How bad can it be? Go out of tune and off the grid with the Bad Tape from denise.

[Denise.Audio]

The Bad Tape (https://www.denise.io/store/denise/BadTape) is the next plugin from denise audio. We like to describe it as a tape harming (#tapeharm) effect plugin. Its focus is on creating extreme tape artifacts… and man does it sound bad. The inspiration for the Bad Tape came from denise team member Enrico ‘nrec’ Tiberi: “I was using a lot of my old Akai 4000 DS MK2 reel to reel tape recorder pressing the tape to slow it down as an effect and that made me want a plugin that could control how to break the sound without having to use my fingers each time and without all the cables and fuss that analog hardware inevitably brings”.

Combining a good old vintage tape sound with harming features makes the Bad Tape a very creative and versatile tool. Want an “out of tune and off the grid” beat or a wonky drum groove? Just keep the detune button pressed and it will create a tape-stop in real time. Press it shortly for slight slow-downs and speed-ups, or use wow and shake to make it go in and out of tune and go off grid periodically. Use the mix knob to create tracks that are heavily saturated and detuned, with additional interesting tape artifacts like hiss, squeal and harm. The Bad Tape can be used to color and detune your whole track, or it can be applied to just one bar at the end of a section to help introduce some variation and lead in the next section of your song.

I have wanted a tape machine for a long time but this will hold me off that mission for a while. For now I use mostly samples and this really enables me to f**k with them and create some really special warped out fx – I especially like to mess around with ‘Wow’, ‘Hiss’, ‘Squeal’ and ‘Harm’. I’ve also used it on top of the Granulator II and I’m in love! – S Ruston, DJ/Producer

The denise Bad Tape features:

• Mix: Smoothly mix in different extreme tape artifacts with great precision.

• Detune (Tape stop): Slow down the tape in real time, as if you would press your finger on the tape reel.

• Wobble & Shake: Randomly detune the pitch of your track like your tape machine has an inconsistent playback speed.

• Harm: Introduce failing tape artifacts with subtle bitcrushing.

• Squeal & Noize: Add old tape machine noises for character and vibe.

• Color & Speed : Adjust the color and speed of the tape for a unique flavour.

• Saturate your tracks for that good old vintage tape sound. Warm and smooth character due to hysteresis emulation.

• Comes with presets for synth, drums, bass and classic tape style effects.

• Low CPU usage & works offline without dongles or complex licence managers.

The Bad Tape (VST/AU/AXX/VST3) is available now. Find it along with many video tips & tricks on denise.io webstore (https://www.denise.io/store/denise/BadTape). To celebrate autumn, the Bad Tape costs €14.99 until the 13th of October! Regular retail price is €48.90

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Looks good, except for the detune functionality. Not that it's not worthy of being included, but I was really hoping it would allow for something much more subtle e.g more like B.O.C. That jumping to high-speed upon release is anything but subtle. Perhaps what I am suggesting would be better served by a button attached to the wow slider, for slight momentary wow.

Will try the demo, anyway

[Denise.Audio]

Looks good, except for the detune functionality. Not that it's not worthy of being included, but I was really hoping it would allow for something much more subtle e.g more like B.O.C. That jumping to high-speed upon release is anything but subtle. Perhaps what I am suggesting would be better served by a button attached to the wow slider, for slight momentary wow.

Will try the demo, anyway

Let us know what you think of the feature. The detune is quite a unique feature, it's not something our team has seem before. Have you seen such a feature on another plugin?

Best
Joe

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Looks good, except for the detune functionality. Not that it's not worthy of being included, but I was really hoping it would allow for something much more subtle e.g more like B.O.C. That jumping to high-speed upon release is anything but subtle. Perhaps what I am suggesting would be better served by a button attached to the wow slider, for slight momentary wow.

Will try the demo, anyway

Let us know what you think of the feature. The detune is quite a unique feature, it's not something our team has seem before. Have you seen such a feature on another plugin?

Best
Joe

Having tried the demo, I believe the detune/spin-down is a feature I'd never use. In it's current state it feels too gimmicky. I would personally want to have more parameters (To make it more subtle, especially with regard to the spin-back aspect) which would obviously go against the ethos of these simplified plugins.

Just my .002c, of course

[Denise.Audio]

Looks good, except for the detune functionality. Not that it's not worthy of being included, but I was really hoping it would allow for something much more subtle e.g more like B.O.C. That jumping to high-speed upon release is anything but subtle. Perhaps what I am suggesting would be better served by a button attached to the wow slider, for slight momentary wow.

Will try the demo, anyway

Let us know what you think of the feature. The detune is quite a unique feature, it's not something our team has seem before. Have you seen such a feature on another plugin?

Best
Joe

Having tried the demo, I believe the detune/spin-down is a feature I'd never use. In it's current state it feels too gimmicky. I would personally want to have more parameters (To make it more subtle, especially with regard to the spin-back aspect) which would obviously go against the ethos of these simplified plugins.

Just my .002c, of course

Of course, it's not for everyone, but feel free to check out the other 8 features we have on the unit. Some producers in the Gearslutz forum are already raving about the saturation control. Let me know your thoughts on that, it also has something special about it

Best
Joe

[willsavino]

Hey Joe! I've already got a few tape degradation-type plugins: XLN RC-20, Klevgrand's DAW Cassette, and some Airwindows VSTs. I know there are plenty of other similar VSTs as well. That said, the price point here is good, and I've heard lots of good thing about your other products.

In your opinion, what sets Bad Tape apart from the other plugins in this growing market?

[foosnark]

Overall, I like the sound of this one. To me there's still no one-plugin solution for lo-fi character, but this is another good choice. I have RC-20, DAW LP (I wasn't that fond of DAW Cassette due to lack of control over noise), and Sonitex STX-1260 but I purchased this one too.

I do like the saturation, though when it blows up completely it tends to go silent and drop out... I'm not sure yet what I think of that, but keeping it below that level leads to some nice flavor.


I agree that Detune seems pretty extreme and the recovery from it even more so. The best use I've had for it so far was keeping it under control with a kind of PWM... triggering it frequently but very briefly with a fast random LFO in Bitwig whose own rate was randomized a bit. That added a different kind of flutter/wobble that wasn't very realistic but sounded cool

Maybe a setting for maximum depth on Detune would help, so you could keep it subtle regardless of how long you have it engaged, rather than coming to a complete stop?

[Vortifex]

..

[Denise.Audio]

Just wanted to complain that the Denise website has no scroll bar which is incredibly annoying when you use that 'lets fill the page with 90% space and force the reader to scroll down 20 feet to read 10 lines of text' design template that seems so popular of late.

Rant aside, I've really enjoyed using Noize 2 and will give this a demo.

Hi Vortifex. I'm sorry that you're experiencing such an issue.

If you could send me a bit more information about your scroll bar issue, maybe a screenshot, operating system, browser and version, I can send this information to our web developer to test the issue.

Message me on contact@denise.io.

Best
Joe

[Halonmusic]

This is really cool. Im gonna download the demo

[Ah_Dziz]

Well damn. I can’t ever resist a nice sound degrader.

[Denise.Audio]

This is really cool. Im gonna download the demo

Please do! You can trial it for 7 days for free.

Best
Joe

[Halonmusic]

This is really cool. Im gonna download the demo

Please do! You can trial it for 7 days for free.

Best
Joe

Thanks

[ztrauq]

Insta-buy for me, enjoying it quite a bit already. One thing I'd be interested in seeing is some way to have finer control or automation (or a sort of randomizer) over the "detune" spinning effect. I'm interested in replicating the sound I got from an old tape recorder with a failing drive motor, that would effectively spin down to unpredictable rates as it struggled, that produced some of the most strangely affected sounds...

[Denise.Audio]

Insta-buy for me, enjoying it quite a bit already. One thing I'd be interested in seeing is some way to have finer control or automation (or a sort of randomizer) over the "detune" spinning effect. I'm interested in replicating the sound I got from an old tape recorder with a failing drive motor, that would effectively spin down to unpredictable rates as it struggled, that produced some of the most strangely affected sounds...

Glad to hear that you're enjoying it, and thanks for your feedback. We discuss all feedback as team so it's appreciated!

Best
Joe