Phaseburn One is a plugin instrument: it loads inside your DAW like any other synth, and you play it from the keyboard, the piano roll, or its own sequencer. It is monophonic by design — one voice at a time, so every cycle of the engine goes into making that voice as rich as it can be. This chapter gets it installed, walks you around the window once, and has you making sound inside five minutes. Everything after this is depth.
Phaseburn One is free through its beta period. It is early software — version 0.1.0 — and there is one build for everyone: free to use until October 15, 2026, then a demo (with a brief periodic dip) until you register a perpetual license, which you can do any time.
Install
Phaseburn One ships in two plugin formats — VST3 and CLAP — for macOS (11 or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows (10 and 11, 64-bit). Both formats hold the same instrument; install whichever your DAW prefers, or both.
Each platform has a real installer — grab it from the download page, quit your DAW, and run it:
- macOS: open the
.pkgand follow it through. One of its steps is a format pane with VST3 and CLAP both ticked — untick either one to skip it, and note that unticking CLAP re-ticks VST3, so an install can never end up with no plug-in at all. The formats you keep land in the system plug-in folders under/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins, or just for your account if you pick that option, and hand-copied builds left in those folders are cleaned up. - Windows: run the setup
.exeand pick an installation type — VST3 and CLAP (recommended), VST3 only, CLAP only, or Custom to tick the components yourself; Custom will not let you continue with both formats unticked. The plug-ins land in the standardC:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3and\CLAPfolders, where every host looks.
Unticking a format only skips installing it — neither installer removes a copy that is already there. If you want a format gone, delete its bundle from the folder above.
Then start your DAW and let it rescan its plugins — most hosts do this on launch, and most have a “rescan” button in their plugin preferences if not. Once the scan finishes, Phaseburn One appears in your instrument list; add it to an instrument track the way you add any synth. Installing a newer build over an older one is safe for everything that is yours: your user banks, your favorites and your license stay exactly where they were, and saved projects recall the sound they stored. The one thing that does move is the factory library — it ships inside the build and is still being curated, so a new beta build brings a new set of factory banks. If a factory patch has become the basis of something of yours, press SAVE and put it in a user bank first; The factory banks (Chapter 9 — Presets & Banks) has the full story.
During the beta the installers are not yet code-signed, so your operating system may
hesitate before a new publisher — that is normal caution, not a sign of trouble. On macOS,
if double-clicking the .pkg is refused, right-click it and choose Open, or allow it
under System Settings → Privacy & Security. On Windows, if SmartScreen interrupts,
click More info → Run anyway.
Prefer placing files yourself? The same bundles can be hand-copied into
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 / CLAP on macOS or C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 / CLAP on Windows — the installer exists so you never have to. If your host
does not see the plugin after a rescan, confirm the format you installed is one it loads
and that it scans the standard folder.
That is the whole install — no account needed. The build is free to use until October 15, 2026; after that it keeps working as a demo until you activate a license. How that works, and how to activate, is the next section.
Licensing & registration
There is one build for everyone, and it never stops working. It is completely free to use until October 15, 2026. After that, an unactivated build simply continues as a demo — the full instrument, fully playable, with a gentle few-second dip in the sound roughly every couple of minutes. Activating a license removes the dip; nothing else about the plugin changes between the free, demo and activated states.
Buying. A license is €149 one-time — perpetual, with free updates across the 0.x series. Sales open October 15, 2026 on the buy page; pay securely by card and your license key arrives by email the moment payment clears. If you already hold a key — licenses are also granted during the beta — you can activate it at any time.
Activating. Open Phaseburn One and click the logo in the corner. Paste your license key and click Activate — that takes an internet connection once, a couple of seconds. The badge disappears, and the help bar along the bottom now reads “Registered to <your email>” when idle. From then on the license is stored on this machine and verified fully offline — the plugin never phones home again.
What DRM-free means for you. After that one activation, your license lives on your machine, not on our servers:
- Activate once, offline forever — no account, no dongle, no always-online check. It cannot be switched off remotely, and it keeps working even if our servers ever go away.
- Use it on up to 3 of your machines at once — studio desktop, laptop, live rig. Moving to a new machine? Free the slot yourself on the license page — self-service, with a fair-use cap of a few deactivations in any 30-day stretch (contact us if you genuinely need more).
- It survives plugin updates: install a newer build and you are still registered.
A machine with no internet at all? The plugin’s activation panel shows a machine
code. Type it into the license page from any other device, download the
.pblicense file it gives you, and drop that onto the activation panel — done, and it stays
offline forever.
Moving machines, renaming, reinstalling. The license page is self-service: see your activated machines, rename them, deactivate one to free its slot, or activate an offline machine — sign in with your license key or a link we email you. Reinstalling on the same machine never costs a slot. Lost your key? Re-send it from the same page using the address you bought with.
A tour of the window
Across the top of the window sits the preset navigator — the current preset name flanked by prev/next arrows that step through the presets, and which you click to open the browser — then a single row of five tabs. INIT resets the engine to a blank default, and the transport at the right holds a master volume slider, an output meter and the L limiter switch. That switch is also the only thing that gives Phaseburn One any latency: on, it reports 1.5 ms of look-ahead to your host, which compensates for it; off, it reports none. Flipping it mid-session makes the host redo its delay compensation, so set it once and leave it. Playback comes from your DAW — its transport runs the sequencer. The whole instrument lives on those five tabs; you are never more than one click from any of it.
Along the bottom of the window runs a one-line help bar. Rest the pointer on any control or module and it describes what you are pointing at — it is always on, and it is the only place the instrument explains itself, so nothing ever floats over what you are working on. Some controls put live readings there too: hover a patchbay cable’s gain knob and the bar shows its level in decibels. The DOCS button opens the related chapter of this manual right inside the plugin — with a contents list for jumping between chapters and a link to the full version on the website — and every control’s right-click menu has an Open in manual entry that lands on the same spot. Until you touch anything, the bar shows your licence state — beta, demo or who the instrument is registered to.
OSC, FX, MOD and MIX build the voice — each underlined in its own signature color when active. OSC holds the four sound sources — the Phase-Locked Loop (PLL), the VECTOR phase-shaping oscillator, the MORPH oscillator and the sub. FX is the filter and the effect rack. MOD is the LFOs, envelopes and step modulators that make things move. MIX balances the sources and sets the master section. Each is a chapter of this manual: the oscillators (Chapter 2 — Oscillators), the filter (Chapter 3 — The Filter), the effects (Chapter 6 — Effects & Master), modulation (Chapter 4 — Modulation) and the mixer and patchbay (Chapter 5 — Mixer & Patchbay).
GROOVE — underlined blue when active — is Phaseburn One’s own note engine, a probability engine rather than a step grid. The SEQ switch on the tab arms it: with SEQ off it writes no notes while the modulation sequencers and the MIDI you send keep running. That switch is remembered per instance and travels with your DAW project. The GENERATE module spans the top of the page, with the three sub-tabs pinned to its right. Beats comes first and holds the probability grid; Strength decides how hard each beat lands; both carry a row of modules along the bottom for note length, velocity and timing feel. Notes holds the pitches the engine draws from, plus the PERFORM module — pool Density and Register, transpose, MIDI Mode and velocity lock. It has its own two chapters: the sequencer (Chapter 7 — The Sequencer) and Suggest (Chapter 8 — Suggest).
There is no separate settings page. What used to live there is now one of three things: in the PERFORM module on the Groove page’s Notes tab (MIDI Mode, velocity lock), a right-click away on whichever control it affects (MIDI learn, still covered in the MIDI chapter (Chapter 10 — MIDI & Your DAW)), or simply a fixed, DAW-optimized default with no panel control at all — covered in the reference chapter (Chapter 11 — Reference). And the Presets browser, reached from the navigator, is its own chapter (Chapter 9 — Presets & Banks).
Your first sound in five minutes
Load Phaseburn One on an instrument track, then click the preset navigator at the top to open the browser. Pick anything from a factory bank — the list loads a preset the moment you click it — and play a note. You are hearing the full instrument; every preset is a finished starting point, not a demo.
Now change it with one knob. Open the OSC tab and find the PLL section — the Phase-Locked Loop is the main voice, a circuit that chases the pitch of a reference and never quite settles. Turn its TRACK knob down and play: the loop loosens, hunts and glides into each note instead of landing on it. Turn it up and the pitch locks solid. That one control is the difference between a weighted bass and a siren, and it is the fastest way to hear what makes this synth its own. The oscillators chapter (Chapter 2 — Oscillators) covers the rest of the loop.
Now let the instrument play itself. Open the GROOVE tab, confirm its SEQ switch is on — it is by default — and press BEATS in the generate row across the top. Then press play in your DAW: the sequencer runs from the host transport, in time with your project. It writes a groove from music-theory rules and plays it through your sound — hit BEATS again for a different one, press BOTH to write a matching melodic voicing with it, or reach for Vary on the Beats tab to mutate what you have; Undo beside it walks back the last ten grid edits. The Suggest chapter (Chapter 8 — Suggest) covers the groove families; the sequencer chapter (Chapter 7 — The Sequencer) covers how the notes are chosen.
That is a preset, a signature knob and a generated groove — the shape of most sessions with Phaseburn One. From here, follow whatever you just heard into its own chapter.
No sound? Check these
Silence almost always traces to one of a few ordinary things. Walk this list before suspecting the plugin:
Nothing loaded. If the preset footer reads “No preset loaded,” click the navigator and choose one, or press a key with INIT’s default patch — a blank engine can sit very quiet until you raise a source.
Playing the keys, still silent. Confirm your DAW is sending MIDI to this track: the track is selected or record-armed, and your controller feeds it. Phaseburn One plays notes you send in its default input mode; the MIDI chapter (Chapter 10 — MIDI & Your DAW) covers the routing.
The sequencer won’t run. Start your DAW’s transport — with Host Sync on, the default, the sequencer plays exactly when the host plays, so a stopped host holds it still. If the host is rolling and you still hear no pattern, check the SEQ switch on the Groove tab: with it off the note sequencer stays quiet while the rest of the instrument carries on. The MIDI chapter (Chapter 10 — MIDI & Your DAW) covers Host Sync and free-run.
Levels down somewhere. Each source has its own volume, the master section has one more, and the transport carries a master volume slider. A single source turned down can silence the voice while everything else looks fine — check the section volumes on the MIX tab and the master volume in the transport, and watch the transport’s output meter for signal. The mixer chapter (Chapter 5 — Mixer & Patchbay) maps the levels.
Anything that survives this list is worth telling us about. Phaseburn One is v0.1.0, and the open beta exists to find exactly these edges — the contact form reaches the people building it.
Where to go next
This manual follows the signal. For the voice itself, start with the oscillators (Chapter 2 — Oscillators), then shape it through the filter (Chapter 3 — The Filter) and the effects (Chapter 6 — Effects & Master), and set it moving with modulation (Chapter 4 — Modulation). For rhythm and generated lines, read the sequencer (Chapter 7 — The Sequencer) and Suggest (Chapter 8 — Suggest). For routing anything into anything, see the mixer and patchbay (Chapter 5 — Mixer & Patchbay). To play it from hardware or your DAW’s timeline, the MIDI chapter (Chapter 10 — MIDI & Your DAW). When you want the browser and the factory banks in depth, the presets chapter (Chapter 9 — Presets & Banks). And when you need an exact number, the reference (Chapter 11 — Reference) lists every parameter.