The Tube section allows you to select the type of tube coloration from a variety of analog vacuum tube circuits. Some of the Tube Modes are fairly simple preamps or single-tube circuits, while others are entire amplifier stages (with multiple tubes and transformers). Additionally, some of the tube modes are modded tube circuits that were created in the Goodhertz lab and are not commercially available.

What do tubes sound like?

Broadly speaking, tubes sound warm while also sounding fairly articulate.

Tubes generally exhibit higher 2nd-order (even) harmonic distortion than, say, analog tape does, which contributes to their big, warm sound. The articulate sound of tubes comes, in part, from their dynamic compression characteristics: tubes are nonlinear devices, and they really respond to playing dynamics in a wonderful & musical way.

All of these tube characteristics (and more!) have been captured in Tupe.

The Tape section allows you to select the type of tape coloration from a variety of analog tape machines.

What does tape sound like?

The sound of a particular tape machine depends a lot on the size, speed, and magnetic characteristics of the actual tape being used. In general, the faster and wider the tape, the higher fidelity. For example, cassette tape decks — which use fairly thin tape running at slow speeds — have more frequency coloration and noise than a large reel-to-reel machine would have.

Tape machines generally exhibit less 2nd-order (even) harmonic distortion than analog tubes do, which often gives tape a more grainy, crunchy saturation sound. Tape usually has more obvious high frequency roll-off & noise and can dull or smooth out transients when pushed.

All of these tape characteristics (and more!) have been captured in Tupe.

Tupe Wow’s Opto section is our take on a 1960’s-inspired optical compressor/limiter, drawing from some our favorite compressors of all-time, both old and new.

We’ve sped things up a bit, especially in the limiter mode, so that the movement is a bit snappier and more reactive than a typical opto compressor would be, which can sound awesome mixed in parallel (with either the Opto Amount or Master Mix controls).

What does an opto compressor sound like?

Generally, opto compressors have a very natural, musical sound, and amazingly, they can be both pillowy and punchy at the same time. This is due, in part, to the program-dependent attack/release that opto’s usually have: the attack and release times depend greatly on what exactly the audio coming into the compressor is doing.

Some opto compressors (like Tupe Wow!) also have a bit more fuzz and harmonic coloration than their solid state counterparts, adding to their warm, woolly characteristics.

Tupe’s processing is highly configurable, and many of the the processing blocks can be reordered to create specific sounds or effects. Before we get into the Advanced Controls, it’s helpful to understand the signal flow in Tupe and how each section interacts.

Here’s a simplified block diagram that shows all of the different routing options:

Tupe Signal Flow

Tupe Wow’s Filter section provides highly flexible filtering & tone shaping with a wonderfully musical sound.

Based on 1960’s ladder filter chains, Tupe Wow uses a new analog-modeled filter design for us at Goodhertz. Unlike a typical ladder filter, we’ve developed a way to fully separate the ladder’s slope and resonance — allowing them to function independently. Additionally, both the slope and resonance can be positive or negative, opening up new shapes and curves that would be impossible (or very difficult) to achieve with a standard parametric EQ.

As always in Goodhertz plugins, the Filter section is fully automatable and provides smooth, sample-accurate sweeping from one setting to the next.

The Emphasis section uses the same overall design as the Filter section, but instead of filtering the audio signal directly, it only affects the tube/tape saturation signals.

This is useful for emphasizing or deemphasizing the saturation in certain areas: the frequency curve of the Emphasis section affects the signal being driven into the tube/tape and is automatically compensated by Tupe Wow to maintain a flat overall frequency response.

This section is fairly advanced (which is why we’ve put it in a new advanced page), so if you’re already feeling overwhelmed by Tupe’s control-set, don’t feel like you need to use the Emphasis pane just yet. The presets can also be useful for learning more about what the Emphasis section can do.

Here’s an example:

Want less distortion in the bass frequencies?
Pull down the bass in the Emphasis.

Want a more crushed/distorted low end?
Push up the bass in the Emphasis.

The Tube Ripple section provides additional controls to tweak the ripple effect introduced by vacuum tubes.

The Tape Wow section provides additional controls to tweak the wow & flutter modulations introduced by magnetic tape.