pitch-shifted echoes and shimmer reverb

Features

• High quality pitch shifting (-2 to +1 octaves)
• Resonant low-pass filter with XY control
• Adjustable diffusion
• Two delay lines, from parallel to ping-pong
• Tempo sync delay times
• Preset browser with 15 factory presets
• Freeze (create pads and micro-loops)
• Oversampling up to 8x for a cleaner high-end
• Help tooltips
• Available on Windows and macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel)
• Supported formats: VST3, AU
• Free updates for all v1.x versions

Demos

All sounds are from Spirals, with no additional processing applied.

A quick walkthrough of the factory presets

7 minutes of sound samples recorded during development

Free version and upgrading

There are some features that are only available in the full, paid version:

• Tempo sync delay times
• Oversampling is limited to 2x

Try the free version of Spirals before making a purchase - no newsletter signup or credit card info required

You can freely use it in real projects; it will not expire, and if you decide to upgrade, the full version will seamlessly replace the free one without breaking anything.

Purchasing the plugin gives you access to free updates throughout version 1.x, up to (not including) 2.0.

Updating from v1.1

Updating will not break your existing projects and presets. The new version is fully compatible with the previous version.

The factory presets have been updated with tags but other than that these are the same presets as in v1.1. You can delete the "Factory/0" directory (containing the old presets) to remove duplicates.

Download

Download the free version by clicking on the buttons below.

System Requirements

• Windows 10 / macOS 10.13 or newer
• Host with VST3 or AU support (64-bit only)

If you are using a DAW or system that isn't listed here, the plugin may still work as expected; however, I may not be able to resolve technical issues on unsupported systems. Please try the free version before making a purchase.

Installation

Windows

Copy the DG_Spirals directory to your VST3 directory. The system default on Windows is: c:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\.

macOS

Run the DG_Spirals.pkg installer.
This will install both the VST3 and AU formats in the following location:

• VST3: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/DG_Spirals.vst3
• AU: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/DG_Spirals.component

Troubleshooting

If you need help getting the plugin up and running please see the troubleshooting page.

If this does not answer your question feel free to send me an email!

User Manual

Introduction

Spirals is an audio effect capable of a wide range of effects from simple delays to complex pitch-shifted echoes and shimmer reverb. Pitch modulation and a resonant low-pass filter add further sound-shaping possibilities.

The plugin comes with a collection of factory presets and a fully-featured preset browser that lets you save, categorize, and quickly find your favorite sounds.

Presets

Presets let you save the state of the plugin including all parameter values into a file and reuse these settings later (even in a different DAW or on a different machine).

The plugin comes with a number of factory presets. These are installed automatically when the plugin is loaded into the DAW. The location of the presets cannot be changed, but you can easily find them by clicking the *Reveal* button in the preset browser.

Presets are organized into a hierarchy of banks, matching the directory structure in the Presets directory.

You can organize presets into banks by entering the desired location in the Bank field in the Save dialog, separating directories with a forward slash (/), for example "user/pack-1"

Signal Path

Spirals has 3 parallel paths to process the input signal, each serving a different purpose:

Dry: does not apply any processing, making it possible to blend between the original (dry) and the processed (wet) signal.

Delay: adds a clean digital delay controlled by the Time, Spread, and Repeats knobs

Shimmer: the shimmer path can produce pitch-shifted and reversed echoes or more reverb-like sounds controlled by the Speed and Diffusion knobs.

(Click to open larger image in a new tab)

Parameters

Time and Time Offset Control the delay time in the left and right channels respectively, in milliseconds.

Tempo Sync When active, the Time knobs set the delay time in musical durations (quarter notes, half notes, etc.), based on the bpm/tempo of your project. (Only available in the full version.)

Spread Mixes the signal between the left and right delay lines, turning independent parallel delays into ping-pong echo effect.

Repeats Controls how long the echoes circulate in the delays. At 1.0 the repeats can keep going indefinitely, creating micro-loops and sustained pads.

Speed Controls the pitch and playback direction of the pitch shifters in the Shimmer path. Setting speed to a negative value will reverse playback direction. The S button will snap the values to the closest octave.

Diffusion Increasing the diffusion will spread the pitch-shifted repeats in time, creating more reverb-like sounds, while lower values have more distinct repeats.

Shimmer Controls how much of the pitch-shifted and diffused signal is fed back to the input. Increasing shimmer will result in longer decay times, and evolving repeats. Combined with the Speed and Diffusion knobs, this can produce a wide range of effects, including *shimmer reverb* or *crystal echo* sounds.

Wet Mixes between the unprocessed (dry) and processed (wet) signal.

Modulation Adds pitch modulation, creating a richer, evolving sounds.

High Cut Controls the frequency of the low-pass filter.

Resonance Controls the resonance of the low-pass filter. Higher values will result in more oscillation and more saturation. The XY pad on the right can simultaneously control both parameters of the low-pass filter: Dragging horizontally changes the cutoff Frequency while dragging vertically adjusts the Resonance.

Oversampling Oversampling can help reduce high-end artifacts and can be especially useful when the Speed knobs are configured to shift the pitch up. Higher oversampling factors might work better in certain cases, but these will also mean a significantly higher CPU load, so it is recommended to turn it off (1x) when it is not useful. Choosing the most suitable value will depend on the values of the other parameters and the input material.

Bypass Disable the effect: the input signal is passed through unchanged.

Built-in help

At the bottom left corner of the plugin window, you will find the plugin name and the current version number of the plugin. When the mouse cursor moves over an interactive UI element, this text will be replaced with a short help text about the control under the mouse.

Knobs

Knobs have a couple of small features that can help speed up your workflow:

• Double click any knob to reset it to its default value.
• Click the label under any knob to enter the desired value as text. (Entering text values for modulation amount knobs is currently not possible.)
• Knobs can be adjusted by dragging or with the mouse wheel.
• Hold down Ctrl/Cmd for velocity-sensitive mode when dragging a knob. In velocity-sensitive mode, the sensitivity of the knob depends on the speed of the mouse movement, allowing the user to make more precise changes with slower mouse movements.

The small white line on the knob always shows the value of the associated parameter. This is the value saved in presets and seen by the DAW when reading or writing automation.

Another value associated with the knob is its effective value, indicated by the bright arc around the outer edge of the knob. This might show a different value than the base value mentioned above either due to modulation or some kind of restriction on the parameter value. An example of such restriction would be setting the delay time to 4 bars at a very low bpm: The maximum supported length of the delay buffer might not be long enough to hold 4 bars at the given tempo, so the actual delay time will be shorter. The audio processing done by the plugin is always controlled by this value.

Changes

v1.2.0

• Preset browser improvements: tags, favorites, author, description, search and filter
• Update factory presets with tags