Blue Channel

A circuit-modelled channel strip by OpenGrid. Blue Channel combines a transformer microphone preamp, line and instrument inputs, filters, four-band EQ, compression, gate/expander, de-esser and output transformer in one plugin.

Analogue-style	All Digital controls

Both interfaces control the same audio model. Digital adds a draggable compressor curve and EQ controls with an output FFT. HP/LP filters stay editable when routed to a sidechain and dim when switched out.

Version 1.0

• New instances select Mic at 0 dB, calibrated to nominal input-to-output unity with default settings.
• Standard playback has selectable 1x–16x oversampling and a separate offline setting.
• The final \( ᐖ)/ HQ lamp in Offline arms the full component solver. Digital has the same choice in its Offline menu on All Controls, with a header indicator. There is no realtime HQ mode.
• Mono/stereo operation, external key inputs, stereo-linked detectors, routing and listen controls.
• The editor starts at 1248 × 360 and remembers resizing. The source build offers optional layout editing.

Download

• macOS 11 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel): BlueChannel-1.0.0-macos.dmg · BlueChannel-1.0.0-macos.pkg
• Windows 10 or later (x64 & ARM64): BlueChannel-1.0.0-windows-x64-setup.exe · x64 zip · ARM64 zip (ARM64 SHA-256)
• Linux (x86_64 & aarch64): BlueChannel-1.0.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz (x86_64 SHA-256) · BlueChannel-1.0.0-linux-aarch64.tar.gz (aarch64 SHA-256) (extract and copy VST3/, CLAP/ and LV2/ into ~/.vst3, ~/.clap and ~/.lv2)

The macOS disk image contains the installer, full documentation, images, and licence texts. The packages offer VST3, Audio Unit (macOS), CLAP, LV2, AAX (macOS) and Standalone, all included as freeware. AAX is digitally signed with PACE Eden for Pro Tools compatibility. Portable bundles, checksums, build manifests and simulator source are on the release page. Signing and notarisation results are recorded there. Windows and Linux CI packages ship with Standard processing (HQ=OFF by default).

User guide

See the User Guide, HQ mode and 1.0 release notes.

Offline HQ is experimental and can be extremely slow. Begin with a millisecond-scale selection. A failure mutes export and displays its status; playback remains Standard. Long solves retain probe history and grow in memory. Full-solve estimates do not turn estimated parts into measured hardware. Listening acceptance, multi-instance DAW checks and long-render validation remain open. See measurements and limits.

Build

git clone https://github.com/MistaMin/BlueChannel.git
cd BlueChannel
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBLUECHANNEL_BUILD_AAX=OFF
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

This builds Standard processing without the optional simulator. For full HQ, install a shared ngspice library/header and use -DBLUECHANNEL_HQ=ON. All authored numerical model code is included; no private hardware source documents are needed. Universal macOS HQ builds use the simulator build script. See Building and Release process.

Licence

Blue Channel source code is MIT licensed; copyright (c) 2026 OpenGrid / Marcos Deida. The official complete binaries are distributed as freeware under the publisher's commercial JUCE licence, free of charge for personal or commercial audio production. End users do not need a JUCE developer licence to install or use these downloads. See official binary terms.

Licensing disclaimer: JUCE is available under open-source terms (GPLv3 / AGPLv3) or a commercial JUCE licence; it is NOT covered by this project's MIT licence. If you build or redistribute binaries from this source code, you must comply with your own JUCE licence terms (GPL/AGPL or commercial) — the publisher's commercial licence does not transfer to third-party builds. The vendored GoodLookinUI runtime headers retain their MIT licence. Other components retain their respective terms, including the shared simulator's BSD, MIT and LGPL rights. See Third-party licences and the included texts.

Original third-party hardware documents, drawings, OCR and research renders are not distributed. Source provenance records the separation between private inputs and public code.