buffer effect · the manual, first draft
Inertia
Inertia is always recording the last twenty seconds, and turns any moment of it into a loop or a stutter.
A live-buffer time machine. Transporter and beat-repeat engines replay a rolling twenty seconds of whatever you feed it.
soft.systems · VST3 / CLAP / AUv3 · macOS & Windows & iPadOS
01the plugin
overview
Transporter listens for transients and fires looping read heads from them. Beat Repeat cuts tempo-synced repeats that can fall in pitch, fade out and sweep their own filter.
Up to six voices run at once, each with its own trigger, loop and filter. The repeats show up as cubes you can edit directly: click to mute one, drag it for pitch or gain.
This manual is a draft. The full manual, control by control, comes with the release.
02the plugin
activation
sign in once
- In the plugin's licence panel, choose sign in. Your browser opens this website with a short code.
- Sign in if you aren't already, then approve the code.
- The plugin installs its licence. From then on it checks the licence on this computer, offline.
One licence covers 3 computers at a time. To free a computer, deactivate it from the plugin or from your account page.
computers without internet
The plugin shows a machine ID. Paste it on your account page, download the licence file, and load it in the plugin. The file uses one of your 3 computers.
staying offline
When the plugin happens to be online, it refreshes its licence about every 60 days. If it can't reach the website, it keeps working.
03controls
engines
| control | what it does |
|---|---|
Transporter |
loops fired from detected transients, read from the live buffer |
Beat repeat |
tempo-synced repeats on an interval, with offset and chance |
Voices |
two to six, each with its own settings |
Trigger |
free running, from a sidechain, or from MIDI |
04controls
per voice
| control | what it does |
|---|---|
Loop |
length range, sync, pitch, direction and crossfade |
Repeat |
grid, gate, pitch decay and volume decay |
Filter |
low, band, high or notch, 12 to 36 dB, with its own decay |
05controls
mix and motion
| control | what it does |
|---|---|
Spread |
places the voices across the stereo field |
Routing |
mix, insert, or gate the dry signal |
Matrix |
LFOs, step sequencers, envelopes and a follower onto 84 targets |
06reference
design notes
always listening
A twenty-second stereo buffer keeps rolling, so nothing has to be planned in advance.
repeats you can touch
Each repeat is a cube on the display: mute it, pitch it, reverse it.
six voices deep
Layer loops and stutters from the same moment, each filtered on its own.
07reference
specifications
| spec | value |
|---|---|
| formats | VST3 · CLAP · AUv3 |
| platforms | macOS · Windows · iPadOS |
| licence | 3 computers at a time, checked offline |
| status | in development |
08reference
questions
how many computers can i use it on?
Three at a time. Sign in once from the plugin and it checks its licence on that computer without going online again. Deactivating a computer, from the plugin's settings or from your account page, frees its slot.
my studio computer is offline. can i still activate?
Yes. The plugin shows a machine ID; paste it on your account page and download a licence file for that computer. It counts as one of your three.
do updates cost anything?
Not within the version you bought. Download them from your account page.
still stuck?
Write to hello@softsystems.app with your system, your host and the plugin's version. If it crashed, attach the crash report.
Back to Inertia