The mad genius has done it again. Chris from Airwindows has just released the 9th instalment of the ToTape tape saturation plugins called ToTape9 with some exciting new features for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Most people looking for cool and unique new plugins must at some point encounter the rabbit hole called Airwindows.
It’s an incredible treasure trove of software ranging from entire console-like systems to creative wordlength-reducers (“dithers”), EQs based on Kalman filters, huge reverbs, slew filters, and saturation units.
The staggering amount of plugins, potential use-cases, and sometimes cryptic terminology, combined with the very on-brand lack of modern GUI (no rusty 3d knobs here), can shake the confidence even of seasoned veterans.
That’s why you should check out Airwindows Consolidated if you’re new to the party.
With that said, everyone loves the saturation, the high-frequency compression, and the subtle wow and flutter of tape machines. Many developers promise to bring you the joys of tape digitally, but let’s be honest, few deliver convincing results.
Airwindows is a positive outlier in this regard, and his take on recreating the magic of tape has earned him the status of house favourite here at BPB. Tomislav actually ranks the ToTape series as his favourite free tape plugins of all time(!), alongside the classic FerricTDS by Variety of Sound.
That is no small feat!
FerricTDS recently got updated, by the way, so make sure to check it out.
I recommend reading Airwindows’ plugin descriptions and watching the demo videos to get a comprehensive understanding, but we’ll go through the basic controls here.
ToTape9 has an input slider that drives the saturation and compression. Pushing this gives you really juicy saturation, blooming low-end, and a high-frequency compression. This parameter alone can be used as a sweetener or tonal rebalancer.
The heart of the saturation algorithm is now replaced, and in Chris’s own words, “You do not have to slam this to have it sound amazing, but if slamming’s your thing, I think this will bring delight and joy.”
And it does.
The “Tilt” and “Shape” sliders give you even more control of the saturation and compression character. If too much high-end is soaked up, simply use the tilt slider to reintroduce brightness. You can also use it to emphasize the low frequencies even more.
“Flutter” and “FlutterSpd” are pretty self-explanatory. Give your sound anything from subtle organic movement to wonky, dilapidated weirdness.
Adjust biasing with the “Bias” slider and add targeted bass emphasis with the “HeadBmp” and “HeadFrq” controls for a fat and delicious low-end.
Finally, the output slider controls an entirely new clipping stage that combines “dithering aliasing” with his ClipOnly2 plugin (this is where you read the description over at the Airwindows website to get into the nitty-gritty nerdy details).
Anyway, input and output are not simple gain controls. Far from it!
ToTape9 is a tone-shaping, compression, and saturation beast that can transform any sound or be added to any mix for surprising results. An immediate must-have for fans or just people looking for (actually) solid tape emulations.
I can’t imagine how much certain plugin companies would charge for something that doesn’t even begin to touch the sound quality of this plugin. And Chris does it for free.
Donations help him create this impressive output of useful and unique plugins, so it’s definitely something to consider. Especially if you were just about to throw money at an inferior product!
Download: ToTape9 (FREE)
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Last Updated on March 23, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
