No collection of DSP models for work, pleasure, and creative abuse would be complete without the Chowdbury DSP collection. You might know about the plug-in, but it’s also worth noting that these are available in VCV Rack and Cardinal, where you can patch them at will.
Having covered some weird-ish vinyl simulation in the browser last week, plus free Befaco modules in VCV Rack today, it’s only fair to talk about this next.
The Sony TC-260 reel-to-reel inspired the CHOW tape model, ChowDSP says, but the modeling grew from there. (It all started at Stanford – there’s an academic paper to read, too.) The full algorithm is open source, and this part is embarrassing, but I know I just saw it in some new product or tool in the last few days, and I can’t find it. (I know it is incorporated into Surge XT and the equivalent Rack module.) Anyway, here’s the GitHub for the project – also worth a look if you’re learning DSP coding:
https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/AnalogTapeModel
You’ll find compiled plug-ins for essentially every platform (including CLAP and Linux), plus a mobile version for iOS. Check the ChowDSP products page for that and a lot more. It’s worth just listening to the original demo, as it’ll give you a sense of how the parameters were intended to be used:
Now, why I like having it in VCV Rack is that you can use each stage of the above independently. Unfortunately, they left out CV control of parameters, but the source code is available for the modules and they’re under a GPLv3 license. Adding them might be a leisurely Saturday afternoon hack job – even for me. I expect the reason it’s not there is these are mostly set-it-and-forget-it parameters. It’s on the Library, and since these are GPLv3 you’ll also find them in Cardinal. (Even though I own and love VCV Rack Pro, I occasionally turn to Cardinal for work with students or just to double-check I haven’t forgotten to install some important gem, since Cardinal is curated for you. Oh, plus that means it’s all ready to go in the KXStudio repositories.) And they’re also available on the 4ms MetaModule Eurorack hardware – thanks patternmusic Richard in comments!
https://library.vcvrack.com/?brand=chowdsp
Just having the ability to route these modules already gives you some audio mangling goodness you can use accurately or in creative ways that might not sound like tape. Here’s a quick jam, just to prove the point:
This is not the only game in town – there’s also the free Denise Audio Bad Tape plug-in, for instance. But it’s really nice breaking these into separate components and patching them: the gaps produced by Loss, for instance, you can use in ways that have nothing to do with tape.
Not bad for a class assignment.
Enjoy, and let us know what you make.
