Introducing TONIQ 1.0

Today we are releasing TONIQ 1.0 — the first audio plugin that uses real-time polyphonic note detection for stereo imaging.

It runs in your DAW, it works on any polyphonic instrument, and it does something no other plugin on the market can do: it hears the individual notes you are playing and places each one, independently, in the stereo field.

$79 perpetual license. 14-day full-feature trial. No subscription.

Why we built it

Every stereo imaging plugin in existence works on frequencies. You split the signal into bands, pan the bands, call it a day. It’s been the same approach since the early 90s.

But frequency bands do not know anything about music.

A single guitar G note produces harmonics that run from 196 Hz up past 8 kHz. When a band-splitter pans that note, it sends the fundamental one way and the harmonics the other way. The note gets torn apart. Fold to mono and the whole thing phases against itself.

This is why guitarists still reach for double tracking. It’s the only reliable way to get wide, phase-safe stereo from a mono source.

We wanted to change that.

What TONIQ does

TONIQ listens to your audio and identifies the actual musical notes — in real time, polyphonically, with their full harmonic series intact. When you strum a chord, TONIQ knows every note you played and every overtone each one produced.

Once it knows that, it can do things no frequency-based plugin can.

Per-note panning. Move the root one way, the third the other, keep the fifth centered. Every harmonic travels with its fundamental.

Zone FX. Low, Mid, and High zones each get their own EQ, reverb, and delay. Put a shimmer reverb on just the high notes of a chord. Put a tape slap on just the bass notes. Every zone is independent.

Phase-safe by design. TONIQ uses amplitude panning only. No Haas tricks, no chorus, no pitch-shift. The output folds to perfect mono with no cancellation.

Adaptive profiler. Point TONIQ at any polyphonic instrument — guitar, piano, bass, strings, harp — and the profiler locks in its harmonic fingerprint in about 300 milliseconds. There is no preset list to choose from. It just works.

What it sounds like

• Two demos on the product page: clean guitar DI and a dense acoustic strum.
• Six before/after A/B pairs with real-world source material.
• A full walkthrough video covering Zone FX, different instruments, and a worship mix use case.

All of it at insektiq.com.

Who it’s for

• Guitarists who track DI and want stereo width without a second take.
• Mix engineers working with dense arrangements, keys, and acoustic instruments.
• Worship and live audio teams who need width that survives the mono PA.
• Producers who want to treat notes as first-class creative objects.

How to get it

• Try it free for 14 days — full features, no credit card, no nag screens. insektiq.com/download
• Buy it for $79 — perpetual license, no subscription, free updates. insektiq.com/pricing

Formats: AU, VST3, AAX. macOS 11+ (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows 10+.

What’s next

TONIQ is the first product in a planned line of note-aware plugins. The next one, DUPLIQ, is a vocal doubler built on the same detection engine — real polyphonic vocal tracking with phase-safe doubling that doesn’t chorus or warble. More on that soon.

For now, go download TONIQ, load it on a guitar DI, and hear what stereo imaging sounds like when the plugin actually understands what you are playing.

— Shlomi