e-instruments has just released the Slower Fragment, the free version of their paid Slower Kontakt Instrument for both macOS and Windows.
The concept behind Slower Fragment is feeding four separate tape machines a variety of organic and synthetic sounds, which are then slowed down to half speed and re-recorded.
Every tape machine has its own distinct flavor, and the slowing down creates textures, artifacts, and a new, more mellow sonic palette.
Take a peek at this demo to hear what sounds it can make:
Clicking “Tapes” at the bottom left of the UI lets you select “tapes” and “macros”. The different tape models are as follows:
- Studio: Legendary Studer A812 and Revox PR99 reel-to-reel machines
- Portable: The smaller Uher 4400 Report IC and Uher 4400 Report Monitor, with more wow and flutter
- Cassette: Bring back the nostalgic grit with a Tascam Portastudio 424mkiii
- Dictaphone: A Sony M650v – micro cassette machine, perfect for Lo-Fi enthusiasts.
Thus, Slower Fragment is not a tape emulation as such, but playable samples of actual tape recordings. Thinking of it as a digital mellotron might help! Plug in your MIDI keyboard and have some fun.
Slower Fragment offers six presets that work like separate instruments, and the tweakable macro parameters change accordingly. Macros control things like reverb, saturation, presence, and air, amongst other things.
Each effect has one slider, but more things are happening under the hood.
The combination of different tape machines and the effects section gives you some room to customize your sound. While Slower Fragment is pretty limited in its feature set and sound selection, the baseline at least sounds good.
Cinematic atmosphere, wobbly pads, or even lead sounds can be coaxed out of this thing. And by the way: you might also be interested in the free synth library for Decent Sampler called auras:altis by Venus Theory.
To download Slower Fragment, add it to your shopping cart and proceed to checkout. You’ll then be required to register an account with e-instruments before you can complete your order. After that, an email with a license key and a link to the download will be sent to your email address.
You also need Native Access and Kontakt (either paid or free version) to run Slower Fragment.
Download: Slower Fragment by e-instruments (FREE – Native Access & Kontakt required)
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Last Updated on November 6, 2025 by Tomislav Zlatic.
