Drums
Preset Parallel Drum Crush
A crushed parallel layer under the loop. ENERGY raises the grit and the grain; the dry path keeps the attacks.
13X COLONYCOLOR & MOVEMENT PROCESSOR
Six effects. One ENERGY.
Add warmth, width, space and movement to drums, keys, bass and loops — six effects in one plugin, moved together by one ENERGY knob.
Warmth, width and movement for drums, keys and bass — six effects on one knob.
Download COLONY — free →
macOS · Windows · Linux · no account, no license key
Out nowFreeVST3 · AU · Standalone
The plugin's real interface, lifted into 3D. Colony is software, not hardware.
13x Colony with the preset Analog Air: ENERGY at 45 %, DRIVE, SPACE, WIDTH and COLOR active, MOTION and PUMP bypassed
See Colony in action.
The product demo: six effects, one ENERGY knob, 1:23 minutes. Sound on.
The video plays from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) once you press play. Until then nothing loads from YouTube. Privacy
Hear what Colony does.
Three loops, each through a factory preset. Switch while it plays: the original, then Colony at ENERGY 0 and at 100. A fourth loop compares PUMP on the grid with PUMP on the kick. Afterwards every file was brought to the same integrated loudness, which helps reduce loudness bias when you compare.
Keys
Preset Dreamy Chords
Chords that drift: slow filter motion, chorus width and a long Dream tail. ENERGY opens all of it at once.
Bass
Preset Dirty Groove Bass
A hard-clipped garage bass with a step filter and a swung pump. ENERGY pushes the drive, the filter and the pump together.
Pump
Preset Minimal Pump
A held pad and sub under a broken 2-step beat. On the grid, PUMP ducks on every beat, kick or not. On the kick, it ducks with each hit, the off-grid ones included.
Synthesised test loops, 4 bars at 120 BPM, no samples. Rendered offline by the development build 123eb38 with the plugin's defaults, Level Match on. Afterwards each file got one fixed gain to -18 LUFS integrated — an offline normalisation, separate from the plugin's dynamic Level Match — and was encoded as AAC 160 kbps. In the Pump loop only the pad runs through Colony; the beat is mixed in afterwards, unprocessed, and its kick also feeds the sidechain. Colony isn't out yet; its sound can still change before release.
Turn one knob. Watch the colony move.
Real captures of the preset Breakdown Bloom. As ENERGY rises, DRIVE and PUMP step back while SPACE, WIDTH and COLOR open up — every Cell along its own range, set in BUILD.
- DRIVEWarm12 %
- MOTIONBypassed in this preset
- SPACEDream22 %
- PUMPDeep26 %
- WIDTHEnsemble34 %
- COLORAir11 %
The pale band is each Cell's range from ENERGY 0 to 100.
What each Cell does.
Pick a Cell for its types, its editor and a preset that uses it.
DRIVE
Saturation, from warm to broken.
Five types from Warm and Analog Tube to Hard Clip and Crunch, with character, focus and tone. 2× oversampling by default.
- Types
- Warm
- Analog Tube
- Soft Clip
- Hard Clip
- Crunch
Shown with Parallel Drum Crush
Three views. One window.
PLAY for playing, TWEAK for every control, BUILD for how far each Cell travels. The honeycomb stays in the middle in all three.
Pick a preset, turn ENERGY, compare.
Beside the presets, the output spectrum shows each frequency band as a column; the lit cell's height is its level. Hear Original switches to the latency-aligned input; Level Match, on by default, slowly trims the output toward the input's loudness, which helps reduce loudness bias when you compare.
73 presets. Start with 22.
Sorted by what you're working on.
Filter by type, genre and character, keep favourites, and export or import packs. CHARACTER → Signature narrows the bank to 22: 12 contrasting treatments and 10 Experimental ones, which CHARACTER → Experimental also shows on their own.
Signature presets
- Circuit BreakerKeys
- Velvet UndertowPads
- Acid StaircaseBass
- Tape FeverKeys
- Pixel DustLoops
- Iron LungDrums
- Ghost OrbitAtmosphere
- Glass ArcadeSynth
- Velvet ClampBass
- Static VeilVocals
- Strobe CathedralPads
- Floor To SkyPads
Experimental presets
- Moth EngineSynth
- Doppler DiceKeys
- Rust CathedralAtmosphere
- Tripwire WaltzLoops
- Voltage LeakLoops
- AfterimagePads
- Chrome CombDrums
- Antenna RainVocals
- Rubber GuillotineBass
- Molten CircuitSynth
All genres and types
Presets per genre
- House19
- Lo-Fi19
- Hip Hop10
- Garage9
- Deep House7
- Techno7
- Tech House6
- Cinematic6
- Ambient4
- Trance3
Presets per type
- Keys14
- Bass10
- Synth9
- Drums9
- Vocals8
- Pads8
- Loops8
- Atmosphere5
- Master2
Specifications
- Status
- 1.0 out now · free
- Formats
- VST3 · AU (macOS) · Standalone
- Platforms
- macOS · Windows · Linux
- Cells
- DRIVE · MOTION · SPACE · PUMP · WIDTH · COLOR + ENERGY
- Sidechain
- Stereo input for PUMP · Kick trigger or Sidechain style
- Presets
- 73 factory presets · 22 Signature presets, 10 of them Experimental
- Parameters
- 109 · 78 automatable
- Latency
- 75 samples at 48 kHz (default 2× oversampling)
- CPU
- 0.8–1.3 % of one core at 48 kHz / 512 · all six Cells active · 1×–4× oversampling · measured on a 2024 laptop
Download COLONY
Free for macOS, Windows and Linux. Every build passed our tests and plug-in validation.
Version 1.0.0 · free · no account, no license key
macOS
macOS 11 or later · Apple silicon and Intel
VST3, Audio Unit and a standalone app
Download for macOSColony-1.0.0-macOS.zip · 39 MB
Copy Colony.vst3 to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 and Colony.component to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components.
SHA-256
f834ff0d6ff3cffe383dc283bcf96229a3af447a5f96d7f1a6a7f91512b71540Windows
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
VST3 and a standalone app
Download for WindowsColony-1.0.0-Windows.zip · 17 MB
Copy the Colony.vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. If SmartScreen asks about the standalone app: More info › Run anyway.
SHA-256
1a67ce0ecdcb3165c685a319370fc1b3d32712fa7fa4a3486d265468c653d7c7Linux
x86_64 with glibc 2.35 or later: Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 36 and newer
VST3 and a standalone app
Download for LinuxColony-1.0.0-Linux.tar.gz · 16 MB
Run sh install.sh, or copy Colony.vst3 to ~/.vst3. The standalone app runs from the folder.
SHA-256
3fdf1d816d3153cf21b792fe80365c44932b158db3cca49e97912c030aaa68afAlso free: AURORA, our dynamic EQ. See AURORA
Questions
Is Colony out?
Yes — COLONY 1.0 is out, free for macOS, Windows and Linux, from the download section of this page. No account, no license key.
Is it really free?
Yes. Colony is free, like AURORA — no account, no license key, no catch.
Which systems and formats?
macOS, Windows and Linux, as VST3 and Standalone, plus AU on macOS.
Do I need to give my email?
No. The download needs no email and no account. If you like, leave your address after the download to hear about new free plugins and COLONY updates — nothing else, and every email has a link to leave.
Is Colony hardware?
No. Colony is a plugin. The 3D view at the top of this page is its real interface, built from the plugin's own UI layers and lifted into 3D — every label, value and colour on it comes from the plugin.
What does Level Match do?
It is on by default and slowly trims Colony's output toward the loudness of the incoming signal — gated, weighted RMS over about two seconds, at most ±12 dB, before Safe Output — which helps reduce loudness bias in comparisons. While it is on, level changes from INPUT are matched too; OUTPUT comes after the match, so it stays exactly where you set it, on both sides of the comparison. It is not an integrated LUFS measurement, and not a guarantee of equal perceived loudness on every source. The listening examples on this page were rendered with it on and then normalised offline to -18 LUFS integrated — one fixed gain per file, a separate step.
How is ENERGY different from a mix knob?
Mix blends the processed and the original signal. ENERGY moves each Cell along its own range — some up, some down — as set in BUILD. Dry / Wet is a separate control.