The latest release from New York-based developer Iconic Instruments is said to accurately recreate the saturation and compression imparted by vintage tape machines, but offers a flexible set of controls that have been designed with modern productions in mind.
Iconic Instruments say that Transport Vintage Tape offers a more versatile solution than competing tape emulations, and comes equipped with a comprehensive set of parameters that give users in-depth control over the resulting sound. While it’s capable of subtlety, it can be driven far harder than many similar processors: setting its Record level parameter low will result in classic, subtle enhancement, while cranking it up will deliver far more extreme, all-out distortion.
High and Low Drive controls allow users to reduce the amount of high- and low-frequency content that reaches the saturation processing, while a HF Bypass function engages a low-pass filter that prevents high-frequency content from being affected. a Head Bump feature adds a low-frequency boost — up to 12dB, centred anywhere between 50 and 250 Hz — while a High Frequency Response control provides a ±12dB shelf filter than can be placed anywhere between 4 and 10 kHz.
“Transport Vintage Tape goes further than most other tape plug-ins — it can be subtle or it can be wild, so if you push it hard you’re going to get a lot more colour than you would normally get with any other tape plug-in. It also adds a number of features you don’t see anywhere else.” - Michael Vecchio, Founder, Iconic Instruments
Compatibility
Transport Vintage Tape is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or above, and Macs running macOS 10.15 and later. VST3, AU and AAX plug-in versions are available.
Pricing & Availability
Transport Vintage Tape is available now, and is currently (25 March 2026) being offered at an introductory price of $59, reduced from its full cost of $79.
