WindFX – User Manual

01 Welcome

WindFX is a live effects unit for vocals, zurna, ney, kaval, mey, clarinet and saxophone. It combines an effects chain for voice and wind instruments with accompaniment (pad, groove box, metronome) and a stage view with setlists, scenes and foot switches.

• WindFX app for iPad and Mac – for gigs and practice.
• WindFX VST3 plug-in for your DAW (e.g. Cubase) – effects and pad in the studio.

All audio processing happens on your device. No account, no tracking, no ads.

02 Requirements

• iPad with iPadOS 15 or later, Mac with macOS 12 or later.
• An audio interface (USB-C, Lightning or Thunderbolt) or wired headphones. An interface gives the lowest latency.
• A microphone for your voice or instrument.

Bluetooth headphones are not suitable: they have 100–300 ms latency and are blocked for live monitoring. Bluetooth MIDI controllers work fine.

The built-in speaker is blocked to prevent feedback. On a Mac you can deliberately enable it under SETUP › Audio.

03 Installation

iPad: download WindFX from the App Store.

Mac (app and VST3 plug-in):

1. Open the installer WindFX-…-macOS.pkg from your download email.
2. Click through the steps. Under Customize you can choose WindFX App, WindFX VST3 plug-in or both.
3. Installed to: Applications › WindFX, /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/WindFX.vst3, and the VST3 factory presets to /Library/Audio/Presets/WindFX.
4. On first launch, allow microphone access. If needed, turn it on under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone.

Windows: the Windows version (app and VST3) is coming soon.

04 License & trial (Mac / Windows)

You can try the desktop version free for 14 days with all features. The top bar then shows “Trial · X days left”.

Unlocking:

1. After purchase, your license key (format WFX1-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) is in your order confirmation.
2. In WindFX, tap Enter license (in the trial notice or under SETUP › About WindFX).
3. Enter your email and license key and choose Unlock. Use exactly the email address of your order.

WindFX then shows “Licensed to …”. The license covers the app and the VST3 plug-in on this computer and needs no internet connection.

When the trial has expired, the effects are off until a license is entered. A running performance is never interrupted. Remove license (SETUP › About WindFX) deletes the entry on this computer.

On iPad no key is needed – the purchase runs through the App Store.

05 Getting started

1. Connect an interface or wired headphones. Audio starts by itself and AUDIO ON lights up green at the top right. Tap it to stop or start audio.
2. On a Mac, choose the input device, Instrument input (channel) and output under SETUP › Audio.
3. Choose a bank: VOCAL (vocals), INSTR. (instruments) or USER (your own sounds), then tap a preset.
4. Play or sing – done. For a better starting point use AUTO (see “Auto setup”).

A short tour of the controls is under SETUP › Help › Start the tour.

06 The interface

At the top left you switch between PLAY (stage) and EDIT (sound design).

• Header: bank and preset with ‹ › and the save icon, TALK, RESET, SETUP, ACCOMPANIMENT, PANIC, AUDIO ON.
• Bar below: SETLIST, TEMPO with TAP, KEY, MIXER, TUNER and a status line for messages.
• Signal chain (Edit): all active effects as tiles from left to right.
• Side panel (Edit): tabs FX (library), SCENES, PAD, GROOVE and CONTROLLER.

Gestures: tap to open, long-press to move (effects, songs, loops). Drag knobs up/down, tap for a numeric value, double-tap to reset.

07 Signal chain & effects

The signal chain shows your sound from left (input) to right (output).

• Input block: IN meter, GAIN, PRE (preamp with low cut, warm saturation and “air”), AUTO and the feedback guard icon.
• Effect tiles: name, short value and live display. Tap opens the effect large in the centre. Long-press moves it in the chain. The red − removes it.
• + EFFECT opens the library. The filters Dynamics, Tone, Voice, Motion and Space help you find things. Effects can be used more than once.
• Output block: OUTPUT and the OUT meter. A safety limiter (−1 dBFS) prevents clipping.

RESET returns all effects to factory settings and switches them off. Input, output, limiter and instrument stay; undo is possible.

08 Effects at a glance

• Dynamics: gate, compressor (incl. FET, opto, vari-mu and wind profiles), de-esser or breath balance for ney and kaval.
• Tone: 4-band EQ with low/high cut and analyzer, saturation (tube, tape, color), filter / auto-wah, lo-fi (shellac 1930, tube radio, vinyl, cassette, 1980 sampler).
• Voice: Harmony with pitch correction, second voices in the makam and octave −12/+12.
• Motion: chorus, phaser, flanger, tremolo, vibrato, rotary, auto-pan, step sequencer, freeze.
• Space: delay (digital, cassette, ping-pong, analog, reverse – with filter, grit, mod and ducking) and reverb from studio to hamam and dome, plus shimmer, bloom and cloud.

Every effect has a fixed colour, so you recognise it instantly in the chain, the library and the displays.

09 Auto setup

AUTO in the input block sets the most important effects to suit your signal.

1. Choose your instrument under SETUP › Instrument (e.g. Vocals / voice, zurna, ney, clarinet). The profile sets the starting values and the character of compressor and de-esser.
2. Tap AUTO and play or sing normally for about 10 seconds – soft and strong notes.
3. WindFX sets input, preamp, gate, de-esser, EQ, compressor and saturation. All other effects stay as they are.

The analysis is local; nothing is recorded. With silence, too little signal or a clipping input, no values are applied. Undo auto setup returns to the previous state.

10 EQ & feedback guard

• EQ: tap and drag points in the graph, pinch with two fingers to change the bandwidth. Low cut and high cut sit as points on the zero line. ANALYZER shows the spectrum; red dots mark prominent resonances (candidates – nothing is cut automatically).
• Feedback guard (SETUP › Safety, off by default): detects howling tones and sets narrow notches, shown as red lines in the EQ. In a new room choose Clear notches (new room).

Tip: keep the output low and never point the microphone at the speakers.

11 Harmony & pitch correction

Harmony has three sections: Pitch correction, Vocal and Octave.

• Choose Note (karar) and Makam / scale – Turkish makams, Arabic maqamat and European scales (41 in total).
• Pitch correction: SPEED sets how fast the note is pulled onto the notes of the makam – low is natural (vibrato stays), 100 % is instant (hard effect). HUMANIZE retunes held notes more gently, FLEX keeps scoops and slides, VIBRATO deepens or reduces your own vibrato (±12 dB).
• Voice 1 / Voice 2: second voices are counted in steps of the makam (third = two steps up) and follow your playing.
• Octave: blend in a voice one octave lower (−12) or higher (+12).

The display shows the steps of the makam (1 = karar) and the note you play.

12 Presets & User Bank

• VOCAL and INSTR. hold the factory presets in the styles Clean, Effect, Experimental, Ambient and Orient.
• Use ‹ › or the arrow keys to step through the presets of the chosen bank.
• Save icon › Save to User Bank stores your sound with a name in the USER bank. Same names ask before replacing.
• Long-press a factory preset to copy it into the User Bank.
• Under SETUP › Import / export you can save the User Bank as a file or add presets from a WindFX file.

13 Scenes A–D

Scenes are four quick memories for complete sounds within a song.

• Save: in the SCENES tab, or in play mode long-press the scene’s foot switch. The current sound including changes is saved.
• Recall: tap the scene or press its foot switch. Pad, groove and tempo keep running.

14 Play mode & setlists

PLAY is the stage view: large song or preset name, setlist on the left, live faders on the right and 8 foot switches at the bottom.

• Live faders: ROOM, ECHO and CREATIVE control the key amounts with one move.
• Foot switches (default): scene A–D, PAD, GROOVE, FREEZE, TALK. Assign and reorder them under EDIT › CONTROLLER.
• Setlist: a song stores preset, tempo, key, pad, groove and start scene. Create setlists via SETLIST; Add song takes the current sound. Long-press to reorder songs.
• Change songs with ‹ ›, the arrow keys, MIDI program change or a foot switch.

15 Accompaniment: pad, groove, metronome

• PAD: a sound bed in the root of your song (e.g. Warm Pad, Dark Pad). It follows the KEY; a played note or a MIDI keyboard can set the root. Double-tap PAD for the large view with keyboard and all controls.
• GROOVE: 8 slots for rhythm loops – darbuka, davul and def up to aksak (9/8, 7/8, 5/8 …) plus your own loops. Assign loop picks from the Library; Change on the bar switches cleanly at the end of the bar. Controls for volume, low cut and ducking. Import your own loops in the library; tempo and meter are detected and can be corrected.
• Metronome with a sound per beat (in the MIXER).
• ACCOMPANIMENT (header): one tap stops groove, pad and metronome – the groove ends on the bar line – and another tap starts them again. Long-press switches them individually.

16 Tempo, key & tuner

• TEMPO / TAP: tap in time. The tempo drives delay, groove and tempo-based effects together.
• KEY: central root for Harmony, pad and melodic grooves.
• TUNER: tuner at the dry input with note, Hz, cents and koma. Concert pitch A4 adjustable from 430 to 450 Hz. Mute while tuning silences the output meanwhile.

17 Mixer & outputs

The MIXER sets the level of instrument, groove, pad, metronome and master. Each channel can go to its own output pair on your interface – for example the metronome only to your headphones and everything else to the PA.

18 TALK & PANIC

• TALK: for announcements. Turns off reverb, delay, Harmony, modulation, pad and saturation so your voice stays clear. Tap again to return.
• PANIC: mutes everything at once, pad and groove too (keyboard: Esc). Press again to release. Ideal in case of feedback.

19 MIDI & foot switches

• USB MIDI is detected automatically. Bluetooth MIDI: SETUP › MIDI › Connect Bluetooth MIDI.
• MIDI Learn: turn it on in SETUP › MIDI & foot switches, tap a control, then move a knob or press a button on your controller. Tap again to delete the assignment. Works for knobs, effect switches, scenes, pad and actions like talk, tap and panic.
• Fixed mapping: program change = song/preset, CC 80 talk, CC 81 tap, CC 82/83 song back/forward. Keyboard and Bluetooth pedals: ← → song/preset, space talk, T tap, Esc panic.
• Four-button foot controllers (program change): under RECEIVE set “Program change selects” to Scenes A–D.
• MIDI clock send and receive, song select, MMC.
• Other apps and DAWs find WindFX as the MIDI port “WindFX”. Turn on network MIDI (RTP-MIDI) under SETUP › MIDI – only on your own network.

20 VST3 plug-in in your DAW

1. Start your DAW, e.g. Cubase. If WindFX doesn’t appear, rescan the plug-ins (/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3).
2. Insert WindFX on an audio track with your microphone. For live playing, turn on track monitoring and choose a small buffer.
3. The factory presets are in the DAW’s preset browser.

The plug-in contains the effects and the pad. Groove, play mode and setlists are app-only. Delay note values follow the DAW tempo. The license from the app also unlocks the plug-in.

21 Settings (SETUP)

• Audio: input device, instrument input (channel), output device and channels, sample rate and buffer size (Mac).
• MIDI & foot switches: MIDI Learn, devices, fixed mapping, receive/send.
• Safety: safety limiter (−1 dBFS), feedback guard.
• Instrument: profile for auto setup, compressor and de-esser.
• Import / export: import sound, WAV export, User Bank, complete backup (User Bank, setlists, MIDI assignments, pad, grooves with loops – to move between Mac and iPad).
• Language and Help (tour, send feedback, test log).
• About WindFX: version, license, legal.

22 Tips & troubleshooting

• No sound: connect an interface or wired headphones and check that AUDIO ON is green. On a Mac, check input and channel under SETUP › Audio.
• Clicks or dropouts: choose a larger buffer under SETUP › Audio and close other apps.
• Sounds doubled or delayed: if your interface has its own mixer (e.g. UAD Console), mute the direct input there. Otherwise you hear the dry signal in addition to the effect. Recommended: buffer 64–128, 48 kHz.
• Howling / feedback: press PANIC, lower the output, turn on the feedback guard.
• Bluetooth headphones: not possible (too much latency) – use cable or an interface.
• License not accepted: use exactly the email address of your order. Upper/lower case and dashes in the key don’t matter.
• New device: SETUP › Import / export › export a complete backup and import it on the other device.

23 Privacy & hearing protection

Your signal stays on your device: no account, no tracking, no ads, no recordings are transmitted. Details: dbxsound.com/pages/windfx-datenschutz.

Hearing protection: high volumes, especially through headphones and in-ear monitoring, can damage your hearing. Start quietly and use PANIC in case of feedback.

Contact & support

Email us at info@dbxsound.com. The quickest way is SETUP › Help › Send feedback (with test log): the email then includes technical values (no audio recordings). Please tell us your device, system version, audio interface and instrument. More help: dbxsound.com/pages/windfx-support

WindFX 0.9 · © 2026 DBX Sound