A complete tape machine path for printing a signal: drive into the tape, transport wobble, bias, the low-end head bump and a protective output stage. Nine controls follow the order the signal takes through the machine.
The idea
Taper is an algorithmic tape model rather than a capture of one machine. Its character comes from a chain of explicit stages. The signal is brightened on the way in and darkened by the same amount on the way out, so the tape stage in between saturates the detail before it is put back. A wandering stereo delay adds wow and flutter, a bias stage moves between sticky and slew-limited behaviour, and a pair of resonant filters adds the low lift that people often hear as "tape" before they notice the saturation.
Every control sits at a neutral middle by default, so you can start from a fair comparison and push one stage at a time.
Controls
- Input sets how hard the signal prints. The middle is unity; the top is four times the gain.
- Tilt balances the bright encode and dark decode stages around the tape.
- Shape moves the split between the low and high tape bands, changing which part of the spectrum thickens or thins.
- Flutter sets the depth of the wandering pitch; the lower half of the knob stays subtle.
- Flutter Speed sets how fast the transport wanders.
- Bias moves from under-biased stickiness to over-biased smoothing of fast changes. The centre bypasses it.
- Head Bump drives and blends the low-frequency head resonance.
- Head Frequency tunes that resonance from 25 Hz to 200 Hz.
- Output is the final trim before the safety clipper. The middle is unity; the top is twice the gain.
Getting started
Taper is a stereo audio effect for voice, guitar, drums or a full mix. Start with a dry guitar take at the default settings, then compare Input, Flutter and Head Bump one at a time. Presets to try:
- Studio Master: a well-aligned machine run gently, glue and weight.
- Driven Tape: pushed into the curve, saturated and thicker.
- Warped Reel: slow, deep wow, like a bent reel.
- Worn Guides: fast, fine flutter with the bias off.
- Head Weight: maximum head bump low down.
- Broken Deck: overdriven, misaligned and unstable all at once.
