Frequency & phase
Magnitude, phase and group delay with detected peaks, dips, shelves and filters — before, after and difference.
Products
FrozenArt · Analysis New
PluginTracer
See what your plugins actually do.
- Formats
- AU · VST3 · App
- Platform
- macOS
- Licence
- 3 Macs, offline activation
- Price
- Free
PluginTracer puts a plugin between two measurement points, drives it with controlled test signals and shows what comes out — frequency and phase response, harmonics, intermodulation, dynamics, attack and release, the stereo field, transients and latency.
It measures observable input → output behaviour only. It never claims to know what a plugin does inside, and it tells you where a measurement stops being reliable.
Every measurement a mix engineer asks about
Chosen test signals for each module, run sample-exact offline or live in your session.
Harmonics & THD
H2–H10, THD and THD+N, even/odd balance, aliasing and distortion across frequency.
Dynamics
Transfer curve, gain curve and fitted threshold, ratio and knee — plus attack and release times.
Band dynamics
Level-dependent gain per band separates dynamic EQ, multiband compression and de-essing.
Stereo & mid/side
Mid/side transfer, width across frequency, correlation, balance and a goniometer.
Latency & transients
Reported against measured delay, pre-ringing, polarity, and what the plugin does to attacks.
Live mode
Follow the plugin while the song plays
Put PluginTracer IN before the plugin and PluginTracer OUT after it. While your track plays, OUT compares the plugin's output with what went in: live spectrum, response with coherence, gain change, levels and stereo image.
And what the plugin adds — distortion, harmonics, noise and decay — on its own screen, frame by frame.
Specifications
- Formats
- Standalone app · Audio Unit (AUv2, AUv3) · VST3
- Hosts plugins
- Audio Units and VST3, crash-safe out of process
- Test signals
- Sweeps, coherent sines, two-tone, stepped levels, impulses, pink noise, hits
- Loudness
- ITU-R BS.1770-5: LUFS, true peak, PLR, range
- Export
- PDF report, CSV per module, PNG of any graph
- Licence
- 3 Macs, activated with FrozenArt Access, works offline
Questions
Does PluginTracer show how a plugin is built?
No. It measures what a plugin does to a signal — input against output — and labels estimates as estimates.
Which DAWs work with PluginTracer IN and OUT?
Logic Pro through Audio Units, and Cubase, Live, Reaper, Studio One and Bitwig through VST3.
What happens when the trial ends?
The analyses stop until you buy a licence. Your results library stays where it is.
Inside PluginTracer
Donation
Support PluginTracer
Free doesn’t mean it cost nothing to make. A donation of any size keeps PluginTracer updated — and free for everyone.
System requirements
- macOS 14 or later
- Apple silicon or Intel
- Logic Pro, or any host that runs Audio Units or VST3, for in-session tracing
Reviews
No reviews yet — be the first.
