An easy way to give your music some Stranger Things-style nostalgia.
Tape saturation plug-ins are widely available if you want to emulate a classic reel-to-reel or cheap cassette recorder, but a new effect for Native Instruments’ Reaktor 6 will give your music the warbled sound of an old VHS tape.
Created by Reaktor user James Peck, the VHS Audio Degradation Suite combines saturation, pitch modulation and noise in an easy-to-use interface capable of emulating every one of the obsolete format’s quirks and imperfections.
As Peck’s sample tracks demonstrate, it’s an easy way to get the unmistakable hiss you’d get when a badly worn tape necessitated the use of the tracking function that nobody knew how to use properly.
You can download the VHS Audio Degradation Suite for free at the Native Instruments website, but you’ll need a copy of Reaktor 6.
If you want more unusual effects that don’t require Reaktor 6, check out a reverb plug-in based on the acoustics of Berlin’s Teufelsberg tower and Legowelt’s very own 808 instrument for Ableton Live. [via Ask.Audio]
Read next: The 9 best free VST effects for producers on the web