Changelog — Axion

v1.0.4 2026-07-27 latest

A new analytical amp — every voicing rebuilt

changed

The analytical amp has been rebuilt from scratch. The old single-stage waveshaper is gone, replaced by a multi-stage cascade with real interstage filtering, a power-amp clipping stage, and an interactive passive tone stack modelled on the classic circuit — the kind where bass, mid and treble genuinely pull against each other, because they share components. All twelve voicings were re-tuned by ear against reference captures of the real amps.
Your presets will sound different. This is a different amp, not a tweak — that's the point of the release. Every knob stays exactly where you left it, and Axion automatically re-levels each preset so it opens at the volume you saved it at. Expect to want a small tone re-dial on favourites; expect the amp to reward it.
Bass, mid and treble now read as percentages, not dB. The passive tone stack has no "flat" position — it always voices the signal, exactly like the real circuit — so a dB readout would be a fiction. Noon (50%) is the neutral starting point.
The same amp everywhere. Web, Desktop and the VST3/CLAP plugin now run the identical amp, cross-checked sample-for-sample against a shared reference so a preset can't drift between them.

added

The Axion plugin now runs on macOS. VST3 and CLAP, built universal — one download that runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs — signed and notarized.
Presets now record which amp they were dialled on, so Axion can tell a pre-1.0.4 preset from a new one — and keeps future compatibility options open.

fixed

Plugin: reopening a project saved with an earlier version now restores your tone controls to the exact positions you left them, rather than to the wrong end of their range.
A batch of correctness fixes across the native audio engine found by a full audit of the branch, including a threading fault in the mobile bridge, a case where the plugin could allocate memory on the audio thread when a host handed it an unusual buffer size, and looper events that could be silently dropped.

Existing presets keep working and load normally on older Axion versions — they'll simply play on that version's amp. The mobile release follows shortly.

v1.0.3 2026-06-14

Axion Cloud, and one-click TONE3000 import

added

Axion Cloud — the optional subscription tier goes live. Your presets sync across every machine you sign in on; each preset keeps a version history you can browse and restore; and you get a private preset gallery for share links only you can open. Subscribers also get early-access builds ahead of each release.
NAM cloud storage (Cloud) — your own .nam captures follow you across devices. TONE3000 captures follow as references (Axion never re-hosts third-party weights) and re-download from your own TONE3000 account on each device.
Import from TONE3000 — free on every tier. Connect your tone3000.com account and pull NAM captures straight into Axion (web & Desktop), with license and attribution carried through. Part of NAM, which is free for everyone.

v1.0.2 2026-06-09

The Axion plugin, Axion Desktop, and free NAM

added

Axion VST3/CLAP plugin (Windows; macOS to follow) — run the full Axion rig inside your DAW. Pro feature, with in-plugin community preset sharing and shared entitlement: activate Axion once and Pro unlocks everywhere on that machine (web, Desktop, and the plugin).
Axion Desktop for Windows and macOS — a native low-latency app running the same rig as a standalone build. Windows adds ASIO for ultra-low latency (2.7 ms round-trip on a Rode AI-1) alongside WASAPI; macOS runs on CoreAudio (5.3 ms) and ships signed and notarized by Apple.
Pro downloads — get Axion Desktop and the plugin from the new download page by verifying the email you bought Pro with.
NAM A2 capture support — the current-generation Neural Amp Modeler architecture, in A2-Full and lighter A2-Lite variants, across web, Desktop, and the plugin.
Improved MIDI control — CC footswitch toggle and a per-binding Toggle/Level mode.

changed

NAM is now free. Loading Neural Amp Modeler captures is no longer a Pro feature — it's available on every tier, in step with the free and open NAM community. Pro now leads with Axion Desktop and the pro-workflow bundle.

fixed

The real-time audio engine is now allocation-free end-to-end, for steadier, lower-glitch playback under heavy load.

v1.0.1 2026-05-31

Axion Bridge public beta

added

Axion Bridge for Windows — a native helper that uses WASAPI exclusive mode and a local encrypted connection to cut live round-trip latency below the browser shared-mode path. Bridge is free and available from the app's connection screen.
Bridge protocol versioning between the browser and helper, with clear "update the helper / web app" messages when the two sides are incompatible.
Bridge download and first-run guidance in the app, plus production defaults for wss://local.axion.cab:17800.
Bridge documentation at /docs/axion-bridge.

changed

Pricing now lists Axion Bridge as a free Windows beta feature.
App performance improved through lower-cost background effects.

fixed

The Windows helper release build now launches as a GUI app without a background terminal window.

v1.0.0 2026-05-25

Public launch — Axion goes 1.0

added

Pro tier live — one-time $49 lifetime licence (launch $39 with LAUNCH) unlocks NAM model loading, MIDI on every knob, preset sharing, premium IR pack, and WAV recording. Cloud subscription tier stays "coming soon" until preset sync ships.
Landing-page interactive demo — the play button on the homepage now boots the real Axion engine against a bundled DI clip, choreographs five preset switches across 30 seconds, and lets you A/B against the dry signal. The product is what's on the landing page.
Baseline SEO surface — robots.txt, sitemap.xml, per-page OG / Twitter card metadata, JSON-LD structured data for the app + every docs article.

changed

Version badge in the top nav and SPA TopBar moved from v0.9 · beta to v1.0. Footer reads launched 2026-05-25.

v0.9.6 2026-05-24

Six new effects pedals — Compressor, Tremolo, Phaser, Flanger, Auto-Wah, Fuzz

added

Compressor — native dynamics compressor wrapped with a manual makeup-gain stage. Five knobs: Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, Level. The single most-requested missing pedal in the previous lineup; essential for clean rhythm, country / funk picking, and lead sustain.
Tremolo — sine LFO modulating the output gain around a unity base. Three knobs: Rate, Depth, Level. Surf, country, and psych-rock flavour.
Phaser — four cascaded all-pass biquads with a shared LFO driving their detune in cents (logarithmic frequency sweep) and a feedback path for the metallic resonant Phase 90 character. Four knobs: Rate, Depth, Fbk, Mix.
Flanger — same delay-line + LFO modulation skeleton as Chorus but with a much shorter base delay (3 ms vs 8 ms), tighter modulation, and a feedback path for the jet-engine comb sweep. Four knobs: Rate, Depth, Fbk, Mix.
Auto-Wah — envelope follower drives a bandpass filter's cutoff. Fast attack opens the wah on each pick; slow release holds it through sustain. Five knobs: Sens, Range, Base, Q, Level. Fills the entire envelope-filter category — funk, clavinet, wah-style colours that didn't previously exist on the rig.
Fuzz — same WASM saturator architecture as Overdrive but with a much more aggressive curve (k=8.0, asym=0.4) and a hotter pre-gain range. Heavy asymmetric clipping produces strong even-order harmonics for the iconic octave-up fuzz thickness. Three knobs: Fuzz, Tone, Level.
Six new factory presets showcasing each pedal: Compressed Clean (country-style breathing sustain), Pulsing Clean (slow surf wobble), Vintage Phase Clean (Phase 90-style swoosh), Jet Sweep Rhythm (flanged power chords), Funk Wah (compressed envelope-filtered clean), Velcro Fuzz (Hendrix / Smashing Pumpkins fuzz).
Free-tier stompbox lineup grew from 7 to 13. All six new pedals are Free.

changed

Pedal cards with 4+ knobs (Compressor, Phaser, Flanger, Auto-Wah) now render 40 px taller on desktop so the second row of knobs has clear space above the footswitch. Pedalboard alignment switched to bottom-aligned (items-end) so footswitches line up consistently across mixed-height pedals — same way a real-world pedalboard sits on the floor.
Add Pedal picker now opens to the right of the slot, vertically centred on it. The 13-pedal list was overflowing the top of the viewport from the previous upward-opening popover; the right-side layout has lots of vertical room. Falls back to opening leftward if the slot is too close to the right edge of the viewport.

v0.9.5 2026-05-23

Stereo path, parallel dry, multitrack looper, and a live-recording workflow

added

Master STEREO toggle in the Cab panel. Flips every stereo-capable node (gate, chorus, delay, EQ, reverb, cab) between mono and 2-channel. Off by default to preserve mobile CPU; per-preset. Stereo output & wet/dry parallel.
Master Dry knob next to the Cab Mix knob. Blends the unprocessed DI signal back in alongside the wet rig — 15–25% recovers pick attack and low-end on high-gain tones.
Auto-Pan pedal. Sine LFO sweeps a stereo panner L↔R — easiest way to confirm the STEREO toggle is doing what it should.
Multitrack looper: 4 stereo tracks, freewheeling or metronome-locked sync, overdub with one-layer undo, mute / solo / per-track level, and per-track WAV export. Audio files (WAV / MP3 / FLAC / OGG) can be loaded into any track — click the T1 / T2 / T3 / T4 label. Looper guide.
Per-track audio loading tile-repeats clips shorter than the master loop and truncates clips longer than it — drum loops fit naturally into existing arrangements.
Inline SYNC-mode controls in the looper dock: beat indicator (one dot per beat, pulses with or without the metronome's click), BPM ± stepper, time-signature dropdown (2/4 · 3/4 · 4/4 · 5/4 · 6/4 · 7/4 · 6/8 · 12/8), bars ± stepper (1–16). Bars + signature lock once a take exists; BPM stays editable.
Time-signature dropdown in the metronome panel too — shared state with the looper so changes in either propagate to both, plus dynamic beat lights that match the active numerator.
New recording mode: Wet + looper. Captures the rig output summed with every looper-track's playback into a single WAV (suffix -MIX). Reads from a dedicated mix-down node so the looper's own output isn't fed back into the recording tap.
Recording hotkeys for live use — W (wet), R (wet + looper), D (dry), Q (paired wet + dry). All four start instantly (no save-file picker) and any of them stops an in-flight take.
Bottom-strip DisplayBar with LOOPER / STATUS toggles and a relocated STOP AUDIO button. Sample-rate and round-trip readouts live there now too.

changed

Status footer (sample rate, round-trip, stop) moved into the DisplayBar — the cluttered footer under the rig is gone.
Per-track buffer cap on the looper auto-detects via navigator.deviceMemory: 240 s on devices reporting ≥ 4 GB, 120 s otherwise.
Metronome anchors its first beat to the AudioContext's universal clock (and re-snaps on BPM / signature change) so it stays in lockstep with the looper's SYNC-mode scheduling. Visual click + loop downbeats now agree.

fixed

Noise gate envelope was being computed from a mono-summed input, so a stereo signal got the same duck on both channels regardless of which side triggered. Now tracks envelope + gain per channel.
Record button got stuck showing "idle" after a take started — the aggregate-state callback was reading an empty list because the Recorder instance was pushed only after its asynchronous start resolved. Now the instance is registered before the await and popped back off on error / cancel.

v0.9.4 2026-05-15

NAM captures + preset history

added

Two new community NAM captures: '64 Plexi @ 4, AC-30 Top Boost.
Preset version history (Cloud tier) — last 20 saves per preset.

changed

Re-tuned the analytical British Crunch model — slightly more pick attack, less mid honk.
Default sample rate is now whatever the OS reports, not always 48 kHz.

fixed

Firefox 128+ would silently drop the first 30 ms of audio after preset load.
MIDI learn-mode could attach to two controls if you double-clicked too fast.
Daylight theme had insufficient contrast on the FIXED node label (now WCAG AA).

v0.9.3 2026-04-28

NAM in the browser, properly

added

NAM capture loader: drag a .nam file onto the AMP slot, done.
IndexedDB cache for transpiled NAM models — second-load boot is <80 ms.
SIMD detection fallback for older browsers — performance drop is real but it works.

fixed

Memory leak when switching IRs rapidly — old buffers weren't released until GC.

v0.9.2 2026-04-11

Preset sharing goes public

added

Public preset gallery at /presets — community-shared tones, browsable, filterable.
Deep-link import flow: axion.cab/preset/<slug> boots the app with the rig pre-loaded.
Tag system on presets — search and filter by genre/role.

changed

Preset format bumped to v2; v1 presets auto-migrate on load.

v0.9.1 2026-03-22

The MIDI release

added

WebMIDI support across the board. Every knob, every toggle, every preset selector is mappable.
14-bit CC mapping for sub-pixel knob movement.
Program-change support: PC messages can switch presets.
Per-preset MIDI overrides — a global mapping can be locally overridden per rig.

fixed

Knob hit-target on touch devices was 4 px too narrow for stubby fingers.

v0.9.0 2026-02-14 milestone

Open beta begins

Axion is public for the first time. Twelve amps, eight pedals, full preset save/load, ready for guitars and feedback.

added

Everything. Twelve analytical amp models, eight stompbox effects, fifty-plus stock impulse responses.
Four brand themes: Pulse, Obsidian, Filament, Daylight.
Tuner, metronome, recording-to-WAV.
Public docs at /docs.

v0.8.x 2025-12 → 2026-01

Closed beta — invite only

Iteration with ~30 testers. Notes from this period are archived — not part of the public changelog.