Apogee Clearmountain Dance

Clearmountain Dance is the newest plugin in the Clearmountain series, designed to bring the iconic, chaotic stereo delay from David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” into your DAW. This plugin captures the rich, warm, dual tape head delay character that became a defining part of the original song’s sound.

Hear It In Action

Clearmountain Dance is designed to create rhythmic stereo textures and entrancing, attention-grabbing patterns through its cascading ping pong delay. The plugin functions by recording incoming audio into a temporary buffer and then playing it back after a set period of time. For stereo input signals, the dry signal retains its stereo balance, while the wet signal is summed to mono and then hard-panned for its ping-pong texture. Mono input signals become stereo through the added wet signal of the cascaded delays.

Analog Imperfections and Tape Emulation

The plugin provides a rich, warm dual tape head delay character. You can introduce analog imperfections with the Degrade knob, which provides control over tape aging simulation. This can be used to take the harsh edges off repeats, lean into organic artifacts, or create a warmer character. At more extreme settings, wow and flutter characteristics can be heard.

Customizable Randomization

Clearmountain Dance offers unique randomization features that allow you to move beyond standard “grid” timing. The Offset knob determines timing differences between the Left and Right channels. The Skew knob varies the rhythmic timing, similar to “swinging” a rhythm.