Kinotone Ribbons

Kinotone Ribbons

Analog Tape and Lo-Fi Emulator

Kinotone Ribbons is a powerful compact toolkit that celebrates the idiosyncrasies of imperfect mediums and translates them into a simple, flexible interface that gives you tons of control.

Customize a massive range of sounds from pristine hi-fi clarity to haunting lo-fi textures — all in stereo. You can emulate magnetic tape, vinyl, an old radio, or a vintage telephone. Even skipping CDs, and spectral mishaps of MP3s and early digital media.

Playful Touch Modes and the onboard 4-track looper bring Ribbons to life, unlocking endless possibilities for soundscapes and experimental compositions.

Core Lo-Fi Controls

• Physically-modeled tape modulation effects (Wow, Flutter, Crinkle, Dropouts).
• 24dB/octave 4-pole virtual-analog low-pass and high-pass filters, modeled after the filter of a classic 1970s synthesizer.
• Compression inspired by a vinyl simulator found in a famous sampler from the early 2000s.
  • Option to swap Compression parameter for Tape Saturation.
• Dedicated dry/wet mix knob to dial in complex vibrato and chorus sounds.
• Static hiss and vinyl crackle.

Reverb

• A beautiful stereo reverb designed from scratch, with controls for dry/wet mix, decay time, and where the reverb goes in your signal chain.
• Capable of infinite sustain.

Touch Modes

Playful, on-the-fly performance effects that transform your incoming audio in unique ways. The Touch Modes can be activated momentarily or latched, and interact with all of the other effects. A few provide additional lo-fi character that you can tap into:

• Magnetic Dance — A granular looper that can capture a segment of audio and turn it into a stunning drone. Tune it to chords; play it forward or backward.
• Tape Stop — Slows down and bends the pitch of your audio, then picks it back up, with flexible timing controls.
• Broken Machine — I think you need to get your tape player fixed. Use it subtly for added tape modulation or push it to extremes for rewind effects.
• Repeater — Endlessly repeats a tiny slice of audio that you can subdivide for CD skipping sounds. Inspired by classic roll and slip roll effects. Includes a resampling option that detects transients. Synchronizable to MIDI clock.
• Crushed Cassette — Continuously-variable sample rate reduction and bit crushing down to 4 bits with µ-law companding. Dial in haunting distortion and artifacts to taste.
  
• Disintegration Loop — A sound-on-sound style looper with controls for decay, speed, and direction. Each time your loop repeats, all of the effects you have dialed in on Ribbons are re-applied.
• UnrealPlayer — A spectral processor that emulates artifacts and imperfections of early audio streaming and file-sharing eras. Grainy, bubbly, and strangely reverberous, this Touch Mode feels unmistakably modern.

4-Track Looper

• Record up to 4 separate stereo loops that run through your effects.
• Length per loop: 40 seconds at 0.5x speed, 20 seconds at 1x speed, 10 seconds at 2x speed.
• Each track has its own controls for: volume, direction, speed (continuously-variable from 0.5x to 2x), and speed scale (quantization).
• Overdub infinitely on any track.
• Overdub at any speed.
• Loops can be synchronized to MIDI clock.
• Touch Modes can be used while your 4-track loops are playing back.

4-Voice Sine Wave Synthesizer

• Play Ribbons as your instrument using a MIDI keyboard.
• +/- 5 semitone pitch bending.
• Includes controls for attack and release.
• Synth voices can be modified by the effects and used with the Touch Modes or 4-track looper.

Presets, MIDI Control, CV

• Save your settings with 8 onboard presets, or up to 32 using MIDI.
• All parameters are fully controllable via MIDI, CV, or expression.
• Directly compatible with your favorite MIDI controllers — no external MIDI box required.
• Internal jumpers available to switch between TRS MIDI Type A (default), B, or CBA.
• CV control up to 500Hz.
• Free Max for Live devices to control Ribbons with MIDI in Ableton.