WET Reducer VST3 Plugin

Creatively reduce fidelity of a track or mix by replacing audio bands with sine or square waves.

Download: wetvst.com/wetreducer

Panel too big or too small? Right-click anywhere on the panel and pick UI Zoom, from 50% to 125%.

Features

• Use five bands to creatively change the sound of your mix by replacing existing parts with synth sounds
• Blend the original sound in with a subtle synthesizer sine wave or get aggressive by pushing into a mean square wave!
• Easily set the channel bands by dragging the sliders on the chromatic bar
• Set how fast a band follows the material using the slow or fast response toggle
• Set a low number of voices for a real reduced sound or go up to 8 voices for a high resolution digital version of your track
• Dial in your sound by soloing a band and watching the LEDs blink on each new detected note

Download & Installation

Windows

1. Download the latest release from wetvst.com or GitHub Releases
2. Extract the ZIP file
3. Copy WetReducer.vst3 to your VST3 folder:
   • User: C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\VST3\
   • System: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
4. Restart your DAW and rescan plugins

Linux

1. Download the latest release from wetvst.com or GitHub Releases
2. Extract the ZIP file
3. Copy WetReducer.vst3 to your VST3 folder:
   • User: ~/.vst3/
   • System: /usr/lib/vst3/
4. Restart your DAW and rescan plugins

macOS

1. Download the latest release from wetvst.com or GitHub Releases
2. Extract the ZIP file
3. Copy WetReducer.vst3 to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
4. Copy WetReducer.component to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ for Logic and GarageBand
5. Restart your DAW and rescan plugins

The plug-in is signed and notarised by Apple, so macOS opens it without a warning.

Usage

1. Load the plugin on a full mix, a bus or a single recording
2. Turn up one band to noon and listen: that band is now its own loudest notes as sine waves. Past noon the sine turns square
3. Solo a band to hear it alone, and drag its handles on the strip until it catches the part you want - the bass line, the chords, the vocal melody
4. Set VOICES for how many of each band's notes are rebuilt. One voice is a single line per band; more voices bring more of the source back
5. Pick a RESPONSE. SLOW gives steady, held notes; FAST follows quick runs
6. Keep a little of the original by setting a band below noon

Latency: WetReducer listens ahead to find each note, so it delays the sound by 8192 samples (about 170 ms at 48 kHz). Your DAW compensates for this automatically on playback.

Parameter Reference

Parameter	Range	Default	Description
Bass, Body, Voice, Presence, Air	0-100, 11 detents (41 with Shift)	0	0 the original, 50 all sine, 100 all square
Bass from	B0-B9 in semitones	D#1	Where BASS starts; below it the music passes as it is. At B0 BASS reaches the bottom
Bass / Body, Body / Voice, Voice / Presence, Presence / Air	B0-B9 in semitones	A2, B4, C7, G8	The splits between the bands, at least a major third apart
Air up to	B0-B9 in semitones	E9	Where AIR ends; above it the music passes as it is. At B9 AIR reaches the top
Voices	1-8	3	Notes per band
Response	Slow / Fast	Slow	Slow: a note must last 500 ms; Fast: 50 ms
Solo (per band)	Off / On	Off	With any solo on, only the soloed bands are heard

Mouse

• Knobs: drag, or the wheel - one detent per notch, a quarter detent with Shift held
• Strip handles: drag, or the wheel over the strip - one semitone per notch for the handle nearest the pointer
• VOICES: the up and down buttons beside the display
• Right-click the panel: UI Zoom, from 50% to 125%

Building from Source

Requires CMake 3.15 or higher, a C++17 compiler (Visual Studio 2022 on Windows, GCC or Clang on Linux, Xcode on macOS) and the VST3 SDK cloned into vst3sdk/ with --recursive.

cmake -S WetReducer -B WetReducer/build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build WetReducer/build --config Release

The plug-in lands in WetReducer/build/VST3/Release/WetReducer.vst3.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.