Cymatics QUAKE 1.0.0 — Mac version

Version 1.0.0 lands with a ready-to-go preset library and a set of controls built for shaping low-end sounds quickly. It runs on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, as a VST or AU plugin inside your DAW.

Runs as VST or AU on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs

QUAKE works on macOS 10.14 or later and supports both Intel and Apple Silicon machines. It loads as a standard VST or Audio Unit, so it slots into Logic Pro, Ableton Live, FL Studio, and most other hosts without fuss. The interface is in English.

Sound and controls

At its core, this is a bass engine for designing 808s and bass parts. The preset library covers a wide spread—Trap, House, R&B, EDM, and Drill among others—so you can pull up a sound and tweak rather than starting from scratch. Metal, Heat, and Push dial in different flavours of saturation and distortion. Noise adds analog grit and texture, Width opens up the stereo field, and the Filter cuts away unwanted frequencies to keep the low end tight.

The people who get the most from QUAKE tend to fall into two camps. Beatmakers who need an 808 that sits right in a mix inside ten minutes, not two hours. And sound designers who want a single window where they can pull a bass sound apart and put it back together differently. If you already have a folder full of one-shot samples but keep reaching for the same three, this plugin gives you back the control that a static .wav file can't. Likewise, producers working across several genres lean on the preset library to jump from a clean R&B sub to a distorted Drill bass without loading a different tool each time.

Live performers get a look-in too. Because the controls are labelled plainly and laid out in one panel, tweaking Shape or Width mid-set is less guesswork than diving through menus on a hardware synth. It is not a lightweight plugin — the saturation stages chew a bit of CPU — but on any Mac built in the last five or six years it runs smoothly enough for playback and recording.

First release combined the engine, presets, and tone controls

The first public release bundled everything into one package: the sound engine, the preset library, and the full set of tone-shaping controls. Before this, the only cymatic quake-related tools floating around were sample packs and impulse responses. Having a dedicated instrument meant you could stop layering three samples and a distortion plugin just to get a bass part moving. The Metal, Heat and Push knobs arrived in this release as distinct saturation stages, each with its own character, which is a step up from the single drive knob found on many bass-focused plugins.

For everyday work, the big shift was speed. You open the plugin, pick a preset close to what you need, adjust a handful of controls, and print the part. No routing to a bus, no separate distortion chain. The genre-labelled preset menu also meant newer producers could call up a sound that already fit their style rather than learning synthesis from scratch.

Operating system and DAW compatibility checklist

Is this just a sample player with a skin?

No. The presets are built from the synthesis engine and remain fully editable. Shape alters the envelope and tonal core of the sound, and the saturation stages process the signal in real time. You can strip a preset back to its basic waveform and build a completely new bass from it.

Mojave or later qualifies your Mac

The minimum is macOS 10.14, so any machine that runs Mojave or later qualifies. Intel Macs and Apple Silicon Macs are both supported. If your DAW loads VST or AU plugins and your OS is up to date enough, it should show up in your instrument list after a standard install.

Do I need an internet connection to use it?

No. Once the plugin is installed and authorised, it runs offline. The preset library lives on your hard drive, not in the cloud.

Designed for evolving sounds static samples can't match

It depends on your workflow. Some producers treat QUAKE as their main bass source and keep sample packs for texture layers. Others use it when they need a sound that changes over time — something a static sample cannot do. There is no rule that says you must pick one or the other.

A session with QUAKE, step by step

Here is how a typical first run plays out. A producer opens a blank project in Logic Pro, tempo set to 140 bpm, and loads QUAKE on a new instrument track. The plugin window appears with a preset already active — a clean 808 with a medium decay, the kind of sound that works as a starting point.

Step one: pick a preset. The genre menu is the quickest route. Scrolling down to the Drill folder brings up a preset called something like "Gritty Sub." One click loads it. The low end is present, but it is a bit polite for the beat that is taking shape.

Step two: dial in the saturation. Heat gets nudged up to about 40%. The sound thickens without losing its fundamental. Then Metal is pushed to 25%, adding a rasp in the upper bass range that cuts through small speakers. Push is left alone for now — two saturation stages are enough for this part.

Step three: clean up the low end. The Filter knob rolls off a little of the sub-bass rumble below 40 Hz. The kick drum will occupy that space, so clearing it out of the bass part stops the mix from getting muddy before it even gets going.

Step four: widen the stereo image. Width moves from zero to about 20%. The sound opens up slightly in the sides while the centre stays mono-compatible. Any wider and the low end would lose focus on a club system, so it stops there.

Step five: add texture. Noise is introduced at 15%, just enough to give the tail of the note a bit of analog fizz. It is barely noticeable in isolation, but in the full mix it helps the bass feel alive rather than sterile.

Step six: play it in. A MIDI region is drawn over four bars, a simple pattern hitting the root note on the one and a fifth on the three. The part is recorded, and the track is printed. The whole process from loading the plugin to printing the audio took under eight minutes. The bass sits well against the kick, and the saturation choices mean it will not disappear on phone speakers.

Later sessions tend to move even faster because the controls become muscle memory. A Cymatics Quake torrent or a Cymatics Quake download from a trusted source puts the same tool on your drive; the rest is just ears and time.

• macOS 10.14 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac
• VST or Audio Unit host