v1.0.1 · VST3 + AU effect · macOS + Windows · 100% free
What Chop does
Drop it on a pad, a vocal, a guitar loop, a whole bus. Chop opens and closes on the beat so the sound turns into a rhythm. Six rates from quarter notes to 1/32s with triplets, five patterns from straight to gallop to random, and a LENGTH knob that decides how much of every step you hear. SHAPE goes from a soft pluck to a hard gate. SWING and HUMANIZE keep it from sounding like a machine.
Where it comes from
Chop is the first section of Gremlin, our three-part mangler. It was always the part people reached for first, so now it is its own plugin and it is free. Same engine, same green chomper, nothing held back.
Six knobs, one groove
RATE. 1/4, 1/8, 1/8T, 1/16, 1/16T, 1/32. Locked to your DAW tempo.
PATTERN. STRAIGHT, OFFBEAT, 3-3-2, GALLOP, RANDOM. Which steps open.
LENGTH. How much of each step stays open. Short for stabs, long for a pulse.
SHAPE. Soft pluck at zero, hard gate at full. 2 ms edges so it never clicks.
SWING. Every second step lands late, up to 66% MPC swing.
HUMANIZE. Up to 12 ms of timing drift and up to 6 dB of level drift, random per step.
Get started in 3 steps
1. Put Chop on something that sustains. A pad, a held chord, a vocal, a reverb return.
2. Press play. It opens on Init at 1/8 straight. You already have a groove.
3. Pick a pattern and a rate. GALLOP at 1/16 is the trap move. 3-3-2 at 1/8 is the latin one. RANDOM is the surprise.
Make it yours
THE CHOMPER. The green face is the readout. It bites every time the gate opens, so you see the pattern before you hear it.
MIX and OUT. Blend the chopped signal with the dry one, trim the result. BYPASS pill in the header for an honest A/B.
PRESETS. 11 to start: Init, Nibble, Machine Gun, Gentle Hiccup, Gallop, Chomp, Triplet Bite, Swing Snack, Three Three Two, Offbeat Munch and Feral. Save unlimited of your own.
INIT ANY KNOB. Right-click or Cmd-click a knob to send it home.
Want more?
Chop is the top-left square of Gremlin. Gremlin adds SMEAR, the granular plate that melts your chopped loop into a wash, and the full STUTTER rack underneath, for $15.
Common questions
Is Chop really free? Yes. Free forever. Full version, every knob, no email wall, no subscription.
What DAWs does Chop work in? Any DAW that loads VST3 or AU plugins: Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, GarageBand, Reaper, Studio One and more.
Is there a Windows version of Chop? Yes. Chop ships for macOS (VST3 + AU) and Windows (VST3), code-signed on both.
How do I install Chop? Run the installer and it puts the plugin files in the right folders. Restart your DAW, rescan if needed, done.