Micro, Meso, and Macro in Lens

Lens always runs three layers. They are the product. Micro, Meso, and Macro are not modes you pick between. They are three clocks on the same audio, each with its own pitch, shelves, and repeats.

Lens is a VST3 time effect for Windows and macOS. It does not make sound by itself. It needs a track that is already playing. The Lens guide is the full first pass. This note is the three layers, because the names get treated like grain sizes, and they are not.

The opening state

Lens	What it listens to	Repeats lock to	Opening pitch
Micro	The short scale: grains, attacks, the edge of a hit	Eighth-note family	−12 st
Meso	The body of a note, a short phrase	Quarter-note family	0 st
Macro	Sustain, tails, the shape of a bar	Half-note family	+12 st

Pitch on each lens runs from −24 to +24 semitones, in semitone steps. The centre of the knob is unison. Micro starts an octave down and Macro an octave up so the first thing you hear is already a stack. Meso starts in unison so one layer can stay honest to the source.

Each layer has its own Mix and Feedback. Feedback at zero is one statement of the layer: the pitched sound, delayed by whatever that lens needs in order to hear, and no echoes after it. As you turn Feedback up, repeats appear, and they follow the host tempo. Change the song tempo and the repeats move with it.

Quality is the window, not a fourth lens

Quality is the length of the listening window, from about a tenth of a second to about two seconds. Longer is smoother and slower to bloom. In Live timing, a longer window means the Macro layer arrives later. It starts long enough to be smooth. Turn it down when you want the layers to speak sooner. Turn it up when you want a pad.

The window rebuilds after a short settle. Change it between phrases, then listen.

Shelves stay on the layer

Each layer has a low shelf at 150 Hz and a high shelf at 6 kHz, from −12 dB to +12 dB. They do not sit on the dry path. A boosted high shelf on Macro puts air on the bloom and leaves a dry vocal untouched. That is the usual first move when the stack is too heavy.

Tape adds wow, flutter, and soft saturation across every layer. It does not sit on the dry path either. At low settings it is a small pitch drift. At high settings the layers warble.

How to hear them one at a time

1. Leave Live on. The plugin reports no latency. The dry hit plays at once.
2. Pull Macro and Micro Mix down until you hear Meso, the unison layer.
3. Bring Micro back. You should hear the octave below, repeating in eighths if Feedback is up.
4. Bring Macro back. Octave above, halves.
5. If the hits smear, raise Transients. It protects attacks on the layers. The dry path stays as it arrived.

Panic, on the rail, clears tails. No knob moves. Use it when a feedback tail has outlived the section.

Lens · Guide · Pads from a recording