SoundFonts.it has released WatKat, a VST effect plug-in that pays tribute to Charlie Watkins, inventor of the tape echo.

WatKat is a digital “clone” of a Wem Watkins “Custom” Copicat. It sounds very lo-fi, noisy, irregular. When you turn it off and leave the tape loaded, the tape bends in proximity of the capstan, and this turns into a periodic pitch fall during echo playback; plus, it gets hot and the background hum gets worse in time… you should turn it off every now and then; the tape is never completely erased, and the capstan motor flutters… and it gets worse if you touch it while it’s spinning; heads tend to get dirty very soon, infact you should clean them often. This is true for the actual hardware unit, and for the digital simulation as well!

WatKat features

• Panel Controls:
  • Swell: adjusts the volume of the repeats;
  • Sustain: adjusts the number of repeats; be careful with this knob!
  • Gain 1: volume of input 1 (left channel);
  • Gain 2: volume of input 2 (right channel);
  • Head 1, Head 2, Head 3: use these switches to select the playback head(s); each head gives a different delay time.
• Don’t touch the capstan! :-)
• Additional Features:
  • Very easy to use
  • Very light on CPU and memory
  • Easy MIDI Learn feature
  • Free for all, so the world may know how cool is a Watkins tape echo!

WatKat is available for as a freeware VST plug-in for Windows and Mac. Read more about Charlie Watkins and the CopiCat.

Visit SoundFonts.it to download WatKat (bottom of this page).