OXIDEX

Three tape speeds, Wear control, and physics-based tape stop.

Oxidex models the behavior of real reel-to-reel tape — three IPS speeds with frequency-dependent saturation, a single Wear knob that adds wow/flutter, spectral degradation, and tape dropouts, and live performance controls that no other tape plugin offers. Remi Blaze built it as the analog weight and texture tool in the suite, available for macOS.

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AU AUv3 VST3 CLAP Standalone macOS

WHAT IT DOES

  • Three tape speeds — 7.5 IPS (vintage warmth, heavy frequency rolloff, 60 Hz head bump), 15 IPS (classic studio character, 80 Hz head bump), and 30 IPS (hi-fi modern extension, 100 Hz head bump). Each speed changes the saturation character, head bump center frequency, and high-end rolloff simultaneously.
  • Wear knob — One control that combines wow/flutter, spectral degradation, and probabilistic tape dropouts. Dial it up from zero for lo-fi instability and oxide-shed character; leave it at zero for pristine tape saturation.
  • Transient Snap — An envelope-based detector that preserves kick and snare attacks through heavy Drive by blending dry transient energy back into the saturated output — so drums stay punchy no matter how hard you push the saturation.
  • Head Bump + Tilt EQ — A ZDF low-shelf filter adds up to +8 dB of sub-bass reinforcement at the tape-speed-tuned center frequency, while a single Tilt knob with a 1 kHz pivot darkens or brightens the overall tone in one gesture.
  • Tape Stop / Motor Pressure — Physics-based tape stop slows the audio to silence with quadratic friction and spins back up with a wobble on restart. Motor Pressure is a hold-to-engage effect combining a flanger and a 4x Drive boost for building industrial pressure in live performance.

WHY OXIDEX?

Most producers use saturation for harmonics and drive, but real tape machines did more than add harmonics. They compressed the time domain with wow and flutter, rolled off the highs with the head gap, and added a head bump that makes bass frequencies feel physical rather than just loud. Oxidex models all of that. The magnetic hysteresis engine saturates low frequencies more heavily than highs — matching how real tape oxide behaves — and the ZDF Head Bump filter reinforces the sub at the exact center frequency your chosen tape speed would produce. The result isn't just saturated audio; it's audio that has weight and physical presence.

Most tape emulations give you Drive and maybe a speed selector. Oxidex goes further. The Wear knob combines three distinct degradation effects — wow/flutter LFOs, a spectral aging filter that rolls off from 20 kHz down to 4 kHz, and probabilistic dropout artifacts above Wear 50% — so you can dial in anything from pristine studio tape to a warped cassette in one control. Tape Stop uses quadratic friction physics to slow the audio down naturally rather than a simple pitch ramp. Motor Pressure engages a flanger and 4x Drive boost on hold for live performance builds. And the Flux Meter renders the waveform in three visual layers — bloom, heat, and core — that respond to the saturation amount in real time, showing you what the tape is doing to the signal, not just what the signal is.

Tech house and house producers reach for Oxidex on kick drums, drum buses, and master buses — the Warehouse Master and Remi Blaze Oxidex presets are tuned for those workflows. Lo-fi beatmakers push the Wear slider to 7.5 IPS for a cassette-degraded character in seconds. Sound designers use Tape Stop and Motor Pressure as creative transition tools rather than audio processors. There's no reason to put any saturation on anything else before hearing what Oxidex does to it first.

HOW TO USE OXIDEX

How to add tape warmth to a tech house kick

  1. Load Oxidex on your kick bus or kick insert.
  2. Set Tape Speed to 15 IPS — classic studio tape with an 80 Hz head bump that sits right in the kick's body.
  3. Bring Drive to 25–40%. The kick gets rounder and heavier. Low frequencies saturate more than highs, naturally fattening the body of the hit.
  4. Increase Head Bump to 40–60%. You'll feel the sub under the kick gain physical weight at 80 Hz.
  5. Set Transient Snap to 60–80% so the initial click of the kick survives the Drive. Enable Auto Gain for a volume-neutral A/B comparison.
Pro tip: Load the Drum Punch preset as a starting point — it uses 80% Snap and 30 IPS to maximize transient preservation while adding tape character. Wind Drive back from there to dial in the right amount of warmth.

How to create lo-fi degraded texture with Wear

  1. Load Oxidex on a synth, drum loop, or any bus you want aged.
  2. Set Tape Speed to 7.5 IPS for maximum vintage character — the widest frequency rolloff and a 60 Hz head bump that clouds the upper end.
  3. Bring Wear to 40–60% and listen to the wow/flutter and spectral degradation interact. The signal gets wobbly and progressively darker.
  4. Push Wear past 50% and tape dropout artifacts appear — brief gain dips that sound like oxide shedding off the tape surface.
  5. Add Hiss at 10–15% and set Hiss Color to Brownian for a darker, -6 dB/octave noise floor that matches the degraded character of 7.5 IPS.
Pro tip: Load Lo-Fi Cassette or Attic Find as a reference — both show what extreme Wear and 7.5 IPS produce as intentional texture rather than mild saturation. Use them as a ceiling and pull back to taste.

How to use Tape Stop for a live transition

  1. Load Oxidex on your main output or a dedicated FX bus. Set your tape speed, Drive, and Wear for the current section.
  2. At a transition point or phrase end, hit Tape Stop. Oxidex applies quadratic friction — the audio slows fast at first, then crawls to silence naturally.
  3. Let the silence hold a beat, then trigger Tape Start (same button in its stopped state). The tape spins up with a slight overshoot wobble as it locks back to full speed.
  4. While the tape is spinning back up, engage Motor Pressure (hold the button). The flanger and 4x Drive boost build industrial pressure as the tape accelerates into the drop.
  5. Release Motor Pressure exactly on the drop — the signal snaps back to your preset settings with the Drive at your original value.
Pro tip: Map Tape Stop and Motor Pressure to MIDI notes or DAW automation lanes for precise triggering without manual clicks. Oxidex's 20ms parameter smoothing prevents click artifacts on any automated state change.

RECOMMENDED SETTINGS

Scenario Settings Result
Tech house kick bus 15 IPS, Drive 35%, Snap 70%, Head Bump 50% Punchy warmth with preserved transient attack
Drum bus glue 15 IPS, Drive 20%, Snap 50%, Warehouse Master preset Coherent analog weight across the full kit
Sub-bass reinforcement 7.5 IPS, Drive 25%, Head Bump 80%, Sub-Resonator preset Massive sub presence with tape-colored low end
Lo-fi texture 7.5 IPS, Wear 60%, Hiss 15%, Brownian, Tone -20 Warped cassette degradation with natural noise floor
Master bus glue 15 IPS, Drive 20%, Snap 60%, Auto Gain on, Master Glue (Clean) preset Transparent analog coloring before final limiting

TECH SPECS

  • FormatsAU, AUv3, VST3, CLAP, Standalone
  • PlatformmacOS 11.0+, Apple Silicon + Intel (Universal Binary)
  • Latency1.5ms fixed lookahead; static latency reporting (always reports HQ latency to host for gapless quality switching)
  • CPULight (Draft / 2x), moderate (Standard / 4x, HQ / 8x)
  • OversamplingDraft 2x, Standard 4x, HQ 8x
  • Presets22 factory presets
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TORCHIT Use Torchit's multiband saturation to shape specific frequency bands before routing into Oxidex's tape engine for layered analog coloring. BLAZEIT Follow Oxidex with Blazeit to clip the tape-saturated signal to a hard ceiling — combining tape warmth and clip loudness in one chain. CLAMPIT Place Clampit after Oxidex on the master bus for final brick-wall limiting and LUFS metering before streaming delivery. PUMPIT Sidechain-duck the mix bus with Pumpit before sending through Oxidex so the kick carves space through the tape saturation on every hit.