Hyperfocus DSP’s kick drum synth plugin Niner is being distributed for free!
This article covers the distribution details and overview of Niner.
We hope you find it helpful.
1. What is Hyperfocus DSP “Niner”?
Niner is an open-source (GPL-3.0) kick drum synthesizer plugin equipped with a parallel 3-layer kick engine consisting of SUB, MID, and TOP, alongside a 909-style CLAP voice.
Key Features
- 3-layer kick engine: SUB (sine wave with pitch envelope), MID (sine + noise blend), and TOP (band-pass click transient) layered with independent tuning, amp/pitch envelopes, and drift
- 909-style CLAP voice: Noise into 2-pole SVF band-pass, with a parallel clap that fires three burst patterns plus an exponential tail. Adjustable from 500-5000 Hz with a 50-400 ms tail
- 5 distortion palettes: Sat Clip, Sat Diode, Sat Tape, Transformer drive, and Master warmth selectable on the master stage
- Per-voice clipper: Optional Tanh/Diode/Cubic three-mode clipper applied before the amp envelope inside each kick voice
- Master bus compressor: Three macros (Amount, Reaction, Transformer drive) plus a precision strip with Attack 0.3-50 ms, Release 20-800 ms, and soft knee 0-12 dB
- Master EQ: Tilt, low shelf, and variable-Q notch
- 16-step sequencer: Host-synced inside the DAW, internal transport in standalone mode
- BOUNCE function: One-shot export of the current sound through the full chain to 16-bit/44.1 kHz WAV or AIFF. Runs off the audio thread so it won’t affect live audio during playback
- Factory and user presets: JSON-based with forward compatibility, switchable with up/down keys
- Format support: VST3 / CLAP / standalone (macOS Apple Silicon + Intel, Windows, Linux x86_64)
2. Niner Installation and Download
Enter your email address in the “DOWNLOAD” section at the bottom of the official page, and builds for Windows / macOS / Linux will be displayed. Move the downloaded plugin file to a folder your DAW can read.
Windows
- VST3 folder: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
- CLAP folder: C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP
macOS
- VST3 folder: Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST3/
- CLAP folder: Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/CLAP/
Niner does not support AU (Audio Unit). Also note that Niner binaries are not code-signed or notarized, so they may be blocked by macOS Gatekeeper. The README explains how to bypass this and other notes – please review before installing.
Download Niner Free from Hyperfocus DSP Official Page
That wraps up the free distribution information for Niner.