T–6 · Tape machine $9.99 · Beta testing

Six tracks.
One reel.
Commit.

A machine, not an app — six tracks on a real length of tape, in the spirit of the 1979 TEAC 144, grown into a place to finish songs. The console is live, the erase head is honest, and nothing quantizes what you play.

Join the beta testing Why it exists
VUVUVUVUVUVU

THE TRANSPORT WORKS — ROLL IT, STOP IT, PUNCH IN.

FERRIC T–6
01Why it exists

Where ideas become demos — and demos become masters.

The problem is old: getting ideas down, and getting several instruments into one place. Ableton is the deep desk for hardcore engineering — T–6 is where ideas become demos that are good enough. Fast, easy, simple. And for anyone motivated enough to keep going, the demo becomes the master: every mixdown leaves this machine streaming-ready.

The spirit is the TEAC 144 — the first cassette multitracker, the machine bedroom records came off of. The reel, the head, the honest erase, the spool: those stay, because they're the feel. The cassette's limits go where they fight the phone's actual advantages — the tape grows as you record, the razor edits, and a form cuts the tape to the shape of your song.

Committing is the point. Recording over something erases it. Bounce plays three tracks through the live console into one and hands you three empty tracks back. The tape gods keep ten passes of mercy — forgiveness with a floor, not an infinite history.

“Three become one; you have three again. The generation you print is the mix you hear.”

— the T–6 field manual, on bouncing
02Heritage

In the spirit of the Portastudio

INSPIRED BYTEAC 144 Portastudio1979 — THE FIRST CASSETTE MULTITRACKER

Bedroom records came off the 144 — a machine that made committing a feature. T–6 keeps the feel and loses the fights: the limits stay where they make songs, and go where they fought the phone.

WHAT STAYS
  • The reel, the head, the spool — and the honest erase
  • Cream-faced VU meters riding directly above their tracks
  • Bounce culture: commit the mix you hear, get your tracks back
  • The console is live — what you hear is what prints
WHAT THE PHONE ADDS
  • Tape that grows as you record, and a razor that edits
  • Forms that cut the tape to the shape of your song
  • Six sources printing at once off the patchbay — the whole kit
  • Every mixdown a streaming-ready master, −14 LUFS

Not a re-creation — a continuation. If you love the hardware, you'll feel at home here; learn here, and the hardware will feel like home too.

03The field manual

Form. Arm. Roll. Punch. Mix.

The tape window

The head is pinned to the center, in red — playing, the tape rolls past it; scrubbing, you drag the tape itself. Six lanes of waveforms on oxide, the bar grid bolted underneath, the razor a double-tap away. A take being recorded draws itself in red, live, from the punch — proof the machine hears you.

The meters

Six cream-faced VU meters ride directly above the tracks they meter — the 144's proudest feature. Real ballistics: the needle integrates toward the signal instead of chasing it. Past 0 VU the face goes red. That's the print running hot.

The console

Arm any number — each track prints its own input off the patchbay, so six sources can take at once. The LED tells the truth: dark at rest, half-lit armed, full when the tape is taking. The console is live — what you hear is exactly what bounce and mixdown print.

The vibe

The master preset: hiss, lows, top and wow worn by the whole song, printed only on mixdown. The tape itself stays clean — switch vibes and the same reel comes back different. From FRESH REEL, the truth, to AM GOLD, narrow and honeyed.

The whole manual ships inside the app — tap the wordmark. No quantize, no edit page: the counter and your hands.

04How it's used

Track, mix, bounce, live with it

  1. FORMLoad a song shape and the tape cuts itself to it — named pins at every boundary. A 7-bar chorus is your business.
  2. ARMOne REC per strip; arming wakes the mic. Six sources can print at once, each off its own patchbay input.
  3. ROLLThe transport keys are held, not tapped — the tape winds while your thumb is down, picking up speed.
  4. PUNCHREC while playing punches in on the fly; again punches out and the tape keeps rolling.
  5. MIXFader, pan, ±9 dB shelves — live. Then bounce down to make room, commit, move on.
  6. MASTEREvery mixdown leaves streaming-ready: the vibe printed in, −14 LUFS, peaks under −1 dB, the BPM in the filename.
05In the kit

The kit records into this

THE PATCHBAY

J–17 and P–16 mount as instruments on their own tracks — play their apps and the tape prints the clean digital out, no mic, no bleed. The two input jacks each run through their own D–65.

THE CRATE

Every sound the family ever printed, stacked beside the deck. FROM J–17, FROM P–16, FROM D–65 — the shelves fill themselves, and the crate is a record source you can punch like riding a fader.

THE CLOCK

SYNC: T–6 leads and the kit starts with the tape. EXT: it follows P–16's transport. One machine leads, the others fall in.

THE ROAD OUT

Export stems — every track from bar 1, aligned, tempo in the names — when a demo earns the deep desk. The form format is the family's own; L–1 keeps the shapes.

Also an Audio Unit — aufx · t6tp — the tape sound on a bus: drive, wow & flutter, hiss, three factory reels.

$9.99. Bought once, yours for good.

$9.99 on the App Store buys the deck for iPhone and iPad. On the desk it’s $29.99 for the Mac app and AUv3 — or $79 for the whole Rack. No subscription, works offline. What you pay builds the next machine.

$9.99 ON THE APP STORE
IPHONE IPAD
Bought once. No subscription, no unlocks, nothing expires.
$29.99 ON THE DESK
MAC APP AUv3
Buy it on its own, or all four in the Rack for $79. What's in the Rack →

$9.99 at release. Free to test right now — leave your email and we'll send you a build.

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Next on the bench S–7 Pocket tuner The needle gets you in tune. That takes twenty seconds. The rest is why S-7 exists.