Pulse
A free movement plugin. Sidechain pumping, rhythmic gating and LFO volume shaping in one window: pick a shape, flip it, drag the curve where you want it, then lock it to the beat or let the track's own hits fire it. The duck every kick deserves, without a compressor and a routing diagram.
Free, no key. It arrives through RIPPLES Tap, our free installer app: download it, sign in, and Pulse is one click away.
Installing on Windows? Read this first
Windows shows a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen for any app it hasn't seen before, including ours. It's safe - clear it in two clicks:
- Click More info on the blue screen.
- Click Run anyway, then follow the installer.
- FormatsVST3 · AU
- PlatformsmacOS · Windows
- TypeInsert effect
- Best forSidechain · pumping · gating
Draw the duck.
Pulse is a volume curve you can see. Choose one of five shapes - Pump, Soft, Tri, Saw or Gate - hit Flip to turn it upside down, and drag the nodes until the dip lands exactly where the kick does. Depth sets how far it drops, Curve bends the return, Smooth rounds the corners, and the meter shows the gain reduction as it happens, next to your host's tempo.
Five shapes, each with a Flip
Pump for the classic sidechain dip, Soft for a gentler breath, Tri and Saw for tremolo and falls, Gate for hard rhythmic chops. Flip turns any of them upside down. Then drag the curve by hand.
Sync it or trigger it
Sync mode locks to the host - nine rates from 1/16 through dotted divisions up to 4 bars. Trig mode fires the shape from the track's own transients instead, no routing, with Sens setting how hard a hit has to be to arm it.
Sixteen presets that name the job
Classic Pump, Deep House Duck, Tight Sub Duck, Trance Gate, Stutter Chop, Riser Bar, Kick Carver and nine more. Load one, blend it in with Mix, and save your own.
Goes well with.
Design the kick, then let Pulse make everything else get out of its way.
Sixteen-step gating and two LFOs across forty targets - the same grid, more of it.
The chip synth in the demo above. Leads that beg to be pumped.