface.
On the left, you’ll find the Rate and Depth parameters referred to in the Wow panel.
A switch is found near the Depth knob to change the range of the control, but typically you’ll get a vibrato effect with some nice and subtle pitch movement.
At the center of the interface, the Flutter panel is displayed with the same set of controls. The flutter effect can be dramatic, creating ghostly effects in higher ranges that are non-dissimilar to AM or FM.
This typically affects higher frequencies, and it emulates the vibration of the tape itself.
In most traditional scenarios, you’d prefer an almost imperceptible wow and fluttering to subconsciously add interest and movement to the individual instrument tracks of your mix. If you’re more into Lo-Fi and creative applications, then you might want to explore the more quirky side of Looser instead.
Finally, at the far right of the interface, there is a single Feedback knob to give you the possibility to feed some of the processed signals back to create even some flanging effects if pushed hard.
In these cases, it inevitably adds volume at higher ranges, so it’s intended more as a creative effect than a pure mixing application.
Overall, Looser Tape Movement is a lovely, clever, simple unit and can suit various applications of music production and mixing.
As always, if you like it, consider supporting the developer through his Ko-Fi page.
Download: Looser Tape Movement (available as pay-what-you-want)
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Last Updated on September 6, 2023 by Tomislav Zlatic.
