What is Vortix Raw?
One knob. Turn it up and your live signal swirls into a tempo-synced granular vortex. Vortix Raw is the free, one-knob edition of Vortix: Remi Blaze's hex granular engine, distilled to a single move. No MIDI, no menus, no sample loading: drop it on a channel and ride the vortex.
The SWIRL knob drives an always-on hex granular engine: the same engine from the full Vortix, running on your live input. The granular clock free-runs from host tempo so it stays alive even with the transport stopped. At zero the signal passes clean; open it for warm vintage-tape character, then full granular glitch. The dry/wet mix and a gentle output trim hold the level, so it never jumps in volume.
Quick start
Get a result with Vortix Raw in under a minute.
- Insert it. Put Vortix Raw on the track or bus you want to change.
- Turn SWIRL up. Raise SWIRL until it sounds right.
- Compare. Bypass the plugin in your DAW to hear the difference.
The interface
Controls
Header
- 1Fire Head: click the flame logo to open the About panel: what the plugin is, who made it and the trademark notices. Click anywhere in the panel to close it.
The knob
- 2SWIRL: a single macro that drives the granular mix and the Pro's Age grain-degradation together, with a gentle output trim for headroom as it opens. Grain size, attack, and release are pinned to a musical sweet spot. Turn it slowly for subtle movement, or push it for stuttering, degraded chaos. Auto-leveling keeps the output matched across the whole sweep.
Key specs*
| Hex granular engine | A 19-cell flat-top hex grid feeds grains from a circular buffer of your live input, with Hermite interpolation, zero-crossing grain-start snapping, Hann-style windowing, and equal-power grain-count compensation to keep the summed level steady. |
|---|---|
| Age grain-degradation | A staged wear engine that opens up as SWIRL rises: a rolling-off low-pass (16 kHz down toward 2 kHz), wow and flutter, tape hiss, stereo narrowing, and bit-depth plus sample-rate reduction with grain drop-outs at the top for full glitch. |
| Soft-knee saturation | A 2×-oversampled tanh soft clipper on the grain sum adds harmonic character without harsh aliasing. |
| Free-running, tempo-synced clock with zero latency | The hex sequencer advances on an internal clock every block whether or not the host is playing (reading host tempo, falling back to 120 BPM), and the engine reports zero plugin latency that never changes across the sweep. |
| DC blocker and output safety | A 5 Hz–20 Hz high-pass removes DC offset from the granular and saturation stages, then every sample is sanitized for NaN/Inf and hard-limited to a −0.1 dB ceiling so the plugin can't run away or clip at any knob position. |
| Controls | One knob, SWIRL |
| Formats | macOS: AU, VST3, CLAP, AAX, Standalone. Windows: VST3, CLAP, Standalone |
* Key specs from the plugin page. Some specs may not be listed.
How do I use Vortix Raw on a track?
- Insert it. Put Vortix Raw on the track or bus you want to change.
- Turn SWIRL up. Raise SWIRL until it sounds right. Grain size, attack, and release are pinned to a musical sweet spot. Turn it slowly for subtle movement, or push it for stuttering, degraded chaos.
- Automate it. SWIRL is the only control your DAW can automate, so one automation lane covers it.
What about the full Vortix?
Love the swirl? The full Vortix goes deeper. The Pro version unlocks the full hex granular engine: grain size, attack/release, and complete Age character control, plus the hex sequencer grid and gravity system. Every control is explained in the Vortix manual.
Keyboard and mouse shortcuts
These work in every Vortix Raw format (AU, VST3, CLAP, AAX, Standalone).
| Reset a control to its default | Double-click the knob or slider |
|---|---|
| Scroll to change a value | Hover over a knob and scroll the mouse wheel |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Vortix Raw free?
Yes. Vortix Raw is completely free: freeware, no trial, no nag screens, no expiration.
What does the SWIRL knob do?
SWIRL is a single macro that drives Vortix's always-on hex granular engine. At zero the signal passes clean; open it and you move from vintage tape character into full granular glitch as the grain degradation increases. The dry/wet mix and a gentle output trim keep the level matched so it never jumps in volume.
How is Vortix Raw different from Vortix (Pro)?
Vortix Raw gives you the hex granular engine behind a single SWIRL knob, auto-leveled, with the Pro's Age grain-degradation locked in. The full Vortix unlocks grain size, attack/release, the hex sequencer grid, gravity system, and complete Age character control.
Does Vortix Raw run on Apple Silicon and Windows?
Yes. Vortix Raw is a Universal Binary that runs natively on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) and Intel Macs, and ships as a 64-bit build for Windows 10 and 11.
Does Vortix Raw add latency?
No. Vortix Raw reports zero plugin latency: there's no FFT, oversampler, or lookahead, and that never changes across the knob sweep, so your host's reported latency stays stable.
Can I automate Vortix Raw?
Yes: the single SWIRL knob is the only host-automatable parameter, so it's the only thing in your automation list. The hidden engine parameters (Age, grain size/attack/release, mix, output) are non-automatable but still saved and restored with the plugin's state.
Where can I find more about Vortix Raw?
On the Vortix Raw page: its features, system requirements and how to get it.
How do I get and install Vortix Raw?
- Get it. Vortix Raw is free. Get it from the Vortix Raw page.
- Run the installer. On macOS, double-click the .pkg file and choose AU, VST3, CLAP, AAX or Standalone. On Windows, run the .exe installer and choose VST3, CLAP or Standalone.
- Open your DAW. Restart your DAW and rescan plugins if needed, then find Vortix Raw under Remi Blaze in your plugin list.
More about Vortix Raw, including its features and system requirements, is on the Vortix Raw page.
Where are the plugin files?
If you need to find Vortix Raw on disk, for example to troubleshoot or to uninstall it manually, these are the standard locations.
| macOS AU | ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ |
|---|---|
| macOS VST3 | ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ |
| macOS CLAP | ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/ |
| macOS AAX | /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/ |
| Windows VST3 | C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\ |
| Windows CLAP | C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP\ |
To uninstall, quit your DAW and delete the Vortix Raw file from the relevant folder. Your DAW will stop listing it on its next rescan.
Need help with Vortix Raw?
If something isn't covered here, or Vortix Raw doesn't behave as described, contact support or email support@remiblaze.com. To get an answer faster, include:
- your operating system and version (for example macOS 15.6 or Windows 11)
- your DAW and its version
- the format you're using (AU, VST3, CLAP, AAX or Standalone)
- the version you installed (shown in the installer and in your download), since the About panel of every Raw shows v1.0.0
- what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead
This manual is for Vortix Raw 1.0.1. Controls and settings can change between versions, so if something here doesn't match what you see, check the version shown in your installer or download. Spotted a mistake or have a question? Let us know.