Fire (Version 1.0.2)

1. Introduce

This is a multi-band distortion plugin 『Fire』. It can be used in DAWs which supports AU and Vst3 plugins such as Ableton Live, Fl Studio, etc.

Demo video:

(YouTube) https://youtu.be/sccW_8W_0o4

(Bilibili) https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV17f4y1M7Hm

🎵 Home Page for Wings Music: Blue Wings Music

Hope you like it!

2. How to install

OPTION 1 - Download from Release Page

Download here

macOS Installation Guide for Fire Plugin

Thank you for downloading the Fire plugin!

❗️Why macOS Blocks This Plugin

When you try to load the plugin in your DAW on macOS, you may see an error like:

"Fire.vst3" cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.

This does not mean the plugin contains any virus or malicious code.

Instead, this is due to Apple’s security policy, which requires developers to:

• Enroll in the Apple Developer Program
• Pay $99/year
• Notarize and sign each build with an Apple-issued certificate

As an independent developer releasing free software, I currently do not have the budget to enroll in the paid program. Therefore, macOS treats this unsigned plugin as “unverified.”

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✅ How to Install and Use the Plugin

To use the Fire plugin on macOS, follow these steps to manually allow it.

🔧 Step 1: Move the Plugin to the Correct Location

Copy the plugin files to the standard plugin folders:

# VST3
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/

# Audio Unit (.component)
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/

# CLAP (if applicable)
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/

🛡 Step 2: Remove Quarantine Attribute

macOS adds a quarantine flag to files downloaded from the internet. Remove it using Terminal:

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Fire.vst3
xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Fire.component

If you're using the CLAP version:

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/Fire.clap

📝 Step 3: Ad-Hoc Code Sign (Optional but Recommended)

Some DAWs still require the plugin to be signed, even if it’s local. You can apply an ad-hoc (self) signature:

codesign --deep --force --sign - ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Fire.vst3
codesign --deep --force --sign - ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Fire.component

🚀 Step 4: Launch Your DAW

Now open your DAW. The plugin should scan and load without issues.

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❤️ Support Independent Developers

If you appreciate this plugin and would like to support development, you can consider donating via PayPal or sharing the plugin with others.

Thank you for your understanding!

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✅ OPTION 2 – Build with JUCE or CMake

🔧 Using Projucer (JUCE GUI)

1. Open the .jucer file using Projucer.
2. Select your preferred IDE (Xcode, Visual Studio, etc.) in the Exporters tab.
3. Open the generated project and build the target named Fire.

Note: You should choose Release mode rather than Debug mode. Debug builds may cause significantly higher CPU usage during audio processing.

If you don't have Projucer:

• You can build it from source at: JUCE/extras/Projucer/Builds/...
• Or download it from the JUCE latest release

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⚙️ Using CMake (Recommended for CI and Advanced Users)

If you have CMake and Ninja installed:

cmake -S . -B Builds -G "Ninja" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build Builds --config Release

This will generate the builds in the Builds/ folder. You can then find the built plugin under:

Builds/Fire_artefacts/Release/

Tip: Use -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="arm64;x86_64" on macOS if you want to build for universal binaries.

3. User Manual

『Fire』has a top panel, a spectrogram, four graph visualizers, band effect, and global effect.

3.1. Top panel

• HQ: 4x oversampling for high quality audio.
• A/B: switch between A/B to compare.
• Copy: copy current preset parameters to another(A/B) panel.
• Preset bar: choose your current preset.
• Save: save your preset to user folder.
• Menu: other settings including init, open preset folder, rescan preset folder, open GitHub page, check for new version.

3.2. Spectrogram

• You can split up frequency to four bands for multiband distortion.

3.3. Graph Visualizer

• There are four graph visualizers. You can click on each graph to zoom in or zoom out.
• Top left is oscilloscope.
• Top right is distortion graph.
• Buttom Left is VU meters.
• Buttom right is Width graph.

3.4. Band Effect

• You can click four switches on the right side of graphs.

• Drive:『Fire』 has several distortion functions. There are three buttons "L", "S", "E", related to drive knob, and each means "Link", "Safe", and "Extreme".

  • "L" (Link): When your turn up drive knob, the output knob value will automatically reduce.
  • "S" (Safe): If your drive knob pushes your volume too loud, it will automatically reduce your drive value. It also shows reduced value on drive knob.
  • "E" (Extreme): It expands the range of the the drive knob (from around +40db to around +60db) when it is enabled to give more distortion.

• Retification and bias: Change your distortion shape.

• Compressor: you can change threshold and ratio for each band.

• Width: change audio width.

• Output and mix: for band control.

3.5. Global Effect

• Filter: you can set lowcut, highcut, and peak. Lowcut and highcut each has four slopes (12, 24, 36, 48) you can choose.

• Downsample: downsample your audio.

• Limiter: add a limiter after distortion.

• Output and mix: for global control.

4. Support the author

我也是一个音乐制作人，欢迎关注网易云音乐：羽翼深蓝

我的个人主页（之后会推出其他的音频软件）

I am also a music producer (Artist name: 羽翼深蓝 - BlueWings). Check out my music here:

Netease Music

Apple Music

Spotify

YouTube

Other Softwares by Blue Wings Music

5. References

5.1. A great example of using XML by johnflynnjohnflynn to save presets to file example. I changed the code to save presets as mutiple files.

5.2. Diode Clipping algorithm from JUCE forum

5.3. Spectrum Analyser by adriannaziel

5.4. SimpleEQ by matkatmusic

6. Update Notes

2025-7-3 (version 1.0.2)

1. Add real-time value display on the global filter.

2. Refactor internal code structure to improve GUI rendering performance.

3. Fix a bug where VU meters were not visible in multiband (Band) mode.

4. Add a new setting to disable auto-update.

5. Fix phase issues in multiband mode:

   • Frequency response is now flatter and more phase-coherent across bands.
   • Fix phase shift issues when the Mix value is less than 1.

   ⚠️ Note: These improvements may slightly alter the sound of older sessions. Please freeze your audio if you are using a previous version of the plugin.

   ⚠️ Note: In the default mode, the algorithm is set to "Cubic." This is a nonlinear distortion algorithm, so even when the drive is set to 0, the algorithm still affects the sound. If you want to output a completely dry signal that is not affected by the algorithm, you can set the mix (in band mode) to 0. In that case, it will output a flat response.

6. For long-term product consistency, the manufacturer name has been changed to Blue Wings Music.

   • The new plugin will not appear under the old "Wings" manufacturer in your DAW.
   • You may need to manually remove the old version.
   • Whether the new version automatically replaces the old one has not been fully tested.
   • If it fails to replace the old plugin, please save your presets and re-import them in the new version.

7. Global Filter EQ gain range expanded from ±15 dB to ±24 dB. Add smoother to prevent noise when moving the global filter.

   ⚠️ Note: Important: This is a breaking change. Due to how DAWs store normalized parameter values, old presets and projects will sound different after the update if you used the global filter. I'm sorry about that 😭.

2024-5-22 (version 1.0.1)

1. Add a button for more Drive gain (E-Extreme).
2. Fix a bug of compression settings and width settings can not be set for each band independently.
3. Add original spectrum (white).
4. Improve GUI of VU meters.

2022-7-29 (version 1.0.0)

1. Refactor the code of frequency lines and close buttons.
2. Fix a crash in Fl Studio of v0.9.9.
3. Fix audiobuffer pointer bug when setting history array.
4. Fix the bug of changing presets that might cause wrong frequency line positions.
5. New close buttons for each band.
6. Other GUI improvements.
7. Add Extreme button for more distortion.
8. Check update when opening the plugin.
9. Support JUCE 7.
10. Fix a bug that changing presets doesn't reset new params.
11. Add a Limiter in the global mode.

2022-7-13 (version 0.9.9)

1. Fix the bug of freezing distortion graph before playing the audio. (in Logic Pro)
2. Fix the bug of global mix button phasing issue.
3. New function! When you move your mouse to the spectrogram, the peak frequency and decibel will be calculated.
4. New separate bypass buttons for each band.
5. Improve width graph, reduce CPU usage.
6. Fix the bug that close button sometimes doesn't work.

2022-6-29 (version 0.9.8)

1. Fix phasing issue in HQ mode.
2. Fix low frequency drop in HQ mode.

• v0.9.3 - v0.9.7 has those bugs

2022-6-22 (version 0.9.7)

1. Fix HQ not working bug in v0.9.6.
2. Add fade in/out of frequency text labels.

2022-5-28 (version 0.9.6)

1. Fix a crash when turn on HQ mode in mono channel mode in Logic Pro.
2. Improve graphs in mono channel mode.
3. Fix an issue where graphs are not refreshed before playing in Logic Pro.

2022-2-5 (version 0.9.5)

1. Smoothed the graph of spectrogram.
2. Fix Logic Pro crash.
3. Add GitHub CI.
4. Fix vst3 bug.
5. Fix A/B mode bug.

2021-11-18 (version 0.9.4)

Warning: Previous presets won't work, you have to resave your preset!

1. For VU meters and width graph, each represents to each band instead of global.
2. Add more details to VU meters.
3. Add "solo" buttons, change "enable" buttons to "bypass" buttons.
4. Remove "None" option in the distortion functions, because it causes bug(in version 0.9.3) and you can bypass the band now.
5. Add bypass buttons for compressor, width, filter, downsample.
6. Add 4 new distortion functions.

2021-10-2 (version 0.9.3)

Warning: Previous presets won't work, you have to resave your preset!

1. Redesign GUI.
2. Fix multiple bugs of multiband control(enable buttons, focus band, vertical lines, etc.), redesigned the code structure.
3. Add new filter control and filter graph.
4. Fix other bugs such as preset box selection, A/B mode, bypass repaint issue, etc.
5. Now you can click graph to zoom in and out.

2021-9-7 (version 0.9.2)

1. GUI improvement.
2. Add shape, width, and compressor groups.
3. Spectrogram display bug fixed.
4. Add VU meter and width graph.
5. Add frequency label, and frequency automation bug fixed.

2021-1-24 (version 0.9.1)

1. Drive knob reduction and GUI improvement Fix a bug that in global mode menu won't change when selecting different bands.

2021-1-23 (version 0.9.0)

1. First Beta release.

7. License

From v.0.9.4, I changed the license to AGPL-3.0.

What can you do with the source

• Currently, up to version 0.9.4 is free for music producers, audio programmers who start to learn JUCE. You can fork, modify my code, but projects that used my code must be open-source.

Things you can't do with this source

• Do not create an app and distribute it on the iOS app store.

• Do not use the name "Fire", "Wings", or "羽翼深蓝Wings" for marketing or to name any distribution of binaries built with this source. This source code does not give you rights to infringe on trademarks. If you wanna use it for commercial, please send me an email. Otherwise, your software has to be open-source.

8. Acknowledgement

@IcyLeaves