The Kiss of Shame is a previously unreleased magnetic tape emulation plug-in from 2014, originally developed by Eros Marcello, that was recently finished and released by Matthijs Hollemans.
I love tapes, I can’t help it. If you ever visit my home studio area, you’ll find it festooned with cassettes and VHS tapes that go into my misguided ambient experiments.
Still, sometimes you want a plugin because getting the outboard running for a session can be a bit of a drag. I typically lean on Goodhertz’s Tupe for all my tape saturation needs, but today’s plugin, The Kiss of Shame might be making the rounds soon.
This is an experiment in plugin resurrection, based on a plugin of the same name that dates back a decade. However, a new developer has brought it up to modern standards. The Kiss of Shame is now open source, joining the excellent Blocks, Vital, Surge, and other plugins.
The Kiss of Shame is a fairly exhaustive tape emulation; you can go for more pristine mastering decks or get into the grungy nasty things that make tape such a coveted medium for lo-fi artists today.
Of special note is Environment, which mimics the storage conditions that could affect a tape negatively. Thankfully, your deck isn’t going to have a pinch roller squealing when dealing with a tape that’s a little short on lubrication.
You can also control the age of the tape as well introducing Shame, the plugin’s name for wow, drift, flutter, and scraping noises. Hiss can also be added.
One of the more novel things to be seen here is the typical animated reels. In 99% of the other tape plugins I’ve used, these are purely for decoration.
On Kiss of Shame, however, you can actually click these and change the sound without worrying about your oily hands imparting some sort of residue on the playhead.
There are two tape formulas to choose from, one being more in line with the tape standards of the 1960s and 1970s and the second being the later formulation you’d see in mastering studios up until recently.
My favourite feature is the print-through, which just helps things like softsynths sound like they’re breathing on their own.
So, what are you waiting for? Go download it and give it a shot.
Download: The Kiss of Shame (FREE)
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