deriva tape machine vs LoopGround

deriva is a tape machine plugin that is meant to give a polished and warm silky sound on your mix or master bus. built on published research papers¹ and my own experience recording with analog tape in studio, the sound is true to how real tape actually sounds. although the engine under the hood is advanced and complex, the controls are meant to be simple and easy, so you can set and forget and focus on your music. a fun feature is that you can pull the tape while the audio is running, causing the pitch to go up or down. the controls are pretty much self-explanatory: input and drive control how hard the signal and saturation will be. also sounds great on drums! bias simulates everything from a badly aligned machine to a brand new and serviced one, together with wear. a common misconception is that there is a lot of wow and flutter on tape machines. most professional tape machines do not have much flutter and wow, but in deriva you can push the machine a bit if you like - now with separate controls. tape speed affects the sound of the tape, where the lowest is dark and the highest is studio clean. if you want to bring back some of the high frequencies lost in tape speed, you may use the tone knob next to it. if you're bored with the UI you also have the possibility to change the colors and invert them. ON THE IPAD deriva is an Audio Unit (AUv3) and works with Logic Pro, GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis, Loopy Pro, Drambo and the rest. the standalone version either works as a live effect for your instrument, but also as a tape machine player: load in your own song and listen to it "on tape". you may also record live, or export the whole song with your current settings. Requires iPadOS 15 or later. also available for Mac, Windows and Linux at eikremaudio.com. ¹ Jatin Chowdhury, "Real-Time Physical Modelling for Analog Tape Machines", Proc. DAFx-19, Birmingham, 2019 (CC-BY 3.0). Otto Mikkonen, Alec Wright, Eloi Moliner and Vesa Välimäki, "Neural Modeling of Magnetic Tape Recorders", Proc. DAFx-23, Copenhagen, 2023. deriva is an independent implementation written from the published papers.

LoopGround is a four-track tape looper for building slow, evolving music. Record or bring in sound, then let each loop run at its own length, speed and direction while wow, flutter, saturation and tape age turn it into something alive. • Four independent tape loops, each with its own length, speed and direction • A step sequencer with chords, chance, ratchets, a key and scale, and an arpeggiator • Three LFOs and a filter on every track to keep everything moving • A mixer with EQ, aux sends and returns, and insert slots for your own AUv3 effects and instruments • Afterlight — a lush reverb with shimmer, freeze and burst • Run Away Delay — a pattern-driven delay that repeats, reverses, pitches and scatters • Use it as a standalone app, or as an AUv3 plugin inside your favourite host • Designed for iPhone and iPad, in portrait and landscape Try everything free for 7 days. Then choose LoopGround Full, or LoopGround Lite — the tape looper and sequencer without Full's extras (loops up to a minute, no per-track step lengths or divisions, no instruments or MIDI out, and no Afterlight or Run Away Delay). Lite owners can upgrade to Full at any time. Already own LoopGround Full for Mac or Windows? Sign in with the email you bought it with and it unlocks on your iPhone and iPad at no extra cost.