** is the current SNAP division. The top row moves **every lane at once**, the bottom row moves **only the selected lane**. Anything running off the end of the loop wraps around to the beginning. **Why it's special:** The pattern is not edited, only re-phased. A block that crosses the loop boundary becomes two pieces that play exactly what the one played, and nothing else moves — same blocks, same curves, same relationships, different starting point. The panel stays open on a nudge, so you can sit on it and tap while the music runs. **Pro tip:** This is how you match a preset to what you are playing rather than the other way round. If a pattern feels right but lands wrong against your chord changes, nudge it a bar and try again — the same pattern at a different offset is often a completely different groove. Shifting one lane on its own is the quickest way to make a variation of a preset: move the FILTER lane a beat against everything else and the whole thing re-reads. **Note:** Each lane rotates inside **its own loop** — a lane set to loop every 2 bars inside a 4-bar pattern rotates within those 2 bars, which is what keeps it in phase with itself. A shift clears the block selection (the wrap renumbers the blocks), leaving the lane selected. ### SWING **What it does:** Slides the off-16ths toward the triplet position, 0–100%. Blocks follow it *and* the curve repeats inside a block swing with it. The master DUCK stays straight — pumps should stay straight. **Pro tip:** Match your DAW's groove amount here and the shaper locks to the rest of the track instead of fighting it. ### PATTERN CHAIN + EACH **What it does:** With CHAIN on, the **filled** slots play in order, each holding for **EACH** repeats of its own length (x1, x2, x4 or x8). Empty slots are skipped — an untouched slot is not a rest. **Why it's special:** The route is a pure function of the host timeline. Jump anywhere in your song and the chain is already where it should be; loop the whole cycle and it repeats identically. Manual or MIDI selection overrides it for that bar. **Pro tip:** Four slots at EACH x2 gives you an 8-bar arrangement that writes itself. Build A as the verse, B as a variation, C as the fill, D as the drop. ### FOLLOW (pattern bar) **What it does:** The slot the engine is playing is the one on screen, so you always watch what you hear. The moment you click a slot to edit, editing stays there. ### MIDI pattern select **What it does:** Notes on the plugin's track choose the slot: the **root note** is A and the next seven semitones are B to H. Default root is **C1 (note 36)**. **Range:** Click the chip to switch it off if stray notes keep changing patterns; the mouse wheel over the chip moves the root note. **In your music:** Play your patterns from a keyboard or draw them as a MIDI clip — pattern switching becomes part of the arrangement, not a mouse move. --- ## The MASTER Row Effects that run at the output, under the whole grid, for the whole plugin — not per pattern and not per lane. The signal order is: **the lane grid → COMP → DUCK → OUT → LIMIT → MIX blend against the dry input** ### COMP (master multiband compressor) **What it does:** A 3-band compressor placed **ahead of the DUCK** on purpose — a duck is a deliberate rhythmic gain move, and a compressor placed after one spends its life undoing it. Glue first, pump second. **Controls:** - **AMOUNT** — the one control that matters. It walks all three band thresholds down together. - **MODE** — picks the character as a set (ratio, attack, release and knee move together, because on a master bus they aren't four independent decisions): **GLUE** (a gentle bus compressor), **PUNCH** (lets the transient through and grabs the body), **SQUASH** (pumps). - **MIX** — blends the compressed signal under the dry one. - **Per-band second pass** — **THRESH** offsets (which band leans into AMOUNT) and **GAIN** trims, plus the **SPLIT** points. Those are the *same* crossovers the banded lanes use. **Metering:** Gain reduction per band — LOW, MID, HIGH — growing downward, because reduction is something being taken away. **Pro tip:** Ride AMOUNT and nothing else until it sounds right. Only then lean on the lows or let the highs breathe with the per-band offsets. ### DUCK (global pump) **What it does:** One gain curve applied under the entire grid. Off means the audio is left untouched. **Controls:** - **On/off**, **CURVE** (pick any shape from the figure library), **DEPTH** (how far it pulls the level down). - **CLOCK** — **SYNC** loops the curve on the beat grid (the classic tempo-synced pump) or **TRIG** fires it once per detected hit and then holds — ducking that follows the actual kick. - **RATE** — how long one pass of the curve lasts: **1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16**. On SYNC that's the loop length; on TRIG it's the length of the one-shot. **Pro tip:** The classic house pump is the **Sidechain** figure at 1/4 on SYNC. For a mix where the kick isn't perfectly quantized, switch to **TRIG** and route the kick to the sidechain — it follows the performance. ### TRIG (trigger settings) **What it does:** Sets what the transient detector listens to. It feeds both the master DUCK on TRIG clock and every lane set to TRIGGER clock. **Controls:** - **INPUT** — **SIDECHAIN** (the sidechain bus) or **SELF** (this plugin's own signal). SIDECHAIN greys out until the host actually delivers something on that bus. - **SENSE** — how eagerly the detector fires. The lamp at the top of the panel flashes once per detected hit. - **BAND** — narrows the detector so a kick trigger doesn't also hear the hats (full range, low, mid, or high presets). **Pro tip:** Set BAND to the low preset and watch the lamp while the loop plays. If it flashes twice a beat, you're hearing the hats — narrow it further or drop SENSE. ### LIMIT (master limiter) **What it does:** The last processing stage — only the global MIX blend comes after it. **CEILING** is the level it will not let through; the scope shows how much it's taking. Switched off, a plain safety clipper still guards the ceiling. **Controls:** - **CEILING** — dB, default **-0.3**. Nothing leaves the plugin above this. - **CLIP / AHEAD** — **CLIP** is a fast, zero-latency clipper. **AHEAD** (lookahead) reads ahead of the audio to catch peaks before they land — a true brickwall. **This is the only latency the plugin ever reports.** Leave it off for zero-latency live playing; the host compensates it during mixing. - **CLIP shape** — **SOFT** or **HARD**. - **CHAR** — adds character on the way in: **XFMR**, **TUBE** or **TAPE**. **Pro tip:** A shaper patch with heavy DRIVE and a deep DUCK can spike hard on the transitions. LIMIT on CLIP catches it without costing you a single sample of latency. ### OUT **What it does:** Master output volume, -24 to +12 dB — after the DUCK, ahead of the limiter, so a boost here is still caught by the ceiling. The meter beside it shows the level actually leaving the plugin. **Gestures:** Drag to set, double-click for unity, right-click to type a value. ### MIX (global) **What it does:** The whole plugin in parallel against the dry signal — the **final** stage in the chain, blended after the master section. At 0% you get your untouched input back, not a dry signal that has been through the compressor and the limiter. The dry path is delay-aligned to whatever latency the limiter reports, so the blend stays phase-correct at every setting. **Range:** 0–100%, default 100%. Drag to set, double-click for full wet, right-click to type. **Automatable in your DAW.** **In your music:** Wind the whole instrument in and out over a build. Parallel-blend a heavy chop under the original groove so the transients stay intact. **Pro tip:** MIX is the honest "how much of this do I want" control. Set the patch at 100% until it's exciting, then pull MIX back to 60–70% and it'll sit in the mix instead of taking it over. ### BANDS **What it does:** The crossover points shared by every banded lane *and* the master compressor — so LOW means the same thing everywhere, and the band a lane filters is the band the compressor controls. Drag to move; LOW always stays below HIGH. --- ## Presets, Figures and GENERATE ### The preset library (PRESETS) **What it does:** A preset is the **whole patch**: all 8 patterns, the master DUCK, the COMP, the LIMIT, the bands and the trigger. **How to use it:** Click a preset to load the whole patch, or hover the row and hit the **SLOT x** chip to drop just its pattern A into the slot you're editing. **SAVE** stores your current patch. Type to search. **Cmd+Z** undoes a load. **Which slot does a preset land in?** Because a preset *is* all 8 slots, a plain click replaces every one of them, and the patch's content sits wherever its author put it — for almost every factory preset that is **A**. The view follows it there, so you always land on the pattern that just loaded. If you want a preset in the slot you're currently on instead — building a chain out of several presets, say — that's what the per-row **SLOT** chip is for: it leaves every other slot alone. **Factory content:** 90 presets across **RHYTHMIC**, **GLITCH**, **FILTER** and **TEXTURE**. **Pro tip:** The **step arrows** next to the PRESETS button walk the whole library in order — factory first, then yours. Hold your loop playing and just step through until something grabs you. ### The figure library (BRUSH / FIGURES) **What it does:** ~50 curve shapes across ten categories — **Shape** (Sidechain, GATE1, SSSS, DOUBLEPLUCK, Triangle, Saw…), **Linear**, **Step**, **LFO**, **Exponential**, **Logarithmic**, **S-Curve**, **Envelope** (Fast Attack, Pluck, Swell, AD…), **Pulse** and **Smooth**. **How to use it:** With a block selected, clicking a shape gives that block the curve. With nothing selected, it loads the **STAMP** brush so you can paint it. **ESC** unloads it. The **quick figures** strip in the header keeps your most-used shapes one click away. ### GENERATE **What it does:** Builds a whole pattern into the slot you're editing. Pick a **STYLE** and a **MUTATE** depth, then press GENERATE — every press rerolls. **STYLE:** ANY, **PUMP**, **GATE**, **STUTTER**, **BUILD**, **WOBBLE**, **GRIT**, **SPACE**. **MUTATE:** **SUBTLE**, **NORMAL**, **WILD** — how far the result may stray from what it started with. **Why it works:** It doesn't roll dice. It starts from **real authored preset material** matching your style, keeps *where* activity happens in time (that arrangement is the musical value), and applies bounded musical mutations — swapping figures within the same category, halving or doubling repeat lengths, jittering amounts, adding chance and cycle conditions. At NORMAL and above it may borrow one lane from another matching preset, but only if it passes a compatibility check. The results play like patterns, not like noise. **Undo:** One undo step takes it back. **Pro tip:** Press GENERATE five times in a row with your loop playing and keep the one that makes you look up. Then edit it — the generator gets you to a starting point in ten seconds, not to a finished patch. --- ## Visual Feedback & Metering - **The blocks themselves** show their curve drawn inside — you read the patch at a glance without selecting anything. - **Gold playhead** sweeps the grid; **magenta** marks the selection. - **Dashed lines** after a block show exactly how far a **HOLD** value carries. - **RESULT strip** under the grid: the processed output drawn over the input, both locked to the pattern, so you *see* what the grid did to your audio. - **Pattern bar** dims empty slots and lights the playing one. - **COMP gain reduction** per band (LOW / MID / HIGH), growing downward. - **LIMIT scope** shows how much the limiter is taking. - **OUT meter** shows the level leaving the plugin. - **TRIG lamp** flashes once per detected transient — the fastest way to dial SENSE and BAND. - **FOLLOW** keeps the playhead in view while zoomed. Panning or zooming by hand pauses it (the chip dims) until the playhead comes back on its own. - **Row modes**: **FIT** keeps every lane on screen at once (a pattern is a relationship between lanes); **TALL** gives fixed, comfortable rows and scrolls the stack. The **expand** button in a lane's rail header blows that lane up to **fullscreen** for deep curve work (the up/down arrows then become a lane switcher); the same button or **ESC** brings the stack back. - **The waveform behind the lanes.** **Right-click the ruler** (or the grid) for three states. **GHOST** is the default faint backdrop. **FULL** raises it to a readable input waveform and adds a tick wherever the transient detector fired — the only way to *see* what SENSE is hearing, and therefore where a TRIG lane will actually fire. Turn SENSE down and watch the marks thin out. **OFF** gives you a bare grid. - **SHOW OVER BLOCKS** (same menu) draws the waveform on top of the block cards as well as behind them. On a packed pattern the blocks cover exactly the audio you are trying to cut against, so switch it on while you place cuts and off again afterwards. It is off by default. - **Multilingual tooltips** (EN/DE/FR/ES/IT) on every zone in the interface. --- ## How to Use It — Real-World Workflows ### The 60-second gate (any loop) 1. Insert THE_SHAPER 2 on your loop. Click the lane header and set its effect to **GAIN** (or **+ ADD LANE** → GAIN). 2. Press **2** for STAMP, click the **Sidechain** or **GATE1** quick figure, and drag one bar across the lane. 3. In the inspector set **CURVE LENGTH** to 1/8 — the shape re-tiles eight times across the bar. 4. Ride **AMOUNT** until the depth feels right. Done. ### Sidechain pump without a sidechain 1. Turn **DUCK** on in the master row. 2. Set its curve to **Sidechain**, **CLOCK** = SYNC, **RATE** = 1/4. 3. Set **DEPTH** to taste. It pumps in perfect time with no kick routing and no compressor. 4. If your kick isn't quantized, switch **CLOCK** to **TRIG**, route the kick to the sidechain bus, and set the trigger **BAND** to lows. ### The build and the drop 1. Pattern **A** = your groove. Copy it to **B** (right-click the pattern bar → Copy pattern → paste into B). 2. On B, add a **FILTER** lane with one long block: a slow rise across the whole pattern, **LP**, **SKEW** 0.4. 3. On the last beat of B, add a **SLICE** block: **LOOP**, DIV 1/32, **DECAY** 0.5, **PITCH/REP** +1. 4. Set B's last GAIN block to **HOLD** so the pattern ends silent into the drop. 5. Switch A → B by hand, by MIDI note, or with the CHAIN. ### An 8-bar arrangement that writes itself 1. Fill slots **A, B, C, D** — groove, variation, texture, fill. 2. Turn **CHAIN** on and set **EACH** to x2. 3. Turn **FOLLOW** on so you watch what you hear. 4. Because the chain is locked to the host timeline, you can locate anywhere in the song and it's already correct. ### Multiband: gate the top, keep the bass 1. Add a **GAIN** lane, set its **BAND** to **HIGH**. 2. Draw a 1/16 gate on it. The low end stays completely solid while the top chops. 3. Add a second GAIN lane on **LOW** with a slow half-note pump for weight. 4. Adjust the crossovers once in **BANDS** and both lanes follow. ### Turn a boring vocal loop into a hook 1. **SLICE** lane, **TIME** mode, one block over the whole bar. Draw a staircase (POINTS → STEP) — the vocal rearranges itself. 2. **PITCH** lane, **GRAIN** engine, **FORMANT FREE**, +7 semitones on the second half. 3. **REVERB** lane, one short block with **CUT** on the last beat for a throw that doesn't bleed. 4. Set **CHANCE** to 60% on the slice block so it doesn't repeat identically. ### Live performance rig 1. Build eight patterns in one patch, from "barely there" (A) to "destroyed" (H). 2. Leave the limiter's **LOOKAHEAD off** so the plugin reports zero latency. 3. Turn **MIDI** pattern select on and map notes C1–G1 to A–H. 4. Perform the effects from your keyboard while the track plays. --- ## Pro Tips & Creative Techniques - **Start with one lane.** A gate that's right beats six lanes that are busy. Add the second lane only once the first one grooves. - **Draw once, reuse forever.** CURVE LENGTH is a musical size, so one gate shape works in any block width. Save your favourites to the quick-figures strip. - **HOLD is automation.** Sweep down, hold, sweep back — three moves that would be a full automation lane in your DAW become two blocks. - **Lane order is a sound.** FILTER above DRIVE is a filtered distortion; DRIVE above FILTER is a distorted filter. Drag the handles and hear the difference. - **Use CHANCE on accents only.** Foundation at 100%, accents at 40–70%. That's the difference between "alive" and "broken". - **Polymeter is free.** Set one lane's LOOP to 3 beats in a 4-bar pattern and it won't repeat identically for twelve bars. - **RESO past 1.00 is an instrument.** Set FILTER RESO to 1.5 and draw short blocks — the filter rings and plays pitched blips over your track. - **TRIG clock is the "follows the music" switch.** Anything on TRIGGER stops being a pattern and starts being a response. - **Check HAAS and WIDTH in mono.** Delay-based width is enormous and mono-fragile. If it survives the fold, keep it. - **GRIP before you reach for a gate.** On a driven break, GRIP does what a noise gate does but from inside the distortion curve, with none of the chatter. - **MIX is the taste control.** Build the patch at 100% and blend back. Everything still compresses and pumps because MIX blends ahead of both. - **CUT for throws, RING for washes.** One reverb lane does both — the difference is the TAIL chip. - **GENERATE, then edit.** Ten seconds to a starting point that already plays like music, then make it yours. - **Cmd+Z everywhere.** Preset loads, GENERATE results, block edits, curve edits — all undoable. Experiment freely. --- ## Keyboard Shortcuts | Key | Action | |---|---| | **1 / 2 / 3 / 4** | EDIT / STAMP / POINTS / DRAW tool | | **Q W E R T** | POINTS sub-tools: SELECT / PENCIL / LINE / STEP / SHAPE | | **+ / -** | Zoom in / out (around the pointer when over the grid) | | **F** | Frame the selection | | **0** or **ESC** | Whole pattern | | **ESC** | Also: drop a half-drawn line, clear the point selection, leave STAMP, exit fullscreen lane | | **Arrow ← →** | Nudge the selection by one snap division (SHIFT = fine 1/32) | | **Arrow ↑ ↓** | Carry the selection to the lane above/below (or walk the lane selection) | | **TAB** | Step from block to block in time order | | **Delete / Backspace** | Delete the selection (in POINTS, deletes points) | | **Cmd+A** | Select all blocks (in POINTS, all points) | | **Cmd+C / X / V** | Copy / Cut / Paste blocks (paste lands at the mouse when over the grid) | | **Cmd+D** | Duplicate the selection after itself | | **Cmd+E** | Split the selection at the mouse (SHIFT = free, unsnapped). Holding CMD shows the cut line first | | **Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z** | Undo / Redo | | **ALT-drag** | Copy a block | | **ALT-resize** | Stretch the curve instead of re-tiling it | | **SHIFT-click** | Add to the selection | | **SHIFT-drag (STAMP)** | Paint a row of blocks | | **CMD (hold, in POINTS)** | Borrow the EDIT tool for one move | | **Double-click empty grid** | Add a 1-bar block | | **Double-click a block edge** | Fill the gap up to the neighbour | | **Double-click a block** | Jump into curve editing: fullscreens the lane, switches to POINTS and zooms to the block | | **Expand button (lane rail)** | Fullscreen that lane; ESC or the button again returns | | **Wheel over the grid** | Zoom around the pointer | | **SHIFT + wheel** | Pan the timeline | | **Drag the ruler** | Slide the view | | **Wheel over a curve point** | Bend that segment | | **Right-click** | Context menus for blocks, lanes, patterns and the view | *In hosts that swallow Cmd combos, every one of these is mirrored on the right-click menu.* --- ## Quick Start 1. **Insert** THE_SHAPER 2 on a loop, a bus or a whole mix. 2. **Press PRESETS** and step through the library with the arrows until something grabs you. 3. **Press GENERATE** a few times if you want a fresh pattern in the current slot. 4. **Edit what you hear**: drag a block, redraw a curve with POINTS, ride AMOUNT. 5. **Fill more slots** (A–H), turn **CHAIN** on, set **EACH** to x2 — an arrangement. 6. **Pull MIX back** until it sits in the track. Turn **LIMIT** on if the peaks jump. --- ## Specs - **Plugin type:** Block-grid modulation sequencer / multi-effect (audio effect, with MIDI input and sidechain input). - **Lanes:** 8 effect types — GAIN, PAN, FILTER, REVERB, PITCH (tape + granular), SLICE, DRIVE (14 modes), MOD (chorus / flanger / phaser / comb). Up to 8 lanes per pattern. - **Patterns:** 8 slots (A–H), 1–8 bars each, per-lane loop lengths for polymeter, swing, bar-quantized switching, MIDI note select (default root C1), and a timeline-locked PATTERN CHAIN with x1/x2/x4/x8 repeats. - **Per lane:** multiband assignment (FULL / LOW / MID / HIGH on shared crossovers), GRID or audio-TRIGGER clock, mute / solo, loop length. - **Per block:** curve (figure) with musical repeat length and offset, amount, effect parameters, play chance, cycle condition, HOLD / RELEASE (GAIN, PAN, FILTER, DRIVE). - **Master section:** 3-band compressor (GLUE / PUNCH / SQUASH, macro AMOUNT, per-band THRESH + GAIN, parallel MIX), global DUCK (SYNC or TRIG clock, any curve, 1/1–1/16 rate), limiter (CEILING, CLIP or LOOKAHEAD, SOFT / HARD clip, XFMR / TUBE / TAPE character), output volume (-24 to +12 dB) and global MIX. - **Audio trigger:** transient detector on the sidechain bus or the plugin's own input, with sensitivity and a band-limited detector. - **Latency:** **zero**, unless the limiter's LOOKAHEAD is switched on (the host compensates it). Empty grid and inactive lanes are bit-clean passthrough. - **Automation:** global MIX (Dry/Wet) and PATTERN (A–H) are host parameters, alongside switch quantize, free run, edge fade, MIDI enable/root, soft bypass, output volume and the four trigger settings. - **Content:** 90 factory presets (RHYTHMIC / GLITCH / FILTER / TEXTURE), ~50 factory curve figures across 10 categories, and a pattern GENERATE engine with 8 styles and 3 mutation depths. - **UI:** Single-page 1100x800 surface with UI zoom, full undo/redo, multilingual tooltips (EN/DE/FR/ES/IT), in-app documentation and AI assistant. - **Formats:** **VST3, AU (macOS), AAX** - macOS (Apple Silicon & Intel) and Windows. No standalone version.