One dial: remove the peripherals. The stereo sides close in, the mono middle comes forward. It is the idea behind Goghini's Focus Frames™, applied to a stereo bus, and both carry the same inventor's name: I invented the glasses at Goghini and the plugin here. Box of Rules is James H. Gordy.
Downloads always point at the newest build, so there is never a stale link to chase. Free for any use, commercial productions included. If it earns a place on your tracks, throw a coffee in the tip jar.
The plugin counts anonymous usage (never audio or personal data), with a clearly labelled opt-out in its SYS panel. Details in the privacy policy. Focus is proprietary software, © Box of Rules, all rights reserved. In partnership with Goghini: the plugin is inspired by their Focus Frames™ peripheral-blocking eyewear, and both the plugin and the glasses were invented by James H. Gordy. Goghini, the G monogram and Focus Frames™ are trademarks of Goghini, used in partnership. Built with the JUCE 8 framework in line with the JUCE 8 EULA.
Focus Frames quiet the visual noise at the edges so your attention stays on what's in front of you. Focus does it to a stereo bus: turn the dial and the shields close on the image. The sides get shut out, the middle comes forward. At 0 % it is bit-exact passthrough.
QUIET cuts the sides, surgically. CALM holds the loudness while the image narrows, so the room stays as loud. PRESENT brings the middle forward with a presence lift and gentle saturation. DEEP folds the lows to mono first, highs last, all the way to exactly mono.
All mid/side: in QUIET, CALM and DEEP the mid is never touched, so your mono fold-down keeps its character. Only the width changes. Stereo only, by design (a mono bus has no peripherals to remove). Zero latency: safe for tracking.
.dmg runs an installer that puts the AU, VST3 and LV2 in the system plug-in folders; on Windows and Linux, unzip and drop the bundle into your VST3 / LV2 folder.The macOS build is Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple, so it installs and opens with no Gatekeeper prompt. Windows is unsigned, so SmartScreen may warn: More info, then Run anyway.
It removes the peripherals from a stereo bus. One dial: as it turns, the stereo sides close in and the mono middle comes forward, like the side shields on Goghini's Focus Frames™ glasses, but for your ears. Four MOODs decide how: QUIET cuts the sides surgically, CALM holds the loudness while the image narrows, PRESENT pushes the middle forward, DEEP folds the lows to mono first.
It is free, for any use, commercial productions included. No account, no dongle. If it earns a place on your tracks there is a Ko-fi tip jar.
By design: a mono bus has no peripherals to remove. Focus works in mid/side, and in the QUIET, CALM and DEEP moods the mid is never touched, so your mix's mono fold-down keeps its character; only the width changes. It refuses mono channel layouts outright, so it won't appear on mono tracks. The metaphor comes from the glasses: forward vision stays, the edges go quiet.
VST3, AU (Logic) and LV2 on macOS, plus VST3 and LV2 builds for Windows and Linux. Zero latency, so it is safe for tracking. Every download lives on the releases page.
Both the plugin and the Focus Frames™ glasses it takes after were invented by James H. Gordy: the musician who is Box of Rules, and the founder of Goghini. Same idea, same inventor, two senses.
It counts anonymous usage: a random install id with the plugin version, OS and DAW, never audio or personal data, batched roughly hourly. A clearly labelled opt-out checkbox in the SYS panel stops everything immediately. Full details are in the Box of Rules privacy policy.
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