Opening Tape for the first time reveals an uncluttered, simple interface offering a range of buttons for selecting various tape models, input and output gain controls, a mix knob, and an intuitive frequency spectrum, providing insight into the tonal characteristics of the selected tape model. Knobs are snappy, sound adjustments are instant, and many controls are no longer stepped.įor starters, let’s dive into Taupe’s standout plugin: Taupe Tape. Thankfully, with the release of Acustica’s Core 13 and later technology (which is built-in to Taupe), many of these issues have been entirely or mostly resolved. Additionally, many of Acustica’s analog models were stepped, meaning, for example, an EQ band could only be adjusted to provide specific amounts of gain (e.g., +- 2dB, 4dB, 6dB), rendering them less flexible than many digital counterparts. While it wasn’t always a dealbreaker, it was hardly ideal. Due to the particular nature of Acustica’s analog sampling process, and the large files it produces, you would often turn a knob and then have to wait several seconds for the updated processing to kick in.

Older versions of Nebula and Acqua plugins, such as Taupe, sounded stellar but often suffered from clunky and slow user interfaces. Before we dive into the specifics of Taupe, I think it’s again worth noting how much Acustica’s plugins have improved from a usability standpoint in recent years.

Nebula 3 vst