Tape as an instrument, Portatron Tape Synthesizer

[nordickvr]

Another tape plugin but it doesn't belong to the FX forum...

Must say that it's lot of fun to play with (not associated with dev)!

For the ones interested: https://roboticbean.com/products/portat ... te9h43IvJU

For everybody missing them Portastudio.

[Tj Shredder]

For that price I’d rather get a real Portastudio second hand…
But maybe better not, it sounds too bad…

[Krakatau]

just give it a try, being an owner from early eighties of a tascam 144 portastudio and worked with it daily during 8 years and more...

...as far as I could experiment, this is a very enthousiastic recreation of these 4 track K7, I would say it might be improved and eventually upgraded at some aspects, for instance the send in the return loop delay and reverb might be possibly used also in serial mode

didn't saw yet if it can directly record audio but this then would give the ultimate sensation to use it like a real 4 track machine

very promising IMHO..!

[Hewitt Huntwork]

I tried the free demo. I highly recommend trying it if you're interested in Eno-esque looping, experimental instruments, or any lofi genre.

On the plus side: It's pretty amazing. The sounds are very lively and warped in beautiful ways. It has great character and is a very interesting instrument - it's not an effect, it's an instrument. I love the simple 2 band eq and the drive.

On the minus side: Many of the soundsources are chords or sequences which hinders their usefulness (to me). The Tape Editor page is kind of crude. I know what they were going for, but all the components look the same so it's hard to tell what you are doing in there. I wish there were envelopes for the sound sources so if you wanted to de-emphasize the glitchiness of the loop ends, you could. I also wish we could tune each sound source individually (if it's there in the Tape Editor, I didn't see how). Even at intro pricing, it's not a no-brainer for me, but prices and values are relative for every customer.

Important to note, it is multitimberal but monophonic. So you can layer up to four sounds, and they'll all play at once, but you can't play a chord on your keyboard. Switching from note to note will retrigger all soundsources at the new pitch.

[evo2slo]

didn't saw yet if it can directly record audio but this then would give the ultimate sensation to use it like a real 4 track machine

This would be especially amazing as a standalone app version. I would love to be able to quickly launch this on its own to record small creative pieces or scratch tracks, save it (I like how it neatly compiles all the samples within a single preset file), and then be able to open it in my DAW for playback and further experimentation.

It's a lot of fun to use, and seems like the ultimate drone machine. Being able to change the speed/pitch of an ambient drone in real time with midi keys, without retriggering the loop, is really great. The different locator points mapped to specific midi keys is also a nice feature.

There's currently a bug in Cubase with loading your own samples, but the developers were very responsive and a fix will be coming soon.

EDIT: The loading bug is fixed in new update. That was fast!

[nordickvr]

Just instantiated it into Voltage Modular.

Dope!

[evo2slo]

Just instantiated it into Voltage Modular.

Dope!

Nice one! A match made in heaven.

I just made a setup with VM to add audio recording to Portatron so I can use it like an actual 4-track, still hoping for a standalone version with recording capability but this should tide me over until then.

The VM Recorder module (bonus: more cassettes!) connected to my interface lets me quickly record freestyle with my mic, analog synth or drum machine. It saves the wav file to a folder that I can quickly open with the Portatron browser and, boom, loaded.

Clip the start and end points in Portatron and setup the loop. Then while playing it in Portatron I record the 2nd track with VM Recorder and almost instantly can get that loaded on track 2 - without even stopping playback. Same for the 3rd track. Then I use the Recording button in the top right of VM to record my Portatron mix. Load that bounce on the 4th track and keep on rolling.

I know I could just load more instances but I really like emulating an authentic 4-track recording experience, with the commitment and sacrifices that it requires. For some reason the limitations really get my creative juices flowing.

I love how at the end I click save in Portatron and I've got just a single file, with all the audio collected within it, that I can easily organize and open in my DAW later.

[hurricaneaudiolab]

https://youtu.be/PYFWfJkAbSQ

[voidhead23]

Alternatively, if you own Live Suite, Encoder Audio made a pretty interesting modern approach to the idea called Fortrek: http://www.encoderaudio.com/signal.html

[Effectsworks]

I think it's pretty cool from the vids on youtube. But I have a number of these lo-fi tape plugs so I don't think I'd pay the 89e for it.

[Krakatau]

didn't saw yet if it can directly record audio but this then would give the ultimate sensation to use it like a real 4 track machine

This would be especially amazing as a standalone app version. I would love to be able to quickly launch this on its own to record small creative pieces or scratch tracks, save it (I like how it neatly compiles all the samples within a single preset file), and then be able to open it in my DAW for playback and further experimentation.

I totally agree with that and would even go farther on the idea

-it would be a real bargain to have all the record stages of such ministudio units, to recreate the peculiar feel of these early home-studio unit in where musicians became multi-instrumental performers by handling re-recording techniques and on the fly it would be then an easy and useful job to includes those old serial guitar effets-chain (guitar rig for instance) between input signal and portatron unit, ...as well as a more flexible send/return chain (that might includes VST ?)

by including (or potentially including) the entire vintage configuration of these home-studio from the eighties, it might give in addition of the current loops engine and tape emulation... the best of both worlds ?

[Lind0n]

Alternatively, if you own Live Suite, Encoder Audio made a pretty interesting modern approach to the idea called Fortrek: http://www.encoderaudio.com/signal.html

There're a couple of Kontakt instrument that does similar things over at loot audio...

https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kont ... pe-kontakt
https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kont ... -generator

(caveat emptor - I wrote those... so I may be biased..)

[waiting man]

Since it's actually heavily slashed to 77% off over at AudioPlugin Deals, I gave a go at this one.
I think it's a great little niche tool, just as fascinating as cassette looping...and it is Robotic Bean, makers of pretty sweet Rack Extensions.

My biggest gripe with it is that the basic options for editing samples are simply not enough, it keeps some of the ethos of cassette looping, but why?
The presence of a simple track transpose/speed function in the editing page could boost the flow tenfold, as the ability to read loop markers points from wave files.
Bar-based retriggering is cool but why only x4?

So, I've lost myself in it, I will loose myself in it several times in the future...but it needs a bit of that Tal Sampler approach and go beyond some limitations, few more options in the tape editing page will make me purchase a full price licence.

[El°HYM]

While also always interested new Tape - emulations, lets keep in mind that the real thing would cost you about the same, as a used 4 - Track, especially the 'woobled' ones should cost you not much more than 50 bucks.

[waiting man]

Having a Fostex 380s tucked away I understand what you mean.
Not caring for hardware workflow anymore, though.
I simply like the sampling/looping+porta channels+lo-fi tape sound of Portatron.