What’s new

Easier to read, and clearer about your licence.

• Bigger readouts at the pointer. The frequency readout over the graph and the one over an EQ point are larger and easier to read -- and the frequency readout now sits right beside your pointer instead of at the top of the graph.
• Clearer explanations. The card that explains a control when you rest the pointer on it has bigger text, and the frequency and dB scales on the graph are a little larger too.
• An activated licence looks activated. Once your licence is active, the licence window simply says "Activated on this computer", with Deactivate below it. The paste box is gone until you need it ("Paste another licence").
• 100 % is the size SPECTRA opens at. The size menu now counts from the size a new window opens at, up to 150 % (when your screen has room for it), plus Full screen. The window sizes themselves are unchanged.
• During the trial: a small "Buy SPECTRA" link next to the days left, and a short reminder only in the last ten days, at most once a day.

Sound: unchanged -- identical to v0.53, to the bit.

Universal (Apple Silicon and Intel), macOS 11 and later, VST3 and Audio Unit.

Activation, up to three computers — and a Deactivate button.

• Activate once on each computer. Paste your licence as usual: SPECTRA activates this computer with cntrlld.com in a second or two, and from then on it works offline, for good. Reinstalling on the same computer does not use up another one.
• Deactivate this computer. Moving to a new computer? Open the licence window (click the licence line at the bottom right) and press Deactivate this computer: its place is free straight away. Activate it there again whenever you like.
• One computer too many. If your licence is already active on all the computers it allows, SPECTRA says so. Deactivate one of the others, or free it in your account, then press Try again.
• Never stopped by a hiccup. If cntrlld.com cannot be reached when you activate, SPECTRA keeps working and says "Not activated yet"; press Try again when you are online.
• Only when you activate or deactivate. SPECTRA sends your licence, a code for this computer and its model, never its name, and only at that moment. Licences without activation work offline and never go online at all.

Sound: identical to v0.52, to the bit.

Ready for licences with an end date.

• Groundwork for paying in instalments. SPECTRA can now work with licences that run until a set date and pick up the next one by itself when it is due, with a week of grace.
• Licences bought outright work as they always have: offline, for good. The trial is unchanged too.

Sound: identical to v0.51.

The deep sub keeps its place.

• A cleaner low end. At the default Loudness, SPECTRA now leaves the deep sub (roughly 20-45 Hz) where your mix had it: measured on five finished tracks, the average lift against the midrange is +0.3 dB. The leveling fades in smoothly between 63 Hz and 45 Hz, with no step in the curve.
• Loudness still moves it. Turn Loudness down and the sub comes down with it; turn it up and the sub grows.
• Everything above 63 Hz is identical to v0.50: kick, bass body, mids, presence and highs. The Low Limit control works as before.

Sound: changed below 63 Hz only, as described above. For a fuller sub, raise Loudness a little.

Full screen, and a window that always fits.

• Full screen. The size menu (the percentage at the bottom right) now starts with Full screen, which makes SPECTRA as large as the screen it is on can hold. The other sizes are still there.
• Always within the screen. Whether you drag the window, pick a size from the menu or open a session saved on a bigger screen, SPECTRA stays within the screen it is on. Move it to a smaller screen and it adjusts.
• Steadier background saving. Hosts that save in the background while you work can do so safely at any moment, also while you switch A/B or use undo.

Sound: identical to v0.49, to the bit.

Musical by default, and "Default" shows as the loaded preset.

• Musical is the new starting point. A new instance of SPECTRA, and Load Default, now start with Musical selected (the Musical / Linear switch under Speed), instead of Linear. Musical lets the correction move more broadly and more gently, so it follows the music rather than individual notes. Your saved sessions and presets are untouched: they open exactly as they were saved.
• "Default" is the loaded preset in your host. Audio Unit hosts such as Logic now show SPECTRA's "Default" preset as the one loaded -- when SPECTRA is first inserted and after a session is opened -- instead of no preset at all. (VST3 hosts show no preset list for SPECTRA, as before, and use their own preset system.)

This version also passes pluginval at its strictest level, 10, for both the VST3 and the Audio Unit, as part of the stability check every release now goes through.

Sound: a new instance now starts on Musical, so it sounds like Musical did before. Everything with saved settings -- sessions, presets, and any instance you have already set -- sounds exactly as in v0.48, to the bit.

Universal (Apple Silicon and Intel), macOS 11 and later, VST3 and Audio Unit.

Every release is now stress-tested before it goes out.

Before publication, each version runs for minutes under an automated test that behaves like a very busy host: six instances playing while others are prepared at other sample rates and buffer sizes, windows opening and closing, settings saved and restored during playback, automation from several threads. Renders must come out identical to the bit, run after run. A version that does not pass is not published.

In this version:

• Latency is always reported correctly after a sample-rate change, also in hosts that prepare plug-ins in the background.
• Autosave is safe while you switch A/B or resize the window.
• Quicker start of playback. Instances of the same size share their analysis tables: less memory, faster preparation.

Sound: identical to v0.47, to the bit.

SPECTRA works entirely offline.

• It never connects to anything. Click the version number in the status bar: it shows which version you have, with two buttons that open cntrlld.com in your browser — What's new and Download the latest.
• One licence, every instance. A licence entered in one instance counts at once for every SPECTRA in the session, including instances whose window is closed.
• Every render the same. On Apple Silicon a bounce comes out identical, to the last digit, every time.

Sound: identical to v0.46, to the bit.

Steady over long sessions. Recommended for everyone.

• Sessions that run for days stay stable in every host, including when a host closes and reopens plug-in windows on its own while a session loads.
• The trial is kept safely from any thread at once.

Both are covered by new automated tests. Your sessions, presets and licence carry on as they are.

Sound: identical to v0.45, to the bit.

The interface is sharp at every size, and larger on large screens.

• Sharp at any size. The window is drawn at the size it is shown at, like a browser's own zoom: 85 %, 125 % or 200 % are as crisp as 100 %, on Retina and non-Retina screens alike.
• Larger on large screens. A new window opens at a size that suits the screen: 100 % on a 2560-wide display, 125 % on an ultrawide or 4K display, never more than three quarters of the screen. A window you have resized keeps its size.
• Up to 200 %. The size menu (the percentage at the bottom right) now also offers 175 % and 200 %.

Sound: identical to v0.44, to the bit.

Many instances, every core.

• Each instance runs at its own place in the analysis beat, so many instances share the processor evenly. A session opened again gets the same places in the same order, so it sounds the same every time.
• The analysis is faster: 40 % less time per analysis frame.
• The filters are faster on Apple Silicon.

Measured on an M2 Pro with every instance started together, as when a session opens: 30 instances at 96 kHz with a 64-sample buffer over the six performance cores, without a late block — and the same at 44.1, 48 and 88.2 kHz.

Sound: no audible change. The output stays within −86 dBFS of v0.43.

Lighter on the CPU, the same sound to the bit.

The analysis, the decision, the filters and the true-peak limiter are all cheaper to run. An average audio block costs 40 % less: at 96 kHz with a 64-sample buffer, 30 µs on an M2 Pro. More instances fit — twelve at 96 kHz and twenty-four at 48 kHz over the six performance cores, all started together, without a late block.

Sound: identical to v0.42 to the bit, checked in every mode on Apple Silicon and on Intel.

More stable at small buffers. SPECTRA now spreads its analysis evenly over time, so its heaviest moments are half as heavy.

Measured at 96 kHz with a 64-sample buffer on an M2 Pro: three instances run on one core without a single dropout.

Nothing in the sound has changed — the output is identical to the previous version, sample for sample.

SPECTRA now comes as an installer. Download the .pkg, open it, tick VST3 and/or Audio Unit, and it puts them where your DAW looks.

No Terminal any more. No xattr line, and no warning about an unidentified developer: this installer is signed and notarised by Apple. It asks for your Mac's password once, because it installs for everyone on the machine.

Your settings, presets and licence are untouched — they live in your own home folder.

Nothing in the sound has changed. Still macOS 11 or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel.

A calmer, more precise window.

• The meters beside the analyser stand still, whatever the level does.
• Double-click an EQ point and it returns fully: frequency, gain and Q. One undo brings your change back.
• EQ points stay within the plot while you drag them.
• Auto gain and Limit keep their colour under the mouse.
• A new window opens a little smaller, at 85 %. The size menu in the status bar still goes up to 150 %, and any window keeps whatever size you leave it at.

Nothing in the sound has changed.

Click the version number in the bottom right: it shows which version you have, when it last looked, and — when there is one — which version is out and what changed in it.

Three buttons in there: Check now, What changed (opens this changelog) and Download, when there is a newer version to fetch. The switch for looking at all lives here too.

Nothing in the sound has changed.

New: Intel. This is the first universal build, for Apple Silicon and Intel, on macOS 11 and later. Tested on a 2018 MacBook Pro with a Core i5: VST3 and AU both load and auval passes.

Nothing in the sound has changed.

The version number in the bottom right lights up as soon as a newer version is out. Click it and you see which version that is, which one you have, what changed in it, and a button to the download page. That page always carries the current version.

Nothing else has changed: the sound, your settings and your licence stay exactly as they were.

Update messages now appear only for versions that are really out.

Nothing in the sound has changed.

Changes since v0.34

• The window fits the screen. The first time it opens, SPECTRA takes the design size (1280 x 760) but never more than three quarters of what your screen offers. Handy on a laptop, and in rack hosts like SuperRack Performer, where the full size filled nearly everything.
• A size menu. Click the percentage at the bottom right: Fit this screen, 150, 125, 100, 85, 75 or 65 %. The whole interface scales as one piece, so nothing is cut off.
• The window can now be dragged down to 800 pixels wide (was 1040), and remembers its size per instance as before.
• Nothing in the sound has changed.

Changes since v0.33

• Looking for updates, if you want it. The first time the window opens, SPECTRA asks once whether it may check for a newer version. Until you answer, and if you say no, nothing is ever sent. Say yes and it asks once a day, on its own thread, and says in the status bar when something newer is out. It sends only the version and the platform: no name, no e-mail address, no licence, nothing about your music. You can switch it on or off at any time in the licence window.
• Everything else in the plug-in keeps working without a network.
• Nothing in the sound has changed.

SPECTRA now has a 30-day trial with nothing held back. After that, a licence keeps it running.

Activating: click the licence line at the bottom right of the window, paste the licence (or open the file it came in), and press Activate. It is checked on your own computer, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Nothing in the sound has changed.

• The In and Out meters read plain decibels (dBFS), the same decibels as the output gain, over 300 ms, with a peak hold on each bar.
• The LUFS-S row still shows short-term loudness in → out: whether the plug-in changed how loud it sounds.

• The analyser follows the sound. A Low Cut taking the low end out shows within a second or two, mid and side alike.
• Shift while dragging an EQ node locks the axis it started on until Shift is let go.

• Shift + scroll on a knob works in both directions, and pressing Shift in the middle of a drag keeps the value steady.
• Mid/Side nodes in L/R. In L/R mode, EQ nodes set to Mid or Side are bypassed and drawn grey, until Channels is set to M/S.
• Loudness readout. The row under the meters shows LUFS-S: short-term loudness over the last 3 seconds, in → out.

• New node types: Low Cut and High Cut (12 dB/octave, corner shaped by Q). Right-click a node to change its type.
• Mid / Side per node. In the same menu, a node can shape Stereo, Mid only or Side only. This works in M/S mode, where side nodes are drawn as a dashed lavender line.
• Link in M/S becomes a Mid · Side balance. In the middle, both mid and side get the full correction; turn it left to leave the sides alone, and right to leave the mid alone.
• Loudness now defaults to 50 %.
• Presets saved with older versions keep their node types.

• Calmer sound while the correction moves. The 96 correction filters now move smoothly, sample by sample, which brings the residue around the music down to −97 dB on test material. Standing still, the filters are mathematically identical.
• A little less 1–5 kHz. The built-in reference curve now has a broad 2 dB dip around 3 kHz, closer to how finished records sound. The air above 5 kHz and the low end are unchanged.

Changes since v0.25

• New Bass switch next to the Width knob: the bass switch of the SPL BiG. It adds two broad, passive-style bells to the whole signal after Width, +2 dB at 45 Hz and +1.5 dB at 15 kHz, for more weight and a little air. Unlike Width it does change the mono sum. It is off by default, and when it is off the audio is untouched. Hover over it for an explanation.
• Nothing else in the sound has changed since v0.25.

Sound update.

• Compress reaches 50 % further: 100 % now does what 150 % would have done. Saved settings with Compress will sound stronger.
• Width has been rebuilt in the manner of the SPL BiG. Above 100 %, only the side signal is filtered and blended back: the top and presence open up evenly, the low mids less, and the bass stays centred. No saturation, so it sounds the same at any level and adds no distortion. The mono sum is untouched.
• Drops arrive with their low end in balance, within about ±0.5 dB of how they come in.

New interface. The sound is unchanged from v0.22.

Changes since v0.22

• Redesigned analyser: the spectrum sits behind everything, with an even 3 dB grid. The correction is amber where it boosts and steel blue where it cuts.
• The correction line now shows what the filters are actually doing, drawn finely and smoothly instead of as blocky bands. In M/S the side's correction is the dotted violet line.
• All ten knobs are the same size, in three groups: Correction (Shape, Compress, Recover, Tame), Target (Follow, Tilt, Loudness) and Motion · Stereo (Speed, Width, Link).
• Knobs light up when you hover over them or turn them. Rest the pointer on a knob for a moment and a card explains what it does.
• The Adaptive curve has been removed; the target always uses the fixed curve. Sessions saved with Adaptive open with the fixed curve and all other settings intact.
• Loudness has moved from the gear pop-up to the Target group. The gear pop-up is gone.
• A red clip light next to Out shows when the output goes over 0 dBFS.
• The correction meter now runs from the centre: cuts to the left, boosts to the right.

First beta.

• Live (0 ms), Standard (4 ms) and Master (100 ms, linear phase) variants, switchable while playing without clicks
• L/R or M/S processing, with mid and side both shown on the analyser
• Breaks: the empty low end of a build-up is not filled in, so the drop is not louder than the rest
• Frequency range handles: outside them the correction is exactly zero
• Optional true-peak limiter (off by default)
• User presets, A/B, undo/redo, typed values, integrated LUFS
• Behaves identically at any buffer size