Docs
CymaticPlate manual
Install
Download the installer from the download page and run it. It installs the Audio Unit (Logic Pro, GarageBand) and the VST3 (Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio); untick either in the installer's customise step if you only want one. Restart your DAW afterwards so it rescans plugins, then insert CymaticPlate on an instrument track.
Activate
Open the Presets view (top right of the plugin), paste the license key from your purchase email into the License field, and click Activate. Activation is checked locally; the plugin never connects to the internet. Lost your key? Use the resend form on the support page.
The three engines
The Engine selector switches what generates sound. All three share the same filter, LFO, delay, and visualiser.
- Plate — MIDI notes strike a physically simulated Kirchhoff plate. Inharmonic, gong-like tones; this is real plate physics, so it rings, beats, and shimmers rather than playing equal-tempered pitches. Low notes strike near the centre (deep modes), high notes toward the edge.
- Sine — a pure tone played at standard pitch, with up to 8 voices.
- Saw — a band-limited sawtooth, same voice pool. Brighter, and the filter section earns its keep here.
Controls
The main sliders change meaning with the engine, so every control always does something useful:
| Control | Plate engine | Sine / Saw engines |
|---|---|---|
| Stiffness | Pitch register of the plate (mode frequencies scale together) | Vibrato depth |
| Damping | Ring-down time, from long gong decays to dead thuds | Note decay time |
| Mallet Width | Strike hardness: narrow is hard and bright, wide is soft and dark | Tone: dark to bright |
| Strike Gain | How hard MIDI velocity hits the plate | Velocity sensitivity |
| Output Gain | Final level | Final level |
The filter is a resonant low-pass with Cutoff and Resonance, modulated by an LFO with Rate, Amount, and a set of bell-curve Shape options. Sync locks the LFO to your DAW tempo with note lengths from 1/8 up to 8 bars, phase-locked to the bar so sweeps land where you expect. The stereo ping-pong delay has Time, Feedback, and Mix; its Sync switch swaps the free time slider for note lengths (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32).
MIDI
- Mod wheel (CC1) pushes the first slider in every engine: stiffness on the plate, vibrato depth on the oscillators.
- Pitch bend bends ±2 semitones in all engines.
- Velocity scales strike force (Plate) or note level (Sine/Saw), shaped by Strike Gain.
Presets
The Presets view lists the factory presets and your own. Save captures the current state under a name you choose; the star marks favourites so they sort to where you can find them. User presets live in ~/Library/Application Support/Rumcake/CymaticPlate/Presets and survive reinstalls.
The visualiser
The sand is not decoration: particles drift toward the nodal lines of whatever the plate is actually doing, the way sand behaves on a real vibrating plate. The Sand slider sets how much sand is in play, Palette changes the colour scheme, and Freeze holds the figure still for a closer look.
Support
Stuck? contact@rumcakerecords.com — include your DAW and macOS version.