CHOW Analog Tape Plugin

[Tabula]

Hi,

This plugin looks really interesting ! If I’m not mistaken, it doesn’t exist for Zynthian yet.

Chow Tape Model is a digital emulation of a reel-to-reel analog tape machine.
https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/AnalogTapeModel

I would like to have this plugin to give a particular color to my sounds !

On the creator’s website there are several other interesting plugins, such as a phaser, Klon Centaur overdrive and a delay.

https://chowdsp.com/products.html

The matrix Delay may be too complicated to use but the phaser and overdrive would work well with the Zynthian.

Would it be possible to include them in the zynthian? maybe in the next update?

[wyleu]

It’s available as an lv2 instance so it should be relatively easy.

[C0d3man]

Hi,

here is a script for building - but:
The plugin needs CMake-3.15. Zynthian has CMake-3.13.4. So it will only work when updating CMake before.

#!/bin/bash
cd ${ZYNTHIAN_PLUGINS_SRC_DIR}
sudo apt-get install --yes libasound2-dev libxcursor-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev freeglut3-dev libjack-jackd2-dev
git clone https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/AnalogTapeModel.git AnalogTapeModel
cd AnalogTapeModel/Plugin
git submodule update --init --recursive
sed -i 's/\s+FORMATS AU VST3 Standalone LV2 #VST/FORMATS LV2/' CMakeLists.txt
cmake -Bbuild
cmake --build build/ --config Release
make -j4
make install
make clean
cd ${ZYNTHIAN_PLUGINS_SRC_DIR}

I am pretty sure that the LV2 installation path has also to be fixed. Currently I have no idea where the plugins will be installed…

Regards, Holger

[Tabula]

Thank you for the quick reply @C0d3man, always impressive !
anyone know when CMake will be updated?
@jofemodo ?

Thanks !

Chow plugins are really high quality and really recent, it would be great in Zynthian !

[C0d3man]

A way for building the cmake from the repository (and install it at /usr/local to avoid conflicts with Debians cmake (so you have to call /usr/local/bin/cmake instead of cmake)):

#!/bin/bash
cd ${ZYNTHIAN_PLUGINS_SRC_DIR}/..
sudo apt-get install --yes libssl-dev
git clone https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake.git
cd cmake
./bootstrap --prefix=/usr/local
make -j4 
make install
make clean
cd ${ZYNTHIAN_PLUGINS_SRC_DIR}

[riban]

I wonder if it is time for us to set up a repository for pre-built deb packages.

[Tabula]

I am not very comfortable with Linux code. And I’m afraid to mess around and corrupt my installation of zynthian.
@C0d3man , if I enter these lines of code into the web terminal, would I have this plugin running?
I have never done this before.

Is it better that I wait until this plugin is integrated by default? like i said i’m afraid i’ll corrupt my zynthian and have issues with the next updates.

Sorry for those noob questions!

The CHOW PHASER also looks very interesting, as well as ROBOVERB plugin that I found yesterday.
This reverb is really incredible, it gives you a metallic reverb, very accurate for the drums!

Cod3man, would it be possible to make a recipe for these plugins too?

Thank you so much!

ROBOVERB Github
CHOW PHASER

[C0d3man]

@Tabula

@C0d3man , if I enter these lines of code into the web terminal, would I have this plugin running?
I have never done this before.

Normally: yes. Currently: no. There is a problem when compiling the plugin. It seems that there are some compiling problems.

@Tabula

Is it better that I wait until this plugin is integrated by default? like i said i’m afraid i’ll corrupt my zynthian and have issues with the next updates.

Yes, I think so. The plugins are based on JUCE and cmake. Unfortunately I have little experience with both environments. It may take some time to get it running…

@Tabula

Sorry for those noob questions!

No problem at all!

@Tabula

Cod3man, would it be possible to make a recipe for these plugins too?

Probably yes, when I have solved the basic problem that brings the current error.

Regards, Holger

[Tabula]

Thanks for the quick response !
Hope we can find a way to fix the compilation problem !
These plugins are truly amazing.

I share with you video presentations of these plugins, for those who are interested, @manateemilitia @Fitz @Vrtel

CHOW tape plugin is really interesting to warm up the sound, especially to make vintage effect, really interesting with piano samples.

CHOW Tape (GitHub)

https://youtu.be/SnbOUYOcQ-k?t=574
The flutter effect is very particular !

ROBOVERB Metallic Reverb (GitHub)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frhaty0i_QI

CHOW Phaser (GitHub)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuDWKLaUi_Q

CHOW Centaur Klon Centaur Overdrive (GitHub)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9CtqWL9Zc

ChowDSP is really a project to follow, the creator makes great plugins and he releases them in lv2 every time!

[Tabula]

@C0d3man hi ! Do we have any improvements regarding the compilation of these plugins?

Thanks a lot !

[C0d3man]

No, sorry.

It seems that the code is highly optimized for Intel instructions. Adapting to ARM is not easy done - I have no time to do this…

[Tabula]

Thank you ! I’ll ask to the plugins creators if they can port it to ARM, you never know!

[Tabula]

@C0d3man ROBOVERB Metallic Reverb(Release Roboverb v1.1.0 · kushview/Roboverb · GitHub) is not provide by CHOW, someone else does, is compilation difficult for this plugin too? It’s the same ?

[micahvdm]

Sorry to necro this thread…did anyone actually manage to compile AnalogTapeModel are arm64? If so, would you be able to send me a copy of the compiled plugin?

[jofemodo]

Hi @zynthianers!

I would like to wish you all very good vibes and tons of enjoyment for this new year 2026

To contribute a little bit, i’ve built all the 4 plugins commented above and they are now available for Vangelis and Oram (staging). Simply update and enjoy!

---

CHOW Tape (GitHub)

ROBOVERB Metallic Reverb (GitHub)

CHOW Phaser (GitHub)

CHOW Centaur Klon Centaur Overdrive (GitHub)

---

BTW, do we have some brave volunteer that want to improve the plugin’s TTLs so we have parameter groups and selectors?

Also, they should be added to the wiki and web (mental note).

All the best!

[tunagenes]

I tried the first video, got:

Video unavailable

This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.

Nevertheless, it sounds fabulous!

[jofemodo]

I just removed the videos from the post.

[hannesmenzel]

Just wanted to try these and saw they were not on my Zynthian. I checked here and saw they were included. I checked my engine_config and saw they were not. But it seems recent updates did at least something with my file (adding EOL). Is it probably because I backup and restored my old configuration when reinstalling my zynthian recently?

Du you, @jofemodo, think I can fix it by just replacing my engine_config.json with the upstream one?

P.S. I just compared my local engine config to the main one:

Missing locally:

• JV/Chaos Engine
• All four CHOW plugins
• JV/JE8086
• JV/Mutated Sequences
• JV/Roboverb
• JV/Wavetable

Having additionally locally:

• MI Braids, Marbles, Plaits

I have no idea why the update system didn’t get these.

Can I:

root@hannes-zynthian:/zynthian/zynthian-sys/scripts/recipes# ./install_lv2_plugins_prebuilt.sh

and how are the install and the install_prebuild scripts different?

[jofemodo]

Perhaps you could try this:

rm -f /zynthian/config/patchlevel.txt
update_zynthian.sh

This will run all available update recipes. Please, ensure good connectivity. Avoid WIFI.
But i’m not sure about the result. It could solve everything or totally break your current image.

I’m quite confident most update recipes can be executed several times without causing issues, but i didn’t test every single update recipe to verify this.

Regards,

[hannesmenzel]

I just performed the recipes of the plugins I missed (Chow, TUS). Performing specific ones was more secure for me. Would your suggeted way would perform the prebuild or the compilation install scripts?