What's new at Growl Audio

gFractor 1.3.3 beta is a small follow-up to 1.3.2 with one change: on Windows, the plug-in could become sluggish and drive up CPU use in some hosts. This build carries a fix, but we haven't been able to reproduce the issue on every setup that reported it, so we'd like to hear from you. If you saw it on 1.3.2, install 1.3.3 and let us know either way via the bug report form or contact page — which host, which Windows version, and whether it's gone. Everything else from 1.3.2 — the reference file A/B, the polar goniometer, the 1 Hz spectrum floor, the oscilloscope time offset and the DAW-friendly shortcuts — is unchanged.

Grab the installer (or just the plugin files) from the beta section on the gFractor page. Feedback shapes what ships.

gFractor 1.3.2 beta is now available through our preview channel. It rolls up everything since 1.2.3, and the headline is the reference file: drop a WAV, AIFF, FLAC or Ogg file (plus MP3 and M4A on macOS) anywhere on the plug-in and A/B against it instead of routing a sidechain. The new reference strip shows its waveform with a draggable loop region, a transport, a recent-files menu, MATCH loudness matching and a trim, and the whole setup is saved with the session. GHOST now works like MID / SIDE — its speaker listens to the reference, its label draws it — listening crossfades instead of clicking, and the ghost shows up in the waterfall too, splitting it into live above and reference below.

Around that: a polar goniometer alongside Lissajous; a To Nyquist toggle, 65536-point FFTs and a spectrum floor down to 1 Hz; an oscilloscope time offset (Alt+click, Alt+drag, Alt+double-click to reset) for material that doesn't land on the grid; a DC OFFSET readout in the loudness panel; and a Text Size preference for small UI scales. Inside a host, keyboard shortcuts now apply only after you click into the plug-in, and Cmd/Ctrl/Alt chords pass through, so Cmd+S saves your project again.

Worth knowing before you install: the target-curve overlay is gone, the default LU target is now -7 LUFS (a target you already set is kept), and macOS 11 is the new minimum.

Grab the installer (or just the plugin files) from the beta section on the gFractor page. Feedback shapes what ships.

gFractor 1.2.3 is now the stable release, and it's a metering one. The LUFS / LU pills above the loudness bar switch the numbers between absolute LUFS and LU relative to a target — against the default -23 LUFS target, a -14 LUFS programme reads +9 LU. The target shows on the bar as a dashed line at 0 LU, and a draggable TARGET badge retargets it in 0.5 LU steps. A new CREST row gives the plain peak-to-RMS ratio in dB next to the K-weighted PSR and PLR numbers, and Reset On Play restarts the whole loudness measurement each time the transport rolls. All of it lives in a new Meters preferences tab.

Stereo metering gets a real fix: the per-octave chart now shows correlation per band, on an 8192-point FFT so the 31.5 Hz band actually resolves — a 40 Hz polarity error under an in-phase 2 kHz no longer hides behind a broadband -0.00. The oscilloscope picks up a dB cursor that follows the pointer, and the sidechain now draws there as a ghost envelope, so G works in the scope as well as the spectrum. Press E to save a branded 2x PNG of the current view.

Also fixed: a target curve reloaded at a smaller FFT size no longer reads past its data, the GHOST pill survives a reopened editor, and switching channel mode restarts the ghost trace's envelopes. Settings files from 1.2.2 load unchanged.

Free, no account, no watermark — grab it from the gFractor page.

gFractor 1.2.3 beta is now available through our preview channel. This one is about the meters. The LUFS / LU pills above the loudness bar switch the numbers between absolute LUFS and LU relative to a target — against the default -23 LUFS target, a -14 LUFS programme reads +9 LU. The target is marked on the bar as a dashed line at 0 LU, and a draggable TARGET badge retargets it in 0.5 LU steps. A sixth readout row, CREST, gives you the plain peak-to-RMS ratio in dB, so you can see the waveform's shape next to the K-weighted PSR and PLR numbers. And Reset On Play restarts the whole loudness measurement each time the transport rolls, so every playback pass is measured on its own.

Stereo metering gets a real fix rather than a feature: a broadband correlation number is energy-weighted, so a 40 Hz polarity error under an in-phase 2 kHz reads -0.00 and tells you nothing. The per-octave chart now shows correlation per band, with the analysis FFT raised to 8192 so the 31.5 Hz band actually resolves. The oscilloscope picks up a dB cursor that follows the pointer and labels its height relative to the lane's zero line, and the sidechain now draws there as a ghost envelope beneath the main curves — G works in the scope as well as the spectrum. Finally, press E and gFractor writes a branded 2x PNG of the current view, with a caption strip carrying the version and the settings that produced it. Settings files from 1.2.2 load unchanged.

Grab the installer (or just the plugin files) from the beta section on the gFractor page. Feedback shapes what ships.

gFractor 1.2.2 is now the stable release. The headline addition is an optional piano keyboard under the spectrum, frequency-aligned with the plot — hover the curve and it marks the key under the cursor, carrying the crosshair down to it. Turn it on in the Display preferences tab; it's off by default.

Guidelines are no longer a fixed set: add or remove them (up to six) from the Guidelines tab, and set each line's slope freely from -12 to +12 dB/oct. Slopes are stored per line and persisted, so existing setups keep their 0 / -3 / -4.5 / -6 dB/oct lines. The spectrum crosshair now also tracks the cursor with Show Tooltip off — that setting is down to the intersection dots and the freq/dB/note readout. Preferences got a pass too: every tab groups its rows into framed cards, and Display puts Layout and On-screen help side by side.

Coming from 1.2.0 you also pick up the 1.2.1 oscilloscope work: a horizontal scrollbar when zoomed in, a transport-synced sweep that no longer freezes on loops shorter than the window, and a scope that blanks past the host loop boundary while keeping the waveform when the view is zoomed or rebuilt. Reset to Defaults now really does reset the trace colours.

Free, no account, no watermark — grab it from the gFractor page.

gFractor 1.2.2 beta is now available through our preview channel. The headline addition is an optional piano keyboard under the spectrum, frequency-aligned with the plot — hover the curve and it marks the key under the cursor, carrying the crosshair down to it. Turn it on in the Display preferences tab; it's off by default.

Guidelines are no longer a fixed set: add or remove them (up to six) from the Guidelines tab, and set each line's slope freely from -12 to +12 dB/oct. Slopes are stored per line and persisted, so existing setups keep their 0 / -3 / -4.5 / -6 dB/oct lines. The spectrum crosshair now also tracks the cursor with Show Tooltip off — that setting is down to the intersection dots and the freq/dB/note readout. Preferences got a pass too: every tab groups its rows into framed cards, and Display puts Layout and On-screen help side by side. Two fixes round it out — Reset to Defaults really does reset the trace colours now, and the piano strip is dimmed so it stops outshining the curve.

Grab the installer (or just the plugin files) from the beta section on the gFractor page. Feedback shapes what ships.

gFractor 1.2.1 beta is now available through our preview channel. This is a focused oscilloscope release. Zoomed-in views now get a horizontal scrollbar so you can pan across the waveform, and two transport-synced Scope fixes land: the sweep no longer freezes when you loop a region shorter than the window, and the scope now blanks past the host loop boundary while keeping the waveform when the view is zoomed or rebuilt.

Grab the installer (or just the plugin files) from the beta section on the gFractor page. Feedback shapes what ships.

gFractor 1.2.0 is now the stable release. After a round of beta testing it's ready for everyone — a new Waterfall view built on a reassigned spectrogram, band audition (solo or cut any frequency band), a split spectrum view, fractional-octave smoothing, adjustable tilt, draggable curve ordering, and an L+R mono-sum channel mode. It also brings a reorganized six-tab settings layout, a reworked Light theme, a fresh About dialog, and a thorough performance pass across the oscilloscope and analyzer.

Free, no account, no watermark — grab it from the gFractor page.

gFractor 1.2.0 beta is now available through our preview channel. This release adds a new Waterfall view built on a reassigned spectrogram, band audition (solo or cut any frequency band), a split spectrum view, fractional-octave smoothing, an adjustable spectrum tilt, draggable curve ordering, and an L+R mono-sum channel mode. It also brings a reorganized six-tab settings layout, a reworked Light theme, a fresh About dialog, and a thorough performance pass across the oscilloscope and analyzer.

Grab the installer (or just the plugin files) from the beta section on the gFractor page. Feedback shapes what ships.

A big thank you to Odo Sendaidokai for the great review of gFractor. It's always valuable to see the tool in the hands of someone who genuinely knows sound.

Growl Audio is now on YouTube and Instagram. Expect plug-in walkthroughs, workflow tips, beta sneak peeks, and the occasional behind-the-scenes look at how the tools come together.

Follow us on YouTube and Instagram — and say hi.

A big thank you to Emphaseas for the great review of gFractor.

gFractor 1.1.0 beta is now available through our preview channel. This build adds the Split Scope view, a linear Spectrum scale, a full ITU-R BS.1770-4 / EBU R128 LUFS meter, UI scale (75–150%) and brightness controls, plus a new standalone application alongside VST3 and AU — with dozens of smaller refinements across the interface.

Grab the installer (or just the plugin files) from the beta section on the gFractor page. Feedback shapes what ships.

gFractor 1.0.8 beta is now available through our preview channel. This build adds an ITU-R BS.1770-4 / EBU R128 LUFS meter, a Split Scope view, and an update-available indicator — alongside fixes and polish on the road to the next stable release.

Grab the installer (or just the plugin files) from the beta section on the gFractor page. Feedback shapes what ships.

We're proud to announce gFractor 1.0 — a precision spectrum analyzer designed for modern production. M/S, L/R, and Transient/Tone analysis, oscilloscope, goniometer, and stereo width visualization, all in one plugin.

Download links and full notes on the gFractor page.