pruina

Pruina

Spectral freeze for iPhone, iPad & Mac

Pruina (Latin for hoarfrost) freezes sound. Tap once and it captures the spectrum of whatever is playing — a chord, a vocal, a whole mix — and sustains it as an endless, gently evolving drone that never decays. Shimmer it into rising clouds, smear it into air, stack captures into chords, and wrap it all in a lush reverb. Use it on its own or as an Audio Unit (AUv3) effect inside your favourite music app.

Quick start

Standalone: hit Play to run the built-in demo pad through the effect, then tap the spectrum display to freeze it. Or switch the source to your microphone or import a song.
As a plugin: load Pruina as an AUv3 audio effect in GarageBand, AUM, Logic, or any AUv3 host, and drop it on any track. Automate the Freeze parameter to capture a moment exactly where you want it.
Dial it in: pick a mode (Freeze · Smear · Shimmer), then shape the sound with the grouped controls — Freeze, Shimmer, Texture, Tone, Space, Output.
Build chords: turn on Layer and each freeze adds to what’s held, so you stack captures into evolving chords and pads by ear.
Presets: browse the factory presets with the arrows in the header (Infinite Cathedral, Rising Aurora, Supermassive, Glass Bells, Vapor Trails, Nebula…) and save your own.

Support

Need help, found a bug, or have a feature request? Email konst.schuetz@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you.

FAQ

What is a spectral freeze? Pruina analyses your audio with a short-time Fourier transform and, the instant you freeze, takes a snapshot of its spectrum. It then keeps resynthesising that snapshot with slowly drifting phase, so instead of fading away the sound sustains forever as a smooth, evolving drone. Smear blurs the spectrum continuously into a soft wash; Shimmer adds pitched, regenerating layers that rise endlessly.

What can it do beyond freezing? Shimmer (octave / fifth / two-octave intervals, with a Regen control for infinite rising clouds), spectral Blur (morph a pitched freeze into breath and air), Sparkle (gate down to the peaks for crystalline bells), Warp (stretch the timbre), Layer mode (stack captures into chords), tone shaping, a wide stereo image, and a lush diffuse reverb wrapped around the whole thing.

Does it work with my other music apps? Yes. Pruina runs as an Audio Unit (AUv3) audio effect inside hosts like GarageBand, AUM, and Logic, with full host preset and parameter automation support. It reports its processing latency so hosts delay-compensate automatically.

Why does it ask for the microphone? Only in the standalone app, and only if you choose the microphone as the input source, so the effect can process live audio. Nothing is ever recorded, uploaded, or shared. As an AUv3 plugin, the host provides the audio and no microphone access is needed.

Does it collect any data? No. Pruina collects nothing and has no tracking. See the Privacy Policy.