Pointless Audio / Plugins / PortaSolo
Cassette Channel · One channel of PortaTwin
PortaSolo
One channel. The tape, set once.
One channel of a 1987 four-track: the measured mixer and its tape, set once. TRIM, EQ, CLEAN / HOT, AUTO GAIN, a fader, and a tape you switch on or off. The whole machine is PortaTwin.
- Machine
- One channel of a 1987 four-track
- Measured
- The mixer, on a real unit
- Tape
- Fixed settings, one STOP / REC switch
- Version
- v1.0.0
- Runs on
- VST3 · AU · CLAP — macOS, Windows, Linux beta
- Licence
- Free. The whole plugin, not a demo. No account, no iLok
What it does
The mixer, measured
The same four-track mixer that is inside PortaTwin, modeled stage by stage from measurements of a real unit: the input stage with its TRIM, the channel fader, the gain stage with the EQ, the master and the output amplifier. Each one clips on its own curve, one side slightly before the other.
A TRIM that clips like the real one
The left half of the knob turns the signal down. The right half is the four-track’s TRIM, from line level at the centre to +40.1 dB, on the law measured on the real pot. Push it and the input stage gives way.
EQ inside an amplifier
LOW and HIGH work at 100 Hz and 10 kHz, about ±10 dB. They live inside a gain stage, so a boosted band is the first to hit that stage’s limit.
CLEAN or HOT
CLEAN leaves the channel fader at its mark. HOT pushes it all the way up and pulls the master down by the same 9.4 dB: a quiet signal comes out at the same level, a loud one distorts more. AUTO GAIN evens out the level changes of TRIM, DRIVE TYPE and the tape.
The tape, set once
Switch TAPE to REC and the signal goes through a cassette at the slow speed, lightly driven and slightly worn: softer transients, a rounder top, a little movement on held notes. There are no tape controls. Plug it in, set the level, play.
Not a demo — the whole plugin
Free, and it stays free. Nothing is locked, nothing expires. Updates arrive through the same Gumroad link.
PortaSolo and PortaTwin
One channel of the machine, or the whole machine.
- Mixer
- The same in both: TRIM, EQ LOW and HIGH, CLEAN / HOT, AUTO GAIN, the OUTPUT fader and POWER, with the mixer’s own hiss at the level measured on the real unit.
- Tape
- PortaSolo: one STOP / REC switch, with the tape fixed at 1⅝ ips, Type II, DRIVE 30 %, FLUTTER 5 %, AGE 15 %. PortaTwin: every one of those is a control of its own.
- Only in PortaTwin
- The noise reduction, GHOST and the VU meter.
- Presets
- The two install side by side, each with its own preset folder. A PortaSolo preset copied into PortaTwin’s folder opens there with the same sound, and the tape controls start from PortaSolo’s settings.
Want every tape control? PortaTwin is the whole four-track.
The heritage
Introduced in 1979, the Portastudio put a recording studio in a bedroom. By 1987, with the Tascam Porta Two, recording at home on a four-track cassette was normal, and a decade of records that were never supposed to be released came out of machines like it.
PortaSolo takes one channel of that 1987 four-track: its mixer, measured on a real unit, and its tape at fixed settings. PortaTwin is the whole machine.
Tascam, Portastudio and Porta Two are trademarks of TEAC Corporation. Pointless Audio is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by TEAC. Product names are used solely to describe the hardware that inspired this plug-in.
Specs
- Formats
- VST3 + AU + CLAP
- Platforms
- macOS (Universal) + Windows 10+ (VST3 + CLAP) + Linux x86_64, beta (VST3 + CLAP)
- Version
- v1.0.0
- License
- Perpetual — no account, no iLok, no subscription
- Manual
- Online manual · PDF
How to get it
-
01
Get it on Gumroad
Checkout runs on Gumroad. It’s free: enter 0 in the price field. The download link lands in your inbox.
-
02
Download the zip
Inside: VST3 + AU + CLAP builds and the manual as PDF. macOS builds are notarized — no Gatekeeper drama. The Linux beta is a separate tar.gz.
-
03
Install, rescan, done
macOS: run the signed installer in the zip and pick your formats. Windows: copy the plugin into your plugin folder. Linux (beta): extract the tar.gz, copy the .vst3 folder to ~/.vst3 and the .clap file to ~/.clap; README.txt inside has the steps. Rescan in your DAW. No account, no activation. The manual has the exact paths.
Questions
How do I install it?
On macOS, run the installer inside the zip: it is signed and notarized, and lets you pick the formats. On Windows, copy each format into your plugin folder. On Linux (beta), extract the tar.gz and copy the .vst3 folder to ~/.vst3 and the .clap file to ~/.clap, as README.txt inside the package explains. Then rescan in your DAW. The manual walks through the exact paths.
Do I need an account, a dongle, or an internet connection?
No account, no iLok, no subscription, no activation. Once installed it runs fully offline, forever.
Does it work in my DAW?
Any host that loads VST3 + AU + CLAP: Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Reaper, Bitwig, Cubase, Studio One, FL Studio and friends. No AAX — Pro Tools is not supported.
Does it run on Linux?
As a beta: x86_64, VST3 and CLAP, no AU. It needs glibc 2.38 or newer (Ubuntu 24.04+, Debian 13, Fedora 39+); Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 12 are too old. The CLAP build is experimental. Same sound engine as the macOS and Windows builds. If something doesn’t load or sounds wrong, write to [email protected].
Windows says the file is from an unknown publisher.
Windows builds are not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn on first run. The zip you download from Gumroad is the zip we built — choose “Run anyway” or unblock the file in Properties.
Are updates free?
Yes — free updates within the current major version, delivered through the same Gumroad link.
Free
Free, and the whole plugin. No account, no iLok, no subscription.
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