Pakku splits the signal into three bands with a Linkwitz–Riley 4th-order crossover and reshapes the envelope of each one independently — attack on one axis, sustain on the other. A tone section, parallel compression and a ceiling stage (limiter or soft clipper) close the chain.
- Three bands or full range. One pair of faders, rebound to whichever band you pick on the spectrum. In single-band mode the spectrum steps aside and the waveform takes the whole display.
- Draggable threshold. Grab the dashed line over the waveform, or use the knob — same parameter, either way.
- Linear-phase 4× oversampled ceiling, limiter with 5 ms lookahead or a soft clipper with a knee below the threshold.
- Latency compensated dry path, so partial Mix does not comb-filter.
- 31 factory presets, plus your own in an open format.
- Three interface sizes, remembered with the session.
Grab the installer for your system from the latest release.
| System | Download | Installs to |
|---|---|---|
| macOS 11+ (Intel & Apple Silicon) | Pakku-<version>-macOS.zip |
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components and /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 |
| Windows 10+ (64-bit) | Pakku-<version>-Windows.zip |
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 |
Each archive holds three things at its root: the installer, the full user manual as PDF, and a credits and licence file.
The macOS package lets you pick AU, VST3 or both. Rescan your plug-ins afterwards — most hosts only look on startup.
Unsigned builds. Until code signing is in place, macOS may refuse to open the installer. Right-click the
.pkg→ Open → Open confirms it once. On Windows, SmartScreen may ask for More info → Run anyway.
A full user manual ships with the source: docs/Pakku-Manual.pdf.
Eighteen pages covering the concept, installation on both systems, every
control, worked recipes and troubleshooting. Every curve in it is a
measurement of the running DSP rather than a drawing — regenerate the figures
with pakku_figures, then rebuild with
python docs/manual/build_manual.py.
Presets use the plugin's own container: a four-byte PKKU signature, a format
version, and a binary ValueTree holding real parameter values — dB, Hz,
percent — not normalised ones, so files stay readable if ranges ever change.
~/Library/Audio/Presets/Kyantech Labs/Pakku/ (macOS)
%APPDATA%\Kyantech Labs\Pakku\ (Windows)
Factory/ shipped with the plugin, mirrored from the binary
User/ yours — saved from the plugin, or dropped in from anywhere
Factory/ is kept in step with the copies compiled into the binary, so an
update can deliver new or corrected presets, and a deleted or damaged file
comes back on its own. Anything you want to keep goes in User/, which is
never touched. Rescan preset folder in the settings panel re-reads both.
Requires CMake 3.22+ and a C++20 compiler. On macOS, Xcode command line tools; on Windows, Visual Studio 2022.
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/danielalves96/pakku-vst.git
cd pakku
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -jAlready cloned without --recurse-submodules? Run git submodule update --init.
The plugin is copied to your user plug-in folders after the build. macOS
produces universal binaries (arm64 + x86_64).
./packaging/macos/build-installer.sh # → dist/Pakku-<version>.pkg
iscc packaging/windows/pakku.iss # → dist/Pakku-<version>-Setup.exeSigning and notarisation are picked up from environment variables when present —
see the header of build-installer.sh.
Not needed to build the plugin; they exist to keep it honest.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
pakku_dsptest |
Loads every factory preset, round-trips a user preset, measures ceiling aliasing |
pakku_guishot |
Renders the interface to PNG without a host; --test-threshold drives the threshold drag |
pakku_probe |
Renders the plugin offline to 32-bit float WAV, no host involved |
pakku_ostest |
Oversampler in isolation |
pakku_figures |
Renders the measured curves used by the manual |
src/ plugin — DSP in src/dsp, interface in src/gui
resources/ factory presets, embedded font and icon licences
packaging/ macOS and Windows installers
tools/ measurement and rendering bench
docs/ screenshots
| Component | Licence |
|---|---|
| JUCE | AGPLv3 (see below) |
| Phosphor Icons | MIT — resources/icons/LICENSE-phosphor.txt |
| Michroma | SIL OFL 1.1 — resources/fonts/OFL-michroma.txt |
Pakku is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE.
The JUCE framework is dual-licensed: AGPLv3, or a paid commercial licence. Pakku takes the AGPLv3 route, which is why the whole project carries it. If you reuse this code in something you distribute, that project has to be AGPLv3 too, unless you hold a JUCE licence of your own.
Made in Brazil 🇧🇷 by Daniel Luiz Alves under Kyantech Labs.
Pakku is free and stays free. If it earns a place in your chain, you can sponsor the next release.