every update. always free.

WARM: the drive envelope was reacting far slower than it should

WARM has always modulated its drive with the incoming level, so louder passages saturate a little harder. that follower was meant to react in about a millisecond and recover over fifty. it was actually taking half a second to react and twenty-five seconds to recover, and both numbers changed with your audio buffer size. so the same settings could sound different at 128 samples than at 2048. it now behaves as designed, and it sounds the same at any buffer size. tone and mix automation had the same problem and now ramp in a consistent 20 ms.

WIDE: node routing and shelf mode were being ignored

right-clicking a node to send it to mid or side showed the badge and changed nothing in the audio. the shelf setting on the outer two nodes drew a shelf and applied a bell. both work now. the default stereo routing behaves as it did before, so your saved presets sound the same. only nodes you had deliberately set to mid, side or shelf will change, and those were the ones not doing what you asked.

SMOOTH and WARM: the sensitivity curve was drawing a flat line

shape the sensitivity nodes and the orange curve now follows them. it has been drawing a flat line in every version since the feature shipped, because the frequency positions it interpolates between were never filled in. the shaping itself was always working. you just could not see it.

PUSH: LIVE mode and the character crossfade

in LIVE mode the filter that stops the gain curve ringing across frequency was lopsided because of an ordering mistake, so it was not really doing its job. it now matches the high quality engine. switching between settle, tight and drift also shared one smoothing value between the outgoing and incoming character, which made the transition less clean than intended.

crashes and stability

fixed a rare crash on SMOOTH, WARM and PUSH when opening the plugin window while audio was playing. fixed a crash on PUSH when changing character during an offline bounce or on a large buffer. fixed stale audio playing back at the start of a session after changing buffer size or sample rate. and fixed a memory overrun in shared code that all four paid plugins use. none of these had been reported, and i would rather find them myself.

also, and as always free

the frequency labels at the far edges of every analyzer were drawn half outside the display, so 20 hz read as a bare 0 and 20 khz read as 20. WARM uses less cpu with its window closed. WIDE node filters now rebuild correctly when you change sample rate. free update for everyone who already owns the plugins.

drag to pan the analyzer

zoom into a problem area on SMOOTH, WARM, WIDE, or PUSH and you can now drag left and right across the spectrum to look around. one thing changed with it: a single click no longer snaps the zoom back out. double-click does that now, so you don't lose your place by accident.

the preset name looks clickable now

on the four paid plugins, the preset name at the top brightens and shows a pointer when you hover it, so it's obvious you can click through your presets there. a few people missed it. now you won't.

CHECK: a mono verdict that holds still

CHECK now reads the mix over about two seconds before it judges it, instead of reacting to every split-second dip. a genuinely mono-safe master no longer flickers up a pile of "issues" from rare worst-case frames. the live curve still moves in real time, and the honest broadband correlation number now sits right next to the verdict, so the headline and the number can't disagree.

SMOOTH v1.4.3 · WARM v1.5.3 · WIDE v1.3.7 · PUSH v1.1.3 · CHECK v1.2.5

also fixed: the activation window no longer reacts to files you drag over the plugin that aren't licenses. nothing about your audio, presets, or parameters changed. free update for everyone who already owns the plugins.

offline, for real

once a plugin is activated, it stays activated. it never deactivates for being offline, and there is no time limit on how long it runs without a connection. the only thing that returns a plugin to demo is an actual refund. this is what the site always promised, and now the code matches the promise exactly.

offline activation for air-gapped studios

if your machine never touches the internet, you no longer need it to. email me and i will send you a license file. drop it onto the activation window and the plugin unlocks, no connection required. the normal one-time online activation still works for everyone else.

redesigned activation window

the activation panel got a cleaner look that matches the rest of the plugin: paste a key or drop a license file, with the things that matter (activate once, runs offline, no iLok) said plainly. nothing about your audio changed.

SMOOTH v1.4.1 · WARM v1.5.1 · WIDE v1.3.5 · PUSH v1.1.1

the licensing and activation-panel update above. no change to any DSP, preset, or parameter. CHECK is unaffected (it is free and has no activation). free update for everyone who already owns the plugins.

LIVE mode

opt-in low-latency mode for SMOOTH, WARM, and PUSH. drops the reported latency from ~93ms to ~23ms. toggle LIVE in the plugin UI when you are tracking or monitoring. toggle it off when you are mixing and want the full spectral resolution. right-click the spectrum display to choose between LIVE analysis (lower-res, matches audio) or HQ analysis (higher-res visualization while LIVE processes).

both engines are never active at once. CPU stays under 3%. the mode crossfade is 50ms, glitch-free. free update for everyone who owns the plugin.

SMOOTH v1.4.0

LIVE mode. preset recall fix for M/S routing (stereo_mode no longer resets on preset load). host-bypass latency reporting via getBypassParameter (fixes Cubase 15 desync). shelf chevron on outer EQ nodes. expanded inline hover hit areas for Windows.

WARM v1.5.0

LIVE mode. ODD toggle relabeled to ODD BOOST for clarity (the button boosts odd harmonics relative to even, not suppresses evens). sensitivity update guards and magnitude spectrum visibility gate reduce idle CPU. all three characters (TAPE, TUBE, XFMR) verified in LIVE.

PUSH v1.1.0

LIVE mode. all three characters (SETTLE, TIGHT, DRIFT) verified in LIVE. preset recall fix for M/S routing. host-bypass latency reporting. shelf chevron on outer EQ nodes.

WIDE v1.3.4

host-bypass latency reporting. shelf chevron on outer EQ nodes. expanded inline hover hit areas for Windows.

CHECK v1.2.4

bypass now correctly stops MONO and SIDE toggles from modifying audio. previously, engaging host bypass froze the analyzer display but left the MONO/SIDE routing active. a customer rendering a Cubase mix with CHECK bypassed and MONO enabled got a mono mixdown. fixed. paid plugins were already safe (bypassRamp crossfade pattern).

issues-found log

right-click the display and pick "Show Issue Log" to open a slide-out panel listing every problem CHECK has caught since you opened the session. each entry carries a mint [mm:ss] timestamp and the same plain-language description from the education message. similar issues collapse into one row with a count badge, so an hour of phase-cancel-around-80-hz doesn't drown the panel. scroll-wheel works, × closes, GUI scaling respected. left it editor-only: zero audio path touched, no DAW automation reads or writes any of this.

compatibility over time

data scaffold for a compatibility-over-time sparkline rendering above the score. shows your mono score history at a glance: when did the mix degrade, when did it recover. ring-buffer data structure shipped; panel rendering iterating in the next CHECK update based on beta feedback.

A/B preservation for view settings

scale, invert, hold time, and frequency range now stay put when you A/B swap the processed state. previously a comparison would also flip your display layout, which made the comparison harder to read. now only the audio-affecting parameters swap. visual layout is yours.

readable messages

the education message now holds for a minimum 1.5 seconds and a maximum 5. a few testers reported messages flashing by before they could finish reading. floors and ceilings fix both directions: nothing flashes, nothing lingers past usefulness.

three compression characters, one job

SETTLE for bus glue. TIGHT for transient grip. DRIFT for per-band upward compression (the move no broadband compressor can do). $29. mac and windows together. no iLok. lifetime license. the fifth plugin in the lineup and the one i took the longest to ship.

bundle now four plugins

SMOOTH + WARM + WIDE + PUSH. $59 launch-intro through Mon May 25, $69 list after. existing $59 bundle owners get PUSH automatically. no upgrade fee, no extra license key.

36 problem-first factory presets

15 SETTLE, 13 TIGHT, 8 DRIFT. named after the problem they solve, not the gear they emulate. start with "Safe Starting Point" if unsure. browse with the < > arrows in the header.

colour-coded correlation curve

the correlation curve now changes colour as it crosses zone boundaries: mint where your mix is mono-safe, amber where it drifts into caution, red where phase cancellation starts showing up. same palette as the zone labels on the display, so you can spot the trouble region at a glance instead of reading the grid lines.

bar chart display mode

a new opt-in bar chart view for the correlation display. right-click the display and pick "display mode → bars" to switch from the smoothed curve to 40 individual ERB-band rectangles. easier to spot a single problem frequency because each band is its own block, coloured by the same mint / amber / red zone system. flip back to curve any time. your choice saves with the DAW session.

CHECK now names the frequency

the message under the correlation display used to say generic things like "low-frequency phase cancellation detected." it now names the actual problem frequency. you'll see things like "phase cancel around 80 hz. often an out-of-phase kick and bass relationship." snapped to the musical landmarks producers actually EQ around, so you know exactly where to look in your session.

teaches as you mix

every state has three message variants that rotate as you iterate on your mix. the same kind of phase problem will show you a different common cause each time you re-enter the state: wide sub, out-of-phase kick layer, stereo reverb on the low end. over a session you learn three different ways the same problem tends to happen. no tooltips. no manual. just shows up in the same place, in the same voice, with new context.

knows bass matters more than highs

bass phase cancel is catastrophic. high-frequency phase cancel is usually inaudible because binaural localization breaks down above 2 kHz. CHECK now encodes that: the bass region uses tight thresholds, the high region uses loose ones. wide cymbals and stereo air stay safe. broken bass gets flagged hard. no more crying wolf on a stereo hi-hat.

frequency-dependent spectrum smoothing

the spectrum display now smooths bass bins about three times slower than treble, matching how your ears actually integrate sound across the critical-band scale (Glasberg & Moore 1990). the low end stays calm and readable, the highs track transients responsively. one less visual distraction when you're trying to read what the plugin is doing.

peak hold ghost line

a gentle trace that holds briefly above the main curve after the signal stops, decays at 3 dB/sec. useful for catching momentary peaks without freezing the whole analyzer. rendered as a solid trace in the same style Voxengo SPAN and FabFilter use: no dashes, no clutter, invisible on sustained content and clearly visible when a peak is actually being held.

transient flash overlay

the spectrum curve briefly brightens during drum hits, vocal consonants, and other percussive onsets. grounded in the half-wave rectified spectral flux technique from onset detection research (Bello et al. 2005). baseline-subtracted so sustained music doesn't trigger it: only real transients pulse the glow.

AUTO loudness matching

new AUTO toggle in the mode bar. uses K-weighted loudness matching (ITU-R BS.1770) to compensate for volume changes from processing. makes A/B comparisons fair. your ears compare the effect, not the volume.

redesigned EQ interaction

hover over any EQ node to see inline controls: a clickable enable dot and a type badge (BELL / LS / HS) for the outer bands. double-click any node to toggle it on/off. right-click menu still works as a fallback.

refreshed UI

cabinet grotesk typeface, warm-tinted neutrals, redesigned arc knobs, subtle background grain texture, spectral display glow, and animated toggle button borders. every plugin now shares a cohesive visual identity.

editable EQ values

double-click any EQ node label to type exact frequency, gain, and Q values. supports "2.5k", "+3.0 dB", and "Q 0.7" formats. enter commits, escape cancels.

improved inline EQ controls

the enable dot and type badge no longer disappear when moving the mouse toward them. hover zones expanded for reliable clickability on all screen sizes.

DAW compatibility

added stereo bus layout validation to SMOOTH, WARM, WIDE, and CHECK. prevents potential issues in DAWs that probe unusual bus configurations.

styled popup menus

right-click menus for presets, EQ routing, and display options now use the dark KERN theme instead of native OS styling.

CPU meter

smoothed CPU readout with consistent single-digit display. no longer flickers between values.

band limiting

two draggable handles on the spectral display let you restrict suppression to a specific frequency range. everything outside the range passes through untouched. useful for targeting a problem region without affecting the rest of the spectrum.

smoother automation

mix and delta mode now use per-sample smoothing (~5ms). automating the mix knob or toggling delta no longer produces clicks or discontinuities.

CPU optimization

conditional processing skips for cepstral smoothing, group delay analysis, and masking gate computation when not needed. lower CPU on typical settings.

band limiting

two draggable handles on the spectral display restrict saturation to a frequency range. uses a Linkwitz-Riley 4th-order crossover for clean band splits. low and high frequencies pass through unprocessed.

BODY knob improvement

BODY now adds a proportional drive boost into the waveshaper alongside the spectral emphasis. the result is audibly thicker low-mids. before, BODY only made a subtle spectral shift.

cleaner saturation

soft ADAA blending eliminates crackle at signal zero crossings. per-sample drive smoothing removes zipper artifacts during drive changes. endpoint smoothing extended to all three characters. delta mode now correctly excludes bypassed frequency bands.

HAAS mode rewrite

Haas mode now creates real perceived width from any source, including mono. uses a smoothed per-sample delay with linear interpolation on the right channel. the FOCUS knob high-passes the widening signal so bass stays centered.

draggable FOCUS handle

the FOCUS frequency is now draggable directly on the spectral display. grab the handle and slide it to set where bass mono-summing begins. syncs with the FOCUS knob.

DEPTH and stereo refinements

DEPTH now audibly controls widening intensity across all modes. stereo injection capped to prevent L/R panning artifacts at extreme settings. width at 0% now fully bypasses all processing for clean A/B.

$59 KERN Bundle

all three plugins for $59. one license key unlocks SMOOTH, WARM, and WIDE. same permanent license, same forever updates.

bypass button + resizable GUI

all plugins now have a power button for true bypass with 10ms crossfade. drag the corner to resize between 75% and 150%. your size preference is saved with the DAW session.

bug fixes

fixed: delta signal no longer audible at Depth=0%. fixed: bypass click artifact eliminated (improved state management). fixed: GUI size persistence (scale no longer resets on DAW reload). fixed: delta, bypass, and stereo mode now persist across preset changes.

improvements

improved: sensitivity curve precision at max SENS with conservative depth. added: double-click outer EQ nodes to toggle bell/shelf mode (shift+double-click to enable/disable). added: enable/disable option in right-click menu. added: factory presets now include shelf mode examples.

bug fixes

fixed: GUI size persistence (scale no longer resets on DAW reload). fixed: bypass click artifact eliminated (improved state management). fixed: delta signal silent at Drive=0%. fixed: delta, bypass, and stereo mode now persist across preset changes.

improvements

added: double-click outer EQ nodes to toggle bell/shelf mode (shift+double-click to enable/disable). added: enable/disable option in right-click menu. added: shelf mode in Cassette Glow, Master Tape, Vocal Silk, Sub Tape presets.

bug fixes

fixed: GUI size persistence (scale no longer resets on DAW reload). fixed: delta, bypass, and stereo mode now persist across preset changes.

improvements

added: double-click outer EQ nodes to toggle bell/shelf mode (shift+double-click to enable/disable). added: enable/disable option in right-click menu. added: shelf mode in Bass Tight, Full Spectrum, Mastering Glue presets.

fixes and improvements

fixed: GUI size persistence. fixed: bypass persists across preset changes. improved: score messaging when mono-safe (education note about 60-80% being ideal).

smart ZOOM

the ZOOM knob now automatically focuses on the frequency region with the worst mono compatibility. turn it up and the display narrows to show you where the problem is. uses peak hold data for stability. mousewheel zooms further from there.

peak hold options

peak hold moved to the right-click menu with four options: Off, 3 seconds, 10 seconds, and Infinite. infinite hold captures the worst moment across an entire section.

display options

three Y-axis scale modes via right-click: -1/+1, -0.5/+1, and 0/+1. new Invert Display toggle for measurement conventions that put cancellation on top. feedback: William Warin-Dhavernas.

mousewheel frequency zoom

scroll over the display to zoom into any frequency range. double-click to reset. now correctly respects the FOCUS range when resetting. feedback: DJ Felicius, Mathieu.

tighter volume matching

auto-compensation moved earlier in the signal chain for more accurate loudness measurement. TAPE within +0.4 dB, TUBE within +0.6 dB at default settings. feedback: Julius Dreisig.

HF clarity improvement

recalibrated high-frequency compensation and TAPE head loss simulation. more air, less dullness at the top end.

reduced low-end buildup

tuned XFMR and TAPE drive shaping to reduce muddiness in the low mids. tighter low end without losing warmth.

SENS knob label

renamed "SELECT" to "SENS" for clarity. controls how aggressively the suppression targets resonances. same parameter, clearer name. feedback: Julius Dreisig, Rasmus Gregersen.

mode toggle redesign

RESONANCE and TRANSIENT buttons updated to match the visual style across all KERN plugins. subtle tint fill with accent border, consistent sizing.

L/R solo buttons

hear the left or right channel separately to verify widening balance. two toggle buttons in the mode bar next to the mode selector. mutually exclusive. feedback: Edizon.