PortaTwin
153 MB
Cassette channel strip inspired by Tascam Porta Two. The Tascam Porta Two was not a precision instrument. Released in 1987, it was a four-track cassette recorder built for bedrooms, not studios. Its preamp clipped early and unapologetically. Its transport wobbled. Its tape hissed. People made records on machines like it anyway, and the flaws became the sound.
PortaTwin models the full signal chain: the way the preamp colors and saturates at different input levels, the pitch drift of an aging transport, the bandwidth loss and hiss of worn tape. It works as a subtle analog glue or as a deliberate lo-fi tool. Everything in between is fair game.
PREAMP
CLEAN leaves the channel fader at its reference mark. HOT pushes the channel fader 9.4 dB up and pulls the master down by as much, so a quiet signal keeps its level and a loud one distorts more. Projects saved with 2.0 keep the preamp they were made with.
TAPE
DRIVE is how hot you print, in dB: nominal level at half, where a cassette sits at 0 VU and the tape gives just under 1 % distortion, 12 dB over at full. The level stays put; only the squeeze grows. BIAS is the deck’s internal trimmer. Centre is the clean spot. Left of centre the tape goes grainy and bright, with even harmonics and modulation noise, and the first steps count almost as much as on the other side. Right of centre it goes darker with every step. Wow & flutter with random drift. 4-component hiss model, filtered by the head’s bandwidth like real cassette hiss. AGE macro from pristine to destroyed. Type I / Type II. 3¾ / 1⅞ ips: at 1⅞ ips on Type II with AGE at zero, 10 kHz sits at −0.6 dB, where the machine’s service manual asks for no worse than −3. Noise reduction, tuned by ear rather than modeled from the circuit.
OUTPUT
Ghost effect (azimuth misalignment + print-through). VU meter with spring-damper needle physics. Auto gain compensation, calibrated on pink noise at −18 dBFS: on quiet sources, raise INPUT first. 15 automatable parameters plus POWER, 15 factory presets.
PortaTwin.2.1.0 ( 153 MB )
