Drive and exciter for Mac

Cinder

Hot, not loud.

Drive your sound into a curve you watch on the screen, choose how it breaks up, add some shine on top, and Matched keeps it about as loud as it went in.

$15 until December 31, then $29

Download free 28 MB

The free download is the whole plugin. Until you add a license, it dips in volume for a moment once a minute. Or play it here first.

Cinder running its Hard Clip Drums preset on a drum loop: on the Transfer beam the signal is clipped flat at the top and bottom of a steep diagonal, and below it the Drive, Shape, Excite and Output knobs, each drawing what it does.
Preset “Hard Clip Drums” · Hard shape · the beam clipped flat
Platform
macOS 11 or later · Apple silicon and Intel
Formats
VST3 · AU · Standalone
Tested on
macOS 26.5 on Apple silicon (M5)
Version
1.0.0

In your browser

Push Drive and watch the beam

Cinder in your browser, running the plugin's own engine, with the same four knobs and the same screen. Start the drum loop and turn Drive up until the ends of the beam go flat. Then try Fold.

Open it full window

Watch

3 short films, a minute or less each

Transcript

Cinder is a drive and exciter you can watch.

Its screen draws your own audio: what goes in runs across, what comes out runs up.

Four knobs shape that line.

Drive sets how hard your audio hits the curve.

Shape runs Soft to Tube to Hard to Fold.

Excite adds harmonics and presence to the top end.

Output sets the final level, up or down.

Tube warms as you play, and its curve leans with the heat.

Matched takes back the loudness Cinder adds, measured at −18 dBFS.

Flick Drive: the sound surges, and the knob springs home.

31 presets, from drums to the mix bus.

Get Cinder for Mac at smileyface.studio.

The four knobs

Drive, Shape, Excite, Output

  • The Drive knob on the Tube Glow preset: a glowing S-shaped curve inside the knob, lit up to where the signal reaches.

    Drive

    How hard your signal hits the curve, from clean at 0 to about +30 dB. Flick it and the sound surges, then the knob springs back to where you left it.

  • The Shape knob set to Fold, on the Fold Fuzz preset: the curve inside folds back on itself, with S, T, H and F marked around the dial.

    Shape

    Soft, Tube, Hard or Fold, with a stop at each and every shade between. Tube warms up as you play, and its curve leans with the heat.

  • The Excite knob on the Air Exciter preset: sparks rising from glowing coals at the bottom of the knob.

    Excite

    Adds harmonics and a bit of presence up high. The band it works on slides from 6 kHz down to 3.2 kHz as you turn it up.

  • The Output knob on the Hard Clip Drums preset: a softly lit lamp in the middle of the knob, with a ring around it.

    Output

    Matched, on to start, keeps Cinder about as loud as what went in, and Output trims around that. Switch Matched off on the meter and it's plain gain, −18 to +12 dB.

Made at Smiley Face Studio · San Diego

Bring the heat

Cinder

$15 until December 31, then $29.

How it arrives
Pay with PayPal or a card. Your license and the download are on the next page, and in your inbox.
The license
One license covers every format, on the Macs you make music on. It works offline, with no account and no iLok. Updates are free.
Your Mac
macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon or Intel. There’s no Windows version, and no AAX for Pro Tools, yet.
Questions?
Write to david@smileyface.studio.

All sales are final (refund policy).

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