Larry Shelby Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 Tape Sculptor is a next-generation tape plugin that can go far beyond typical tape emulation to enhance your productions in all-new directions. Whether you’re looking to infuse subtle warmth, fatten up drum and bass parts, add lo-fi grit or extreme distortion, or explore entirely new sound design possibilities, Tape Sculptor delivers. TAPE SCULPTOR FEATURES World-class sound quality 10 independent modules (Filters, Emphasis, Compressor, Saturation, Degrade, Chew, Loss, Wow, Flutter & Delay) 132 factory presets, conveniently organized to save you time Subtle to extreme processing Lightweight and efficient performance Created in collaboration with brilliant engineer Jatin Chowdhury based on his highly acclaimed ChowTape Model. Tape Sculptor is available for a special introductory price of $79 (MSRP $99) through June 16. (Free trial version available on the product page!) $79 https://impactsoundworks.com/product/tape-sculptor/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno de Souza Lino Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 These controls are awfully similar to the ones in ChowTape though.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicMan Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 58 minutes ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said: These controls are awfully similar to the ones in ChowTape though.... That's a really good free tape plugin too. Deep controls and even more versatile than many paid ones. Price aside, I wouldn't be surprised if this one from Impact is good too, but I'd definitely recommend putting the free one through its paces first to see if it's needed before buying. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno de Souza Lino Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, MusicMan said: That's a really good free tape plugin too. Deep controls and even more versatile than many paid ones. Price aside, I wouldn't be surprised if this one from Impact is good too, but I'd definitely recommend putting the free one through its paces first to see if it's needed before buying. While I do see the appeal to have things like compressors and delays added to a tape simulation, personally, I think you can achieve most of those using different plugins along with ChowTape. The only upgraded I would go for would be u-he Satin, which does extra things ChowTape doesn't do, like emulating an actual reel to reel recorder using the plugin to control up to 8 instances of itself, dolby encoding and decoding, oversampling up to 384k and other things. Although it is a more expensive plugin at 142 USD. Edited June 1, 2023 by Bruno de Souza Lino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleer Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 Pretty pretty good indeed, this ImpactSoundworks one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msmcleod Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 For those interested, the Snake Oil guy does a pretty brutal comparison of it to his real tape machine here... ...TLDR: he thinks Chow is better. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno de Souza Lino Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 (edited) After watching the video, my suspicions increased. Even the oversampling menus are the same. And it does appear that the former had input from Jatin in making it (appears, because it's mentioned in the manual), which means it's probably is the same codebase underneath. That's still concerning because ChowTape is licensed under GPL v3 and there's no mention of it anywhere in the manual or the product page of Tape Scultpor nor can you see any links to its source code. Apart from the delay section, every single setting from Tape Sculptor is present in CHOWTape, although CHOWTape has other settings which Tape Sculptor doesn't, like the ability to sync the flutter and the ability to have 4 mix groups where all settings are copied across multiple instances of CHOWTape which are part of it. Edited June 1, 2023 by Bruno de Souza Lino Further information added. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALC Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 3 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said: That's still concerning because ChowTape is licensed under GPL v3 and there's no mention of it anywhere in the manual or the product page of Tape Scultpor nor can you see any links to its source code. Since it's mentioned that it's "created in partnership with brilliant engineer Jatin Chowdhury", Impact Soundworks could be licensing some of the code directly from the author (of course it depends on how much of the code was his and how many was contributed, but he could always just rewrite the contributed code so none remains). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno de Souza Lino Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 44 minutes ago, ALC said: Since it's mentioned that it's "created in partnership with brilliant engineer Jatin Chowdhury", Impact Soundworks could be licensing some of the code directly from the author (of course it depends on how much of the code was his and how many was contributed, but he could always just rewrite the contributed code so none remains). If it is the same code, it has to be licensed under GPL v3. Not to say the plugin has to be free, but we have to have access to the source code of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALC Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 18 minutes ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said: If it is the same code, it has to be licensed under GPL v3. Not to say the plugin has to be free, but we have to have access to the source code of it. The code can be dual licensed. I don't know any details, but that's another possibility (the proprietary license doesn't require publishing the source code). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno de Souza Lino Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 31 minutes ago, ALC said: The code can be dual licensed. I don't know any details, but that's another possibility (the proprietary license doesn't require publishing the source code). GPLv3 5.c explictly states that all works based on code under the license must also be licensed under GPLv3, which is why this license is said to be viral. Sure, there's another code base from Jatin called "AnalogTapeModel," but that's also licensed under GPLv3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antler Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 52 minutes ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said: GPLv3 5.c explictly states that all works based on code under the license must also be licensed under GPLv3, which is why this license is said to be viral. Sure, there's another code base from Jatin called "AnalogTapeModel," but that's also licensed under GPLv3. Not sure where you're seeing that; presumably on GitHub? Regardless, it just means that the code/binary available there is licensed under GPLv3. As the copyright owner, Jatin owns the code and can do what he wants with it; he is allowed to license it to anyone under any license he chooses. I'm fairly sure that if anyone contacted him and asked for a non-copyleft licence, and offered an amount of compensation he deems appropriate, he would happily grant them a licence that supersedes the publicly available one. That's one of the perks of owning the IP. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 Tape plugins are designed to capture DAW enthusiasts much like a topwater baits lure fisherman. The younger generation doesn't really care about tape emulation. One can dupe themselves in thinking these are necessary plugins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno de Souza Lino Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 11 minutes ago, kitekrazy said: Tape plugins are designed to capture DAW enthusiasts much like a topwater baits lure fisherman. The younger generation doesn't really care about tape emulation. One can dupe themselves in thinking these are necessary plugins. This is the inverse of the people that keep crying "digital lacks the analog warmth" endlessly in comments whenever some emulation of old gear is presented. Also, if younger generations don't care about tape emulation, why LoFi exists? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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