The generative tape-loop machine. Four loops of different lengths that drift out of phase and never quite repeat.
This page is the manual. It is kept up to date here, so there is nothing to re-download when something changes. Last updated 6 August 2026.
The 30 second version
Press PLAY. That is genuinely it. The music writes itself out of the phasing between four loops of different lengths, not from chords you enter.
The four loops are deliberately different lengths that do not divide into each other. That mismatch is the whole reason they drift apart instead of locking into a groove.
How do I get rid of the hiss and crackle?
All of it is under your control and all of it goes to zero. It is two separate things.
For SILT clean and undressed: DUST 0, all three FIELD levels 0, WARP 0. That leaves just the four tape loops and the music.
AGE, in the WEAR section, darkens the tone. Not noise exactly, but worth knowing if you want it brighter.
There is a low note that never stops
That is the drone: the root, a slightly detuned copy, and the octave above, filtered low and held for as long as the instrument runs. It follows the ROOT control, which is why it retunes when you change key.
It used to have no level control at all, which a customer quite rightly pointed out was the one voice in SILT without a fader. It has one now. The DRONE slider sits above the MOOD selector. Slide it to silent and the low note goes, with the tape loops carrying on without it.
The BASS fader belongs to the bass tape loop, not to the drone, which is why turning it down does not touch it.
I can hear it, but my recording comes back silent
This is the single most common question, and it is not you. SILT generates its music in real time, inside the plug-in. An offline bounce renders faster than real time, so there is nothing there to render and you get silence.
The trap: Bounce Track in Place has no realtime option at all. It is always offline. If you are hunting for a Realtime setting in that window, it is not there and never was.
The fix, in Logic
Logic now plays the whole thing through while it records, so a three minute piece takes three minutes. That is normal and it means it is working.
Recording MIDI does not work either
A self-playing instrument does not send notes out for your DAW to capture, so you get a region with almost nothing in it. What you are hearing is the synth itself. Audio is the only way to keep it.
The method that cannot fail
If the bounce is still fighting you, record it live instead. This captures exactly what you hear, including knob moves as you make them.
Check this first, before anything else. Press play in your DAW and watch SILT. Is it actually making sound while the transport runs? If it goes quiet the moment the DAW plays, that is the whole problem and it has nothing to do with bounce settings. SILT has its own PLAY button and it needs to be on.
Can I reverse a loop, or change its speed?
Not yet, and both are honest maybes. Reverse is the easiest of the requests because the loops are generated note patterns rather than audio. Speed is doable but would most likely be a set of ratios rather than free, because a completely free speed control would let you accidentally line the loops up and kill the drift that makes SILT work at all.
Can I load my own loops?
No, and this one is furthest away. SILT's loops are not samples, they are note patterns played by a synth voice, so loading your own means building a sampler path that does not exist in the instrument. Not a no, but a different build rather than an update.
Is there an iOS version?
No, and no date promised. If it happens it will be AUv3 so it behaves inside AUM, Cubasis and Logic on iPad.
Where is my licence key?
In your Gumroad receipt email, and on your Gumroad library page. There is a separate key for each instrument, so if you bought the Collection you have three of them.
It is silent and asking for a key
That is normal. Every instrument stays silent until it is unlocked. Paste the key on the first screen and press UNLOCK.
Do I have to activate every format separately?
No. One activation covers the AU, the VST3, the AAX and the Standalone on that machine.
If your DAW blocks the internet check, activate once in the Standalone app and the plug-in versions unlock along with it. All formats share the same activation.
Does it phone home? Do I need to stay online?
No, and no. It checks the licence once, when you first activate. After that the activation is written to a file on your own machine and it never contacts a server again. You can take the machine permanently offline and it keeps working.
On macOS the record lives at ~/Library/Tunary Instruments/SILT/license.json. The
installer never touches that file, so updating never costs you your activation.
My key was rejected
Send me the key you are using and the email address you bought with, and I will sort it at my end. james@tunary.io
The easy way
Download the installer from your Gumroad library and double-click it. It puts the Audio Unit, the VST3 and the AAX where every host looks for them, and you can untick any format on the Installation Type screen. macOS will ask for your password, which is normal for the shared Plug-Ins folder.
Installing by hand
Use the folders at the top level of your disk, not the ones inside your home folder. In Finder press Shift Cmd G, paste the path, and drag the file in.
Tunary /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components//Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3//Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/The one that catches people. There is a similar folder inside your home folder that starts
with ~. Logic and Final Cut read both, but DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro only read
the top-level one, so a plug-in put in the home-folder version simply never appears in them.
Quit your host first
Fully quit your DAW or editor with Cmd Q before installing, then reopen it. Hosts only look for new plug-ins when they start.
What it runs on
macOS 11 Big Sur and later, Universal, so native on both Apple Silicon and Intel. Signed and Apple notarised, so macOS opens it with no security warning. Windows is VST3, 64-bit, Windows 10 and up. The AAX for Pro Tools is Mac only, and it comes in the Mac installer rather than the zip, because it has to go into a folder the zip cannot write to.
Windows says "Windows protected your PC"
The Windows builds are not code-signed, so SmartScreen warns on first run. Click More info then Run anyway. You do it once. A Windows signing certificate runs to several hundred dollars a year, which is a lot for a small label, so for now that warning is the honest trade.
Also, before you unzip: right-click the zip, choose Properties, tick Unblock, then extract. Windows tags anything downloaded and copies that tag onto every file inside.
Where does it show up in my DAW?
Under Tunary Instruments, not under the product name.
Not there at all in Logic? Logic Pro > Settings > Plug-in Manager, search for it. If it is unticked, tick it. If it failed validation, select it and click Reset & Rescan Selection. Usually it just means Logic was open while you installed.
Pro Tools
SILT is an instrument, so it goes on an Instrument track, in the first insert slot. Not an audio track, which only processes sound that is already there.
Not there in Pro Tools? It only scans plug-ins when it launches, so quit it fully with Cmd Q and reopen. That is nearly always it.