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Floe v2.0.4: Redesigned Browsers, Distortion and Limiter

· 4 min read
Sam Windell
Sam Windell
Floe's creator

Floe 2.0.4 is out now - a big update with redesigned browsers, a reworked Distortion effect, a new Limiter, shared grains and lots of improvements throughout.

Floe v2.0.4 preset browser in Browse mode

Browsers​

The preset, Instrument and IR browsers have had another rework, shaped by your feedback. With several libraries installed, finding things took a lot of scrolling, and most of the time you don't want to combine filters - you just want to pick one thing and see what's in it.

The new Browse mode is much cleaner and feels more like a menu, opening right beneath the selector you clicked. It gets you to a library, preset bank, folder or tag in fewer clicks. The browsers can be resized too. Filter mode is still there if you prefer the previous way of working. See the browsers docs for a full walkthrough.

Distortion and Limiter​

We've improved the Distortion effect to be richer and avoid volume changes as you turn up the drive. There are 10 new or upgraded types, a cleaner sound with 4x oversampling, new Punish and Tilt controls, and Auto Gain. Additionally, a new display shows you the real distortion shape. Existing presets and DAW projects load with the older types, kept as Legacy types.

Distortion effect with shape preview

There's also a new Limiter effect, mainly for the end of the effects chain, with input, gain-reduction and output meters.

Limiter effect with meters

Shared grains​

Granular layers have a new Share Grains option. With shared grains, the number of grains stays the same however many notes you play. So a sparse, delicate granular texture keeps its sparseness and intricate character even when you play wide chords, rather than building up into a dense wash with every note you add. It's lovely for creating fragile, detailed textures.

Share Grains button tooltip on a granular layer

Redesigned effects rack​

The Effects page has an improved switchboard where you can now click an effect to make the rack jump straight to it - really handy for finding your way around once you've got a few effects going.

Effects page with the effects switches and FX rack

Other highlights​

  • Faster audio engine: up to 2.5x faster in heavy granular use
  • Clearer macros: displays and value popups show what macros are doing, and Edit Range lets you set a destination's range while hearing each end
  • Variation for granular layers and random LFO shapes, so a preset can repeat the exact same grain scatter or LFO movement on every note or on each key
  • Default preset: choose what new instances of Floe open with
  • More descriptive tooltips, with values shown straight away on hover
  • New displays and meters: a LUFS meter, peak-hold lines, Compressor meters, a High-pass filter graph and a Bit Crush shape preview
  • Overhauled documentation
  • Smoother, more useful Bit Crush controls
  • Swap layers and macros from their right-click menus
  • LFO Amount as an MPE press and slide target
  • Wider layer Pitch range of ±88 semitones
  • Respond to MIDI panic messages (All Notes Off and All Sound Off)

And loads more besides - see the full changelog for everything.

As always, Floe is free and open source. Grab v2.0.4 from the download page.