SPL’s new plug-in version of its discontinued tape emulation processor, Machine Head, features source code from the original unit.

New York, NY (February 21, 2025)—When SPL decided to create a plug-in version of its vaunted but discontinued tape emulation processor, Machine Head, one of its advantages was that the internal processing of the hardware was digital. As a result, the company was able to port its source code into the plug-in, making it an extremely close replication, sonically, of the original.

“We brought the core team of the Machine Head developers back together,” says SPL, “to make it possible to transfer the original code into an SPL plugin. One hundred percent original code for 100 percent original sound.”

The original Machine Head unit, whose tape-emulation capabilities made it a powerful tool for mixing and mastering, was created in 1996 and remained in production until approximately 2008. Since then, it’s become highly sought after and quite expensive on the…