Quick start
- Put Ordinary Riser on your vocal track.
- Play the part of the song where the vocal comes in.
- Stop. The riser is ready a moment later.
- Drag the clip at the bottom of the screen into your session and line up its right edge with the start of the vocal.
Capture
While CAPTURE is on, Ordinary Riser listens every time your DAW plays and builds a new riser when you stop. Got one you like? Turn CAPTURE off to keep it while you keep working.
You can also drop an audio file — WAV, AIFF or FLAC — straight onto the screen. In the standalone app, it captures as soon as audio comes in.
It looks for the first sung vowel, so a clear phrase works best. If the take is too quiet you’ll see “No usable audio found” — try a louder phrase.
The ring
The ring in the middle draws the riser’s real envelope. Time runs clockwise and 12 o’clock is the moment the vocal comes in — the VOCAL IN mark. As you start dragging, the ring unfolds into the clip.
Characters
Use the arrows on either side of the ring to pick a character. Each one gives the interface its own colour, so you always know which you’re on.
- Reverse — A reverse reverb built from the first vowel of your line, swelling straight into the word. Sibilance is tamed before it ever hits the tail.
- Swell — A filter that sweeps open while the stereo field widens, so the riser blooms toward the downbeat instead of just getting louder.
- Shimmer — An octave layer fades in over the last stretch for a bright, choral lift — and steps aside cleanly the moment the vocal enters.
- Freeze — The vowel is frozen into a spectral pad that builds under the track and breaks open into the first word.
Length and level
The big knob sets LENGTH, from a quarter bar to four bars. It follows your session’s tempo, so the riser always fits the bar.
The LEVEL fader sets how loud the riser sits relative to your vocal. It’s matched to the vocal’s loudness first, so the default is already close.
Effects
PHONE, CHORUS and TREMOLO switch on with one click. Hover over a switch to open its fine-tune panel:
- Phone (Low cut · High cut) — A small-speaker band. Narrow it for a radio voice, open it for a subtle lo-fi edge.
- Chorus (Mix · Depth) — Doubles and widens the riser.
- Tremolo (Depth · Rate) — Speeds up toward the vocal, so the riser stutters into the word.
Loading a preset sets the fine-tune values back to their defaults.
Listen, Vocal, Loop
- LISTEN plays the riser.
- With VOCAL on, the first two seconds of your vocal play right after it — so you hear the transition without leaving the plugin.
- LOOP keeps playing while you change settings.
- RESET takes you back to the default sound, Classic Rise.
Presets
The arrows next to the preset name step through presets. Click the name to open the browser: favorites at the top, then the seven factory presets, then yours.
- Save: choose Save as new preset at the bottom of the browser, or the save button next to it.
- Favorite: click the star next to any preset.
- Manage: right-click one of your presets to reveal it in Finder or move it to the Trash.
Your presets are saved in ~/Music/Ordinary Audio/Ordinary Riser/Presets/ and show up in every project and every DAW.
Drag and export
The clip at the bottom of the screen is the riser. Drag it into your DAW: its right edge is the moment the vocal comes in, so line it up with the start of the vocal and it lands on time.
Rather not drag? The … menu on the clip has Save As, Show in Finder and Copy File Path. Every riser is a WAV file in ~/Music/Ordinary Audio/Ordinary Riser/.
Your settings are saved with the project; the captured audio isn’t. To keep a riser, drag it into the session or save it.
Interface size
Open the ☰ menu — or right-click any empty spot — and choose Interface size, from 75% to 150%. Sizes that won’t fit your display aren’t offered. The size is shared by every instance.
Something not covered here? See Support.