23Tape

Bring your mixes to life with 23Tape, a high-fidelity analog tape emulation designed for surgical control or wild, lo-fi destruction. Built in FAUST and powered by a deep DSP architecture, 23Tape goes beyond typical saturation plugins—offering a complete, dynamic simulation of magnetic tape behavior.

🎛 What makes 23Tape unique?

• 📼 Hysteresis Engine: Captures the nonlinear memory of magnetic tape using a feedback-based model that reacts to drive and bias.
• 🎚 Tape Speed, Bias & Drive: Simulate classic 7.5, 15, or 30 IPS speeds with full control over bias and input drive for tone-shaping and saturation.
• 🔊 Noise & Crinkle Layers: Add hiss, color it, introduce crinkle artifacts, or dial in mechanical scrape flutter for authentic imperfections.
• 📐 Tonal Shaping Section: Head bump, azimuth misalignment, high-frequency rolloff, and stereo output level—everything you’d find in a real analog deck.
• 📈 Age & Randomization: Simulate tape wear and chaotic real-world conditions, from brand-new reels to vintage cassettes left in the sun.
• 🧠 Deep Compression Modeling: Bias and tape type affect soft-knee dynamic response, simulating the warmth and squish of overdriven reels.

23Tape isn’t just an effect—it’s an instrument for character. Whether you’re smoothing out digital harshness, warming up drums, or mangling a signal into nostalgic oblivion, 23Tape gives you the control to shape the exact flavor of analog imperfection you're after.

Beta access on macOS. 23Tape is in open beta and not notarised by Apple yet — notarisation arrives with the stable release. Until then macOS keeps the quarantine flag it puts on every downloaded file, so there is one short step the first time you install.

Copy the plugin into your Components folder:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/

then run this once in Terminal to clear that flag:

sudo xattr -cr /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/23Tape.component

That is all: macOS then loads it like any other plugin, and Windows needs no setup at all. If your DAW still does not list it, write to hi.23dsp@gmail.com with your macOS version and DAW — beta reports get priority.