Anneal plugin interface, showing the Slab lattice scatter, the TEMP dial with MELT and QUENCH, the RATE cooling control, and the T_f telemetry line

Live · fictive temperature

0.53T 0.30 · cooling 8.0 s

TEMP 0.30

RATE 8.0 s

This is the plugin's interface. The mechanism behind it: fictive temperature T_f lags true temperature T by a relaxation time τ(T), so the same TEMP position freezes a different disorder depending on how you got there. For the full derivation, read the glass-transition note.

Anneal treats the patch as a slab with a thermal history, not a static detune map. Every mode's configurational deviation follows an exact Ornstein-Uhlenbeck relaxation toward an equilibrium set by T, and the fictive temperature T_f tracks how close that deviation actually got to settling. Cool slowly past T_g and it lands on the crystal; cool fast and it freezes mid-flight as glass. For the deeper technical explanation, read the glass-transition mechanism note or the path-dependence note.

From molten to frozen.

01 · melt

Melt it

Hold MELT or play hard with HEAT engaged. T climbs toward 1.05 and every mode's disorder rises with it.

02 · choose

Choose the cooling rate

RATE sets how long the fall back to TEMP takes, 30 ms to 30 seconds. This single choice decides everything that follows.

03 · freeze

It freezes crystal or glass

Cool slowly past T_g and disorder relaxes onto the line. Cool fast and the same disorder freezes in mid-flight. Same TEMP, different sound.

04 · remember

It remembers

Aging heals a quench over seconds in the ANNEAL creep band. MODE MODAL turns that memory into lifetime: order rings longer than disorder.

What Anneal does differently.

Path memory, not a detune map.

An adversarial memoryless "macro" control, a fixed detune pattern scaled by the same equilibrium curve, scored 0.0000 on every path metric. No static knob position can be sometimes-crystal, sometimes-glass. Anneal's T_f can, because it integrates the trajectory, not the endpoint.

A real cooling-rate law.

Frozen spread falls linearly in log cooling time: 17.4 cents at 30 ms, 0.95 cents at 8 seconds, for the same final TEMP. RATE is not a mix knob on a fixed effect, it is the input to the relaxation itself.

The ANNEAL band self-heals.

Park a quenched patch at moderate TEMP and the frozen spread heals from 22 cents toward under 1 cent over roughly 25 seconds, the fitted creep constant matching the Arrhenius relaxation exactly. Below T_g it does not move: permanent glass.

Structural order becomes mode lifetime.

In MODAL mode, a struck annealed crystal rings long and coherent, about 2.6 seconds. The same strike on quenched glass scatters and damps in about 1.7 seconds, higher modes going first. The physics is metered, not painted on.

Hear it freeze.

Audio in production

Pad · slow anneal vs quench

Same TEMP, same seed, only RATE differs: crystal against glass.

Capture in progress

Keys · MELT under the hands

HEAT tracks velocity, playing hard melts the patch mid-phrase.

Capture in progress

Struck · MODAL crystal vs glass

A struck annealed crystal rings long; the quenched strike scatters fast.

Capture in progress

Audio demos are in production. Until they land, the mechanism above and the scroll-driven readout are the live illustration.

What is in the box.

Glass-transition engine

Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan fictive temperature over an exact Ornstein-Uhlenbeck relaxation. TEMP, MELT, QUENCH, RATE, SYNC/DIVISION, STRESS, JITTER, HEAT. 32-site by 4-microdomain lattice, float64, unconditionally stable.

Voice & structure

PARTIALS COUNT, TILT, continuous SHAPE morph (sine through formant), VOICES {mono, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12} with mono legato retune, ADDITIVE or MODAL (struck, per-partial damped) synthesis. 12 presets.

Formats

macOS 11+ VST3, AU, Standalone. Windows 10+ VST3, Standalone. Apple Silicon and Intel native.