CARE & FIRING INSTRUCTIONS

The KILN manual.

Everything the porcelain doesn't tell you at first glance — the hidden gestures, presets, your license, and what to do when the kiln smokes.

FOR KILN v0.9 EARLY ACCESS · AU / VST3 · MACOS 11+

01 — FIRST FIRINGDrop it on anything

Insert KILN on a track and press play. Within a couple of seconds the display reads what it hears — GUITAR · READY. Then press the button. Eleven effects arrange themselves around your sound; the display shows NEW FIRING · 5 FX. Don't like it? Press again. Every firing is new.

KILN also listens to how your track sounds — bright or dark, percussive or sustained, clean or dense — and shapes each firing to fit, so a drum loop never drowns in a nine-second reverb and a bright synth never gets doubled treble.

It says nothing / wrong instrument? The listener is deliberately conservative. Click the display to cycle instruments manually — including Vocals, which is manual-only by design. Firing works either way.

02 — CONTROLSThe hidden gestures

One button on the surface. Everything else is a gesture away — hover over any control and the display tells you what it is.

GESTURE	WHAT IT DOES
Button · click	Fire. A new effect arrangement for what KILN heard. Keyboard `R` does the same.
Button · scroll	Chaos. Low = studio-typical firings. High = gloriously wrong.
Switch · click	Toggle that effect on or off.
Switch · scroll	Amount. Adjusts the effect's main parameter — the small gauge shows where you are.
Switch · hold or double-click	Micro knobs. A pop-over with every parameter of that effect, including tempo sync and modes.
Switch · right-click	Lock. A locked effect survives every firing and history recall. Right-click again to release.
Display · click	Cycle the instrument profile manually (includes Vocals).
Display · right-click	Preset menu — factory packs, save, open folder, license.
History dots · click	Recall any of the last 5 firings. The filled dot is where you are.
A · B	Two states, one loop. Switch while playing to compare; each side remembers itself.
AGC	Auto gain staging. Lifts any input to its sweet spot, then restores your level. On by default.
MIX	Global dry/wet for the whole firing.
RB-01 serial · click	Cycle the finish — 백자 Porcelain, 흑자 Basalt, 청자 Celadon.

03 — PRESETSFour firings, sixteen vessels

Right-click the display to open the preset menu. Sixteen factory presets ship in four packs, each loading in its own finish. Your own saves live in Documents/KILN/Presets as .kiln files — skin and locks included.

백자

BAEKJA

Transparent space — clean reverbs and air.

옹기

ONGGI

Warm density — saturation and glue.

분청

BUNCHEONG

Scraped texture — lo-fi grit.

칠

CHIL

Dark gloss — deep modulation.

04 — LICENSETrial & unlocking

KILN runs as a full 14-day trial from first launch. When the trial ends, audio passes through dry and the display reads TRIAL ENDED · CLICK TO UNLOCK.

Your license key arrives by email from our payment partner Lemon Squeezy right after purchase.
Click the display (or choose License in the preset menu), paste the key, and confirm.
Done — the key covers your personal machines, studio and laptop both. Activation needs internet once; after that KILN never phones home.

05 — TROUBLESHOOTINGWhen the kiln smokes

KILN doesn't appear in my DAW. Restart the DAW and force a plug-in rescan. AU lives in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components, VST3 in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3.
macOS blocks the installer — "unidentified developer". The Early Access build isn't notarized by Apple yet. System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll down → Open Anyway. A notarized installer ships with 1.0. Once installed, your DAW loads the plug-in without warnings.
No instrument detected. Quiet, textural, or noisy sources sit below the confidence gate on purpose. Click the display and pick a profile manually.
A firing is too extreme. Scroll the button down to lower Chaos, lock what you like, and fire again — or step back through the history dots.
Does my audio go anywhere? No. The listening model runs entirely inside the plug-in. No cloud, no account, no telemetry.

Still smoking? Write to support@kilnsound.com — include your macOS version, DAW, and what the display says. Firing reports welcome.