Analog Tape

I want to treat a long audio file with a tape warbling/wow detune effect, but I don’t want to use some off-the-shelf software because where’s the fun in that? I’ve also been resisting buying a Chase Bliss Generation Loss because I realised I was getting Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

I found this thread for Audacitywith a Nyquist script which works pretty well. Load a file, go to Tools > Nyquist prompt which works well but I want more control to vary parameters over time, copying here because it’s useful regardless:

(setf depth 0.01)
(setf rpm 22)

; convert to Hz
(setf speed (/ rpm 60.0))

(defun gen-vardelay (hz depth)
  (setf max-variance (/ hz 2.0))  ; Max variation of speed in Hz
  (setf variance (sound-srate-abs hz (noise)))
  (setf variance (mult variance max-variance))
  (setf variance (force-srate *sound-srate* variance))
  (sum depth (mult depth (hzosc (sum hz variance)))))


(let ((vardelay (gen-vardelay speed depth)))
  (multichan-expand #'tapv *track* 0 vardelay (* 2 depth)))

For Max/MSP I found this thread which has a fantastic simple patch from Andrew Benson but other than the pitch variation it doesn’t sound like a detuning tape. I do have a Norns Shield with a beautiful Tapedeck patch, but that’s SuperCollider.

Further searching led to this video- which is perfect, adding to the Infiniverb patch and loading a Geophone recording of a wind turbine (Flower Scar Hill wind turbine) gives:

Next: to deconstruct that tape patch and figure out how it works, download it here.