A chorus that eats its own tail — Five colors, ten algorithms
Choroboros is a multi-engine chorus plugin with five distinct engines, each offering two algorithms (Normal/HQ). Each engine has its own color semantics: Green adds bloom (thickness/damping), Blue adds focus (clarity/presence), Red NQ adds saturation, Red HQ adds tape tone, Purple warps phase, and Black modulates ensemble spread.
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🟢 Green (Classic): Bloom — thickness and gentle vintage softening (no saturation)
- Normal: 3rd order Lagrange
- HQ: 5th order Lagrange
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🔵 Blue (Modern): Focus — clarity and definition (no saturation)
- Normal: Cubic interpolation
- HQ: Thiran allpass interpolation
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🔴 Red (Vintage): Analog character
- Normal: BBD (Bucket Brigade Delay) emulation with 5th-order cascade filtering — saturation only
- HQ: Tape-style chorus — tone + drive
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🟣 Purple (Experimental): Warp and orbit — psychedelic phase modulation
- Normal: Phase-Warped Chorus (non-uniform phase modulation)
- HQ: Orbit Chorus (2D rotating modulation)
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⬛ Black (Core/Linear): Modulation intensity and ensemble spread
- Normal: Linear interpolation
- HQ: Linear Ensemble (multi-voice)
- Rate: LFO speed (0.01–20 Hz); right-click for musical quantize (Straight/Triplet/Dotted, cap 20 Hz)
- Depth: Modulation depth (0–100%, engine-specific scaling)
- Offset: LFO phase offset (0–180°)
- Width: Stereo width (0–200%)
- Color: Engine-specific (Bloom / Focus / Saturation / Tape / Warp / Mod intensity)
- Mix: Dry/wet mix (0–100%)
- HQ: Algorithm mode toggle - switches each engine to an alternate DSP algorithm. HQ modes use more sophisticated processing (ensemble, orbit, tape, higher-order interpolation) which typically produces wider stereo imaging and richer character, not just higher fidelity.
- Classic (Green NQ) — R=0.65 Hz, D=21%, O=33°, W=150%, M=50%, C=16%
- Vintage (Red HQ) — R=0.62 Hz, D=21%, O=56°, W=150%, M=50%, C=50%
- Modern (Blue HQ) — R=0.26 Hz, D=53%, O=59°, W=100%, M=50%, C=41%
- Psychedelic (Purple NQ) — R=0.12 Hz, D=52%, O=52°, W=200%, M=69%, C=13%
- Core (Black HQ) — R=0.8 Hz, D=35%, O=41°, W=159%, M=50%, C=28%
- Duck (Purple HQ) — R=10 Hz, D=14%, O=50°, W=50%, M=100%, C=10%
- Ouroboros (Blue HQ) — R=2.0 Hz, D=11%, O=33°, W=33%, M=100%, C=65%
Per-engine parameter memory: switching engines via dropdown restores your last values for that engine.
Built-in diagnostic and tuning suite. Click the DEV icon in the top-right drawer to open. Features include:
- Interactive Console & Tutorials: Type
helpto see 30+ power commands ortutorialfor interactive, guided DSP walkthroughs. - Deep Introspection: Exposes parameter mapping, DSP internals per engine, and live readout telemetry.
- UI Customization: A dedicated Settings panel allows for granular control over typography, themes, and accessibility options (color-vision assistance, reduced motion, hit targets).
- Validation: Live DSP trace matrices to confirm signal-flow integrity.
Intended for educators, sound designers, and power users who want to see under the hood.
Downloads (v2.04-beta):
Beta builds are distributed via GitHub Actions artifacts. Go to the Actions tab, open the latest passing Build run, and download the artifact for your platform. Each artifact contains a .zip and a .zip.sha256 checksum file.
| Platform | Artifact name |
|---|---|
| macOS Universal (Intel + Apple Silicon) | Choroboros-macos-universal |
| Linux x64 | Choroboros-linux-x64 |
| Windows x64 | Choroboros-windows-x64 |
| Windows x86 (legacy) | Choroboros-windows-x86 |
The macOS zip includes install.sh which handles copying and Gatekeeper quarantine removal automatically:
cd ~/Downloads/Choroboros-macOS-Universal
bash install.shCopy Choroboros.vst3 to:
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/(user-specific, recommended)/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/(system-wide)
Copy Choroboros.component to:
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/(user-specific, recommended)/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/(system-wide)
Copy Choroboros.app to /Applications/ or anywhere you prefer.
Extract the zip. Copy Choroboros.vst3 to:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\(system-wide)%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\VST3\(user-specific)
Extract the zip. Run Choroboros.exe directly or place it anywhere you prefer.
Extract the zip. Copy Choroboros.vst3 to:
~/.vst3/(user-specific, recommended)/usr/lib/vst3/(system-wide, requires sudo)
Extract the zip. Make Choroboros executable and run it:
chmod +x Choroboros
./ChoroborosAfter installation, rescan plugins in your DAW.
Beta site: https://choro-beta-site.vercel.app/ — join the beta, roadmap, whitepaper, feedback.
Beta testers: See docs/KNOWN_ISSUES.md for known issues and how to report feedback.
- macOS: 10.13 High Sierra or later (Intel or Apple Silicon)
- Windows: Windows 10 or later (x64 or x86)
- DAW: Any DAW that supports VST3 or AU plugins
Note: Macs that cannot run macOS 10.13 (such as Mac Pro Early 2009 and older) are not supported. The JUCE 8 framework requires 10.13 as a minimum deployment target. AU validation will fail on unsupported systems.
- Version: 2.04
- Company: Kaizen DSP
- Location: British Columbia, Canada
- Framework: JUCE 8.0.12
- Sample Rate: Up to 192 kHz
- Formats: VST3, AU, Standalone (macOS); VST3, Standalone (Windows)
- macOS: Universal binary (arm64 + x86_64)
- Windows: x64 primary, x86-compat
Choroboros is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3).
Copyright (C) 2026 Kaizen Strategic AI Inc.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
The complete source code for Choroboros is available at: https://github.com/EsotericShadow/choroboros-open-source
You are free to view, modify, and redistribute the source code under the terms of the GPLv3 license.
This software uses the JUCE framework, which is dual-licensed under:
- GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPLv3), or
- Commercial license from Raw Material Software Limited
For more information about JUCE licensing, visit: https://juce.com/legal/juce-8-licence/
For issues, questions, or licensing inquiries:
- Email: info@kaizenstrategic.ai
- Company: Kaizen DSP
- Location: British Columbia, Canada
- Plugins not appearing in DAW: Make sure you've copied the plugin to the correct location and rescanned plugins in your DAW. Some DAWs require a full restart.
- macOS Gatekeeper (beta builds): The beta is not yet code-signed. If macOS blocks the plugin, use the install script (
bash install.sh) which handles quarantine removal automatically. Or manually runxattr -cron each plugin file — see KNOWN_ISSUES.md for detailed steps. - AU validation failure: Ensure your Mac is running macOS 10.13 or later. If validation fails, try
killall -9 AudioComponentRegistrarthen rescan in Logic. - Permission Issues: For system-wide installation (
/Library/on macOS,C:\Program Files\on Windows), you may need administrator privileges. User-specific installation (~/Library/on macOS) is recommended.