Sydney-based audio software company remaincalm have relaunched this week, with three new audio processing plugins: GLOSS, PARANOIA, and GOSSAMER.
After operating under-the-radar since 2008, Sydney-based audio software developer remaincalm has officially relaunched with a polished new lineup of creative effect plugins. The relaunch introduces a set of new, hand-made tools designed to inspire unconventional sound design. After years of quiet influence, remaincalm are ready to let the world hear what Sydney’s audio underground has been building.
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The weird and wonderful
remaincalm’s story begins in the experimental fringes of audio software development. Since 2008, founder Daniel Arena and his team have been crafting bizarre and brilliant tools that found their way into everything from homebrew drum machines on gaming consoles to contributions for weird sequencer software. Their clunky interfaces and unconventional approaches might have seemed rough around the edges, but musicians discovered something special.
“We got our start doing bizarre stuff decades ago,” Arena explains. “Homebrew drum machines on gaming consoles, contributions to weird sequencer software, lots of clunky tools with busted user interfaces – but somewhere along the way people used some of these things to create amazing music.”
Some of remaincalm’s experimental tools even became part of established platforms, shipping as part of REAPER DAW and Mod Audio platforms. It’s the kind of grassroots influence that speaks to the company’s genuine commitment to pushing creative boundaries rather than chasing commercial trends.
The relaunch: polished & otherworldly
The 2025 reboot represents a fascinating evolution – taking those strange, wonderful ideas and refining them into accessible software that maintains their otherworldly character.
“We rebooted the company to take some of those strange ideas and expand them into polished software that is easy to use, but capable of otherworldly sounds.”
The new plugin suite arrives in VST3, AU, and AAX formats for macOS and Windows, featuring three distinctly different tools.
PARANOIA – Waveform Mangler is an extreme modulated distortion effect inspired by industrial music and vintage chiptune gear. This ‘sequenced sound destroyer’ creates impossible rhythms and textures, from light preamp crunch to total audio meltdown. Fifteen years in the making, it’s a ground-up rewrite of a tool that first appeared as a free REAPER contribution in 2010.
GOSSAMER – Synth Beautifier focuses on modulation to transform any synth sound. Inspired by Berlin School electronica, it blends circuit-modelled and modern effects through unique phaser, chorus, formant-filter, and shimmer modules based on obscure 1970s equipment.
GLOSS – Shiny Enhancer makes any synth sound “a little bit nicer” through two characterful chorus sounds and reverb derived from GOSSAMER. Despite being free, it sounds like vintage gear and delivers drastic but warm tonal changes.
To celebrate the relaunch, GLOSS is available as a permanent free download, while customers signing up for the remaincalm mailing list receive 20% off the paid plugins. It’s a generous introduction to a company that’s been giving the audio community strange gifts to experiment with for nearly two decades.
remaincalm’s commitment to accessible weirdness provides something much needed in music production. These plugins are the refined expression of 17 years spent exploring the strange corners of audio processing.
All plugins are available now from remaincalm, with GLOSS as a permanent free download.
