Transport-Level Tape Varispeed

Cubase
1

So a couple of DAWs already have this (Reaper, Logic Pro etc), and I’d love to see it in Cubase.

To be clear, I’m not talking about time-stretching or independent pitch shifting. I mean a true tape-style playback mode, where the entire project speeds up or slows down exactly like changing the speed of an analogue tape machine.

Why?

I very often reach the final stages of a production and wonder how the track feels at, say, -20 cents, +15 cents, or even -1 semitone. I’m not trying to fix tuning - I just want to hear how a tiny global speed change affects the groove, weight and transient of the track. Very small tape-style changes can subtly improve drum and bass cohesion, perceived weight and general tonal feel.

I’ve found that very small tape-style changes can subtly improve drum and bass cohesion and perceived weight in particular.

Current workflow is bounce the mix, re-import it, apply offline tape repitch processing, compare, repeat if necessary at different pitches. It works, but it’s slow enough to discourage experimentation.

This is unfortunately not something that can be done with a plugin in real time, as it only receives audio buffers after the DAW has already generated them. It can’t tell the playback engine to read the project faster or slower, nor can it access audio that hasn’t yet been rendered. That’s why true tape-style varispeed really needs to exist at the transport/audio engine level, rather than as an insert effect.

Something simple would be enough, like an option to enable/disable Varispeed, a speed slider or percentage, ability to adjust in cents, or optional display as %, semitones or cents, or a Tape mode (where pitch follows speed)

Maybe I’m just being very niche here, but its well implemented in both Logic and Reaper so it is doable.

2

+1

It is so wonderfully implemented in Logic. I reeeeeally miss that feature in Cubase.

4

Have you tried setting the algorithm to plastique tape and changing the tempo? It will adjust the pitch with tempo changes like an analog tape machine.

5

I mean, technically that will achieve something sort of similar, but it’s very much a half workaround as opposed to a feature.

For one, you have to manually prepare every event in your project for it to work. More importantly, MIDI events will not function the same way; VST Instruments will not transpose automatically along with the audio.

Also its project editing, not quick auditioning. You’re changing the project’s tempo, not just telling the playback engine to run at 99%. You then have to restore the tempo afterward. You can’t just drag a transport slider between -20, 0 and +20 cents while the project is looping.

Logic has had this for quite some time and is pretty seamless: