a picture that moves with your mix.
chladni is a vst3 plugin. put it on a track or bus, load an image, and it reacts to whatever audio passes through. your audio is never touched.
about
in the 1780s ernst chladni drew a violin bow across a metal plate dusted with sand. the sand skittered away from the parts that moved and settled on the lines that didn't, and the shapes changed with the pitch.
this plugin is a loose homage. sound goes in, and your image is pushed around by the bass, the mids and the treble. it's meant for cover art, lyric loops, and visuals to go with a release.
features
- reactive effects
- zoom, rgb split, wave, liquid warp, swirl, kaleidoscope, hue shift, glitch slices, glow, feedback trails, film grain, pixel crush, vignette flash and mirror. bass, mids and treble drive different ones.
- presets and motion
- six presets plus an xbox 360 mode. every control can run on its own lfo, and an auto drift mode wanders on its own.
- any aspect ratio
- 1:1 for cover art, 9:16, 16:9, 21:9 and more, or type in your own.
- recording
- capture the visual to a webm file with audio, straight from the plugin. recording runs in realtime while your daw plays.
- saved with the session
- the image and every setting are stored inside your daw project and come back when you reopen it.
how it works
- insert it. add chladni as an effect on a track, a bus or the master. put it after the sound you want it to follow.
- load an image. use the load image button. pasting and dragging can be blocked by some hosts.
- press play. pick a preset, adjust to taste, and press
rto record.
requirements
- format
- vst3, 64-bit
- system
- windows 10 or 11. macos and linux are not available yet.
- runtime
- microsoft edge webview2, which most current windows installs already have.
- graphics
- any gpu that supports webgl.
download
run the installer, then rescan plugins in your daw. it puts the plugin in the standard vst3 folder and installs the webview2 runtime if you do not have it. this is a beta and the installer is not code-signed yet, so windows smartscreen may warn about an unknown publisher.
faq
does it change my audio?
no. the audio passes through untouched. the plugin only listens to it.
can i export faster than realtime?
not yet. recording captures the picture as it plays, so a three minute song takes three minutes.
the window is blank in my daw.
the interface runs on webgl inside a webview, and a few hosts handle that badly. tell me which daw and version and i'll look into it.
the plugin won't load at all.
install the latest microsoft visual c++ redistributable (x64) and rescan.
why is the recording a webm file?
it's what the browser engine inside the plugin can write. vlc, mpv, browsers and most editors open it, and ffmpeg can convert it to mp4.
contact
- discord
- @prodalfredo
- @prodalfredo69
bug reports are most useful with your daw name and version.