Volume
Gate a pad into a rhythm, draw a pumping bass line, or ease a sound in with a swell. Attack and Release soften the edges.
Lapse
Draw a new rhythm.
Turn incoming audio into stutters, tape stops and moving rhythms with three drawable lanes for time, volume and pan.
- Free
- VST3, AU
- macOS 10.13+ & Windows 10+
01 / Time
Repeat. Reverse.
Rearrange.
Turn a drum loop into a stutter, drag a note into a tape stop, or run a phrase backwards.
Put Lapse on an audio track or after an instrument and press play. It keeps a rolling buffer of the incoming audio. The Time lane draws a path through it, changing what you hear next.
- 24 ways into time
- Start with half speed, reverse, stutters or tape stops. Each preset is a shape you can edit.
- Let the pitch follow
- Slowing audio lowers its pitch; speeding it up raises it. Add up to two octaves of pitch shift in either direction.
- Or switch on Pitch Lock
- Compensate for pitch changes caused by the Time envelope. Fine and Grain give you more control over the result.
02 / Volume & pan
Give it a pulse.
Let it move.
Three lanes, working together. Change the rhythm, the level and where the sound sits in the stereo field.
Each lane has 24 presets of its own. Try a new pan pattern without losing your volume shape, or leave Time on Thru and work with just volume and pan.
Pan
Send hits from left to right, sweep a texture across the stereo field, or add a slow drift. Draw how far it moves and when.
03 / Draw
A few points.
Your own pattern.
Click to add a point. Drag it into place, then bend the line between points. The other two lanes stay visible behind the one you’re editing.
Start from a preset or draw from scratch. Choose a curve, S-curve, hold, stairs, pulse, wave or half sine for each segment.
Set the pace
Loop the shape over half a bar, one bar or two. Snap points to the beat grid, including triplets, or switch Snap off to place them freely.
Try a variation
Reverse or flip the drawing. Use ×2 to repeat it twice in the same space, or Dice to try a new shape. Undo brings the previous edit back.
Change on the beat
Choose when a new preset takes over: immediately, on the next beat or on the next bar. Save your own presets to bring all three lanes back together.
As much movement as you need.
Adjust the Time and Volume amounts separately, then use Mix to blend the whole effect with the original. Your shapes and settings save with the DAW project.
A few practical things
Where do I put Lapse in my session?
Load it as an audio effect on an audio track, a bus, or after an instrument. It processes the sound passing through it, so it needs incoming audio and your DAW's transport running. It does not generate sound of its own.
Can I use volume or pan without changing time?
Yes. Leave the Time lane on Thru and choose a Volume or Pan shape. Each lane has its own preset bank, so choosing a new shape for one does not replace the shapes in the others.
How long is a pattern?
Choose half a bar, one bar or two bars for the envelope cycle. This is separate from the rolling audio buffer, which lets the Time lane reach back up to eight beats. Both follow the project tempo.
Does changing time also change pitch?
By default, yes: slower playback lowers pitch and faster playback raises it. Pitch Lock compensates for the pitch changes caused by the Time envelope. The separate Shift control covers 24 semitones up or down, with Fine for adjustments of up to 100 cents either way.
How can I soften abrupt cuts?
Declick crossfades jumps in the Time lane, with a range of 0 to 12 ms. The Volume lane has separate Attack and Release controls for smoothing level changes. Start there if a gate or a time jump sounds too sharp.
Does Lapse add latency?
Lapse reports zero samples of plugin latency to the host. Time shapes can deliberately replay earlier audio; that is part of the effect, rather than an extra delay applied to every signal.
What is saved with my project?
The three envelopes, parameter settings and user presets are saved with the DAW session. The rolling audio buffer is not: it fills again from the incoming audio when you play the project.
Download Lapse
VST3 and AU. macOS 10.13+, Windows 10+. 64-bit.
10.63 MB4.66 MB
- Windows
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