New York developer Iconic Instruments has launched Transport Vintage Tape, a new tape emulation plugin that goes well beyond subtle warmth into full-on vintage distortion territory, available now for Mac and PC.
Tape emulation plugins tend to fall into one of two camps. There’s the kind that adds a barely perceptible warmth to a mix, and the kind that allows you to push things until they break. Transport Vintage Tape, the latest release from New York-based Iconic Instruments, is firmly in the second camp, while still being capable of the former.
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The plugin’s central idea is flexibility. The Record level parameter is the main driver here – if keep it low, you’ll get the kind of classic, subtle tape enhancement that adds body without drawing attention to itself. When you wind it up, Transport delivers something considerably more characterful, pushing into heavy saturation and all-out distortion territory that most tape emulations simply won’t go near.
Beyond the Record level, the plugin offers a deep set of controls. High and Low Drive parameters let users determine how much high- and low-frequency content feeds into the saturation circuit, which opens up a lot of creative options for shaping where the colour lands in the frequency spectrum. A HF Bypass function engages a low-pass filter to keep high-frequency content clean if needed, while the Head Bump feature adds a low-frequency boost of up to 12dB, adjustable anywhere between 50 and 250Hz, which is handy for adding that characteristic low-end weight associated with tape playback. A High Frequency Response control provides a ±12dB shelf filter placeable between 4 and 10kHz for further tonal shaping.
“Transport Vintage Tape goes further than most other tape plug-ins — it can be subtle, or it can be wild, so if you push it hard, you’re going to get a lot more colour than you would normally get with any other tape plug-in. It also adds a number of features you don’t see anywhere else,” says Michael Vecchio, Founder of Iconic Instruments.
Transport Vintage Tape is available now for Mac (macOS 10.15 and later) and PC (Windows 10 and above), with VST3, AU and AAX versions supported.
For more information, head to: iconic.nyc/transport.
