Some projects begin with a business plan. Kiln began with a collection of problems from mastering sessions and the increasingly difficult suspicion that, if I wanted them solved exactly, I might have to build the tools myself. This was not the shortest route to releasing software, but it did produce very specific software.

Kiln Plugins is the independent audio software company that grew from that work. The first tools are Kiln Equalizer, Kiln Limiter, Kiln Crossfeed and Kiln Balance, which is still in development and is not yet listed on the website. Each began with a practical need, then went through research, listening tests, measurements and a considerable number of prototypes that were useful mainly for proving that the next prototype was necessary.

The plugins are written in native code on our own purpose-built framework, without JUCE or another general-purpose cross-platform wrapper. That gives us control over the complete path from host automation to sample output, but it also means every host, format and operating system gets its own opportunity to disagree with us.

This is where beta testing becomes useful. I am looking for engineers and producers willing to use the plugins in real sessions across different DAWs, systems and ways of working. You do not need a test laboratory or a formal reporting process. Bug reports matter, of course, but so do the smaller observations: a control that takes two clicks when one should do, a preset that behaves unexpectedly, or a workflow that makes perfect sense only to the person who designed it.

If you would like to take part, get in touch and include your operating system, DAW and the kind of work you normally do. I will send the beta details and licenses from there. Honest feedback is the entire admission price.