Tape Cassette 2 is a free VST plugin that promises reel old-school flavour

It’s one of the paradoxes of modern music production that so many of us spend considerable amounts of time trying to ‘degrade’ our pristine audio in one way or another.

Fortunately, doing so doesn’t have to cost the earth - in fact, if you download Caelum Audio’s Tape Cassette 2 plugin, you can do it for free.

Designed, like its predecessor, to emulate “the warmth, noise and character of old tape cassettes,” this boasts several new features. The first of these is a new Impulse Response that recreates the sound of a Type 1 cassette, and you’ll also find an improved saturation algorithm and rebuilt wow and flutter engines.

The result, we’re told, is a “wonderfully warm and more accurate vintage sound,” that can be applied to an entire mix or specific tracks. You can also go beyond standard tape emulation and into the realms of experimentation by pushing the parameters to extremes.

Tape Cassette 2 (VST/AU) can be downloaded for free for PC and Mac from the Caelum Audio website. There’s also a free standalone/AUv3 iOS version that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store.