Matari Audio BUFFR: Free Retrospective Audio & MIDI Recorder

Matari Audio has updated BUFFR, a retrospective audio and MIDI recorder, to version 0.5.81. This innovative plug-in is designed to help producers capture “happy accidents” and performances that might otherwise be lost, even if they forgot to press record. It operates across macOS, Windows, and Linux, supporting VST3 and CLAP formats. Currently, BUFFR is available as a free public beta, making it accessible to a wide range of electronic music producers.

Comprehensive Capture Capabilities

BUFFR continuously captures up to two hours of multichannel audio, system audio, and MIDI history. A significant advantage is its ability to record system audio directly from the computer output, eliminating the need for third-party loopback cables or bridge plug-ins. Furthermore, it offers Global MIDI capture, allowing users to record directly from hardware MIDI controllers without requiring specific DAW MIDI routing or track arming. This means performances from standalone instruments, browsers, or even when the wrong DAW track was armed can still be recovered.

Advanced Editing and Workflow

Once a performance is captured, BUFFR transforms its timeline into a powerful editor. Users can analyze chords, tuplets, swing, and timing offsets. The Smart Quantize feature stands out, offering a flexible approach to timing correction. Instead of simply flattening performances, it allows blending the original take with “Human” alignment for feel and “Precision” for exact timing. This non-destructive editing can be applied to full takes, marker regions, or selected notes. Additionally, audio can be refined with Center Align, Ride, and Normalize tools.

Spectral Analysis and Drag-and-Drop

BUFFR also integrates a unique Spectrogram and Spectral Grab feature. This allows producers to visualize the full frequency history as an Enhanced FFT heatmap. More importantly, users can alt-drag on the spectrogram to isolate specific sounds across time and frequency, then audition or drag them directly into their DAW. The plug-in’s robust drag-and-drop engine is open-source, facilitating seamless transfer of audio selections, MIDI regions, or spectral grabs into compatible DAWs or file managers. Audio exports default to 24-bit FLAC, with support for WAV, MP3, AAC, and Ogg/Opus via FFmpeg.

Reliability and Accessibility

Matari Audio has prioritized reliability with BUFFR. It includes background checkpoints and crash recovery, ensuring that captured audio, MIDI, and markers can be restored even after reloads or unexpected host exits. The plug-in supports up to 16 DAW audio channels and all 16 MIDI channels, including MPE, SysEx, and pitch bend data. Its cross-platform compatibility ensures that a broad user base can benefit from its features. Consequently, the public beta is free, requiring only a free account and online activation, with no payment card necessary.

Features

• Cross-platform System Audio recording.
• Direct hardware-controller capture through Global MIDI.
• No DAW MIDI routing or armed track required.
• Up to two hours of retrospective history (120 minutes).
• Up to 16 audio channels and all 16 MIDI channels.
• MIDI, MPE, SysEx, controllers, pitch bend, and pressure capture.
• Spectral Grab selection by time and frequency.
• Open-source, cross-platform drag-and-drop engine.
• Background checkpoints and crash recovery.
• Smart Quantize with Raw, Human, and Precision blending.
• Center Align and Ride for audio dynamics.
• Spectrogram and Spectral Grab for frequency-based editing.

Price
BUFFR 0.5.81 is available as a free public beta.
A free account and online activation are required; no payment card is needed.
Beta licenses remain valid until the public beta ends, with no end date announced.

---

More info: Matari Audio | BUFFR