Reels is a tape machine in the box, with the reels actually spinning on screen. It models the things that made tape sound like music: asymmetric saturation that thickens the harder you push it, the head bump low-end lift that gives drums vintage weight, and the gentle wow and flutter pitch drift that makes digital audio feel human.
Three machines cover three decades: a clean 15ips studio deck, a warm workhorse, and a genuinely old cassette found in a drawer. AGE packs years of wear into one knob, dulling the top and softening the edges, while HISS doses real tape noise to taste for lo-fi beds and intros. Push the input until you smile; the harder you hit the tape, the thicker it gets.
Get Reels on the main store →Warm saturation, softened digital edges, a low-end head bump and slight pitch drift. Together they are a huge part of the lo-fi and vintage sound, and gentle settings simply make mixes feel glued.
The cassette machine with AGE and HISS turned up is practically a lo-fi preset. It covers everything from subtle vintage color to a warped 30-year-old tape.
VST3 and AU for macOS: Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, GarageBand, Reaper, Studio One and more. Windows builds are coming soon.
Both are pitch drift from the physical tape transport. Wow is the slow, seasick drift over seconds; flutter is the fast shimmer on top. A little of each makes things feel human, a lot sounds like a warped memory.
Reels is 19 dollars, and it is free to download during the launch window.
Ready to try it? Reels lives on the Sebastian Macan plugin store along with ten more plugins and 796 MIDI chord progressions.