Spectortion: experimental spectral distortion for Windows VST3. Target harmonics with MIDI or AUTO, shape the result with editable EQ and preset macros, and push it further.

Spectral distortion plug-in · VST3 · Windows

Distortion with a harmonic agenda.

Aim the dirt at your notes. Bend it into something else. Spectortion combines harmonic targeting, iterative distortion and detailed EQ: precise when you need it, experimental when you do not. MIDI, drawn notes or AUTO decide what the engine follows. Results depend on the source and settings.

Try free for 14 days See how it works

preset-specific macro controls: 8 per preset
passes on one continuous knob: 0–16 passes
notes it can target at once: 16 notes
added engine latency at 1x in Realtime: 0 samples

AUTO needs real audio evidence before identifying a new note. Oversampling, spectral modes and routing can add latency; the figures here are not a promise of instantaneous pitch detection.

scroll to tune in

The problem

Distortion makes new frequencies. Give them a harmonic target.

Drive a chord into a nonlinear processor and it can generate harmonics and intermodulation products. Some fit the part; others add the roughness you may want to control.

Your saturator isn’t evil. It just doesn’t know what key you’re in.

Illustrative sum/difference products for A2, C3 and E3 (A4 = 440 Hz)

made from	lands at	nearest note	off by
C3 − A2	20.8 Hz	E0	+18 ct
E3 − C3	34.0 Hz	C♯1	−33 ct
2·C3 − A2	151.6 Hz	D♯3	−44 ct
A2 + C3	240.8 Hz	B3	−44 ct
C3 + E3	295.6 Hz	D4	+12 ct
A2 + C3 + E3	405.6 Hz	G♯4	−41 ct

Illustrative frequency products, not a measured output spectrum. Which products appear, and how strongly, depends on the waveshaper, level and source.

How it works

Give the dirt a harmonic direction.

Harmonic targeting steers the processed signal toward the notes you select. Narrow or broad regions, overlap settings, residual controls and the chosen processing mode determine how much material passes through. It is a creative processor, not a guarantee that every resulting frequency belongs to a scale.

The processing uses harmonic selection, filtering and mode-dependent spectral operations. It is more than an output EQ, and its phase and transient behaviour depend on the settings.

notes     →  a map of their harmonics
audio     →  distort → keep what fits
the rest  →  your call
repeat    →  up to 16 times

Choose the notes
Play MIDI, click the keyboard, press LEARN, or let AUTO pick them out of the audio.
Map their harmonics
A narrow window opens on every harmonic of every note. You decide how wide, how high and how low.
Distort everything
Choose a waveshaper and how much of the harmonic-selected or broadband signal it drives. The exact path depends on the processing mode.
Keep what fits
Use the harmonic regions and residual controls to steer which parts of the processed result remain.
Decide on the rest
Discard it, fold it back in, snap it to the nearest harmonic, or feed it into the next pass.
Go again
The result becomes the input of the next pass.

Iterations

Then it does it again.

Each pass processes the result of the previous one. That can build density, emphasise selected partials or move the sound far from its source. More passes are a creative choice, not a guarantee of cleaner harmony.

Iterations runs continuously from 0 to 16. More passes can change both character and level; compare at matched loudness. Focus changes how strongly processing follows its targets.

pass1.0/ 16

out-of-key energy vs. ordinary distortion

focus illustration

1.0×

Concept illustration of iterative focus, not a measured energy ratio or a comparison benchmark.

The plug-in

One screen. Every decision exposed.

Eight macros for the big gestures, and nothing hidden behind them. Every control has a tooltip that says exactly what it does. Shift-drag for fine moves, double-click to reset.

Analyser

Watch it work: input against output, the regions taking distortion, and a comb that shows how hard each harmonic is ringing.

Six pages, in signal order

Everything happens in the order your audio does.

01 · AUTO

The audio picks the harmony.

AUTO listens, finds the strongest tones and makes them the notes Spectortion targets. Drag the detection zone like an EQ band. Built for voices and synths, and for drums, full mixes and noise on purpose.

02 · SPECTORTION

The engine itself.

Drive, Iterations and harmonic targeting, with Chaos, Shimmer and Pull To Key for character, all around a live analyser.

03 · FX

Eight effects. Any order.

Unison, Reverb, EQ, Phaser, Spectral Gate, Delay, Compressor and Distortion. Drag to reorder and place each before, after or across the engine. Reverb, Delay and Unison can work on the chord’s harmonics only.

04 · ARP

An arpeggiator that plays nothing.

It steps which notes get distorted, so the harmonics walk your chord while the audio keeps playing. Glide slides the whole series and lands in tune.

05 · EXPERIMENTAL

Thirteen stages and a sculptor.

Spectral mirror, partial delay, memory bloom, phase braid, an overtone mod matrix and more. The Harmonic Sculptor writes the exact series you ask for. Off by default. Handle with curiosity.

06 · SIDECHAIN

Let another track decide.

Mask Key lets a side input choose which harmonics get distorted, so a bass line can steer a pad. Or send an envelope to Drive, Iterations, Shimmer and more, keyed from a bus or from the track itself.

Modulation · the seventh page

Pick a control. Make it move.

Fifteen modulators and eight macros have a page of their own. Right-click a supported control, pick a source, and a thin ring shows its base value, modulation range and current position.

Drive now 14.0 ×

set 14.0 × depth +40 % reach 2.22–88.3 ×

Drag the knob to set Drive, and drag the ring to set how far the source moves it. Hold Shift for fine steps, and double-click the ring to go back to +25 %. A sketch running in your browser, drawn the way the plug-in draws it.

Right-click, pick a source
Assign modulation to supported continuous controls, Output EQ bands, AUTO range edges and step values. Macros can also control the supported switches and menus.
Read the ring
The faint arc is how far modulation can take the control. The bright arc and bead show where it is right now. The knob keeps showing the value you set.
Drag it to taste
Drag the ring for depth, Shift for fine. Polarity, invert and curve live in the matrix, next to every other assignment.

The core knobs with modulation rings on Drive, All Distort, Focus and Pressure — Four modulated knobs on the main page. Iterations isn’t modulated, so it wears no ring.

The MODULATION page: the eight macros and fifteen modulator tiles at the top, the selected source with its controls, and the modulation matrix below — 07 · MODULATION · eight macros and fifteen modulators on top, the one you’re editing below them, every assignment in the matrix

LFO 1–4

Shapes that follow the song

Sine, triangle, saw, square, pulse, smooth random, sample & hold, or a Morph through them. Free or synced from 8 bars to 1/64, dotted and triplet. Restart on the transport, a MIDI note or a transient.

ENV 1–4

Envelopes that listen

Follow the level of this track or the side input, react to attacks only, or run a full ADSR fired by MIDI notes, a threshold or the transport.

Random 1–2

Random, the same way twice

Sample & hold, smooth, drift or stepped, with range, bias and probability. Seeds make controlled repeatability possible when the input, transport and reset conditions also match.

Chaos

A strange attractor

A bounded Lorenz-system modulator with a repeatable seed. Its motion also depends on transport and reset settings.

Step

Sixteen steps you draw

Draw the pattern on the page. Glide between steps, run them forward, backward, ping-pong or random, and give the steps a probability.

Sidechain · Self

Another track, or this one

Sidechain reuses exactly the envelope the SIDECHAIN page computes, or runs a detector of its own. Self follows this track’s own input, no routing needed.

Spectral

What the engine hears

Energy, band energy, brightness, the loudest partial or spectral flux, read straight from the engine’s own analysis. No extra FFT.

Macros 1–8 · Matrix

Eight macros, up to 8192 assignments

A macro moves as many controls as you give it, switches and menus included: right-click a control, or drag the macro’s name onto it, and rename it in place. Every assignment in one list: source, destination, amount, polarity, invert and curve, each with its own on/off.

Modulate the modulation

An assignment’s depth is a destination too. Let an envelope decide how far an LFO moves Drive.

Loops refused

A source can never end up modulating itself, however indirectly. The menu greys those sources out before you can try.

Your automation stays yours

Modulation moves the control on top of the value you set and never writes back. Host automation, presets and the knob keep your value.

Saved with everything

Assignments travel with the session, A/B and your presets, and undo like any other edit. Older presets load exactly as they were.

Silent until assigned

With nothing assigned, Spectortion is sample for sample the same plug-in as without this page. A null test checks it.

Smooth where it counts

Mix, Output Gain and the sidechain duck are ramped through every block while they are modulated, so a fast LFO on Mix doesn’t click.

Routing · the eighth page

Put the modules in any order.

Drag the plug-in’s modules into the order you want. Run effects before the input so the dry keeps them, move DELTA ahead of the post effects so they process only what Spectortion added, take the delta again further down, or add the engine and the whole FX chain a second time. MIX stays where it belongs: the very last word, in OUTPUT.

Classic latency 42.7 ms · 1 engine

INPUTTakes the dry

FX PREEffects before the engine

SPECTORTIONThe engine

FX POSTEffects after it, FX Iterate

DELTATakes the original out

OUTPUTMIX, then out · always last

original · taken at INPUT · DELTA subtracts it aligned by 42.7 ms · MIX at OUTPUT blends it back aligned by 42.7 ms

The chain Spectortion has always had: effects before and after the engine, then the blend.

Pick a template to watch the order change. In the plug-in you drag the cards yourself, and any order is allowed except two: OUTPUT runs last, and INPUT comes before every DELTA. Latency shown at 48 kHz in Hybrid mode.

The ROUTING page in the Delta cascade template: INPUT, FX PRE, SPECTORTION, DELTA, SPECTORTION 2, DELTA 2, FX POST and OUTPUT, with DELTA 2 selected and its AMOUNT knob in the module panel — 08 · ROUTING · the cards in the order they run, the original’s line into every DELTA, the selected module’s controls

The dry follows INPUT

Anything before INPUT is part of the dry. MIX 0 % always means the signal at INPUT, wherever you put it.

Delta, as often as you like

A DELTA subtracts the original, aligned to its own point in the chain, and hands the difference on. Add DELTA 2 and 3 with their own amount to take it out again further down.

MIX is the last word

MIX lives in OUTPUT and blends the finished result of the whole routing against the dry. No order can move it.

Latency you can trust

Engine and route delays are reported to the DAW for compensation. Validate live mode changes and offline rendering in your host; not every host updates compensation in the same way.

Add it twice

SPECTORTION 2 and 3 run the engine again on whatever reaches them. FX 2 and 3 run the whole FX chain again. Each has its own MIX and LEVEL.

Switch anything off

Module switches use controlled transitions. Engine bypass retains its delay so the rest of the route stays aligned.

Controlled routing transitions

Routing changes use controlled transitions. Make large structural changes stopped when uninterrupted playback is critical.

Start from a template

Seven templates, from Classic to Delta cascade, set the whole chain in one click. Undo takes it back.

Presets carry it, a lock keeps it

A preset can bring a routing of its own, marked with a rune in the browser. Lock the order and auditioning presets never rewires anything. Undo and A/B do.

Node EQ · on the analyser

Shape the sound where you can see it.

Hover the analyser and the EQ is there. Double-click to drop a node, drag it, scroll for Q, type an exact value. Three EQs share the screen: MASTER on what Spectortion puts out, HARMONICS on only what Spectortion adds — the source is left alone — and PRE on what it is fed, before anything is driven. All three sit before MIX, so MIX 0 % is always the untouched input. Any band can be static, dynamic or spectral, and the curve you see is the filter you hear.

The Spectortion analyser with five MASTER EQ nodes over a live spectrum. Node 4, a dynamic bell at 3.4 kHz, is selected: its ring is amber and the panel shows Bell, Dynamic, Above, Freq 3400 Hz, Gain 4 dB, Q 1.40, Threshold -50 dB, Range -9 dB, Attack 10 ms, Release 120 ms. A thin amber line dips below the curve where the band is pulling down right now. — Dynamic · the amber line is what the band is doing right now

The same analyser with node 3 selected, a spectral band at 1.25 kHz: the panel shows Bell, Spectral, Freq 1250 Hz, Q 0.70, Threshold -60 dB, Amount -14 dB, Select 70 %, Attack 10 ms, Release 120 ms. The amber line is jagged across the band where individual resonances are being cut. — Spectral · resonances cut one by one, the rest left alone

Three EQs, one screen

MASTER, HARMONICS and PRE from the menu at the top right, each with up to 24 bands of its own. The other two stay faintly visible behind the one you edit.

Every shape you reach for

Bell, low and high shelf, low and high cut from 6 to 96 dB/oct, notch and band pass.

Dynamic bands

Threshold, range, attack and release, acting above or below the threshold. Detection is stereo-linked, so the image never leans.

Spectral bands

Each spectral band watches twelve overlapping sub-bands and cuts only those that stand out from their neighbours. Selectivity sets how much they must stand out.

The curve is the filter

The line is computed from the same filter sections the audio runs through, at your sample rate, and the amber line shows dynamic and spectral bands as they move.

Zero latency

Minimum-phase filters, no look-ahead and no FFT, so the EQ adds nothing to the plug-in’s latency in any mode.

HARMONICS: EQ only what was added

Shape the distortion itself — tame its fizz, lift its body — while the original passes through untouched.

Modulate and automate it

Every band parameter is a modulation destination and a host parameter. Shift drags for fine steps; double-click a value to type it.

Saved where you expect

The bands travel with sessions, presets, A/B and undo. Presets made before the Node EQ load with all three EQs flat.

What’s inside

Controls an ordinary distortion doesn’t have.

Width · Min/Max Harm

Harmonic targeting

Decide which harmonics take the hit. Narrow windows ring and cut, wide ones feel natural. Reach up to the 128th harmonic, tilt the series, weight even against odd.

Sub Gen

Below the note

Target subharmonics down to a sixteenth of the fundamental. Sub Gen builds them when the source has none, and they hold up in mono.

Pull To Key

Pull toward the harmonic grid

Move selected spectral content toward the harmonics of your chord instead of only attenuating it. Complex sources and extreme settings can still produce clashes.

Shimmer

An octave into the light

Shifts partial content upward by an octave for glassy or choral textures. Dense sources and extreme settings can still create clashes.

Chaos

Movement you can repeat

Lets harmonic windows drift in time and frequency. Small amounts breathe; large amounts boil. Repeatability requires matching input, seed, timing and reset state.

Pressure · Harm Comp

Dynamics per harmonic

Each harmonic gets its own compressor, so no single overtone takes over the note. Harm Comp evens out the whole series.

Node EQ · PRE / HARMONICS / MASTER

Choose where it bites

PRE shapes the balance entering the engine; reduce its lows to drive them less. HARMONICS shapes the generated component, and MASTER shapes the output.

Spectral Interpolation

Blend by frequency

Blend selected frequency regions toward the reference signal: cleaner lows, driven highs, or a smooth slope between. Phase interaction depends on the processing and blend settings.

Up close

Built for the late session.

Macro of the Drive knob — Drive · 1× to 100×

The harmonic series rising in the analyser — Analyser · harmonic comb

Macro of the Iterations knob — Iterations · 0 to 16

The plug-in from above — The whole engine

The keyboard strip at a low angle — Note strip · LATCH · ROOT · CHORD · LEARN

Harmonic targeting knobs — Harmonic targeting

The plug-in over a glowing sea — Always in tune

In the session

Six places to start.

A polite exciter at one setting, a chord-melting monster at another. Start with one of these, then push it.

Harmonic exciter

Emphasise selected upper harmonics. Use the visible EQ nodes to control bite and brightness against the source.

Distort the highs, spare the lows

Use the input filter and harmonic selection to concentrate processing on the upper range, then balance it against the dry reference.

Bass weight without mud

Low harmonics only, tilted down and filtered on the way out. Weight you can feel, not a haze to fix.

Turn noise into harmony

Feed it cymbals, rain or a room recording and play chords into it. It sings.

Let the drums pick the chord

AUTO finds the strongest tones in a loop, inharmonic ones included, and makes them the harmony. Hits turn metallic. Lower Stability and the harmony chases the groove.

The walking formant

The ARP steps the harmonics, not a synth, so nothing retriggers. The whole series slides and keeps landing on chord tones.

Latency modes

From live stage to mastering desk.

Realtime has zero added engine latency at 1x oversampling. Hybrid uses spectral processing. Spectral Phase Align (HQ) adds input-referenced phase alignment; it is not a globally linear-phase nonlinear signal path.

The table is for one engine at 1x oversampling. Additional engines, oversampling and routing can change total latency. AUTO analysis also takes time to identify a new sound; audio latency compensation does not make an unknown first sample identifiable.

Precision, with the trade-offs stated.

Reported latency in samples · Eco / Normal / High

Mode	Eco	Normal	High
Realtime (1x)	0	0	0
Hybrid	1024	2048	4096
Spectral Phase Align (HQ)	2048	4096	8192

At 48 kHz, one Hybrid engine adds 21.3 / 42.7 / 85.3 ms and HQ adds 42.7 / 85.3 / 170.7 ms at 1x. Use the total latency reported by the running plugin for your actual route.

460 presets · Init + the 459-preset Spectortion pack

Walk the bank like a ramp, not a lottery.

The seventeen classics — the former factory bank, now in the pack — still walk from gentlest to heaviest. Presets arrive with the notes they were voiced for, so with KEEP NOTES off you hear a finished sound world at once; leave it on to audition any preset against your own chord.

Subtle

Clean Harmonics Classic
Subtle Harmonic Warmth
Bass Reinforce

Harmonic

Iterative Shine
Harmonic Glass
Master Filter Pad
Resonant Lattice

Heavy

Chord Melt
Focused Crusher Classic
Metallic Bloom
Full Spectrum Rage Classic

Spectral

Spectral Pressure
Top End Only
Added Layer

FX Chain

FX Split Room
FX Gate Clean
FX Ensemble Sweep

The Spectortion pack

459 presets. Eight useful directions each.

The pack covers bass, mix tools, distortion, modulation, spectral experiments and more. All 459 presets carry eight named macro controls made for their category and their name; an EQ point appears only when a macro calls for it. Macro ranges are restrained for mix tools and wide for experimental patches, and every Mental macro is a modulation channel of its own. Names and design notes describe intent, not guaranteed results on every source. Level-match when auditioning. The included updater replaces only unchanged factory files and preserves your own edits.

Harmonizers26
Harmonic Worlds32
Pads & Atmospheres28
Distortions30
Pure Distortion22
Saturation & Exciters21
Compressors18
Bass18
Drums4
Multi-FX23
Spaces19
Rhythmic17
Glitch & Fracture22
Generative27
Generative Machines26
Experimental32
Spectral Alchemy20
Otherworldly22
Dynamic14
Self-Keyed14
Mental6

Design principles

No hidden magic.

Keep an eye on the output

The output ceiling can limit sample peaks when enabled. It is not a guarantee against inter-sample peaks or excessive monitoring volume.

No loudness tricks

Auto Gain can help compare processed and dry levels, but it has tracking and settling behaviour. Use level-matched listening rather than assuming equal perceived loudness.

Random only on request

Random sources are explicit. Matching input, seed, timing and reset state are needed for repeatable renders. RANDOMISE remains a deliberate control with undo.

Explicit reset behaviour

Reset on Play resets the documented processing states at a stopped-to-playing transition. Loop wraps and seeks are not automatically equivalent to a fresh instance.

Mode changes, with care

Engine and latency changes require state and host-compensation updates. For critical playback, make structural changes while stopped and verify them in your host.

Presets respect your session

Presets store processing and routing settings. Use the parameter and routing locks to retain the parts of your session that should not change.

Specifications

Fits the studio you already have.

Formats: VST3 on Windows · no AAX
Windows: Windows 10 or later, 64-bit
Audio: Mono and stereo · 44.1 to 192 kHz
MIDI & tuning: MIDI in sets the notes · A4 from 380 to 500 Hz · Scala (.scl) tunings · 19 built-in scales
Modulation: 15 modulators · 8 macros · up to 8192 assignments · right-click any knob
Node EQ: On the analyser · MASTER, HARMONICS and PRE · up to 24 bands each · static, dynamic or spectral · zero latency
Routing: Any module order · the engine, the FX chain and DELTA up to three times each · 7 templates
CPU: Follows Iterations: halve the passes, roughly halve the cost
Presets: The 459-preset Spectortion pack in 22 categories, each preset with its own notes and eight macros · Init · user presets as plain files you can share

Get Spectortion

Try all of it for 14 days.

The trial is the full plug-in: every page, every mode, every preset. When you buy, activate in the same installation and keep working.

VST3 for Windows, 64-bit
Activate on up to 3 computers
Runs offline after activation
The 459-preset Spectortion pack

See current price at checkout

One licence. Every feature, no tiers.

Download the trial Buy Spectortion

Questions

Asked, answered.

Do I need to send it MIDI?

No. Click notes on the plug-in’s keyboard, press LEARN and let it listen, or switch on AUTO and let the audio choose. MIDI is simply the most precise option.

I turned it on and nothing changed. Is it broken?

Most likely no notes are selected. Spectortion only keeps distortion that fits your notes, so with none selected it adds nothing. Pick a note, or raise All Distort to work across the whole spectrum.

Isn’t this just EQ, then distortion, then EQ?

No. Harmonic targeting is part of the processing rather than just an EQ before and after it. The architecture and phase behaviour differ by mode; more passes can change both tone and dynamics.

Does it work on drums, noise and full mixes?

Yes. AUTO looks for spectral evidence, including in complex sources; it can misidentify noisy or ambiguous material. Transient Preserve can help retain attacks but is not a guarantee of unchanged transients.

Can another track decide what gets distorted?

Yes. Set Mask Key to Sidechain and the side input chooses which notes get distorted. For the envelope, choose This Track to make it react to itself with no routing, and Invert to open the effect in the gaps instead of closing it.

Will modulation fight my automation?

No. Modulation moves a control on top of the value you set and never writes back to it, so automation, presets and the knob itself keep your value. The ring shows where the control really is at any moment.

Can the effects process only the distortion?

Yes. On the ROUTING page, move DELTA ahead of FX POST and turn Delta up: the post effects then process only what Spectortion added, and MIX at the end still blends against the dry. Or put FX PRE ahead of INPUT, and MIX and DELTA leave those effects in the dry.

Can I take the delta more than once?

Yes. Add DELTA 2 or 3 anywhere after INPUT. Each one subtracts the original again, aligned to its own place in the chain, at its own amount. The Delta cascade template feeds a second engine only what the first one added, then strips the original again before the effects.

Can I use it live? How heavy is it?

Realtime adds no engine latency at 1x oversampling. A higher Engine setting, more iterations, multiple engines and some processing routes cost more CPU or latency. Test your intended live setup.

Do I need to be online?

Activation and periodic renewal use the licensing service. Offline use is limited by the licence state and its permitted offline window; it is not an unlimited offline-use promise.

Can it make my mix worse?

Gloriously. Turn Delta to 100 % and you’ll hear exactly how much, and exactly where.

Contact

Say something. In any key.

Support, press, artist collaborations, dealers, bug reports and love letters. Preset trades very welcome.

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