CHOW Tape Model by Jatin Chowdhury

[chowdsp]

Just got around to looking at the water bottle synth which is really cool, but I have a couple of ideas which might be not too difficult to implement. Is this the right place for it? Should I start a new thread? Or should I make a GitHub issue?

Thanks! In general, GitHub issues are the easiest for me to keep organized, and keep track of. If you don't have a GitHub account, or don't want to make one, emailing me is probably the best way to go, since I guess this thread is mostly supposed to be about the tape plugin.

Thanks,
Jatin

[fceramic]

Any way to get this to run in Catalina? :/ Tried clearing it in the security settings, but it does not work.

[onerob]

It's working for me in Catalina. I have Gatekeeper disabled but allowing it in the Security and Privacy system preference should also work. Have you tried restarting?

[chowdsp]

Hi All,

Sorry I've been a bit quiet lately, I've had a lot of life events happening over this past month. I've finally got version 2.6 of CHOW Tape released (hopefully, the auto-update feature added in v2.5 will alert you of this). The main features I've added are mix groups, and pre-post emphasis filters, as well as adding a lot more headroom before internal range-limiting goes into effect, particularly for the higher-order ODE solvers. As always, the latest build can be downloaded from GitHub.

As always, thanks to all of you for your feedback, and helping to make this plugin better. I've already got a couple potential items for the next release, so if there's a feature or other change you would like to see, feel free to reach out!

Thanks,
Jatin

[sinkmusic]

Thank you!
pre-post emphasis filters are great!

[crickey13]

Sorry I've been a bit quiet lately, I've had a lot of life events happening over this past month.

Dude, you update your plugins more frequently than some commercial developers, you genuinely have nothing to be sorry about. I wish you would start developing plugins in the way Tony Klanghelm does so that we could support you. Thank you.

[eytanmich123]

Excuse the dumb question but where are the pre and post filters (I did not seem to see them in the interface)

[Michey]

Excuse the dumb question but where are the pre and post filters (I did not seem to see them in the interface)

It's in the tone section :
Bass knob - Controls the bass response of the pre-post emphasis filters
Treble knob - Controls the treble response of the pre-post emphasis filters

[rbn777]

...

[sinkmusic]

I think he simplified with one single knob what used to take several steps (before, and after recording).
With pre-emphasis, you boost some frequencies to hit the tape harder and compensate for the nonlinear nature of the medium.
With post-emphasis, you cut accordingly the frequencies you booster previously.
(it's a rough explanation, but that's quite the idea)

[sinkmusic]

The main features I've added are mix groups, [...] if there's a feature or other change you would like to see, feel free to reach out!

One little thing : with mix group able plugins, I tend to like a hint a color to remember quickly which instances are linked.
So maybe adding a small color line above the bottom section (or being able to give a name to the group, ie "drums" instead of "2", or a little circle shape filled with a color next to the group number) could help identify quickly the groups ?

[chowdsp]

Think of it like the RIAA curve, I guess? I assume this is how it's functioning. It's a great addition to an already brilliant plugin. I'm sure Jatin will chime in with a more technical explanation soon, but I think it works in a similar manner, anyways...

PS: Jatin, regarding the graphics stuff, I'm still around, I haven't forgotten about the plans, just been crazy busy with life and work, but I'm getting there, will be in touch shortly!

Yes, the pre-/post-emphasis filters work similar to the RIAA curves, in that the pre- and post- filters have exact opposite frequency responses. The difference is that you get to choose the frequency response of the pre-emphasis filter using the bass/treble knobs, and the post-emphasis filter will automatically adjust. In the future I might add another knob to control the "transition frequency" between the bass/treble sections.

@rbn777, no worries! Thanks so much for all your help with graphics, feel free to reach out whenever you have the time! (for everyone else, please thank him for designing the GUI for this plugin and ChowPhaser).

One little thing : with mix group able plugins, I tend to like a hint a color to remember quickly which instances are linked.
So maybe adding a small color line above the bottom section (or being able to give a name to the group, ie "drums" instead of "2", or a little circle shape filled with a color next to the group number) could help identify quickly the groups ?

Ooh, this is a good idea, I'll try out a couple things and see what might work.

Dude, you update your plugins more frequently than some commercial developers, you genuinely have nothing to be sorry about. I wish you would start developing plugins in the way Tony Klanghelm does so that we could support you. Thank you.

Thanks for the kind words! If you do wish to support, you can donate using the "Sponsor" button on the plugin GitHub page. That said, I feel a bit uncomfortable asking for money for this plugin, for a few reasons:

- The CHOW Tape plugin is part of the supporting material for a 2019 conference paper on analog tape modelling. I've been continuing to update the plugin because I think it's important for research to be equally useful both for academics and practitioners (in this case, mixing engineers and producers). The point of publishing that research in the first place was to share the information, so it would be antithetical to put the supporting material behind any sort of paywall.

- In general, I make plugins purely out of enjoyment, and to be able to use them in my own mixes and productions. It feels odd asking for donations to support a personal past-time, almost like asking for people to donate to support me hanging out and drinking beer with my pals.

- I don't really need the money; I have a steady job, and am financially stable. Especially in this time, there are plenty of other people and institutions out there that need support far more than I do.

That said, if you do feel like donating, go ahead. I'm not sure what I would do with that money just yet. If I can somehow use it to support building more plugins, I would like to do that, otherwise I'll probably pass on the donation to a worthy cause.

Thanks,
Jatin

[planetearth]

Yes, the pre-/post-emphasis filters work similar to the RIAA curves, in that the pre- and post- filters have exact opposite frequency responses. The difference is that you get to choose the frequency response of the pre-emphasis filter using the bass/treble knobs, and the post-emphasis filter will automatically adjust. In the future I might add another knob to control the "transition frequency" between the bass/treble sections.

[SNIP]

Thanks,
Jatin

I appreciate you responding here, Jatin, since I (and a few others) posted questions about this on GS back in July, but you may not have been notified of them. I'm hoping you can enlighten me here.

Is there a reason the measurements (or at least, the display of the measurements) for "Gap", "Thickness" and "Spacing" go out to the hundred-thousandths decimal place -- and why there's already a "1" there by default? And as someone else on GS noted, these measurements probably should be in micrometers, not millimeters, right? So we're talking hundred-thousandths of a micrometer? Also, is there supposed to be something in the darker red area in the upper-right corner of the GUI?

CHOWTapeModel.jpg

Finally, is there a manual or some videos for this? When I looked for either back in July, I saw some videos for your other cool plug-ins, but nothing for this, and no manual. I don't think we really need a manual for it, but some videos might be helpful. When you first released this, you had mentioned here on KVR which settings you like to tweak to get a particular sound. From what you said, it appeared that what you do isn't necessarily what others would do -- including pushing some settings beyond what some of us might think is "sufficient". So it would be nice to see what you were talking about, or what others have done who've gotten some good, subtle tape emulation sounds from this.

Thanks again for this and your other plug-ins, and for popping on here occasionally to answer questions!

Steve

[chowdsp]

@planetearth, thanks for the questions, I'll try to go through them one at a time:

Is there a reason the measurements (or at least, the display of the measurements) for "Gap", "Thickness" and "Spacing" go out to the hundred-thousandths decimal place -- and why there's already a "1" there by default? And as someone else on GS noted, these measurements probably should be in micrometers, not millimeters, right?

So the distance measurements of the tape must be larger than zero, by definition (for example, it's physically impossible to have tape with 0 thickness). If I allow the distance values to go to zero, I'd end up with some divide-by-zero issues. I had originally kept the measurements in centi-meters, but I may have changed that when I adjusted the ranges for those sliders. I should double check that, and update the labels as needed. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

Also, is there supposed to be something in the darker red area in the upper-right corner of the GUI?

The top-right section is supposed to be an oscilloscope (see the video link below). Maybe for some reason it's not showing up on your screen. Which DAW and operating system are you on?

Finally, is there a manual or some videos for this? When I looked for either back in July, I saw some videos for your other cool plug-ins, but nothing for this, and no manual. I don't think we really need a manual for it, but some videos might be helpful.

There is a user manual linked frm the GitHub page, though it's a little bit out of date. Hopefully I can go through and update it soon. I do have a video demo up on YouTube now as well:

When you first released this, you had mentioned here on KVR which settings you like to tweak to get a particular sound. From what you said, it appeared that what you do isn't necessarily what others would do -- including pushing some settings beyond what some of us might think is "sufficient". So it would be nice to see what you were talking about, or what others have done who've gotten some good, subtle tape emulation sounds from this.

Most of the ways that I tend to use the plugin are now hard-coded in as presets. Personally, I too would be curious to know how others use the plugin. I've also got an open call for others to submit their favorite settings as presets: https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/Ana ... /issues/30

Hope these answers help, thanks for your questions, and your interest in the plugin!

Thanks,
Jatin

[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