TAPE FIASCO 2 Review
Jonas Erikson has released a sequel to their free Tape Fiasco glitch effect. Tape Fiasco 2 takes the core concept behind the original and adds modulation, sequencing, performance macros, and best of all an effects rack. Stick around for the effects rack as it offers some very unique effects that could honestly very solid standalone plugins in their own right.
For the most part the front panel is exactly the same as the original with some minor changes. Most notably the UI has been changed to a blue-ish grey, I personally prefer the original black and white, but I feel some alternate themes would be very welcome here.
Check out my original review of Tape Fiasco for more details on this front panel: https://www.databroth.com/blog/tape-fiasco-review-free-glitch-effect
The new effects rack offers 21 different effects grouped into several categories such as distortions, filters, motion etc. Effects can be placed in any order you like, but you only get one of each effect. It may be tempting to write this section off as many plugins nowadays have an effects rack built in, but there are some fun unique effects here that you don’t often see in other plugins. There’s some fun distortions available, including a nice bitcrusher and some wave folders. All the typical modulation and ambient effects are here as well. There’s also some filters and resonators, but I’d like to focus on my three favorite effects as they could easily be their own plugins.
Circuit Bend
A fun glitch effect, the shift control is like a bitcrusher, but the real fun is from the corrupt control which adds harsh glitching artifacts. There’s also a stall control which adds random stutters like a CD skipping. It’s a pretty simple but effective effect.
Sieve
This one is a fun little spectral filter, there’s a few different shapes to pick from and a smoothing control that adjusts the slope of each spectral band. The filter automatically sweeps at whatever rate you set it. It’s not the deepest spectral filter, but adds a unique flavor to Tape Fiasco none the less.
Crystal
A harmonic resonator similar to Bismuth and those other “colorbass” resonator plugins. It seems to sweep through different resonant notes according to the pattern and is capable of inharmonic tones via the skew control
The animate tab adds two sequencers to the original tape fiasco effect and some modulation. The sequencers activate stretch and stutter while allowing you to have different values per step. The UI here could use a bit of work though, as you have to activate a step before you can adjust its value, I’d like to simply click and drag a step to adjust its value. The sequencers are only ever 16 steps long, so no polymeters here.
There are four modulators that can be set to LFO, random, or envelope follower modes. These can be assigned to up to six controls each via right clicking the control or via their mod matrix. LFOs can only be tempo synced, I would have liked to have seen some free modes. The random motion can be stepped or smoothed and there’s a cool jitter control that seems to add noise between the jumps. I also noticed some “graph” modulators, but I’m not quite sure what these do.
This is a really solid update to a free plugin, if you enjoyed Tape Fiasco, I highly suggest giving this update a look as it adds some really cool features. I think there is still room for improvement, but the fun spectral and glitch effects expand it quite a bit and modulation is always welcome. I will definitely be reaching for this one more often when it comes to glitch sound design. The circuit bend effect alone gives me something I’m after often. While yes, this is a paid upgrade, I think it adds enough to justify the cost, we can almost think of the original as a free demo.
You can pick up Tape Fiasco 2 from Jonas Erikson’s website here: https://www.erikssonjonas.com/tapefiasco-2