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Which tape emulator AUv3s exist on iOS?
Of course I always praise Reelbus, and I've heard about Flytape but never dove into it. What I'm looking for are emulators I can slap on the master buss (not all at once though lol) that can emulate a ratty old cassette tape/reel-to-reel tape. Is Reelbus the best there is? Which do you prefer?
Comments
Found Chow Tape, lol. I like this better than Reelbus for emulating a ratty old cassette, lol.
There’s also Klevgrand Cassette, MSXII Lo-Fly Dirt and Caelum Tape Cassette
There is Caelum Tap Pro, but I cannot recommend it until they address a very serious audio glitch issue with it first, which I've repeatedly raised with them and it still remains unaddressed. If I recall correctly, it's on their list of things to fix.
Nice! I'll be sure to check those out for my next live Ambient piece. I just finished one with Chow Tape on the master buss, lol. The audio sounds so pleasingly degraded. But Chow Tape can be pushed to extremes very, VERY quickly, and if that's what you're after, by all means.
That really sucks actually. I'd have loved to use it in an upcoming project. I won't bother with that then.
ReelBus is cool, I have been using it for a decade now.
I use it more for a comp/vibrato than a tape sim.
Good tape saturation is hard to emulate.
No kidding. The best way to emulate tape saturation is to record the output of an iPad onto a physical reel-to-reel analogue tape and record it back into the iPad.
But who has money and space for that? (Maybe Brian Eno, but he's not mortal, so he doesn't count lol.)
Mixbox as Tape cassette, phonograph and saturation-x
AH! Yes, Mixbox.
I often forget about that app even though it's a good app.
Chow is the best imo
In addition to the greats mentioned there’s Time Machine by 4Pockets:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/time-machine-auv3-plugin/id1472980119
I’ve been meaning to get this one for a long time so if you (or anyone) has experience with it please let me know your impression.
Tap Delay
Same here I was always forgetting it until I started using it more lately.
That looks good actually.
Ahh, you can always count on 4 Pockets to have something to cover every need in a producer's toolbox.
Ah now I see. It has that wicked Pultec emulation in it, and I do love me a good Pultec sometimes. (Although I rarely EQ my sounds when I produce Ambient, just sticking to a simple high-pass filter on most sounds in a mix, lol.)
No Gauss love here?
I meant AUv3s that emulate the sound of old tape. 🤣 Bruh, Gauss is the best tape looper out there, period! Most of my live Ambient productions wouldn't exist without Gauss.
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/50658/jwm-my-mellow-was-harshed-dark-ambient#latest
Three prepared instances of Gauss are what I used to drive this live production.
Fabfilter Saturn has a range of Tape algorithms, though it doesn’t offer a full tape simulation the way that ReelBus does e.g. bias, wow & flutter:
… and ReelBus is perfect for master bus, to add a flavour to the entire mix.
There is also this one from a dusty corner in app-land. RE-1 tape echo.
Despite the fact it has a tendency to glitch (no audio output), it is still a nice toy to play with.
Ha well I use this:
Think it was 50 bucks. Still use a Tascam Porta One sometimes too.
It's not a matter of opinion: Chow Tape is the best - and this is a large part as to why:
https://dafx2019.bcu.ac.uk/papers/DAFx2019_paper_3.pdf
After buying the apps I didn't yet buy, redownloading the ones I didn't redownload yet, and testing those and the ones I already have, I have reached a personal opinion: Reelbus and Chowtape are my two favourites. If I want to add a bit of subtle flavour and character to the master buss, that's Reelbus. If I want the master buss to sound like it was recorded on a dodgy old cassette, Chow Tape. Chow Tape is what I used on "My Mellow was Harshed", and it sounds glorious!
Chowtape can be used for subtle effects, too.
True, very true.
It's so easy to push it to extreme extremes too, lol. All in how one uses it. 
There’s a lot of good ones. ReelBus is one I haven’t tried yet but ChowTape is fantastic. I really like Tape Cassette, RE-1, LoFly Tape, K7D, and Time Machine as well. RX950 and PCM2612 are also very good, but more limited. TTAP and Dub by Kymatica also have tape-like effects.
Nice! I'll have to check Dub for sure as I'm looking for a dub tape echo emulator.
Based on a 60ties unit, a cheap & simple (and very overlooked) cool tape echo/delay emulator: https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/lofionic-duplicat/id1128402103
RE-1 and yaleD