AuraFlux Manual & Mixing Guide

1. Why AuraFlux Works as Your Everyday Reverb

Welcome to AuraFlux (v0.1.0) — a studio stereo reverb designed to feel effortless on everyday mixes while giving you deep, inspiring atmosphere whenever a track calls for more.

It is easy to think of a feature-rich reverb as a "special effect" reserved only for huge ambient intros. AuraFlux was built the opposite way: it starts clean, light, and mix-ready from the moment you open it.

Figure 1.1: Clean Init state — natural Hall, 18 ms Pre-Delay, 40 Hz Low Cut, Bass Mono ON, and zero clutter.

• Ready to mix on load: The default Init setting opens in a natural Hall with sensible Pre-Delay (18 ms), gentle Low Cut (40 Hz), and Bass Mono already switched on — with saturation, tape flutter, shimmer, and choir turned completely down to 0%.
• Zero latency & low CPU: AuraFlux reports 0 samples latency for live tracking and stays gentle on your CPU across vocals, drums, guitars, keys, and send buses throughout a full mix.
• No extra cleanup plugins needed: Instead of stacking an EQ, a stereo widener, and a sidechain compressor after your reverb, AuraFlux builds Low Cut, HF Damping, Bass Mono, and Automatic Ducking right into one clear window.
• Grows with your song: Need a tight drum room or crisp vocal plate? Stay in the top-left card and you are done in ten seconds. Need a warm vintage cassette room, a lush chorus cloud, or an infinite choir pad for a bridge? Everything is waiting right below without menu diving.

2. Quick Start: Great Sound in 30 Seconds

1. Pick a Space Mode (top-left bar): Choose Plate for upfront vocals and snares, Hall for natural instruments, Collage for lively room texture, or Cassette for warm vintage vibe.
2. Set the Space (three large knobs): Adjust Room Size for how big the room feels, Decay for how long the tail lingers, and Dry / Wet for how much reverb blends with your dry sound (100% if AuraFlux is on a reverb send bus).
3. Create Front-to-Back Depth: Turn up Pre-Delay (15–40 ms) to leave a tiny gap before the reverb blooms, keeping vocals and drum hits crisp and upfront.
4. Shape the Tone: Drag the LC (Low Cut) and DAMP (HF Damping) circles directly on the right-hand graph if the tail feels too boomy or too bright.
5. Keep Vocals Clear (Optional): Turn up Duck Amount (bottom-right card) so the reverb automatically steps aside while a singer or soloist is performing, then swells smoothly into the pauses.

3. Single-Screen Interface Overview

Everything in AuraFlux lives on a single 1240 × 840 daylight-clear screen — zero hidden tabs or sub-pages.

Figure 3.1: Complete single-window architecture — Top I/O & Preset Bar, Primary Macros, Live Spatial Field + EQ Curve, and Four Character Cards.

4. Top Header & Preset Bar

Figure 4.1: Stereo I/O trims, Preset Selector, Save, Random, and Mix Lock.

• Input (-24 dB to +24 dB): Trims the signal entering AuraFlux alongside a live left/right stereo meter.
• Output (-36 dB to +12 dB): Sets final output volume. If output exceeds 0 dB, the clip light next to the readout glows — click the light anytime to clear peak hold.
• Preset Selector: Browse Init, 20 Factory Presets, and saved User Presets. An asterisk (*) marks modified states, and custom presets can be deleted straight from the dropdown.
• Save & Logic Pro On-Screen Keyboard: Saves custom presets to disk. On macOS Audio Unit hosts like Apple Logic Pro, GarageBand, and MainStage that hijack computer keys for DAW transport, AuraFlux automatically displays a floating mouse-clickable QWERTY pad so naming presets always works effortlessly.
• Random: Generates a fresh musical space with one click while keeping Freeze and Capture safely untouched.
• Mix Lock: Locks Input, Dry / Wet, and Output across preset browsing and randomization.

5. Primary Acoustic Macros, 6 Space Modes & Smart Capture

For 80% of everyday mixing tasks, the top-left card has everything you need.

Figure 5.1: Six Space Modes, Room Size, Decay, Dry/Wet, Pre-Delay, Diffusion, Capture, and Freeze.

The Six Space Modes

Main Space Controls

• Room Size (25% – 200%): Scales tank dimensions smoothly in real time without clicks — from tight studio booth to vast arena above 130%.
• Decay (0% – 100%): Short settings (20%–40%) add body without clutter; high settings (65%–90%) create enveloping tails.
• Dry / Wet (0% – 100%): At 0%, your dry signal passes completely uncolored.
• Pre-Delay (0 ms – 250 ms): Set between 20 ms and 45 ms on vocals so consonants punch through cleanly before the room blooms.
• Diffusion (0% – 100%): Higher values (70%+) melt reflections into velvet; lower values (25%–50%) preserve lively rhythmic bounce.

Performance Actions: Capture & Freeze

• Capture (Smart Phrase Loop): Works like a retrospective sustain pedal so you can play melodies over your own harmony. While off, AuraFlux quietly keeps the last ~186 ms of played audio ready in memory (LOOP READY once sound arrives). Click Capture right after playing a chord — status switches to LOOP LOCKED (or WAITING AUDIO if silent) and crossfade-loops that musical fragment into the tank with a live loop progress bar inside the button. Click again anytime to fade out cleanly.
• Freeze (Infinite Tail): Sustains whatever is ringing inside the reverb tank forever while pausing new audio from entering the frozen cloud — ideal for transitions, intros, and live breakdowns.

6. Visual Acoustic Field & Interactive Tone Graph

Figure 6.1: Left — Live Figure-8 Stereo Ribbons; Right — Draggable LC, BW, and DAMP handles with Choir formant curve.

7. 01 · Tone & Filter + 02 · Tape & Chorus

Figure 7.1: Bottom-left cards — Tone & Filter cleanup alongside wet-only Tape & Chorus character.

01 · Tone & Filter

• Low Cut (20 Hz – 1,000 Hz): Try 120–250 Hz on vocals, guitars, and snares to keep kicks and basslines crystal clear.
• Bandwidth (1.5 kHz – 20 kHz): Lowering to 6–9 kHz tames hi-hats, vocal sibilance, and buzzy synth leads for classic studio warmth.
• HF Damping (0% – 100%): Simulates natural air and curtain absorption as the tail decays.
• Early Cluster (0% – 100%): Blends early wall reflections (25%–50% on drums and dry close mics) so instruments sit naturally in physical space.

02 · Tape & Chorus

• Analog Drive (0% – 100%): Warms up the wet reverb path only (dry audio stays 100% untouched). 15%–30% helps vocal plates and drum rooms sit forward without extra fader volume.
• Tape Flutter (0% – 100%): Organic reel-to-reel pitch wobble — subtle analog motion at 8%–20%, dreamy lo-fi warble past 60%.
• Mod Rate (0.05 Hz – 5.0 Hz) & Mod Depth (0% – 100%): Gently swirls tank reflections (try 0.3–0.7 Hz at 30%–50%) for silky chorus width free of metallic ringing.

8. 03 · Shimmer + 04 · Stereo & Automatic Ducking

Figure 8.1: Bottom-right cards — 8-interval Shimmer & Choir formants plus Bass Mono, Stereo Width, CORR/DUCK meters, and Automatic Ducking.

03 · 8-Interval Shimmer & Choir

• 8 Harmonic Intervals: Octave (+12), Fifth (+7), Oct + 5th, Double Oct (+12/+24), Sus Fourth (+5/+12), Ensemble (Detune) (everyday secret weapon for lush non-pitched chorus thickening!), Minor (+3/+10), and Major (+4/+11).
• Reverse Badge: Plays shimmer grains backwards to erase sharp pick or key attacks so harmonies swell like bowed velvet.
• Shimmer Up & Sub Abyss: Independently blend upper harmonic voices and deep lower-octave cinematic weight.
• Cascade, Bloom (0–800 ms) & Tone (1.5–16 kHz): Control harmonic feedback climb, delay shimmer onset with a live amber bloom ring, and smooth high-end brightness.
• Choir (0–100%) & Crystal ↔ Silk Slider: Sculpt shimmer through human-like U → O → A vocal resonances and morph grain texture between articulate sparkle (Crystal) and cloud-like smoothness (Silk).

04 · Stereo Width, Bass Mono & Automatic Ducking

• Bass Mono (ON by default): Centers low reverb frequencies while letting mids and highs spread wide — keeping club systems, headphones, and mono fold-downs tight.
• Stereo Width (0%–200%) & Haas Spread (0%–100%): Scale from mono focus up to wrap-around panoramic width and blossom mono mics across the stereo field.
• Live CORR & DUCK Meters: Monitor real-time phase correlation (staying above 0.0 guarantees clean mono translation) and live ducking attenuation in dB.
• Duck Amount & Duck Release (40–1,200 ms): Automatically lowers reverb while dry vocals or leads play, then swells smoothly into pauses (120–250 ms for snappy pop/drums; 450–800 ms for lush ballad swells).

9. Five Everyday Studio Mixing Recipes

Dial in reliable studio spaces in seconds using these starting recipes:

10. All 20 Factory Presets Guide

11. Cross-Platform Installation, Preset Paths & Mouse Shortcuts

Mouse Shortcuts

12. Complete 32-Parameter Automation Reference

Every parameter exposed for host automation and MIDI learn in AuraFlux: