CHR-1

Five vintage BBD modulation effects in one plugin. Chorus, vibrato, flanger, doubler, phaser. The analog modulation sound behind modern indie guitar, 80s synth records, and dimensional ensemble tones.

CHR-1 vintage BBD modulation plugin in action: chorus, vibrato, flanger, doubler, and phaser modes with 41 factory presets

Ten Controls, Five Modes

Click the mode label in the plugin to cycle. 41 factory presets included.

Lifetime free updates.
Mac and Windows. VST3, AU, Standalone.

Switches
Mode · Voice
Five effect modes (Chorus, Vibrato, Flanger, Doubler, Phaser) and four voice modes including the mono-safe Dimension widening.
Modulation
Rate · Depth · Mix · Width
LFO speed, modulation amount, dry-to-wet crossfade, and stereo width. All ranges auto-tune per mode.
Shape & Output
Feedback · Tone · Drive · Level
Tanh-limited regeneration, brightness tilt on the wet signal, asymmetric preamp saturation, and -24 to +6 dB output gain.

Five Effects, One Plugin

Each mode reshapes the BBD engine for a different classic sound. Click the mode label in the plugin to cycle through all five.

Chorus

Warm detuning with BBD shimmer. The 80s clean guitar and synth pad sound, plus everything indie producers reach for to thicken a clean tone.

Vibrato

Pure pitch modulation, no dry signal. From subtle wobble to dramatic pitch sweep. Sine LFO for smooth, predictable motion.

Flanger

Short delay, high feedback, metallic jet sweep. The classic comb-filter swirl on guitar leads, drum buses, and synth lines.

Doubler

Asymmetric L/R delays with very slow LFO. ADT-style stereo width without obvious modulation. Drop on a vocal or solo guitar for instant doubling.

Phaser

Classic 4-stage allpass cascade. Slow sweeps for psychedelic guitar, or fast rates for funk rhythm chops.

The Indie Modulation Chain

CHR-1 sits between your amp and your delay. In the modern indie guitar chain (the kind used by mk.gee, Boy Pablo, and a wave of bedroom pop producers) modulation lives early in the wet section. After your preamp or amp sim shapes the core tone, CHR-1 adds the analog character: chorus shimmer, vibrato wobble, or Dimension width. Then delay and reverb place the signal in space.

The signal chain: Guitar to amp sim (Roomtone), to CHR-1 modulation, to delay, to reverb, to tape (4TRK). Modulation goes early so delay and reverb tails inherit the movement.

Beyond guitar. Drop CHR-1 on synth pads, electric piano, vocals, or even a drum bus. The Dimension voice mode is mono-safe, so you can widen mono sources without phase issues showing up in your mix.

Authentic BBD Modeling

Bucket brigade saturation with anti-aliased ADAA, charge transfer darkening that responds to delay time, and bucket phase-shift coloration. Not a clean digital chorus dressed up to sound vintage.

Dual-Voice Engine

Two BBD voices running in parallel. Voice II is offset 17% in rate from Voice I for the I+II ensemble sound. Dimension mode inverts the LFOs L/R for stereo width that collapses safely to mono.

41 Factory Presets

80s nostalgia, classic chorus, ensemble, dimension widening, flanger sweeps, phaser, doubler, vibrato, lo-fi tape, and direct-to-mix indie tones. Click through to find the sound, or build from scratch.

Mode-Adaptive Ranges

Each mode auto-tunes its rate, feedback, and delay ranges. Flanger gets short delay and high feedback. Doubler gets very slow LFO and asymmetric L/R timing. The plugin guides you toward the right zone for each effect.

Mono-Safe Stereo

Dimension voice mode and Width parameter are designed to fold down to mono cleanly. No phase cancellation surprises when your track plays on a phone speaker or club PA.

Universal Formats

VST3, AU, and Standalone on Mac (universal binary, Intel + Apple Silicon). VST3 on Windows. Works in Logic, Ableton, Reaper, Studio One, FL Studio, GarageBand, and more.

Updates Included

Free updates for life. We ship new presets, refinements, and occasional new modes based on what users actually reach for. Roomtone and 4TRK have shipped multiple post-launch updates this way. CHR-1 follows the same model.

What CHR-1 Does Best

Indie Guitar Chorus

Drop CHR-1 in chorus mode after your amp sim. Set Voice to I+II, Mix around 30%, and dial Rate slow. That's the modern indie guitar shimmer, the same modulation territory that runs through bedroom pop and Sunday morning worship records.

80s Synth Pads

Synth pads come alive with the Dimension voice. Width fully open, Mix at 50%, Depth low. The pad doesn't sound modulated, it just sounds bigger. The trick that turned every late-80s synth pad into something the size of a cathedral.

Vocal Doubler

Doubler mode replaces a manually tracked double take. Asymmetric 15ms left and 25ms right with very slow LFO drift, so the double feels human, not mechanical. Useful on lead vocals, solos, or background ad-libs.

Post-Rock Flanger Sweeps

For long swells and movement, push flanger mode hard. Slow rate (under 0.2 Hz), high feedback, full depth. The kind of sweep that builds slowly under a wash of reverb on post-rock buildups.