Forever 89

TOPOS – ALL-TERRAIN TONE EXPLORER

Welcome to Topos by Forever 89. This comprehensive VST/AU plugin is designed to help musicians, producers, and audio engineers shape their sound through saturation and detailed speaker simulations.

Please note that every component of the UI has a help text available while hovering over said control. 

For more info, please visit forever89.studio

Topos Signal Flow

The signal flows through Topos from top to bottom, passing through the Input Filter, Saturating Amplifier Section, Speaker Simulation Section, and finally, the Mix section. Each section can be independently enabled or bypassed as needed.

Global and Visualizer 

Manage presets, bypass global processing, and visualize your audio

  • Preset Selector: Saves or loads global settings.
  • Real-Time Visualizers: Includes waveform, spectrum analysis, input/output relationships, and stereo imaging.
  • Meter: Measures output level
  • Settings: Press the cogwheel to access all settings associated with Topis

Input Filter

The Filter section helps you shape your audio before it reaches the amplifier

  • Filter LED: Toggle the section on/off
  • Low/High-pass handles: Grab each handle to adjust high and low cut frequencies
  • Details Settings button: Access the Filter Desiger

Filter Designer

  • Low/High Cutoff: Removes high or low frequencies
  • Peak & Slope Controls: Adjust resonance and slope steepness at the cutoff points
  • Residue Mix: Reintroduces the filtered-out frequencies back into the mix at the end of the effect chain

Saturating Amplifier Section

The Amp section adds character and saturation based on classic studio equipment

  • Amp LED: Toggle the section on/off
  • Amount: Scale the amount of signal modification:
    • Values below 1 act as a classic dry/wet
    • Values above 1 exaggerate the effect
  • Drive: Controls input gain and saturation intensity
  • Meters: Measures loudness (LUFS) in dB and distortion (THD) in %
  • Auto: Counteract the Drive gain automatically. 1.0 approximates auto-gain
  • Out Gain: Adjust the sound level at the output of the Amp
  • Map button: Access the Amp Map
  • Details Settings button: Access the Amp Desiger
  • Preset: Select presets for the Amp section

Amp Designer

  • Hard Clip & Fold: Provides harder saturation and complex harmonic textures
  • Rectify: Adds rectification effects like those found in fuzz pedals
  • Bias & Dyn. Bias: Adds consistent or dynamic asymmetrical distortino
  • Smoothing: Reduces harshness by slightly compressing the signal
  • Emphasis Controls: Shapes specific frequency ranges to tailor saturation

Amp Map

Visually blend between different amplifier models by selecting presets or directly dragging nodes across the Amp Map. You can combine up to three nodes simultaneously to craft your custom saturation, with line thickness indicating each node’s influence. The node labeled init marks your starting position for each time you open the map view.

Speaker Simulation Section

This section emulates speaker cabinets and their acoustic characteristics:

  • Speaker LED: Toggle the section on/off
  • Amount: Scale the amount of signal modification:
    • Values below 1 act as a classic dry/wet
    • Values above 1 exaggerate the effect
  • Size: Adjusts the perceived cabinet size
  • Fidelity: Switches between clear or warm vintage speaker responses
  • Presence: Adds brightness to help the sound stand out
  • Preset: Select presets for the Speaker section
  • Map button: Access the Speaker Map
  • Details Settings button: Access the Speaker Desiger

Speaker Designer

  • Reflection & Damping: Adjusts internal reflections and high-frequency damping
  • Bass Reflex: Enhances the low-end response of the cabinet by emulating a bass reflex port
  • Scale: Modifies speaker cabinet dimensions in each axis
  • Scatter & Leak: Controls dispersion and leakage of sound within and from the cabinet in each axis
  • Mid Gain/Pos/Width: Fine-tunes midrange speaker response.

Speaker Map

Visually blend between different speaker simulations by selecting presets or directly dragging nodes across the Speaker Map. You can combine up to three nodes simultaneously to craft your custom speaker model, with line thickness indicating each node’s influence. The node labeled init marks your starting position for each time you open the map view.

Mix Section

The Mix section provides global adjustments and dynamic modulation

  • Flux: Introduces subtle movement to the audio.
  • Dynamics: Restores natural dynamics affected by amp saturation.
  • Wet Mix: Blends processed audio with the original signal.

Mix Designer

  • Channel Mode: Allows switching between stereo and mid-side processing.
  • Balance: Applies uneven saturation across stereo channels.
  • Flux Scale: Controls how much flux affects each section
  • Flux Rate: Adjust the overall rate of flux movements
  • Flux Chaos: Turn flux modulations from pure sinusoid to bandlimited noise
  • Flux Stereo: Controls stereo width of flux modulations