Tape Fiasco 2 (versatile tape/glitch/seq/multi-fx workstation) $29

[planet_b]

Tape Fiasco 2

The plugin that turns a single audio loop into a performance instrument.

Most audio plugins process your sound. Tape Fiasco performs it. At its core are four independent time engines: a dual-grain stretcher that slows, freezes and scrubs your audio in real time; a tape-machine emulation with mechanical wow, flutter, tape stop and scratch; a rhythmic slicer that captures and repeats at any subdivision you choose; and BendIt, a circuit-bent buffer mangler with a seven-zone pitch and direction macro that goes from subtle wobble to full DJ scratch, quantized to your host grid. All four run simultaneously, chained in any order you want.

Behind the time engines sits another 21 effects, from spectral filtering and modal resonators to distortion, bit destruction, circuit bending and beyond, followed by a master stage with a three-band EQ, compressor, soft limiter and auto gain.

Routing goes deep. Animate any parameter with multiple modulators (LFOs, random, envelope followers) and bezier graph editors. Stretch, bend, and stutter your sound with sequencers. The Perform section puts four macros and an X/Y pad on the front panel, all recordable as host automation, each routing to up to five destinations with triangular response curves that let one knob crossfade between three different points across its travel. Everything that moves on screen is a parameter you can automate, sequence, or modulate.

What it does, at a glance
TIME
It is not a pitch-shifter (no formant preservation, no granular). Speed and pitch are coupled the way they are on tape: slow the playback, the pitch drops. The character comes from the mechanical modulation, the rebased-read crossfade per tempo window, the saturation/compressor pair, and the per-sample handling of direction and rate.

FX
A drag-to-reorder chain of up to 21 effects. A permanent MASTER row at the bottom handles output gain, 3-band EQ, pan, compressor, and a soft limiter.

ANIMATE
Four modulator columns (LFO / RANDOM / E.FOLLOWER), three bezier graph editors, plus the STUTTER sequencer and STRETCH sequencer. Up to 42 (72 with Perform) simultaneous modulation destinations.

PERFORM
Four macro knobs and a 2-axis X/Y pad, each routable to up to 5 destinations with per-slot response curves. Designed for host-automatable live tweaks.

Who it's for

Producers working with loops and samples who want rhythmic re-edits, glitchy reinterpretations, stutter sequences, time-stretches, and tape-stop fills that lock to the host.

Sound designers who need a place to do granular freezes, modulated resonant ringing, comb-filtered drones, BBD ensembles, plate verbs, and circuit-bent chaos in one tool without bouncing through 8 plugins.

Live performers who want a small surface (4 macros + X/Y pad) that maps to many destinations and shows up cleanly in the DAW's automation lane.

Ambient and experimental musicians who want one plugin that can carry a track from a tape-warble pad to a stuttered hyperpop fill to a sieve-filtered drone to a plate-verb tail without switching tools.

Why use it

One plugin, full sound-design workflow
Most projects need a time engine (slow this, freeze that), a colour chain (saturation, comb, reverb), and a modulation layer (envelope follower into filter cutoff). Tape Fiasco 2 puts all three in one place, at zero latency, with shared modulation. A single instance can be the entire effect path on a track.

Host-synced, host-automatable, host-aware
Every musical timing in the plugin (capture windows, stutter divisions, delay rates, LFO rates, graph periods, sequencer steps) is locked to the host transport when one is present. Every parameter is a normal automation lane. Every macro gesture is recordable. Transport restarts re-arm the sequencer and dry-passthrough windows so the section doesn't open onto silence.

Zero latency, always
No effect uses lookahead. The chain reports 0 samples at the host level. SIEVE is the only effect that runs an FFT and it's a real-time STFT with overlap-add so it adds no latency beyond a frame's inherent group delay.

Built to not click
Every effect uses the same on/off discipline: clear state on enable, smooth wet/dry blend, transport-restart hooks, NaN/inf guards. Specific click-protection patterns include the per-grain latching in Stretch (you can flip reverse mid-grain without clicks), the linear capture-crossfade in Stutter (chosen over equal-power because correlated bar-aligned slices tripped the limiter at the midpoint), the Tukey loop window in BendIt (mid-loop pitch and direction jumps land at silence), and the 10 ms wet/dry bypass fade on every FX in the chain.

Modulation goes anywhere
Every parameter is a modulation target. The same modulator can drive a Time-page slider, an FX-page knob, Master, or any combination.

Two sequencers, not just one
STUTTER Sequencer and STRETCH Sequencer both live on the Animate page, both follow the same shape (16 steps × chain 1–4), and both quantize their step transitions to the host beat grid. The stutter sequencer drives RATE; the stretch sequencer drives SPEED. They run in parallel.

A circuit-bent mode hidden inside Stutter
Flipping the BENDIT button replaces the Stutter section with a buffer mangler whose WARP knob is a 7-zone macro from "barely there" to "DJ scratch." The scratch engine inside it is host-quantized in and out on the 8th-note grid and re-rolls rate, shape, and depth per beat. Different gestures every time, but always on the grid.

Designed end-to-end for performance
The Perform page exposes 6 host-automatable controls that map to up to 30 destinations with triangular response curves. The dimming model means assigned destination knobs lock out manual edits so the macro never fights the user. Macro gestures land directly in the DAW's automation lane.



MacOS (Apple Silicon/Intel) VST3 / AU
Windows VST3

$29 (+tax where applicable) via Lemon Squeezy

https://www.erikssonjonas.com/tapefiasco-2

[planet_b]

There doesn't seem to be a trial version. The original Tape Fiasco is free (from the same website), which seem to be loved by many here including myself. But now this is like deeeep new turboboosted edition with so much stuff. At that price, (for me) it's a no-brainer.

[billinder33]

Utterly insane sound mangler. Can completely transform audio, similar to Infiltrator in that sense but with a way different approach.

Really attractive price too. Nice!!

[Jeeez]

How does the copy protection work?

[sinkmusic]

Awesome
The first version was already great (despite a hard to read GUI), this version looks incredible!
Bought!

[planet_b]

How does the copy protection work?

Serial number with 3 activations, which you can see under your Lemon Squeezy account.

[planet_b]

The dev's IG post already promises new features soon :O

Notch filter
New delay
Room reverb
Trance gate (gate patterns, with ADSR controls)
Longer stretch grains (for experimental/ambient)
Gate controls
More spectral effects
Sequencer targets

[enCiphered]

Is there no way to randomize parameters within individual sections or effects, or even randomize the entire plugin globally using a dice button?!

I could not find this mentioned in the product description.

[planet_b]

Is there no way to randomize parameters within individual sections or effects, or even randomize the entire plugin globally using a dice button?!

I could not find this mentioned in the product description.

Not yet, but coming..

[herzihelmut]

nice aesthetics, love the ui