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This release makes Aurora faster to work with and more dependable inside the host, while keeping the 1.3 matte interface and parameter map intact.

• Your editor size now sticks. Aurora remembers its last scale across close/reopen and wrapper-tab changes, while still respecting sizes restored by the host.
• Faster precision moves. Ctrl/Cmd + wheel gives five-times-finer control; Alt-click a band node toggles Listen; modifier-wheel gestures make Q, cut slope and cut-knee edits deliberate.
• More restrained Character modes. Subtle adds quiet even/odd harmonics; Warm is now H2-focused with a much faster upper-harmonic taper. Clean remains transparent.
• Safer editor lifecycle. Update checks cancel cleanly, background workers shut down in order, and repeated editor creation/removal is bounded and regression-tested.
• Literal unity at the default. Zero-gain bells/shelves and the nominal 0 dB output centre now bypass floating-point residue; the full fresh Clean path nulls sample-for-sample.

Existing projects, presets and automation load without migration. Subtle and Warm intentionally use the new, gentler voicings.

macOS ships as a universal Apple Silicon + Intel build with VST3, AU and CLAP, signed and notarized by Apple.

The interface has been rebuilt from the ground up since 1.0 — this build brings Windows fully up to date with the current design:

• Matte, card-on-stage look. A floating matte-black surface on a pure-black stage, teal as the single state accent, eight muted pigment band colours with the signature translucent per-band fills.
• One control line. All knobs live on a single row with an EQ · DYN · DE-HARSH page selector — enabling Dyn jumps straight to the DYN page and gain reduction reads live next to the selector. The window is dramatically more compact.
• Sharper type, calmer analyzer. True CSS-pixel typography with real Medium/SemiBold weights, gentle display smoothing on the spectrum, a quieter pre-EQ ghost and a glowing master curve.

No changes to sound, parameters or sessions — existing projects load unchanged; hosts show the new window size on next open.

Ships as a plain zip: unzip, then drop Aurora.vst3 into your VST3 folder (Aurora.clap into CLAP). No installer, no SmartScreen warning.

Layout refinements to the matte rebuild, straight from user feedback:

• No window-in-a-window. The frame and outer padding are gone — the matte surface *is* the plugin, and the display runs truly edge to edge.
• One control line. All knobs live on a single row with an EQ · DYN · DE-HARSH page selector — the dead space below the controls is gone and the window is dramatically more compact.
• Enabling Dyn jumps straight to the DYN page; gain reduction reads live next to the selector.

No changes to sound, parameters or sessions — existing projects load unchanged. The window is more compact; hosts will show the new size on next open.

This is the interface Aurora was meant to have — implemented 1:1 from our final design master, replacing yesterday's interim look:

• Matte black. A pure-black stage, a solid near-black window, film-grain quiet. No gradients, no glows.
• Pigment bands. Eight muted band colours, and every band now paints a translucent fill of exactly what it does to the spectrum — the whole EQ is readable at a glance.
• One accent. Teal marks state — active Spectrum, Dyn engaged, gain reduction — and nothing else.
• Flat, precise nodes with dark numerals, a white outline on the selected band, and a monochrome analyzer that stays out of the way.

Kept from 1.2.0: the band-delete Restore chip, centre-detent bipolar knobs (Gain/Output/Range), the documented gestures, and the readability contrast floor.

No changes to sound, parameters or sessions — existing projects load unchanged.

One interface, rebuilt 1:1 from our original design master. The three-theme experiment is over — Aurora now ships a single, definitive look: the glass-bead band nodes, the glowing response curve, the gradient wordmark, the full aurora stage. Every 1.1 feature (per-band dynamics, De-Harsh, Smart Ops, Listen, placement) redrawn in that language.

New — and honest:

• Real input/output meters. Peak bars per channel with a shared dB ruler (−36…+6), an emphasized 0 dBFS tick, peak-hold and a clip indicator — fed by the actual audio path, not an animation.
• Band-delete safety net. Double-click removes a band; a Restore chip brings it back, parameters intact. The gesture is now documented right on the display.
• Centre-detent knobs. Bipolar controls (Gain, Output, Range) fill from 12 o'clock — +0.0 dB finally *looks* like zero.
• Readability pass. All small labels lifted above the accessibility contrast floor.

No changes to sound, parameters or sessions — existing projects load unchanged. Note: the plugin window proportions changed with the redesign; hosts will show the new size on next open.

Three UI themes — "Pro" is the new default.

• Pro (default): flat and restrained — no glows, no gradient washes, a calm steel analyzer tone, crisper buttons. Colour only means something: band identity and state.
• Black (new): strictly monochrome on pure-black chrome — white spectrum, white controls; only the band markers on the graph keep their colours.
• Aurora: the original glow look, unchanged.

Switch anytime: More from 13x → Theme (bottom-left of the plugin). Your choice is remembered across sessions and applies to all open instances.

No changes to sound, parameters or sessions — existing projects load unchanged.