SPECTRA
Spectral Distortion
Every sound has two spectral properties: magnitude and phase. Conventional EQ and filtering only touch magnitude — SPECTRA works inside the frequency domain via STFT, randomising phase relationships and applying spectral distortion without altering perceived loudness.
At low settings, the effect widens a sound in space and dissolves sharp transients into a smeared halo. Push further and harmonics lose their temporal coherence entirely — spectral feedback self-oscillates, frozen frames replay at random, and the signal disintegrates into broken-glass texture.
This is a class of processing analogue cannot produce. The FFT is the instrument. Phase is the material.
Parameters
| Group | Parameter | Range | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dispersion | Dispersion | 0% — 100% | 0% | Amount of random phase rotation applied per frequency bin. 0% = no phase change. 100% = full stochastic scatter across all bins. |
| Dispersion | Focus | -100% — +100% | 0% | Spectral tilt control. Positive values emphasise high frequencies; negative values emphasise low frequencies. |
| Dispersion | Blur | 0% — 200% | 0% | Frame averaging — blends spectral magnitude across consecutive STFT frames, smearing transients in time. |
| Distort | Saturate | 0% — 100% | 0% | Applies the selected saturation function to spectral magnitude bins before reconstruction. |
| Distort | Sat Mode | 6 modes | Tanh | Activation function used for spectral saturation. See Saturation Modes below. |
| Distort | Feedback | 0% — 100% | 0% | Routes the output back into the input before FFT. Creates self-reinforcing spectral loops and resonance at high values. |
| Distort | Glitch | 0% — 100% | 0% | Probability that a random frozen spectral frame is replayed instead of the current frame. Stochastic freeze effect. |
| Spectral | Shift | -1000 Hz — +1000 Hz | 0 Hz | Shifts all frequency bins up or down by a fixed Hz offset. Creates inharmonic transpositions and metallic resonance. |
| Spectral | Gate | -90 dB — 0 dB | -90 dB | Spectral gate — bins below this magnitude threshold are zeroed before reconstruction. |
| Spectral | Redux | 0% — 100% | 0% | Merges adjacent frequency bins — reduces spectral resolution, creating blocky metallic artifacts. |
| Output | Mix | 0% — 100% | 100% | Dry/wet blend between the unprocessed input and the spectral output. |
| Output | Output | -24 dB — +24 dB | 0 dB | Output gain applied after all processing. |
Saturation Modes
6 activation functions applied to spectral magnitude bins. Set via Sat Mode in the plugin UI.
Specifications
| Format | VST3 (all platforms), AU (macOS only) |
| Platform | macOS (Universal Binary), Windows, Linux |
| Channels | Stereo |
| Latency | 1024 samples (fixed) |
| FFT Size | 1024 bins, 75% overlap |
| License | Single-user perpetual, up to 2 devices |
Product video is available on this page before signup or download.
Free 7-day trial. No credit card required. Trial starts on first plugin activation.
Trials use email-delivered codes. Paid licenses use account/code activation. Both store signed local tokens.
After the trial expires, audio processing stops until the plugin is licensed.