Capture and stretch granular effect
LINTEL
Capture Any Sound · Stretch It Up To 32x · Record The Result
What it does
It captures first, then stretches
LINTEL records 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars of whatever reaches its input, locked to the host tempo, and plays that capture back as a cloud of grains. Stretch runs from 0.25x to 32x. The capture buffer holds up to 100 seconds, so at slow tempos the longer lengths still fit.
LINTEL follows your transport. It plays while the session plays and stops when you stop.
In detail
The parts worth knowing about
Two ways to stretch
Pitch-lock keeps the pitch where it is while the time changes. Varispeed lets pitch follow the stretch, like slowing a tape. Texture switches between Smooth and Hard grains. Grain size runs from 2 ms to 500 ms, and 8 grain voices play at once.
Scatter, Pitch Scatter, Spread, Jitter, Reverse and Freeze move the grains around. Push the scatter and the voices and the source dissolves into something new. That is what it is for: a creative instrument, not a repair tool.
Space, Gate and Delay, in the order you choose
Three effects sit after the stretch. Space is a convolution reverb (Hall, Room or Plate) with a diffuser. Gate is a tempo-synced rhythmic gate with 28 patterns. Delay is tempo-synced with 11 times and a ping-pong option.
All three start switched off. Drag them to put them in any of 6 orders, and the audio runs in that order. Space is the only part that asks much of your CPU, and it runs only while it is switched on.
Made to be recorded
The main use is to put LINTEL on one track, capture a sound, and record its output onto another track as audio.
You record the result through your DAW onto another track, which keeps the audio in your session and under your control. The capture lives in the moment: reopen a project and you capture again.
Drag Audio takes the last 8, 16 or 32 seconds of what LINTEL played and drops them onto a track in your DAW as a WAV clip, as you heard it, with automation and effect tails included. It only takes what has already played, so the transport has to have run first. The files are saved in your Music folder, in one called LINTEL Grabs.
Auto Level holds the output near the loudness of what you captured, and holds the level after Space, Gate and Delay near what it was before them. It moves the capture match by at most 12 dB up and 6 dB down, and the effects match by 9 dB either way. It works slowly, over a few seconds, so a capture with very uneven loudness rises and falls gently rather than pumping. On by default, switchable, and the Output Gain knob is still there for a manual trim.
A soft limiter on the stretched sound is always on, so the stretch cannot push itself into hard clipping. It covers the stretched signal, so a very hot dry signal mixed in can still pass 0 dB.
Watch it work
Press Capture and the incoming audio draws itself as it arrives, under a moving write head, so you can see what you are catching while you catch it.
After that the display shows the captured waveform, each grain window as it plays, and the output level, with the reverb and delay drawn into it.
IN and OUT gain knobs sit under the meters. RESET ALL puts every setting back except the capture length and trigger.
The trial
Seven days, nothing disabled
Seven days, every feature, nothing disabled. When it ends, LINTEL passes your audio through untouched until you enter a key.
No cloud, no account, no telemetry. The plug-in contacts a server only to activate or release your licence, and otherwise only to ask whether a newer version exists.
Launch price until 3 February 2027
Secure checkout by Lemon Squeezy
| Formats | Audio Unit, VST® 3 |
|---|---|
| Not included | AAX, standalone app |
| System | macOS 11 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel |
| Windows | Mac only for now. Windows is planned |
| Latency | Reports 0 samples to the host |
| Capture | 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars, up to 100 seconds |
| Trigger | Follows the host, or manual |
| Needs | A host that runs a transport and sends tempo. Silent while the transport is stopped |
| Not saved | The captured audio is not stored in the project |
| Licence | One purchase, up to three machines, moveable |
| Activation | With the key from your receipt. No account, no ongoing checks |
| Trial | 7 days, full function |
| Updates | Announced in the plug-in when one is available |