1. Install

1. Download the installer from the Audio Tech Hub releases page or via the KVR product page.

• Windows: Pathfinder-…-win64-setup.exe — installs the VST3.
• macOS: Pathfinder-…-macos.pkg — signed + notarized, installs VST3 and/or AU (pick either or both during install).

1. Rescan plugins in your DAW and load Pathfinder as an instrument (it's played with MIDI notes).
2. On first launch you'll see a short welcome walkthrough: 1 · SCAN → 2 · HOVER → 3 · DRAW → ✨ RANDOM → SOUND ›. It ends on a big ▸ SCAN A FOLDER button — that's your real step one.

Pathfinder checks for updates when it loads. If a newer version exists, an

↑ update available pill appears in the top-right — click it to open the

download page.

2. Your first sound in 60 seconds

1. Click SCAN FOLDER (bottom-right of the strip — it pulses until the field has sounds) and pick any folder of samples. Every audio file becomes a sphere: color = category, size = loudness. You can also drag a folder straight onto the plugin window.
2. Hover over spheres. Each one you touch previews instantly, pitch-corrected to your project key. This is how you explore what you've got.
3. Press P (or click DRAW) and drag a line through some spheres. When you release, the stroke is captured as a path — the spheres it crossed, in the order you crossed them.
4. Play a MIDI note (or click the slim on-screen keyboard above the strip). Pathfinder walks your path in time with your host's tempo. Hold the note to let it run; play C3 to hear it as drawn, other notes to transpose the whole path.

That's the core loop: scan → draw → play. Everything else in this guide builds on it.

3. The field

Every sample is a sphere, auto-sorted into eight categories by name:

• Category pills (top center) filter the field. Toggle a category off and its spheres go quiet — handy for drawing a path through only your melodic sounds. The small + on a pill scans a folder directly into that category.
• Camera: right-drag to orbit, mouse wheel to zoom, middle-drag to pan, Space toggles a slow auto-spin, R resets the view.
• Double-click a sphere to isolate it: the camera flies in, the sphere is selected (ring + waveform readout, top-right), and it auditions.
• File list (left edge) shows every loaded sound as a row. Hover a row to reveal ★ (favorite that sound) and ✕ (remove it from the map). The header has + file (add one file), ★ folder (favorite the whole scanned folder) and – hide to collapse the list.
• The EXPLORED n / N meter tracks how much of the field you've actually listened to. Try to fill it — the best sound is usually the one you haven't hovered yet.

Importing sounds

Supported formats: WAV, AIF/AIFF, FLAC, MP3. Files longer than the MAXLEN setting (default 3 s) are skipped — raise it on the strip if your material runs longer. One Windows quirk: .aif files can't be drag-dropped (no system codec) — the SCAN FOLDER button imports them fine.

Tip — name your samples with keys. Pathfinder reads key tags from filenames (bass_Ebm.wav, pluck-C.wav…). Tagged samples are pitch-corrected to your project key by the shortest musical distance (never more than a tritone), so sounds from completely different packs play in tune together.

4. Capturing paths

A path is an ordered set of spheres. There are three ways to capture one:

• DRAW (key P): drag a freehand line. The stroke snaps to the spheres it passes; the shape of your line becomes the rhythm and melody of the phrase.
• LASSO (key L): circle a group of spheres; they're captured in the order the loop passes them.
• ✨ RANDOM (strip button): rolls a fresh path for you. Great when you're empty-handed — keep rolling until something sparks.

Two things shape every capture:

• Path slots P1 P2 P3 P4 (keys 1–4): four independent paths. The active slot is what DRAW/LASSO/RANDOM write into and what MIDI plays. Sketch a groove in P1, a fill in P2, a chord stack in P3…
• Max-orbs chip [ 8 ] (mode bar): drag it up or down (1–64) to cap how many spheres a capture keeps.

Press Esc to clear the current trail or selection.

5. Playing paths with MIDI

• Any note-on starts the active path. C3 plays it as captured; other notes transpose the entire path chromatically. Velocity controls level.
• Playback is tempo-locked: the path walks on your SYNC grid (strip, default 1/16) and its total length snaps to whole bars at the host BPM.
• Loop pill ∞ (strip, also LOOP on the SOUND page): OFF → LOOP → RVS. In LOOP the path cycles while the key is held; RVS plays it backwards. Each path slot remembers its own loop mode. XF sets the crossfade (1–500 ms) between loop cycles.
• Path envelope: the A / D / S / R minis on the strip (mirrored as big knobs on the SOUND page) shape every triggered path — attack softens entries, release lets tails breathe.
• LAYER mode (LYR pill): flips the path from a sequence into a stack. With LAYER on, one key fires the whole captured group at once — instant chords from any folder. With it off, the spheres play one at a time.

The slim home keyboard above the strip (C2–C5) mirrors incoming MIDI — keys light up as your DAW plays — and is fully clickable, so you can perform without a controller.

6. EXPLODE

EXPLODE turns one sound into a palette:

1. Double-click a sphere to select it.
2. Click ✸ EXPLODE in the mode bar.

The sample is sliced into tempo-synced chunks (one per SYNC division) and the fragments scatter back onto the map as new spheres. Draw a path through the debris for glitchy, granular phrases — a single vocal or pad becomes a whole field of rhythmic fragments. Re-scan your folder to restore the original field.

7. The SOUND page

Press Tab (or click SOUND ›, bottom-right) to open the deep editor. Left side: a hero sphere blending your path's category colors (it reacts to the audio), a recipe list of the captured sounds, and three tabs. Tab or ◂ takes you back to the field.

• WAVE — the merged waveform of your captured path, with the ATTACK / DECAY / SUSTAIN / RELEASE / LOOP / LAYER / XFADE row beneath it and a big keyboard (C2–C6) to perform on.
• FX — the effect chain (next section).
• SEQ — the step sequencer (section 8).

8. The step sequencer

Open SEQ on the SOUND page, or hit ▶ SEQ on the field page to start/stop it from home — both views stay in sync.

• Six lanes (L1–L6), each playing one captured sound. Path spheres fill the lanes automatically; click a lane header's mini-waveform to preview, drag a sphere onto it (or right-click with a map selection) to reassign.
• Click cells to place steps. BARS switches 1 / 2 / 4 bars (16 / 32 / 64 steps). SWING drags 0–60. CLEAR wipes the grid.
• 🎲 on a lane swaps that lane's sound for a random one; 🎲 ALL rerolls every unmuted lane — a brand-new kit in one click. Click the L# label to mute a lane.
• Per-lane chips: drag pitch ±12 semitones (repitches and speeds the sample, sampler-style) and nudge steps off the grid. Lanes 1–4 also have a one-shot → loop → reverse button.
• MIDI button: arm it and the pattern runs while you hold a MIDI key — the key transposes the whole pattern, C3 plays it straight. Sequence your sequence from the piano roll.

The sequencer runs at host tempo, follows your DAW transport when triggered over MIDI, and renders correctly on export/bounce.

9. Effects

Five effects, always in view, one drag away:

REVERB · DEGRADE · FLAIR · DELAY · GRANULAR

Two ways in:

• FX popup (strip, FX pill): five compact rows. Drag a row up/down to ride that effect's mix; double-click to bypass/enable. This is the perform view.
• FX tab (SOUND page): five cards with colored level meters. Drag a card for mix, double-click to bypass, grab the ⋮⋮ grip and drop a card onto another to reorder the chain, and hit • • • for the full parameter detail — every parameter as a ring knob (drag to set, double-click to reset, power button to bypass).

Highlights:

• DELAY has a TEMPO toggle in its detail page: off = free time in ms, on = a RATE chip (1/1 down to 1/16, with triplet and dotted values) that follows your host BPM live.
• GRANULAR is a full granular engine (grain size / position / interval / pitch / width) with its own TempoSync + Rate so the grain clock locks to your session.
• Effect mixes and bypasses (all five slots) are host-automatable — see section 12.

10. Key, scale and pitch correction

The strip's Key and Scale combos (Chromatic, Major, Minor, Pentatonic, Dorian) define your musical context. Everything Pathfinder plays — hover previews, paths, the sequencer keyboard — is corrected toward that context: key-tagged samples are shifted by the shortest circle-of-fifths distance (clamped to ±6 semitones) and snapped to the scale. Drums and untagged sounds pass through untouched, so hats stay hats.

11. Presets and favorites

Click PRESETS (bottom-right) for the three-column browser:

• Favorite Folders — folders you've starred (★ folder). One click reloads that field.
• Favorite Sounds — individual starred sounds; click to drop one into the current field.
• Favorite Settings — full presets. Type a name and SAVE.

Pathfinder presets are full-state: all four path slots, loop modes, layer mode, the entire sequencer (steps, lane sounds, pitches, nudges, mutes, bars, swing), the FX chain and your key/scale/ADSR all reload exactly as saved — the trail redraws on the map and the kit snaps back.

Outside of presets, Pathfinder remembers your last setup: a fresh instance opens with your previous key, scale, ADSR, layer mode and settings. A saved DAW project always wins — reopening a project restores that project's exact state, per instance.

12. Settings, MIDI CC and automation

The ⚙ gear (top-right) opens Settings:

• MIDI CC CONTROLS — click LEARN next to a parameter, move a knob on your controller, done. ✕ clears one assignment, RESET ALL starts over. Mappings persist across sessions.
• ABOUT — version, live ENGINE CPU readout, UI SIZE buttons (75% / 90% / 100%), a link to audiotechhub.com and ✉ REPORT A BUG.

You can also resize by dragging the zoom grip in the bottom-right corner (75–100%; double-click it to snap back to 100%).

Host automation exposes 16 parameters to your DAW: Key, Scale, Slot 1–5 Amount (effect mixes), Slot 1–5 Active (effect bypasses), and Path Attack / Decay / Sustain / Release.

13. Quick reference

Keyboard & mouse

Bottom strip, left to right

Key · Scale · PREVIEW (hover preview length) · MAXLEN (scan length filter) · SYNC (playback grid) · A D S (envelope) · ∞ (loop OFF/LOOP/RVS) · LYR (layer mode) · R (release) · XF (loop crossfade) · ? (tooltips on/off) · FX (quick-mix popup) · ✨ RANDOM (roll a path) · SCAN FOLDER · zoom grip

14. Things to try

• In-key arps — toggle every category pill off except melodic, draw a long winding path, set Scale to Minor and loop it: evolving arpeggios that stay in your song's key.
• Granular textures — EXPLODE a vocal or a pad, then draw a new path through the fragments for moving, atmospheric fills. Add GRANULAR and tempo-synced DELAY on top.
• Kits from chaos — lasso your kick, snare and hat spheres, open SEQ, and build a drum pattern from found sounds. 🎲 ALL until it grooves.
• Instant chords — capture a group of melodic spheres, flip LYR on, and any folder becomes a one-key chord instrument. Slow the attack for pads.

15. Troubleshooting

• No sound? In order: is a folder scanned (field has spheres)? Are the category pills you need enabled? Is the plugin receiving MIDI (keys light on the home keyboard)? Is a path captured in the active slot (P1–P4)?
• Samples missing after a scan — files longer than MAXLEN are skipped; raise it and rescan.
• .aif won't drag-drop on Windows — use SCAN FOLDER instead.
• Window opened too small / controls clipped — drag the bottom-right zoom grip, or set UI SIZE to 100% in ⚙ Settings.
• Out of tune? Pitch correction needs a key tag in the filename (_Cm, -F#…) and follows the strip's Key/Scale. Set Scale to Chromatic to hear everything unquantized.

Something broken? ⚙ → REPORT A BUG, or email audiotechhubonline@gmail.com.

Pathfinder is free and open source (GPLv3). If it's making you sounds, consider voting for it in the KVR Developer Challenge 2026.