Chow Tape Model

Model Chow Tape
The Chow Tape Model is a digital emulation of an analogue reel-to-reel tape machine. The original algorithm was designed to emulate the Sony TC-260, but it has since been expanded to model a wide range of tape machines.

Chow Tape was created as part of a Music 420 class at Stanford University. The project resulted in the presentation of an academic paper, "Real-Time Physical Modelling for Analog Tape Machines," at the 2019 DAFx Conference.

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ChowTape User Manual
ChowTape is an analog tape machine physical model, originally
based on the Sony TC-260. The current version can be used
to emulate a wide variety of reel-to-reel tape machines, using
physics-based emulation algorithms1
. The plugin is currently
available for Windows, Linux, Mac, and iOS in the following formats: VST/VST3, AU, CLAP, LV2, AAX, AUv3, and Standalone.

Installation
To install ChowTape for desktop, download the plugin installer
from the ChowDSP website. If you would like to try the latest
changes (unstable), you can download the latest Nightly build.
It is also possible to compile the plugin from the source code.
ChowTape for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store.
Figure 1: A Sony TC 260 reel-to-reel tape machine
1The plugin is based off a 2019 DAFx paper “Real-time Physical Modelling for
Analog Tape Machines”.
Figure 2: ChowTape User Interface
Controls
ChowTape contains a wide range of controls allowing the user
to design the the physical characteristics of the tape machine
and magnetic tape being emulated. Several of the controls even
allow the user to achieve more “extreme” results than would be
possible with a physical tape machine.
Main Controls
Input Gain controls the gain level going into the rest of the plugin. Note that abnormally large levels can cause the plugin to
become unstable, so it is recommended that sound levels are
at or below unity gain going into the plugin, and any extra gain
should come from the input gain control.
Dry/Wet allows the user to choose how much of the signal they
want to the plugin’s processing to affect