LoFi Tape Machine
Worn tape for lo-fi guitar sounds: tone that darkens with tape speed, wow, flutter, hiss, wear and dropouts. Find it under Creative > LoFi Tape Machine. Drive adds oversampled Spiral saturation before the transport; the separate Airwindows Tape module provides the full tape processor and head bump. Use Output to match loudness as Drive rises.
Starting points
| Sound | Speed (ips) | Wow | Flutter | Noise | Wear | Mix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subtle drift | 15 | 10% | 5% | 0% | 10% | 100% |
| Worn cassette | 3.75 | 35% | 25% | 20% | 50% | 100% |
| Damaged tape | 1.875 | 70% | 60% | 35% | 90% | 100% |
Match the level with Output when comparing, and try each setting with a sustained clean chord as well as a distorted riff. The controls and their ranges are in the module guide.
Good to know
- Slower Speed makes the tape darker and its wow and flutter slower, but it does not change the pitch of your guitar.
- The tape sound is slightly delayed. Partial Mix settings, or a clean signal in the other lane, therefore add some chorus and comb colouring; fully wet is the usual starting point.
- Noise hiss continues between notes. For silent pauses, lower Noise or place a gate after this module.
Read the transport display
The display shows the actual pitch movement of the tape, not the pitch of your guitar:
- The green trace is wow and the amber trace is flutter, both over the last 2.56 seconds on a ±60 cent scale.
- Taller traces mean more pitch movement; more cycles mean faster movement. The number on the right is the largest movement in the window.
- Hiss and dropouts do not appear, because they do not move the pitch. The display dims when Mix is fully dry and clears when the module is bypassed.
LoFi Tape Machine is an original character effect, not a model of a specific tape deck, and it adds no latency.
Saturation
Drive adds 4x oversampled saturation before the transport, using the Spiral shaper from Airwindows Tape. It leaves head bump and the full Tape processor's softening to the separate Airwindows Tape module. Drive at zero bypasses saturation and retains the original transport sound. Wear continues to control bandwidth and dropouts independently; Mix leaves the dry path unchanged.