Aurora 0.1.0 — Installation & first session

Aurora is a free, open-source audio effect for a compatible digital audio workstation (DAW). Add it to an audio track or your master bus to see the signal passing through it. It does not generate sound or capture system audio.

1. Unzip and choose a format

Extract Aurora-0.1.0-macOS-universal.zip. Keep each plug-in bundle intact; do not open its package contents.

Bundle	Use with	Format
Aurora.vst3	A host that accepts VST3, including Ableton Live	VST3
Aurora.component	A host that accepts Audio Units, including Logic Pro and Ableton Live	AUv2

You only need the format your host uses. For Live, choose one format consistently within a Set. No Windows, Linux, AAX or standalone monitoring build is included. Aurora's creative scenes require a working OpenGL 3.2 context.

2. Copy the bundle into your Library

Quit your DAW. If replacing Aurora, copy the old bundle to a backup folder outside the plug-in directories first.
In Finder, press ⇧⌘G (Shift–Command–G), then enter the matching folder below. The ~ means your home folder. ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ Copy Aurora.vst3 here. ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ Copy Aurora.component here.
If a folder is missing, open ~/Library/Audio/ and create the required Plug-Ins, VST3 or Components folders. Copy the individual bundle, not the ZIP or its enclosing folder.

These are the standard per-user plug-in folders documented by Ableton. Leave any unrelated plug-ins in place.

3. Scan and open Aurora

In Ableton Live, open Settings / Preferences → Plug-Ins. Enable Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders for VST3, or Use Audio Units / Audio Units v2 for AU. Click Rescan; names vary by Live version. Search for Aurora in the Plug-Ins browser, usually under Soft Club, and drag it onto a track. See Ableton's plug-in guide.

In another DAW, use its plug-in manager to scan the matching folder. Open a fresh test project first, add Aurora as an audio effect, and play audio through that track. Its output passes through unchanged.

Make it yours

Control	What it does
Preset menu & arrows	Browse 24 complete looks with different colours, scenes and layouts.
Layout	Switch between Studio, Meter strip, Waveform and Custom.
Customise	Open settings inside the editor. Click again or press Escape to close. Scroll in shorter windows.
Colour swatches	Choose your own RGB or six-digit hex colours; module palettes can be edited independently.
Scene view	Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom, and double-click to reset the camera.
Freeze / Reset	Freeze holds the display. Reset clears measurement integration and peak history.
Presets → Saved	Save and exchange appearance presets as local `.aurora` files.

Your DAW project stores Aurora's settings. Saved appearance presets live separately in ~/Library/Aurora/Presets/. To reduce graphics work, use a meter-only layout or choose Customise → Scene → 15 Hz. Frame rate depends on the host, GPU, window size and number of open instances.

If macOS blocks Aurora

This download has not been notarized by Apple. For an unidentified-developer warning, Apple's Open apps safely on your Mac guide describes a selective System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway option, when available. Use it only if you trust this specific download. A DAW's plug-in scanner may not present that option.

If no selective approval is offered, use the provided source to build locally, or wait for a Developer ID signed and notarized release. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally. For a damaged-file or malware warning, stop and obtain a verified replacement; do not treat it as a routine approval prompt.

The source ZIP includes the code, pinned JUCE source, build scripts and licence notices. Build instructions are in its README.md. The accompanying stack document explains the dependencies and release status.

Compatibility and measurement limits

The distributed binaries declare macOS 13.3 or later and contain both arm64 and x86_64 code. Local native checks ran on Apple M2 Max with macOS 26.6.2. Intel runtime, older macOS versions, other GPUs and actual Ableton playback remain unverified. Apple Audio Unit validation and the project's automated suites passed; these checks do not certify every host.

Level bars show sample peaks, not true peaks. LUFS readings are estimates; no standards certification is claimed. Waveform scrolling includes an 80 ms display buffer, which does not delay audio. The spectrogram is sampled at display cadence and is not a recording. Aurora does not send audio over the network.

Remove or update Aurora

Quit the DAW and remove Aurora.vst3 and/or Aurora.component from the folders used above, then reopen the DAW and rescan. To update, replace only Aurora's bundles after backing them up. Your .aurora presets can stay; deleting the bundles does not delete that library. Existing projects containing Aurora will report a missing plug-in after removal.