3 ms·

In my opinion, nothing is quite the same as real analog cassette sounds. It's nice to play around and prototype, but if you really want a good cassette sound ef

In my opinion, nothing is quite the same as real analog cassette sounds. It's nice to play around and prototype, but if you really want a good cassette sound effect, you have to use real hardware, for now.

TonyTrapp 3mo ago
There's a number of VST plugins that get very close - much closer than a static set of filters every possibly could. This is just an approximation.
- varispeed 3mo ago
  "very" close is subjective. In my opinion it is nowhere near running audio through real tape. The computation capability needed to fully simulate tape in real time is not there yet. To model all subtle interactions, phase etc you'd need to run audio in 10-100+ MHz range.
  - 999900000999 3mo ago
    TAAS ? Tape as a service ? Upload your music and get it recorded to cassette and re uploaded to you ? It’s all a moot point most of the time since it’s going to be compressed to crap by Bluetooth codecs before reaching most ears.
    - varispeed 3mo ago
      It exists like https://accessanalog.com/product/telefunken-m15/ https://accessanalog.com/product/telefunken-m15/
raffael_de 3mo ago
what is the appeal of cassette sound effects / analog cassette sounds? is it nostalgia?
- speedgoose 3mo ago
  Nostalgia for sure, but it also makes the sound less perfect in a way that can be interesting musically. It adds harmonics, slightly detune everything, compresses, adds noise. It's a good tool to make a sound that sound very artificial, sharp, perfect, into something more soft and perhaps interesting to some.
  - sandworm101 3mo ago
    Ie they sounded like crap. Those of us old enough to live through the tail end of cassettes loathed them. Just like records before tape, every time you played them they sounded a little worse than the last time. And you rolled the dice on whether your player would eat the cassette. CDs were like magic. Nobody should look back.
    - TrojanHookworm 3mo ago
      Those qualities are exactly what makes the casette/analogue sound appealing to some ('organic', 'imperfect' etc.) Sonic aesthetics cannot be reduced to a question of fidelity alone.
    - speedgoose 3mo ago
      I’m old enough. The bad sound quality is the point. It’s like emulating old video games. On a perfect display it doesn’t look very pleasing but if you add CRT and NTSC analog artefacts, it may have some charms.
    - LearnYouALisp 3mo ago
      No, it's not quite...
    - overfeed 3mo ago
      > Nobody should look back Vinyl has outsold CDs for many consecutive years in the recent past. A strong retro-trend is booming right now with (mostly young) people rebelling against things that are aesthetically too sharp or crisp. The imperfections you decry, are seen as "authentic". A few people are paying more for their wedding to be recorded on an old SD Camcorder rather than 8k. I suspect it's part of a whiplash against (tech) companies "ruining everything" and a yearning for a simpler time by people too young to have experienced it
hypercube33 3mo ago
My pioneer tape deck has a high end DSP that spanks dolby and removes tape noise and I love the sound it produces.

TonyTrapp 3mo ago

There's a number of VST plugins that get very close - much closer than a static set of filters every possibly could. This is just an approximation.

varispeed 3mo ago
"very" close is subjective. In my opinion it is nowhere near running audio through real tape. The computation capability needed to fully simulate tape in real time is not there yet. To model all subtle interactions, phase etc you'd need to run audio in 10-100+ MHz range.
- 999900000999 3mo ago
  TAAS ? Tape as a service ? Upload your music and get it recorded to cassette and re uploaded to you ? It’s all a moot point most of the time since it’s going to be compressed to crap by Bluetooth codecs before reaching most ears.
  - varispeed 3mo ago
    It exists like https://accessanalog.com/product/telefunken-m15/ https://accessanalog.com/product/telefunken-m15/

raffael_de 3mo ago

what is the appeal of cassette sound effects / analog cassette sounds? is it nostalgia?

speedgoose 3mo ago
Nostalgia for sure, but it also makes the sound less perfect in a way that can be interesting musically. It adds harmonics, slightly detune everything, compresses, adds noise. It's a good tool to make a sound that sound very artificial, sharp, perfect, into something more soft and perhaps interesting to some.
- sandworm101 3mo ago
  Ie they sounded like crap. Those of us old enough to live through the tail end of cassettes loathed them. Just like records before tape, every time you played them they sounded a little worse than the last time. And you rolled the dice on whether your player would eat the cassette. CDs were like magic. Nobody should look back.
  - TrojanHookworm 3mo ago
    Those qualities are exactly what makes the casette/analogue sound appealing to some ('organic', 'imperfect' etc.) Sonic aesthetics cannot be reduced to a question of fidelity alone.
  - speedgoose 3mo ago
    I’m old enough. The bad sound quality is the point. It’s like emulating old video games. On a perfect display it doesn’t look very pleasing but if you add CRT and NTSC analog artefacts, it may have some charms.
  - LearnYouALisp 3mo ago
    No, it's not quite...
  - overfeed 3mo ago
    > Nobody should look back Vinyl has outsold CDs for many consecutive years in the recent past. A strong retro-trend is booming right now with (mostly young) people rebelling against things that are aesthetically too sharp or crisp. The imperfections you decry, are seen as "authentic". A few people are paying more for their wedding to be recorded on an old SD Camcorder rather than 8k. I suspect it's part of a whiplash against (tech) companies "ruining everything" and a yearning for a simpler time by people too young to have experienced it

hypercube33 3mo ago

My pioneer tape deck has a high end DSP that spanks dolby and removes tape noise and I love the sound it produces.