PORTATWIN
The preamp clips early. That's the point.
Cassette channel strip modeled after a 1987 four-track cassette recorder. The preamp clips early and the tape wears out. We kept both.
- VST3 + AU + CLAP
- macOS (Universal) + Windows 10+ (VST3 + CLAP)
- Instant download via Gumroad
- macOS builds notarized by Apple
- No account. No iLok. No subscription.
Audio demos are being recorded — dry against wet, same take, no cherry-picking.
A preamp that clips early
And unapologetically. From clean analog coloring to full tape destruction: the input stage colors everything it touches, like the machine it comes from.
Tape that drifts
Wow, flutter, and a BIAS control you can push until the top end gives up. The transport wobbles because the original transport wobbled.
Noise reduction that breathes
Tuned by ear, not modeled from the circuit. It ducks the hiss in quiet passages and breathes back in. Built to tame the hiss, it ends up shaping the sound.
Crosstalk and a head bump
Tracks bleed into each other, more as the tape wears. The low end swells with DRIVE: at half, 0.6 dB past the service manual’s limit.
Where it works
Drum bus, synths, guitars, full mixes when you’re feeling brave. Not the most accurate “studio tape” plugin. The one that makes a demo sound like a record you found in a drawer.
15 parameters, 15 presets
Everything automatable, POWER included. Presets from subtle analog glue to full lo-fi collapse, plus one that sets the machine up the way its service manual does.
A new face, and a tape that behaves more like the machine’s own service manual says it should.
- Interface
- Redrawn 1:1 from the artwork at full resolution, with a round POWER control and its LED. S, M and L sizes, as before.
- Drive
- The tape saturates a little earlier. At half DRIVE, where the tape sits at 0 VU, distortion is now just under 1 %, up from about 0.7 %. AUTO GAIN is recalibrated to match.
- Bias
- The first steps below centre now move the top end almost as much as the first steps above it. Before, they moved it about half as much.
- 1⅞ ips
- A wider band. On Type II tape with AGE at zero, 10 kHz now sits at −0.6 dB instead of −5.9. The machine’s service manual asks for no worse than −3.
- Hiss
- Now passes through the tape head’s bandwidth, like real cassette hiss, instead of reaching all the way up to 20 kHz.
- Fixed
- Dropouts no longer chop the hiss, and a dropout can no longer get stuck when AGE comes back down. Sessions at 22.05, 16 and 8 kHz no longer break the output. GHOST keeps its full stereo smear at 176.4 and 192 kHz.
- Preset
- Service Manual: the machine set up the way its service manual specifies it, at 1⅞ ips on Type II.
Already have PortaTwin? Same Gumroad link: download it again. Projects saved with 1.9 reopen with the same settings, but the sound is not identical, by design. Bounce or freeze finished mixes before you update, and keep the 1.9.0 installer if you want to go back.
Introduced in 1979, the Portastudio was the first four-track cassette recorder. It put a recording studio in a bedroom. The machine that started the family gave us Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska in 1982, when a record made at home was still an accident.
By 1987 it was normal. The Tascam Porta Two put a six-channel mixer, an effects send and four tracks on one cassette. It is the generation of machine behind a decade of records that were never supposed to be released.
Elliott Smith’s Roman Candle was recorded on a four-track. Iron & Wine’s The Creek Drank the Cradle was recorded at home on a four-track cassette recorder. Daniel Johnston, R. Stevie Moore, Sebadoh and The Microphones came out of the same home-taping scene. All of it was made on the machines, not with this plugin.
PortaTwin models one machine from that family, the 1987 four-track: preamp, tape, transport and noise reduction.
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.
- Formats
- VST3 + AU + CLAP
- Platforms
- macOS (Universal) + Windows 10+ (VST3 + CLAP)
- Version
- v2.0.0
- License
- Perpetual — no account, no iLok, no subscription
- Manual
- Online manual · PDF
- Price
- Free / Pay What You Want
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01
Get it on Gumroad
Checkout runs on Gumroad — card or PayPal. Pay what you want, including zero. The download link lands in your inbox.
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02
Download the zip
Inside: VST3 + AU + CLAP builds and the manual as PDF. macOS builds are notarized — no Gatekeeper drama.
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03
Install, rescan, done
macOS: run the signed installer in the zip and pick your formats. Windows: copy the plugin into your plugin folder. Rescan in your DAW. No account, no activation. The manual has the exact paths.
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. 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.
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.
Refunds?
Payments run through Gumroad, refunds follow Gumroad’s policy. If something is broken, write to [email protected] first — most problems are a five-minute fix.
Are updates free?
Yes — free updates within the current major version, delivered through the same Gumroad link.