AudioThing’s Wires plugin puts a lo-fi Soviet Cold War recorder inside your DAW

AudioThing and experimental German musician Hainbach are promising to take lo-fi to another level with Wires, a new plugin that models a 1970s Soviet wire recorder. 

Originally used by the military and secret service operating behind the Iron Curtain, this Cold War classic is described as a “magical” lo-fi tool that can add ghostly echoes to your audio. With recordings made on a hair-thin wire, you get a different sonic texture to magnetic tape, and there’s a unique vacuum tube output stage.

AudioThing suggests that you try putting Wires on an aux channel of a mixer to turn it into a fixed tempo echo. You can tweak the sound to your liking and turn off the “rather high” noise floor if you wish, keeping the rest of the processing intact.

Wires is available now for the introductory price of €39 (regular price is €59). It runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats.

Find out more on the AudioThing website.