Portatron - desktop 4 track cassette emulation

Thelast27

Anyone else seen this? It’s pretty capable of emulating a 4 track tape cassette recorder - probably the best emulation I’ve personally heard.

Would love to see this come to the iPad as using a 4 track as an instrument can create some very unique moments in composition - plus you don’t need to worry about the belts getting buggered over time!

https://roboticbean.com/products/portatron/

Gravitas

You could put one together quite easily in AUM for
example using four instances of Tape Cassette 2 or Tape Pro.

AUM has file playback capability per Audio strip.
The added advantage of doing it this way is that
you can also use the auv3's effects that you already have.

kgreggbruce

Thanks for the inspiration! I enjoy making useful templates for future use. I have similar templates already to emulate a mixer, another for podcasting, etc., but now I have a nice 4-track tape.

4 channels each with EQ, Compressor, Saturation/Distortion, and Tape Emulation. Can record individually or send all to a sub mix or multiple sub mixes.

Ailerom

I think I paid less than that for my actual 4 Track.

el_bo

I remember always wanting to have more available tracks. But in hindsight, one of the best things about using a 4-track was the need to bounce/commit. Would be interesting to reproduce that kind of workflow with modern gear

espiegel123

@Gravitas said:
You could put one together quite easily in AUM for
example using four instances of Tape Cassette 2 or Tape Pro.

AUM has file playback capability per Audio strip.
The added advantage of doing it this way is that
you can also use the auv3's effects that you already have.

FWiW, Chow Tape is free and I don’t think their is a better tape emulator on iOS.

Gravitas

@espiegel123 said:

@Gravitas said:
You could put one together quite easily in AUM for
example using four instances of Tape Cassette 2 or Tape Pro.

AUM has file playback capability per Audio strip.
The added advantage of doing it this way is that
you can also use the auv3's effects that you already have.

FWiW, Chow Tape is free and I don’t think their is a better tape emulator on iOS.

Good point.
Tape Cassette and Tape Pro were the first apps that
came to mind so that I could explain the technique.

wag

i bought this a month ago, but haven't had much time to play with it.

i do like it though. and it came with quite a few good samples that i've used in koala and aum. that alone was well worth the price for me.

Thelast27

@wag said:
i bought this a month ago, but haven't had much time to play with it.

i do like it though. and it came with quite a few good samples that i've used in koala and aum. that alone was well worth the price for me.

You bought Portatron?

Proppa

Robotic Bean’s Portatron is a curious one. It’s not a 4-track “as we know it” but more of a hybrid 4-layer sample player (could be anything but seems poised for drone/texture). All 4 layers can be played as a single pitched voice.

One can also load 4 stems and mix em which is why I got it. I found the portastudio emulation to be convincing enough to be nostalgic

cyberheater

£135. What are the devs smoking?

Ailerom

@cyberheater said:
£135. What are the devs smoking?

Cassette Vape?

attakk

Although I loved our old Fostex 4 track (double speed, Dolby C - NOT dbx - 👍) waaaaay back in the day, we did seem to spend an inordinately large amount of time, energy (and money) trying to make whatever we recorded on it not sound like it was recorded “only on a 4 track”.

For that reason the idea of a 4-track emulator is completely counter-intuitive to me, but hey - to each their own 👍😁

mrufino1

There’s a 4 track emulator in every DAW, just use only 4 tracks.

taeo

While it’s not exactly like the Portatron, and only has 3 channels, Shards, the Drambo preset by COTCD, comes close to what you’re describing. (It is modeled after pedals like Count to 5 and Microcosm) Perhaps you could expand upon the preset to make it 4 channels and add the respective effects and dynamics modules.

The part where you play the buffered loop as a midi instrument, is the part where I scratch my head. (I’m a Drambo n00b)
https://patchstorage.com/shards/

wag

@Thelast27 said:

@wag said:
i bought this a month ago, but haven't had much time to play with it.

i do like it though. and it came with quite a few good samples that i've used in koala and aum. that alone was well worth the price for me.

You bought Portatron?

yeah.... but it was on sale at the time and i was looking for something like this for my windows laptop.

Thelast27

@mrufino1 said:
There’s a 4 track emulator in every DAW, just use only 4 tracks.

It's not the same creating this type of setup in a linear DAW like cubasis - as it doesn't work as well as using a performance-based setup in AUM.