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Arturia Tape MELLO-FI Is FREE Until December 31st!

By 53 Comments3 Mins Read
Arturia Tape MELLO-FI

Arturia releases Tape MELLO-FI, a vintage tape emulator VST plugin based on Mellotron V’s tape algorithm. The plugin is FREE until December 31st, 2021.

Tape MELLO-FI emulates the imperfections of vintage tape recorders, including pitch instability, noise, flutter, and mechanical wear. It also simulates some of the tape’s more desirable artifacts like gentle saturation and warmth.

But that’s not all. Tape MELLO-FI packs a few more sonic tricks up its sleeve, such as the tempo-synchronized “tape stop” and “tape catch-up” effects, stereo width enhancement, and a 12dB multi-mode filter.

Tape MELLO-FI Overview

Arturia’s latest audio effect is more than a lo-fi tool. Tape MELLO-FI is a versatile sound design toolbox with pitch modulation, noise, saturation, stereo enhancement, and lo-fi features.

Here’s how Arturia describes the plugin:

“Tape MELLO-FI is an easy-to-use plugin that brings instant atmosphere and vintage tape-aged warmth in a few clicks. The plug allows users to add sublime lo-fi vibes over drum loops, vocals, mix bus, and anything in between. Tape MELLO-FI’s sound and behavior are inspired by Mellotron V, our software recreation of the legendary Mellotron instrument.”

I always loved Arturia’s plugin design, and Tape MELLO-FI is no exception. It sports a beautiful GUI that resembles the Mellotron V virtual instrument, both in terms of color scheme and knob design. The controls are pretty straightforward, and the plugin is an absolute joy to use.

By the way, that animated spinning reel is more than just a visual gimmick. You can click it to generate glitchy tape effects in real-time. Or, press the Play/Pause button for the tempo-synchronized tape stop effect.

Tape MELLO-Fi's interface is inspired by the Mellotron.
Tape MELLO-Fi’s interface is inspired by the Mellotron.

Another thing Tape MELLO-FI borrowed from the Mellotron V is the tape algorithm. It delivers the same tape warmth and saturation you’ve heard in Arturia’s virtual Mellotron.

And if you don’t like building sounds from scratch, Arturia ships the Tape MELLO-Fi with 25 presets based on popular retro and lo-fi effects.

I heard the plugin briefly and it sounds wonderfully lo-fi. Coming from a fan of tape emulation plugins, this little gem from Arturia is one of the best I’ve tried so far. It exaggerates the wow and flutter effects but does so in a way that still sounds authentic (as opposed to some older lo-fi plugins which always sounded artificial to me).

You can hear the plugin in action in the demo video below.

YouTube video

Tape MELLO-Fi is available in VST2, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin formats for digital audio workstations on Windows and macOS. Only 64-bit plugin hosts are supported.

Tape MELLO-FI Download

Be sure to claim your free copy of the plugin before December 31st, 2021. You’ll need to register on Arturia’s website and download the Arturia Software Center for activation purposes.

I don’t have the official pricing for Tape MELLO-FI, but Arturia’s effects usually cost €99 (this is the case with Chorus JUN-6 and Filter MINI, both of which were free for a limited time at launch).

Want more saturation tools? Check out our free BPB Saturator plugin.

Download: Tape MELLO-FI / Arturia (FREE until December 31st, 2021)

More articles:

Tomislav is a music producer and sound designer from Belgrade, Serbia. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief at Bedroom Producers Blog.

53 Comments

  1. Arshan

     on

    Walked over to another link to get this plugin as well and couldn’t access it. Gonna wait till the download link is setup properly by Arturia

    Reply

      • Klank

         on

        The link is working, but, unfortunately, the license deposit to Arturia Software Center is not working.

        Been waiting for some time now, but license is not showing up in ASC, like it’s supposed to. Guess their servers are busy.

        Reply

  7. Sam

     on

    Thank you for posting here but Arturia is garbage.
    I will NEVER download or buy anything from this company.
    I bought one of their plugins once and couldn’t download it. Even now it sits in Arturia’s shitty downloader.

    Happy holidays guys

    Reply

    • Tomislav Zlatic

       on

      I wouldn’t agree, Arturia really is a great company, at least from my personal experience (as a customer). I bought DrumBrute Impact, the BeatStep Pro, and their entire FX range. All products worked flawlessly.

      Anyway, the download link works now, you can give it another try if you want.

      Happy holidays to you, too! :)

      Reply

  8. Aris

     on

    Thanks,

    Great freebie! (Saw a clip of it a few days ago)
    Here’s a couple more.

    Free plugin by Hornet Plugins
    Hornet Valvola

    Acustica Audio
    Eminence free channel strip.

    Reply

  10. Pisces

     on

    Thanks Tom, not your fault. Yet another non existent download, i’d swear these dev’s do this on purpose, this and ending an offer early would appear to be another trick.

    Reply

    • Tomislav Zlatic

       on

      This was my bad actually, I posted without checking the download link. Everything is working now, give it another try. :)

      Reply

  12. Михаил

     on

    вот зачем людям морочить голову? ссылки не рабочие! типа, как радостно посмотреть на людей, которые радуются в предвкушении подарка, и получают пустую коробку?

    Reply

  15. Aiv

     on

    Abletunes has announced the release of a free sound pack with 2GB of instruments for Ableton Live dedicated to piano and keys. The Foundation: Keys pack features 25 multi-sampled instrument racks designed for contemporary music, from clean upright and grand pianos to heavily processed dance and lo-if keys. All racks have macro controls for effects and rack-specific parameters

    https://abletunes.com/free-ableton-packs-instruments-foundation

    Reply

    • Christian H

       on

      The Mello-Fi plugin is registered to your account without requiring any installation. Just login, click get Mello-Fi, done.

      Reply

  18. Konstantin Kobaltov

     on

    Xmas gift from Man Makes Noise :

    “The Lobby Piano is a small grand piano in a lobby.
    Contents:
    One Kontakt 6 patch, one Kontakt 5 patch, one Decent Sampler patch, 10 .SFZ patches and 1189 uncompressed .WAV samples and takes up 3,3 gb of hard disk space.
    There are also 29 snapshots by Man Makes Noise and Torley for the Kontakt 6 version.”
    (Use the code FREEXMAS)

    Reply

  19. Konstantin Kobaltov

     on

    Still no luck with MELLO-Fi.

    So it says “Almost there! Your licence is being added to your account.
    It may take a moment due to a high demand. In the meantime, follow these last few steps to start using your software:”

    But no new licences in account from browser, and “Unknown product” appeared in Arturia Software Center. At first attempt it disappeared after sync, at second one (hours later!) nothing happened at all, third – it appeared again, but still “unknown”.
    No e-mails, no serials.

    Maybe this “It may take a moment due to a high demand” in play, who knows. Hate this shi … :)

    Reply

  20. Ike

     on

    There still seem to be some issues right now, The link works, but it still won’t register the product to my account. Also, the Arturia Software Center doesn’t show the license. Maybe server overload issues?

    Reply

    • Ike

       on

      It took some hours, but finally the license arrived in the account.

      Thanks to Arturia for this great holiday gift. Native Instruments messed up this season with their buggy old Izotope Trash 2 offering, which can cause serious damage to speakers and ears due to serious anomalities in the old code.

      Reply

  21. Chris S

     on

    граждани музыканты! узззбогойтесь! у Артурии каждый код так, слишком много заявок на авторизацию. надо или подождать, или написать в тех. поддержку. софт у них прекрасный, один из топовых на планете. и ради халявного кусочка халвы – можно и вежливо подождать. МИР

    citizen musicians! Have fun! Arturia has every code like that, there are too many requests for authorization. you either have to wait, or write to tech support. their software is excellent, one of the top on the planet. and for the sake of a free piece of halva – you can wait politely. PLUR

    Reply

    • Konstantin Kobaltov

       on

      Ха-ха, лайк! УзЗзбагоились ужо, но и подождали тоже, да. Не знаю ничего, какой там у них софт, я пока только клавиатурку приобрел :)

      Reply

  22. antti maatteri

     on

    make sure you check the “explore products” list in the arturia software center. its hidden there, not in your own library of “my products”,. then hit install

    Reply

    • antti maatteri

       on

      well, its the demo version. but nonetheless, you can wait til your license isa registered by their servers and then hit refresh when opening the demo-plugin. meanwhile just demo it, if you can not wait. great little plug so far. works amazingly well with arturias electropiano stuff ;D

      thx to arturia

      Reply

  27. Neil Paddock

     on

    Hi Tomislav

    Another great plugin by Arturia. I recently bought the V Collection (which is fantastic, btw) so to pick MELLO-FI up for free via Plugin Boutique was a nice bonus. Thanks for continuing to search out and flag all these freebies and bargains.

    Arturia did have some server issues recently which meant plugins you had already activated were showing up as demos. No matter. Arturia Technical Support were able to point me in the right direction and the plugins are now all updated and working as expected now that Arturia Software Center is up and running again.

    I was also delighted to snag Kontakt back in June 2020 at a cool upgrade price by downloading Arcane by Embertone first, which is also thanks to you and your contributors at BPB.

    Keep up the great work, and have an excellent 2022!

    All the best

    Neil

    Reply
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