Feel the lofi magic of the VHS era — with six unique effects in one strange plugin.
LoFi Vibes from a Strange Decade
As kids of the 80s, the Baby Audio team have always been drawn to the sound of slightly out-of-tune synths, warm tape saturation, gritty samples and grainy reverbs.
So they set out on a mission to capture the lofi spirit of our favorite decade — and bring it into a new decade. Meet a complex algorithm with eight simple knobs. They named it ‘Super’ for its powers and ‘VHS’ for its sound.
Features
A chain of six meticulously crafted ‘one-knob’ effects:
1. STATIC — Static noise synthesizer
2. HEAT — ‘Analog tape’ saturator
3. SHAPE — Sample rate reducer
4. MAGIC — Dark chorus FX
5. DRIFT — Pitch fluctuation LFO
6. WASH — ‘Bad hall’ reverb
+ Internal/hidden EQ, bit-crusher and limiter.
Rewind to the VHS Era
Baby Audio wanted this plugin to be like sending your sounds back in time, then re-discovering them on a worn-out VHS tape 30 years later. All with the click of a single button, right inside your DAW.
The result is six unique effects coming together in a versatile signal chain. Super VHS will add some lofi authenticity to whatever clean sound you run through it — from a subtle touch of character to extreme sonic twists that leave your head spinning. Each effect has just a single control, but multiple parameters under the hood, allowing you to find endless combinations to transform your synths, samples, guitars, drums, vocals and beyond.
Effects Overview
STATIC: A synthesized hum, generated by a pink noise oscillator mixed with a digital saw wave.
HEAT: A warm sounding saturation algorithm inspired by ‘consumer-grade’ tape machines from the early 1980s.
SHAPE: A sample rate reducer (with some extras) inspired by 1980s 8-bit samplers.
MAGIC: A lush “Juno style” chorus — but modeled with a slightly darker and more detuned tone.
DRIFT: An internal LFO creating unpredictable pitch and time fluctuations, ranging from ‘natural’ to ‘supernatural’.
WASH: A grainy, unnatural sounding, hall reverb, inspired by digital rack effects from the VHS-era.
MIX: Controls the over-all wet/dry balance.
OUTPUT: Controls the global output.
HIDDEN PROCESSING: High shelf EQ attenuation, bit-crusher, limiter.
Wait, where are the Presets?
Like the ‘I Heart NY’ parallel compressor, Super VHS isn’t designed for preset browsing. Instead, you have all the controls you need at your fingertips — allowing you to create the right sound for any purpose in a simple and intuitive way (faster and more rewarding than by clicking through presets). The effect algorithms respond very differently to different sounds and instruments — so you never quite know where you’ll end up.
And a final word of warning: Super VHS is not a ‘one-size fits all’ kind of effect. Its six algorithms can sound heavenly on some things and totally destroy others. More often than not a little goes a long way!
