My mother used to tell me she got a weird feeling when she walked into vintage clothing stores in the 1990’s. She said a lot of the clothes on display looked she things was used to seeing in the 1950’s when she was growing up. It was odd for her to see the time of her youth referred to with hip irony. Not in bad way – just odd.

I feel kinda like that about this awesome new plug in from Aberrant DSP. It emulates the sound of cassette recording as I experienced it as a teenager in the late 1980’s, continuing through the mid 1990’s. Sure, there’ve been other plug ins from big companies trying to do the same, but this one nails it both sonically and aesthetically. The handwritten look reminds me of the homemade tapes people were making back then. The visuals of the three different tape types are on point – Type I, Type II, and Metal. I remember when I thought metal cassettes were hi fi. I liked how heavy the ones I used to buy were.

All of the controls are useful. It’s great for sparse acoustic singer songwriter tracks like I used to make back in the day, but it’s also great for treating one part of an arrangement that features higher FI sounds, as a counterpoint.

Most authentic of all: It was made by a bunch of students and costs $20. I wonder what that is worth adjusted for inflation back to 1993?