Patina is a characterful audio effect for adding age, drift, digital wear and spacious atmosphere to instruments, vocals and found sound. Move from subtle warmth and remembered colour to unstable, faded and atmospheric textures without losing the identity of the source.
Patina is designed for sounds that need history rather than obvious destruction. Wear sets the amount of ageing, Age Time lets the treatment evolve, Instability adds drift and flutter, and Character changes the overall degree of fading.
Use Mix to preserve the source while letting Delay and Reverb extend the treatment into space. The result can stay nearly invisible or become a deliberately faded, unstable memory of the original signal.
Low Wear and low Instability are often enough on piano, synths and vocals. Raise Mix only after the movement feels right.
Delay, Reverb and character processing can lift peaks. Use Output to keep the processed sound comfortably below clipping.
1. Insert Patina after your instrument or audio track.
2. Choose a gentle factory preset.
3. Raise Wear and add a small amount of Instability.
4. Blend with Mix rather than processing at 100% by default.
5. Add Delay and Reverb only when the source needs depth.
6. Copy to B before making a more extreme version.
Patina 0.5.3 is currently a public beta for macOS and Windows. The landscape user guide is available above and includes quick-start ideas, control explanations and creative recipes.