News

We are excited to announce the next version of our application for guitarists, TapTone Vintage Guitar version 1.2! There are a few major enhancements that we would like to highlight, overall we think the quality of sound and flexibility has increased to a point where you can now achieve near-perfect tones to match your favorite artists. Here’s what’s new:

What’s In A Name

Most obviously, we have modified the name of the application to avoid any confusion with the print and digital publication Vintage Guitar. Our focus is still on Vintage Gear and we will continue to expand our offerings under the TapTone moniker.

New Gear Shop

We have updated the Gear Shop to include new models of Amplifiers. We realized that getting a great sounding amplifier for free was a good place to start but found most musicians were looking for ways to achieve tones even closer to their favorite recordings. Similar to how we provide accurate and tweakable models of your favorite pedals, we are now going to include the same level of performance, accuracy, and flexibility with your favorite amplifiers. This includes details that drill down to specific revisions of amplifiers only offered for a few years before changing, stay tuned for some great new products.

Real Cabinets, Real Sound

Of course, with great amplifiers come great speaker cabinets, and so we have also updated the shop to include cabinet simulations that pair with their respective amplifiers. In keeping with our goal of flexibility and performance we are offering new cabinets as individual products so you can mix and match to suit your needs. All amplifiers now come with a Rear Panel that provides extended control which includes a Cabinet Blend control. You can load up to two cabinets and smoothly blend between them, even during live performance.

Our previous Amplifier has now been split into the original Amplifier and Speaker Simulator as a separate product, all for free. The Speaker Simulator has added tone flexibility and can be blended with real speaker cabinets for even more options. We will be slowly revealing some new presets that accurately capture classic tones, sounds that are so good you won’t believe your ears.

Same Subscription, More Great Products

We think you’ll find that TapTone Vintage Guitar has endless variations of tone to satisfy guitar players in any genre of music. If you were already a subscriber then everything we just mentioned here, the new amplifiers, new cabinets, and all of our pedals are available to you today! If you haven’t yet subscribed, hurry up! You’re missing out! Check out our product page for more details and stay tuned for new products.

Follow with us as we revisit a long list of classic effects for the electric guitar through our first app for iOS, Vintage Guitar. The history of rock n’ roll sound is at your fingertips.

Free Stuff

First things first, effects were never meant to replace good tone. In fact starting with a great sounding amp is always the best way to get the most out of any pedal. So we decided to give you just that, great tone, for free. As soon as you launch the app you’ll be greeted by our Compressor and Amplifier models that can be used to instantly shape your sound. You might stop there if you want, as good tone can go a long way but we know your creative spirit is ceaseless and will lead you to more experimentation.

Head to the Pedal Shop

From the first batch of transistorized effects to the latest boutique pedals our goal is to experience classic fuzzes and distortions, phase shifters, chorus/flangers, and wahs with a fresh take. With such a long list of great sounds it was difficult to decide where to start, so why not right at the beginning. Starting with the very first transistorized fuzz effect released in 1962 we begin our journey, here’s a look at the current effects available in the Pedal Shop.

Save Your Sounds

When you first launch the app you’ll see the Floor Controller, the center of your operation. Here you can save, recall, reorder, edit, and delete presets, as well as route any of the knobs/switches or expression pedal to any (and multiple) physical controls modeled in any pedal in your signal chain including the Compressor and Amplifier. This all-in-one pedal is also a classic take on a piece of vintage gear but with much more capability.

Stay Tuned

With unlimited possibilities for realtime control, a growing list of vintage effects, and an awesome Compressor and Amplifier that you get for free, we think you’ll find that Vintage Guitar has endless variations of tone to satisfy guitar players in any genre of music. Check out our product page for more details and stay tuned for new pedals.

We’ve been having lots of fun with the new Digital Filter and we thought we would share some of our findings with you. For those who are still championing the sub-genre affectionately known as Acid House, we have some good news for you. With a few simple elements from Reason plus the Digital Filter, you can create your very own TB-303. Let’s get started.

• First, instantiate an instance of the Subtractor Analog Synthesizer, this will act as our main voice. In fact, the very first preset “Bass Guitar” is just what we are looking for to achieve this simple but classic sound.

• Next, connect the Digital Filter and also add a Spider CV Merger & Splitter. Since the Digital Filter supports Note and Gate CV inputs, this will be able to accurately track the output of the Subtractor just like the TB-303.

• Next, instantiate the Matrix Pattern Sequencer and make sure that the Note and Gate CV Outputs are connected to both the Subtractor and Digital Filter (using the CV Splitter). Though this is not visually like the original sequencer, the Matrix is fully capable of generating both discrete and continuous note events. If you’re not that familiar with the Matrix, for instance you can hold down Shift while drawing Gate information to add continuous steps, release Shift to draw discrete steps. For more information about the Matrix, check out this awesome article from Sound On Sound.

• Lastly, you might notice that this sequence does not glide between notes. Though this feature was more configurable with the TB-303 you can achieve a similar sound by increasing the portamento control in Subtractor, we recommend a value of 90 as a starting point.

Here are some sound samples that demonstrate this approach:

And we have created a Combinator for you to explore. To start, try flipping the State (HP/LP) switch to HP and experiment with sounds not previously available from the TB-303. Also, we set the order at an 8-pole filter since that sounded best but you can find a more subtle sound with a 2- or 4-pole filter (as in the original) as well as reach beyond with a 12-pole filter, and everything in between.

• Download TB-303 Clone Combinator

 

We are excited to announce our next product for Propellerhead’s Reason: The Digital Filter is a device designed to cover a wide range of sonic possibility from subtle sweeps to screaming feedback. Use the Envelope Generator to create sharp shifts in timbre, apply a sidechain signal to the Envelope Follower to track movement in another part, wire the Note and Gate inputs to follow your custom sequence, and add copious amounts of CV to generate interesting rhythms. Check out our product page for more details.

Check out some of the more extreme capabilities of the Haas Mixer. From tape warble to flanging to FM-like chaos, you can cover a lot of ground if you’re looking to expand your sonic palette.

We are excited to announce our first product for Propellerhead’s Reason: The Haas Mixer is a device designed to provide several different time-based effects that can be used simultaneously. Take your mix to a new level using binaural processing, add width to dry and isolated sound sources, and get creative with modulation to generate stereo sonic chaos from yet uncharted territory. Check out our product page for more details.

We’re busy working on some cool stuff that we’re excited to share with you. Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by!