mfkne has released Goldsmelt, a multi-effect plugin in VST3 format for macOS and Windows. It is the first plugin of the developer’s Golden Series and combines reworked versions of the main stages of its seven earlier effects in one device. All stages run on a shared clock and a shared detector, so slicing, grains and texture land on the same beat and the reverb ducks under the incoming hits.
The fourteen controls are arranged in three rows that follow the signal path:
- FORGE: PUNCH (transient shaper), LIFT (parallel upward compression), BLEED (unison voices with an octave below and above), BURN (saturation from clean through fuzz to digital decay).
- SHATTER: SLICE (beat-synced repeat from 1/2 to 1/128), SHIMMER (granular octave shifter in the reverb feedback), GRAIN (grain size as a note value), DUST and MATERIAL (texture level and type), plus the switches FREEZE, SYNC and a bypass for the whole row.
- SMELT: SPACE (tempo-synced multitap delay into a 32-line reverb network), TAPE, GOLD, WIDTH and MIX.
Gold is a refining stage that did not exist in the earlier plugins. It adds even rather than odd harmonics, a gentle tonal balance and a slow compression, all following the detector, so the effect sits on the body of a note rather than on its attack.
Eight factory patches are available as host programs.
Goldsmelt is free. The macOS version is a Universal Binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, the Windows version is 64-bit and needs no Visual C++ redistributable. The Mac version is not notarized, and the download page explains how to clear the macOS quarantine flag.
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