Audio Mincer · No. 001. Manual as PDF.
A cast-iron grinder for the track. KIYMA takes the last phrase that came in, cuts it into steps and plays the steps back in a new order, in time with your song.
KIYMA listens to the channel it sits on and keeps the last complete block of bars: one, two or four bars, or half a bar (LENGTH). It cuts that block into 8, 16 or 32 steps (STEPS) and, step by step, decides whether to play the step that belongs there or to jump to another one nearby. The result is a re-chopped version of your own material, locked to the bar grid of the DAW.
Whatever LENGTH is set to, the block is played back in one bar. Two bars squeezed into one play twice as fast, one octave up; four bars play two octaves up; half a bar stretched over one plays an octave down. One bar plays at its own speed and pitch. This is the sound of the original ChopperLab device: the MINCE switch is exactly that sound.
The switch bank at the top right holds five tuned settings: LEAN, MINCE, CHUNK, GRISTLE and BONE. Raise a switch and all eight knobs jump to it. Turn any knob afterwards and the switch drops: you are on your own settings now.
KIYMA opens with the knobs at the defaults below and no switch raised.
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| DENSITY | 0–100 % · 40 % | The chance, per step, that the step jumps to another one. 0 % = every step plays in order (no chop). |
| REACH | 1–16 steps · 6 | How far a jump can go, backwards or forwards, in steps. |
| PATTERN | 1–16 · 1 | Which chop pattern is used. Each number is a fixed pattern: the same number always gives the same chop. |
| LENGTH | 1/2, 1, 2, 4 bars · 2 bars | How much of the past is read, played back in one bar (and so its speed and pitch: see Squeezed into one bar). |
| EDGE | HARD–10 ms · HARD | The cut at each step. HARD = a clean hard cut; up to 10 ms rounds every cut with a short fade. |
| STEPS | 8, 16, 32 · 16 | How many steps the block is cut into. |
| DRY/WET | 0–100 % · 100 % | The blend of the original and the minced sound. 0 % is the input, bit for bit. |
| OUTPUT | −24 to +6 dB · 0 dB | Level after the blend. |
| Crank | SHUFFLE · 0 | The handle on the grinder. Turning it adds 0 to 15 to the pattern number: a quick re-roll without touching PATTERN. |
| Sweet spots | five switches | LEAN, MINCE, CHUNK, GRISTLE, BONE (see The sweet spots). Click a switch to raise it and recall its settings; click a raised switch to drop it. |
| Seal | link | The seal at the top left opens subverselab.com. |
Drag a knob up to turn it up, down to turn it down; hold Shift for fine moves. Double-click a knob to return it to its default. The mouse wheel moves a knob too. While a knob is under the mouse its brass tag shows the value. Undo and redo with Cmd+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z on macOS, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z on Windows; a switch recall is one undo step.
When the crank is turned, the pattern re-rolls while the grinder spins.
Raising a switch sets the eight knobs and returns the crank to 0. If any of the eight knobs is then moved, the switch drops by itself: the settings are no longer that sweet spot.
DENSITY 0 · REACH 6 · PATTERN 1 · LENGTH 1 bar · EDGE 2 ms · STEPS 16 · WET 100 · OUT 0 dB
One bar replayed on the grid, in order, with soft edges. The cleanest setting: a bar-long stutter of what just played.
DENSITY 40 · REACH 6 · PATTERN 1 · LENGTH 2 bars · EDGE HARD · STEPS 16 · WET 100 · OUT 0 dB
A two-bar phrase squeezed into one bar, an octave up, with hard cuts. The sound of the original ChopperLab device.
DENSITY 40 · REACH 6 · PATTERN 3 · LENGTH 1 bar · EDGE 1 ms · STEPS 8 · WET 100 · OUT 0 dB
Eight big slices of one bar, rearranged. Rhythmic, still recognisable.
DENSITY 60 · REACH 4 · PATTERN 5 · LENGTH 4 bars · EDGE HARD · STEPS 32 · WET 100 · OUT −1 dB
Four bars crammed into one, two octaves up, in 32 fast steps.
DENSITY 50 · REACH 8 · PATTERN 2 · LENGTH 1/2 bar · EDGE HARD · STEPS 16 · WET 100 · OUT −1 dB
Half a bar stretched over a whole one, an octave down: heavy and slow.
A raised switch lights its lamp, and the knobs show its settings.
Read. KIYMA keeps the last complete block of LENGTH bars on the song’s bar grid (blocks start at bar 1 of the song), like a sample that always starts at the top of a phrase. It only reads audio that has already arrived, so it adds no latency.
Map. For each block of STEPS steps a step map is made from PATTERN (plus the crank): each step, with a DENSITY chance, jumps up to REACH steps forwards or backwards. The maps are fixed tables: there is no randomness in the sound, so the same settings on the same song always give the same result, at any buffer size.
Play. The mapped steps are read back across one bar with linear interpolation; EDGE rounds each cut with a raised-cosine fade of up to 10 ms.
Blend. DRY/WET mixes the minced sound with the input; OUTPUT sets the level.
Tempo. Tempo, bar position and time signature come from the DAW. Without them (for example in the standalone app) KIYMA runs at 120 BPM.
KIYMA installs as an Audio Unit (AU) and a VST3 plug-in on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), and also runs there as a Standalone application. On Windows (64-bit) it installs as a VST3 plug-in.
.pkg) you downloaded and follow the installer. It puts KIYMA.vst3 in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3, KIYMA.component (Audio Unit) in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components and the standalone KIYMA.app in /Applications. The installer is signed and notarised by Apple.KIYMA.vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\.| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Formats | macOS 11 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel): VST3, AU, standalone app · Windows (64-bit): VST3 |
| Channels | Mono or stereo |
| Latency | 0 samples (KIYMA reads only audio that has already arrived) |
| Tail | 8 seconds reported to the DAW (the wet path replays up to 4 bars of the past) |
| Steps · length | 8, 16 or 32 steps · 1/2, 1, 2 or 4 bars, always played back in one bar |
| Patterns | 16 fixed patterns, +0 to 15 with the crank; no randomness in the audio path |
| Tempo | From the DAW (20 to 999 BPM); 120 BPM without a host tempo |
| Undo / redo | Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z (macOS); Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z (Windows) |
| State | Saved with the DAW project; every knob and the crank can be automated |
| Price | Free, forever |
Every KIYMA build runs the same self-test (72 checks) on macOS and on Windows.
KIYMA is free, forever. Get it on subverselab.com/plugins/kiyma: sign in first so the order lands on your account; the checkout asks only for an e-mail address, no card. The download then appears on that page and on your Account page. Install and open it in your DAW. Nothing to activate.