Release notes

Released versions of the MixLess plugins, newest first. Beta builds and their notes live on the beta site.

Version 0.3.0: 2026-08-01

The suite becomes a bundle: seven plugins, one visual language, one brand.

New products

Less Tube : oversampled valve saturator. Four models (Triode, Pentode, Vari-Mu, Iron) built on symmetric curves so that BIAS, not the curve, creates the even harmonics, which is the physical mechanism in a valve and the reason the control behaves monotonically. 4× polyphase oversampling with better than 100 dB rejection where folds land in the audible band. Live harmonic fingerprint probed through the real transfer function, true tone tilt, multiband drive, DELTA, loudness match. 12 factory characters.

Less Meter

Loudness history with distribution, PLR/PSR, platform normalisation preview, delivery check badge, timeline-stamped true-peak overs, suite loudness map, JSON report export, goniometer, and reference A/B by dropping an audio file on the window. Club −8 and Festival −6 targets; custom range widened to −4.

Bundle

• Brand typeface: Jost (SIL OFL) embedded in every plugin, so the suite reads identically regardless of the host machine. Nothing was embedded before; every plugin fell through to the system sans.
• Mark: the MixLess pulse drawn as vector geometry from measurements of the master artwork, replacing the plain wordmark text in all seven headers. Hand-authored SVGs shipped alongside.
• Shared workflow cluster: UNDO REDO A CPY PRESET MAX in one component, applied across EQ, MB, Tube, Comp and Limiter (Gain shows undo only).
• Comp gains AUTO G, DELTA, a click-free bypass it never had, a header readout and the shared zone layout; Comp and Limiter gain factory characters.
• Every plugin has an Ableton smoke suite; the release gate covers seven plugins and fourteen bundles.
• No en/em dashes in any UI string.

198 tests. All seven plugins pass auval, codesign verification and pluginval strictness 10 in both formats.

Version 0.2.0: 2026-07-29

Second product: Less Meter (AU + VST3, macOS) : analysis only, audio passes through untouched.

• EBU R128 loudness: Momentary / Short-term / Integrated (histogram-based absolute + relative gating), Loudness Range (EBU Tech 3342)
• BS.1770-4 true peak (4× polyphase FIR), verified on inter-sample peaks
• Stereo correlation and L/R balance bars
• Spectrum analyzer: audio thread feeds a lock-free FIFO; the FFT (2048-pt Hann, 48 log bands) runs entirely on the GUI thread
• Loudness targets: Spotify −14 / Apple −16 / YouTube −14 / EBU −23 / Custom; integrated readout colour-coded against the target
• 20 new DSP tests (42 total); K-weighting reproduces the BS.1770-4 48 kHz reference coefficients to 1e-6; −23 dBFS stereo sine reads −23.0 LUFS exactly

Version 0.1.1: 2026-07-29

Rebrand: Mixing Gadget to MixLess

• Company "MixLess", product "Less Gain Stage"
• Manufacturer code Mxgd to MxLs, plugin code Gnst to Lgst, bundle com.mixless.lessgainstage
• Editor header branding updated (LESS GAIN STAGE / MIXLESS)
• Old "Gain Stage" bundles removed from plugin folders (identity changed; DAW projects saved with the old identity will show a missing device)
• Re-validated: auval, pluginval strictness 10 (both formats), 22/22 tests

Version 0.1.0: 2026-07-28

First release of the suite: Gain Stage (AU + VST3, macOS).

Gain Stage

• Gain −60…+24 dB with click-free 20 ms ramping
• Polarity invert (Ø) : glides through zero on the shared gain ramp; verified null-complete against an inverted duplicate
• Mono fold-down with ramped, click-free engage/release
• In/out metering: RMS bar (300 ms), transient-accurate peak tick (running-max capture), sticky clip lamps (click to clear)
• Auto-gain staging: integrated input RMS to suggested gain toward an adjustable target (default −18 dBFS), one-click APPLY, RESET measurement
• Custom "dark studio console" editor (anthracite + amber), resizable

Infrastructure

• Monorepo: shared mg_core DSP library (JUCE-free, offline-testable) and mg_gui visual identity library reused by every future plugin
• JUCE 8.0.15 via CMake FetchContent; CMake + Ninja build
• 22 GoogleTest DSP tests (TDD); auval and pluginval (strictness 10) clean
• Auto-install to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins with post-copy ad-hoc re-signing (works around macOS provenance-xattr signing breakage)