The free TouchMod IN and FX plugins let producers move up to eight instrument or effect parameters at once from an iPad or touchscreen.
Essession has released a pair of plugins built for playing parameters with your fingers rather than a mouse. TouchMod IN and TouchMod FX are Windows VST3 plugins that turn an iPad or a Windows touchscreen into a performance surface for software instruments and effects, so several related controls can be moved together instead of one at a time.
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Each finger drives two assigned parameters at once, one on the X axis and one on the Y, and with four fingers on the screen that adds up to as many as eight parameters moving together. A single gesture might open a filter while pulling back the resonance, or push delay feedback up while darkening the repeats.
Unlike a standard touchscreen MIDI controller, TouchMod skips MIDI CC mappings altogether and works straight with the writable parameters a plugin exposes through VST3. Parameters get assigned by nudging a control in Learn mode or picking from the plugin’s list, and each one’s range can be narrowed or reversed so the movement lands somewhere musical.
TouchMod IN holds two VST3 instruments in a single instance and lets parameters from both share the same pad, while TouchMod FX holds two effects and routes them in series or parallel. Either way, a layered instrument or a connected effect chain becomes one playable setup rather than a scatter of separate plugin windows.
Gestures can also be captured with Loop Learning and played back as continuous movement, with speed and amplitude still adjustable as the loop runs and a second gesture able to sit on top for something more involved. Where an LFO repeats a fixed mathematical cycle, a TouchMod loop keeps the shape and feel of a movement performed by hand.
The plugins run on a Windows multitouch display or a second screen wired to the computer, and the free TouchMod Remote app carries the same surface to an iPad over local Wi-Fi. The DAW and plugin windows stay put on the main screen while the iPad sits close to hand as a dedicated controller, with no internet connection needed.
Aimed at producers, sound designers and electronic musicians who’d rather play their parameters than set them, TouchMod IN and TouchMod FX are out now as 64-bit VST3 plugins for Windows. Both are free to download until 15 September 2026, and anyone who grabs them before then keeps a permanent licence along with future updates.
Download TouchMod here.
