KERN audio / pricing
$29 is the price.
it is also the sale.
no black friday discounts. no "was $99, now $29." buy from me and you pay what everyone has always paid.
why it works this way
why $29
soothe 3 lists at $259. FabFilter Saturn 2 lists at $149. i am not going to sit here and tell you mine does everything those do, or that the engineering behind them is anything less than excellent. that comparison is your ears' call, not a sentence i get to write. what i can tell you is the part i actually control: one developer, no office, no sales team, no marketing budget to feed. that is why the number can be $29 and still work.
why no sales
if i ran a 50% off sale tomorrow, everyone who bought yesterday would feel burned. i do not want that relationship with you. $29 today. $29 on black friday. $29 next year. one honest caveat: KERN is on Plugin Boutique now, and retailers run their own promotions on their own storefronts. i do not control what they charge. i control this page, and here the number does not move.
why no iLok
your license is yours. no dongle, no account to create, no plugin that stops working because a licence server went away. you activate once online, and after that it runs offline on three machines. to be straight with you: that first activation, and any later one on a new machine, does need a connection. if your studio machine never touches the internet, email me and i will send you a signed license file that needs no connection at all. if your hard drive dies, reactivate on the new one. i trust you. that should not be a radical position.
why no subscription
subscriptions make sense when something has to keep running for you every month. a plugin runs on your computer. mine is not streaming anything and not rendering in a cloud. it does re-check its licence about once a month if you happen to be online, and nothing at all during playback. there are real costs on my side, a site, downloads, a payment provider, but they are small enough that i do not need to bill you monthly to cover them. so i do not. one payment. yours forever. all updates included.
pricing
50 papers. 5 knobs. $29.
no iLok. no subscription. no account.
SMOOTH
one-time. yours forever.
tame harsh resonances across your mix
- + permanent license
- + all future updates
- + no iLok or account
- + works offline
- + macOS + windows
- + VST3 / AU
14-day refund policy. no questions.
WARM
one-time. yours forever.
three saturation characters. tape, tube, transformer.
- + permanent license
- + all future updates
- + no iLok or account
- + works offline
- + macOS + windows
- + VST3 / AU
14-day refund policy. no questions.
WIDE
one-time. yours forever.
stereo width that stays mono-safe
- + permanent license
- + all future updates
- + no iLok or account
- + works offline
- + macOS + windows
- + VST3 / AU
14-day refund policy. no questions.
PUSH
one-time. yours forever.
three compression characters. settle, tight, drift.
- + permanent license
- + all future updates
- + no iLok or account
- + works offline
- + macOS + windows
- + VST3 / AU
14-day refund policy. no questions.
soothe 3 lists at $259. a single SMOOTH license is $29. different tools, and your ears get the deciding vote.
THE KERN BUNDLE
all four paid plugins. one license key.
SMOOTH cleans. WARM adds character. WIDE places stereo. PUSH glues it together. the full chain.
"I just discovered the kernaudio.io plugins. super precise and elegant. Kudos on this masterful work."
plus CHECK: my spectral mono compatibility analyzer
free for everyone. no account needed.
download freefrequently asked questions
the questions people actually ask
can I try before I buy? +
yes. every KERN plugin has a free demo with the full feature set. the only difference is a brief periodic silence every ~45 seconds. download from each product page.
what happens if I do not like it? +
14-day refund policy. no questions asked. email support@kernaudio.io with your order number and I will process the refund. the full policy has one carve-out, for repeat buy-and-refund, and it has never been used on anyone acting in good faith.
do I need an account to use KERN plugins? +
no. no iLok account, no KERN account. you enter your license key once and it activates, then runs offline. it re-checks the key about once a month if the machine happens to be online, and if it cannot reach the server it stays licensed and keeps working. buy, download, activate, done.
how many computers can I install on? +
three activations per license key. if you need more, email support@kernaudio.io and I will sort it out.
will the price go up? +
I have no plans to raise prices. if I ever do, every existing owner keeps their license forever with all future updates included.
what happens to my plugins if KERN shuts down? +
your license lives on your machine, not on a server. a normally activated plugin re-checks its key about once a month if the machine happens to be online, and if it cannot reach the server it stays licensed and keeps working. there is also a fully offline activation for air-gapped machines that never checks at all. email support@kernaudio.io if you want that. this is the practical reason I refuse iLok and subscriptions. to be fair about it, a local iLok activation keeps working offline too; what I am avoiding is the versions where access depends on a server or a renewal, and the account layer that comes with them.
will you add AAX / Pro Tools support? +
not currently. VST3 and AU cover Logic, Ableton, FL Studio, Reaper, Bitwig, Studio One, and Cubase. I will add AAX if demand justifies the licensing cost.
what is the bundle? +
SMOOTH + WARM + WIDE + PUSH for $69 instead of $116 individually. one license key unlocks all four paid plugins. nearly 40% off the individual price.
can I upgrade from an individual plugin to the bundle? +
email support@kernaudio.io with your existing order number. I will work out an upgrade credit.
is CHECK really free? +
yes. $0 at checkout. I ask for an email address so I can send your download link. no restrictions, no trial period, no feature limitations. CHECK is my mono compatibility analyzer for everyone.
who makes KERN? +
one developer in copenhagen, denmark. three years of DSP research. every plugin is built from published psychoacoustic research, tested against professional alternatives, and held to a 3% CPU budget on macOS.
a note on pricing
i set the price at $29 because that is what i would pay. not what a spreadsheet says the market will bear. not what a competitor charges minus 10%. just: what is this worth to a producer who needs it?
KERN exists because i spent three years reading psychoacoustic research papers and writing C++ instead of making music. the plugins i wanted to use did not exist at a price i could justify. so i built them. $29 per plugin covers the cost of that work and lets me keep building the next one.
the no-sales policy is not stubbornness. it is respect. when you buy SMOOTH here today, you pay the same as the person who bought it on launch day. buying direct, there is no coupon code you missed. the price is the price, and it is fair.
if you have questions about pricing, licensing, or anything else, reach out at jonas@kernaudio.io. i answer every email personally.
jonas, KERN Audio