CHOW Tape Model by Jatin Chowdhury

[crickey13]

I also use Cakewalk on Win10 and the oscilloscope seems to be working just fine, I'll check it out later, but I believe it works as intended, at least in my case, will report back later.

[Kott]

For me oscilloscope works fine too (with different Linux hosts).

[sinkmusic]

Oscilloscope works fin here too (VST2.4, win10, Reaper6)

[The Noodlist]

Very helpful Jatin, thanks!

I’m using Cakewalk by BandLab on Win7 (x64), with the latest VST3 version of your plug-in. But no matter what I do, I don’t see an oscilloscope. But that sounds like a nice feature.

Thanks for the quick reply, too!

Steve

Might it be related to runtime libraries?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/hel ... #section-2

[planetearth]

Very helpful Jatin, thanks!

I’m using Cakewalk by BandLab on Win7 (x64), with the latest VST3 version of your plug-in. But no matter what I do, I don’t see an oscilloscope. But that sounds like a nice feature.

Thanks for the quick reply, too!

Steve

Might it be related to runtime libraries?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/hel ... #section-2

I have those; they were installed with something else some time ago. Thanks, though.

Steve

[crickey13]

BTW, I've checked and can confirm the oscilloscope works just fine in Cakewalk on Windows 10.

[sinkmusic]

Hello,
two little requests :

- please consider using mm units (instead of cm) for the "loss" section parameters, as it would avoid having to type 0.00000000014 values

- Also, would it be possible to have (maybe optional?) stepped values for the tape speeds (so we would have 3,3/4 > 7.5 > 15 ips etc, and we would avoid thousands of intermediate values like 14,0145, etc).

[chowdsp]

- please consider using mm units (instead of cm) for the "loss" section parameters, as it would avoid having to type 0.00000000014 values

Yeah, this is a good idea. I'm not sure if I'll do millimeters per say, but I'll try to find some solution that makes it easier to type in values.

- Also, would it be possible to have (maybe optional?) stepped values for the tape speeds (so we would have 3,3/4 > 7.5 > 15 ips etc, and we would avoid thousands of intermediate values like 14,0145, etc).

Hmm, I'm not sure what advantage the stepped slider would have over the continuous slider, since typing values is allowed. I think maybe a better approach would be to improve the round-off behaviour for entered values.

I'll be tracking the improvements for the Loss section sliders here.

Thanks,
Jatin

[chowdsp]

I’m using Cakewalk by BandLab on Win7 (x64), with the latest VST3 version of your plug-in. But no matter what I do, I don’t see an oscilloscope. But that sounds like a nice feature.

Very strange! My GUI engine does use OpenGL for renderring, so possibly there could be an issue related to that... If I have a minute, I can try to generate a build with OpenGL turned off, and see if that works for you.

[sinkmusic]

Hmm, I'm not sure what advantage the stepped slider would have over the continuous slider, since typing values is allowed. I think maybe a better approach would be to improve the round-off behaviour for entered values.

The advantage would be a faster workflow when you want to stick with standard speed values.
On my tape decks, you just move a switch and it changes the speed : it's fast and easy
I think that on an emulation plugin, it should be faster to "stay in the emulated ballpark (so, here, it means switching from 3.3/4 to 7.5 to 15ips)" than trying unusual settings (in this case, playing around with values like 14.237 or 9.258).
Of course, you can type values, but it takes longer to move a knob, realize that the knob have 5 decimal values, try to set 15 by moving it to the left, fail ( ), try to set 15 by moving it to the right, fail again, then grab the mouse, type "15".

Also, the more you have parameters on a plugin GUI, the more they need to be setup fast.
ChowTape has grown with great new added parameters (which is awesome!), but dealing with 5 decimal values (and in-between values for the tape speed) makes it slower to use.

Of course, it's not a big deal (at all), but, imho, something to consider : if ChowTape aims at accuracy and emulation, it should be faster to switch from 7.5 to 15ips (like the real thing) than getting unusual values like 13.0174

[sinkmusic]

By the way, I was playing around a bit with the input and tone section, here are a couple remarks :

- I didn't notice much difference when playing with the pre/post emphasis knobs. It was very subtle (when I play with pre/post emphasis on real tape machines, it gives much more audible and obvious results, and it is very interesting).

- One further suggestion : adding smooth HP & LP knobs to the input section, to allow for further shaping of the input sound. It would be awesome for parallel processing and when using ChowTape as a distorsion effect.

[rbn777]

...

[sinkmusic]

... Me again
Suggestion : in the "TONE" section, swap the knob's position : "bass" should be at the bottom, and "trebble" at the top.

[sinkmusic]

How hot are you hitting the input? I have it on the 2bus of a rather bass heavy techno mix, incoming signal to the Chow Tape is about −18 dBFS, and I don't find the impact of the pre-/post-emphasis filters to be subtle at all, quite the opposite actually!

I don't know, as i didn't kept the settings. But i have tried with much hotter input, and now i can hear it.
I think my input wasn't hot enough. Also, it's not really sounding the same than when i'm using a real tape machine and some outboard gear for pre-emphasis, but it may depend on the gear (the actual gear I use and the gear ChowTape is modelling).

However, decreasing the setting (from 0 to -1) doesn't seem to produce any change?

[chowdsp]

The advantage would be a faster workflow when you want to stick with standard speed values.
On my tape decks, you just move a switch and it changes the speed : it's fast and easy

Thanks for the in-depth explanation here, your point makes a lot of sense. I have a few ideas for balancing the continuous slider with discrete controls... I'll do some experimenting and see what might work.

- One further suggestion : adding smooth HP & LP knobs to the input section, to allow for further shaping of the input sound. It would be awesome for parallel processing and when using ChowTape as a distorsion effect.

This could be nice... I might put the knobs in the "Tone" section of the GUI, just to keep things organized.

Suggestion : in the "TONE" section, swap the knob's position : "bass" should be at the bottom, and "trebble" at the top.

Haha, that would make too much sense

However, decreasing the setting (from 0 to -1) doesn't seem to produce any change?

Again, it should depend on the input level, and hysteresis controls: if the bass frequencies are distorting with the "Bass" knob at zero, then lowering the value will make the bass frequencies sound cleaner.

Thanks,
Jatin