Project6 1.2.1.0

Project6 1.2.1.0

An 8 × 8 bank of looping sample pads, launched on the bar, for macOS, as a
VST3 and an Audio Unit.

What changed since 1.2.0.0

• Fast playback no longer aliases. When a pad reads its file faster than
  one frame per output sample (Varispeed above 1×, or a file recorded at a
  higher rate than the session's), Project6 used plain linear interpolation,
  which lets high frequencies fold back down. At 2× an 18 kHz hi-hat
  component came back at 12 kHz at full level. Those pads now go through a
  band-limited resampler, and the same case measures −79 dB. At 1× or
  slower the old read is untouched, and renders are byte-identical to
  1.2.0.0.
• A fader at the bottom no longer costs CPU. A row, pad or output fader
  pulled right down used to settle, about 15 seconds later, on a tiny
  "denormal" number rather than zero, and on Intel Macs every sample then
  took the slow path for good: eight muted rows went from about 1 ms of CPU
  per second of audio to 30–37 ms. The level now lands on exactly zero.
• Flush-to-zero on the audio thread. Each processing block now runs with
  the CPU's flush-to-zero mode on, and puts the host's setting back
  afterwards, so a signal decaying towards silence can never slow the
  plug-in down.

What to expect. Pads playing faster than 1× sound cleaner at the top
and cost more CPU: 64 pads at 1.2× measured 48 ms per second of audio
against 16 ms before. Nothing else changes; projects and presets are
exactly as in 1.2.0.0, and files embedded in projects still travel with
them.

What it does

Drag a .wav onto a slot and click it to arm it; it comes in when the
transport crosses the next grid line, and stops on the line after that. Each
pad picks its own grid — 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 of a bar, so everything
nests and a 1/8 pad and a 1/1 pad start together on the downbeat. A box above
each column launches that whole column at once.

A slot can hold a .mid instead, looping on the same grid and playing out of
its row's MIDI output — row A on channel 1 through row H on channel 8 — with a
transpose of up to two octaves in place of a level bar.

Each row sums through its own fader, and there are nine output buses: the
main stereo mix plus a per-row direct out, tapped before the row fader, so
the fader balances the mix without changing what leaves for the desk.

Which pads were armed is saved with the project, and comes back armed. A pad
whose file has gone missing since it was saved comes back dark rather than lit
and silent.

Installing

Download Project6-1.2.1.0.pkg and open it. The installer offers the
formats separately:

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Project6.vst3
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Project6.component

Quit your DAW first — a running host holds the old copy open. Signed with a
Developer ID and notarised by Apple.

Requires macOS 10.13 or later.

Two host quirks, neither of them this plug-in

• In REAPER, use the VST3. REAPER never asks an Audio Unit whether it has
  MIDI output and never sets a callback for one, so a MIDI pad's notes have
  nowhere to go there. The plug-in emits them; the host is not listening. The
  VST3 works in REAPER and the AU works in Logic.
• Apple's AUMIDISynth goes silent at a transport loop point and stays
  silent until the transport is stopped, while the MIDI goes on arriving. Use
  a different synth if you loop.

Both were traced property by property rather than guessed at;
PORTING-NOTES.md §0 and §0a have the investigations.

Uninstalling

A .pkg never will, so:

sudo rm -rf /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Project6.vst3
sudo rm -rf /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Project6.component

Checksum

SHA-256: 361eb7bc31c591dbb783ebae094eda79b15244e313a3ec32db3437712f55dd7c

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Copyright 2026 A. E. Cobley. CC BY-SA 4.0.
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