Baby Audio releases Super VHS tape saturation plugin

The plugin creation team over at Baby Audio has just created something you never knew you needed. If you’re a ‘baby’ of the 80s or 90s, you certainly should remember growing up with full bookshelves of your favorite movies on VHS tapes. We all recall pulling your favorite one off the shelf and sticking it in the VCR, only to be hit with a static-y looking video, paired with audio that sounded more and more warm and saturated the more you watched it. However, this effect from the degradation of the tapes inside stuck with us and now lives in us all with a nostalgia for the past every time we hear something similar. Well, just in time for the holidays, Baby Audio is out with Super VHS, a new plugin to let you dial in that warmth and oscillation into your music.

Features

Super VHS has a very simple setup, and is quite easy to use, even for those just starting out in audio. To the bottom left, it features a static slider, which is simply a noise generator that can be used to blend in a static sound similar to one you might hear running throughout those old movies. To the right is a shape slider, which has set points across it, rather than being a fluid slider, that can be used to add a bit-crusher to the incoming signal, without sounding bad at all. Your three pot-style knobs in the center are ‘Heat,’ ‘Wash,’ and ‘Drift.’ The ‘Heat’ can be used to add some warm tape saturation, with a cool distortion sound that kicks in when pushing it anywhere over 50%.

‘Wash’ is going to provide a super lo-fi, unnatural sounding reverb that sounds amazing when applied to the right track. Finally, when you apply ‘Drift,’ you’ll receive an effect that will slightly warble the pitch back and fourth, which will sound similar if you’ve played back a VHS tape that has put on some mileage. All of these effects can be blended with the incoming signal with a mix slider at the top left, to make it sit nicely in the mix. As well as an output fader at the top right to adjust the overall volume.

This plugin will be useful for anyone who has been looking to add some tape saturation to their music, but specifically looking to emulate the sound of VHS tapes. And the price is just as pleasant as the feeling of reliving your childhood. Baby Audio has released the Super VHS plugin at an initial, holiday pricing of just $29 through the end of the year. Come January though, the price will be raised to $49, so be sure to put it on your family wish list, or if you don’t trust your family, you can learn more and get it for yourself now over at the Baby Audio website.