The Kiss of Shame, debuted at the Audio Engineering Society Convention 2014 in Los Angeles, was a pioneering DAW plugin that leveraged commercial UX/UI design principles to shape its magnetic tape + circuitry emulation algorithms.
To differentiate itself in the competitive pro-audio plugin market, The Kiss of Shame introduced groundbreaking features including an interactive, multi-touch-ready GUI and analog tape degradation simulation for distinctive audio effects.
The Kiss of Shame was never released. The source code was graciously donated to the open source community by its owner in 2024.
NOTE: This repo is currently work-in-progress. The plug-in does not work yet!
TODO
Choose between two distinct tape types:
S-111 – A superior reel format popular from the 50s to 70s, was the preferred reference tape for many engineers. The Kiss of Shame introduces its first digital emulation, bringing this legendary format to the digital world.
A-456 – This classic, high-output/low-noise format is a recording staple used in countless productions. While many software emulations exist, none recreate it quite like this. Unique digital recreation tactics were employed to capture its essence.
From Weathered to Weather:
Age – This knob allows the user to legislate the amount of hypothetical time the selected tape type has been subjected to the chosen "Environment" to manipulate the severity of the corresponding effects.
Environment – Choose between several simulated storage conditions to inflict the sonic ramifications of factors such as magnetic particle instability, oxidation, lubricant loss, tape pack expansion/contraction, "vinegar syndrome" and more upon the source material. Users can even choose a "Hurricane Sandy" setting to access processing modeled from tape immersed and then recovered from the storm's flood waters.
A real-world obstacle:
Shame – The Kiss of Shame recreates the full spectrum of these factors like Drift, Wow, Flutter and Scrape-Flutter which the user can impart with the center knob. It can take your source signal from mildly colored to totally mangled.
Print-Through – Also known as "bleed-through", this emulation captures the mechanical speed fluctuations present in analog recordings. While they posed challenges for engineers in the past, they became a hallmark of classic records.
Reach out and touch tape:
The Kiss of Shame is the first tape plug-in to feature animated, interactive reels that can be manipulated with a simple click or touch. This allows users to access authentic analogue tape flange in real-time, without the need for two physical tape decks, and in a fraction of the time. All parameters, including reel movements, are fully automatable, and for screen real estate optimization, the reels are collapsible and fully customizable.
The code is written for JUCE 3.1 and does not currently compile with JUCE 7. I'm working on it, stay tuned! 👷
Copyright (C) 2014-2015 Eros Marcello
Original developers:
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Eros Marcello — Founder, Chief Product Architect
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Brian Hansen — DSP Engineering / Algorithm Development
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Yannick Bonnefoy — GUI
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
JUCE is copyright © Raw Material Software.