KeyDip
by Florian Mrugalla · Filter · MIDI-controlled dip filter
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KeyDip is a free polyphonic filter from Florian Mrugalla that dips bell filters at the pitches of incoming MIDI notes, with 16 voices and MTS-ESP tuning support.
It is free and open source, as VST3 for Windows.
Best for: Keys & Synths, Mix Bus, Sound Design. Genres: Electronic & EDM, Pop.
Keywords: MIDI-controllable, free, bus processing, open source, pads, full mix, mix bus, mixing, sound design, thin, wide.
What it does
KeyDip is a polyphonic, MIDI-controlled filter that "dips bells on the fundamental frequencies" of the notes you send it. The idea is to thin out one layer at exactly the pitches another part is playing; the developer built it as a challenge to finish a whole plugin in less than a day.
- MIDI-driven bells: each incoming MIDI note places a cut (bell) filter at that note's fundamental frequency, using MIDI keytracking.
- 16 voices: fully polyphonic, so a chord carves out several frequencies at once.
- Q control: sets how narrow or wide each dip is.
- Envelopes: attack and release on each voice shape how quickly a dip fades in when a note starts and fades out after it ends.
- Microtuning: MTS-ESP support, so the dips follow alternative tunings when an MTS-ESP master is running.
The developer is open about its limits as a one-day project: there is no parameter smoothing, no octave transposition for the MIDI input, no adjustable filter slope, no keytracked gain and no lookahead, and the developer mentions plans for a refined version. Version 1.0 is free and open source under the GPL 3 license; the source is on GitHub.
Source: Florian Mrugalla product page
When to use it
KeyDip is worth trying when you want a pad, bus or layer to step out of the way of specific notes, driven directly by MIDI. Compared with Wavesfactory Trackspacer, which ducks frequencies based on a sidechain audio signal, KeyDip follows the notes themselves, so the dips are precise in pitch but only cover fundamentals, not the whole spectrum of the other part. Unlike Volcano 3 or FilterShaper XL, it is not a creative filter for sweeps and movement; it does one corrective-style job. Being free and deliberately unpolished, it suits experiments more than critical mixing.
- Best for: making room for a lead line or chords by feeding their MIDI into KeyDip on a pad or bus track.
- Genres: electronic, pop and microtonal music.
- Look elsewhere if: you need full-spectrum, audio-driven ducking (Trackspacer) or a general creative filter (Volcano 3 or FilterShaper XL).
Where to buy
- Florian Mrugalla: Free
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