News from the lab

Development on SY-1000 Control Center has moved forward considerably over the past week, with the application now getting much closer to release-candidate territory.

A lot of recent work has focused on turning what began as a comprehensive editor into something that can genuinely make the SY-1000 easier to operate from the computer — particularly for users who want deep MIDI control without constantly returning to the hardware.

Recent additions and improvements include a redesigned tuner interface, improved header layout, tempo and tap-tempo controls, expanded MIDI Learn functionality, and continued refinement of the routing and control workflows.

The patch-management side has also taken an important step forward. Control Center can now recognise multi-patch TSL files, present the patches they contain for selection, and safely import an individual patch rather than treating every TSL file as though it contained a single preset. This brings the import workflow much closer to the way real-world BOSS Tone Studio libraries are actually used.

Behind the scenes, there has also been substantial work on reliability, device communication, parameter handling, testing and the many small interaction details that become important when an editor is dealing with the SY-1000's thousands of parameters.

There are still a few areas being refined before I’m comfortable calling it a release candidate, but the emphasis is increasingly shifting from building major pieces of the application to polishing workflows, eliminating edge cases and making the whole thing feel coherent in everyday use.

More soon.

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Explore SY-1000 Control Center →

I have something of a love-hate relationship with my iConnectivity iConnectAUDIO4+.

It can be temperamental, occasionally infuriating, and has probably consumed more troubleshooting hours than any small box reasonably should. But it also does something genuinely special: it lets me integrate audio from a Mac and an iPad simultaneously.

That capability is central to my music setup. My Mac and iPad aren’t separate systems — they’re parts of the same rig — and the iConnectAUDIO4+ is what ties them together. Despite our differences over the years, I genuinely couldn’t work the way I do without it.

Unfortunately, actually managing the thing has become another story.

iConnectivity’s current Auracle X software and I have had what might politely be described as an extremely unsuccessful relationship. For the way I use the AUDIO4+, I find it frustrating, restrictive and simply not a workable replacement for the much deeper control that the old iConfig software provided. Day-to-day, that had reached the point where keeping this otherwise indispensable piece of hardware around was becoming increasingly difficult.

So rather than retire the hardware, I decided to resurrect iConfig.

The result is a modernised build of the original open-source application, updated to build and run properly on current macOS and Apple Silicon while preserving the familiar interface and, most importantly, its deep hardware-control functionality. I’ve also given it a new icon so it doesn’t look quite so alarmed about finding itself in a 2026 Dock.

This isn’t a new Vaultnaemsae product or an attempt to replace iConnectivity’s current software. It’s a preservation and maintenance project born largely from necessity: the hardware remains uniquely useful to me, while the software I actually need to live with it had been left behind.

There’s still functional validation underway, particularly around some of iConfig’s deeper MIDI features, but iConfig is alive and running on a modern Mac again.

The iConnectAUDIO4+ and I may never completely resolve our differences.

But I still need the damn thing, and it deserves to live.

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Explore iConfig Modern →

The past few days have turned into a fairly broad sweep through the Vaultnaemsae applications. Some of the work is immediately visible, some of it is the less glamorous business of making releases more dependable, and some of it fixes small things that matter every time you open the software.

Prism Delay and Volume Pedal have both had a visual tidy-up, with refreshed application artwork and more consistent headers. Volume Pedal's preset control and narrow-window layout have also been reworked, so the interface holds together more naturally at smaller sizes. These changes are part of the next desktop development cycle: Prism Delay is now at 1.0.2 in development and Volume Pedal at 1.0.8.

Hex Inception 1.0.3 is the biggest functional update of the group. Routing presets are now part of the application, making it much faster to move between different hexaphonic setups. A great deal of work has also gone into preset recall, hosted plug-in lifecycle behaviour, status reporting and general interface refinement. Much of that disappears into the background when it is working properly, which is exactly where it belongs.

Audio Inception 1.0.3 has received the same typography and visual-language pass, along with clearer connection and receiving status feedback. The aim is simple: you should be able to see what the plug-in is doing without having to interpret ambiguous indicators.

MIDI Matrix Monitor 1.2.0 rounds things out with clearer note-event information, consistent MIDI channel ordering and all-channel monitoring in the single-channel AUv3. Its typography has also been brought into line with the rest of the range.

This has been one of those stretches where the applications begin to feel less like separate experiments and more like a family. The new version numbers mark the current release targets; availability can differ by platform while each build completes its release checks. I will update the individual product pages as those builds become publicly available.

Browse the software →

Prism Delay AUv3 is now available for iPadOS, priced at $14.99 USD.

This one is particularly close to my heart, drawing on a sound and an approach to music that has fascinated me for many years. There is no shortage of delay apps out there, so when I started work I wasn't interested in making another conventional delay. The inspiration came instead from one of the more unusual effects units ever made: the Yamaha UD Stomp, developed in collaboration with Allan Holdsworth.

The UD Stomp has acquired almost mythical status over the years — partly the Holdsworth association, partly because they are increasingly difficult to find (and crazy expensive), but mostly because it approached delay in such an unusual way. That idea is at the heart of Prism Delay.

You get eight independently controllable delay lines, which build everything from fairly conventional echoes through to wide modulated textures, rhythmic patterns, chorused sounds and huge, almost reverb-like spaces. It is the kind of effect where experimenting quickly takes you somewhere you weren't expecting to go.

Prism Delay isn't a forensic recreation of the UD Stomp. It's my own interpretation of the multi-delay concept, with a workflow designed for a modern plug-in environment. That said — check out the presets. It's pretty damn close.

As someone who increasingly likes the idea of the iPad as a serious platform for guitar processing and experimental audio, I'm particularly pleased to have this version out in the world.

Prism Delay on the App Store →

After some very carefully thought-out user feedback, I've implemented a basic preset system in Hex Inception. It should make reconfiguration considerably more user-friendly — have a look at the Routing section.

I hope to release an update this week, though I'm working through a perplexing bug introduced by the preset system. I'll solve that, then see what else I can improve for the next update.

Status update — 3 September 2026: routing presets are now ready for the next release, but are not included in the current public release. The development notes above describe the work as it stood on 31 August.

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Hex Inception →

The app/plug-in now has a functional routing grid. This one has been a lot of work and a massive learning curve, thanks to the sheer number of parameters controlled by MIDI SysEx messages — over 3,000 of them. It still needs GUI polish, but it is working exactly as intended.

The standalone version is more of a dev testing environment; it really shines in plug-in mode, where it can sit on an audio track and let you monitor and edit your SY-1000's stereo output directly. The standalone build is essentially "just an editor", but with audio I/O for monitoring, so you can listen to your SY-1000 through another interface without firing up a DAW.

I'm really enjoying using the device again, and I find this light years ahead of BOSS Tone Studio for SY-1000.

Also today: a bug report from a MIDI Matrix Monitor user — Note Off velocity values were not appearing in either the channel column view or the global MIDI stream. Rectified for the next update.

SY-1000 Control Center →

I'm opening myself up to private guitar teaching and digital rig consulting.

Earlier in my career I spent a lot of time as a guitar teacher, but over the years that fluctuated in volume and committable time — one of the realities of being a dad and an employee. I never stopped teaching, and I currently have a very small stable of valued students. Now I'm in a position to share more.

If you'd be interested in booking a session, either for guitar tuition or rig consulting, head to the coaching page. If that's too long to wait, contact me directly.

Coaching & consultation →

Prism Delay version 1.0.0 is out now for macOS (AUv2/VST3) and Windows (VST3). The iPadOS version is under App Store review.

If you remember the Yamaha UD Stomp — or its purple sibling, the Magicstomp — you'll have a good idea where the inspiration came from. Prism Delay is my creative take on that wonderfully excessive approach to delay: eight independently controllable delay lines that combine into everything from straightforward stereo echoes to huge modulated spaces, rhythmic patterns and complex interconnected delay networks.

Each line has its own Time, Level, Pan, Feedback, modulation and shaping controls, while Connect, Group and Sync let the eight lines interact in ways that go well beyond a conventional multitap delay.

I've deliberately treated this as inspired-by rather than a component-level clone. The aim was to capture the creative philosophy that made those Yamaha pedals so unusual, then build it into a modern plug-in workflow with a visual eight-line FIELD, detailed LINE editing, 128 preset slots, user presets, MIDI Program Change and DAW automation.

Prism Delay →

A new application/plug-in in progress, inspired by the idea of combining an editor with a plug-in with audio I/O that can be loaded on a track in your DAW — full audio pass-through while maintaining a connectable editing state.

In my workspace the SY-1000 lives under my desk in a rack tray, so it's not always immediately accessible. One hope for this project: if the plug-in proves a success, it should be reasonably easy to port to other BOSS devices like the VG-800 and GM-800.

SY-1000 Control Center →

A big leap for Scale Demon. The pitch visualisation engine depended on data from MIDI Guitar 3, transmitted via a WebSocket and MG3's API/Lua scripting system. That had real advantages, and I saw a lot of potential in Lua, but I haven't seen much MG3 development lately, so I've decoupled the application from it.

The main reason was accessibility: Scale Demon should work for anybody with a MIDI-generating instrument, whether that's a pitch-to-MIDI plug-in or a MIDI keyboard. There is now a keyboard visualiser in addition to the guitar fretboard — and I'm driving it here with a hardware guitar synthesizer. Stay tuned.

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Scale Demon →

Both plug-ins are out. In a nutshell: the Hex version lets your USB-connected hexaphonic guitar system link up with multichannel audio input plug-ins in DAWs that otherwise wouldn't allow it, and also handles trickier work like reamp/resynth and funnelling virtual MIDI. The Audio version lets you "inject" a Core Audio device into a DAW or host contrary to that app's audio settings.

Both are very useful utilities. I hope you'll test drive them.

Browse the software →