Neutrino’s FX Chain provides access to the multitude of Core Audio effects plug-ins known as Audio Units. A chain of Audio Unit effects is called a Patch. You can add add any installed Audio Unit to Neutrino’s audio processing chain and create your own custom patches. It is easy to install third party Audio Units for additional effects.
Note that the FX Chain will only work with files played in CoreAudio mode, and not with tracks played in QuickTime mode. See Playback Modes for more information.
![]() | You can open the FX Chain Inspector using the Inspector button in the Toolbar (Cmd-2). |
The FX Chain Inspector allows you to create a chain of one or more Audio Units effects which are applied to the currently playing track.
Note that a track must be playing for you to add Audio Units to the FX Chain.
![]() | To start using the FX Chain, add a default Audio Unit to the current playing track by clicking the Add button. By default, this will be an XPassthruAU unit. |
Access to system installed Audio Units is provided via the Effect Type pop-up menu. Select any name in the pop-up menu to load that Audio Unit into the current position in the signal-processing chain. Note that this will replace the current effect with the newly selected effect.
Simply drag an Audio Unit up or down to rearrange the signal processing order, or use the Shift Up or Shift Down buttons. The signal flows from the top to the bottom of the FX Chain.
![]() | You can add a new Audio Unit to the current patch with the Add button. |
![]() | You can remove the selected Audio Unit from the current patch with the Remove button. |
![]() | You can clear all Audio Units from the current patch with the Clear button. |
![]() | You save and name the current patch using the Save button. |
![]() | You can open the Audio Units Inspector by clicking the AU Inspector button in the FX Chain Inspector table row. |
The Audio Units Inspector allows access to the editable parameters of the current Audio Unit effect.
Neutrino supports both native Cocoa and Carbon GUIs for Audio Units. There is a huge range of Audio Unit plug-ins available on the web which you can download and use with Neutrino.
Access to Factory & User presets for each effect in the Fx Chain is provided via pop-up menus in the 'Presets' column of the Fx Chain tableView. Presets can also be accessed for each unit while it's interface is loaded in the AudioUnit Inspector window via the 'Presets' popup button at the top of that window.
To define and save a new preset containing the current settings for a loaded AU choose 'Save Preset...' from the Presets menu. Presets are stored as standard single AUPreset files within the default user-directory for AUPresets (~/Library/Audio/Presets/ManufacturerName/UnitName), and will thus appear in other AU host applications supporting the AUPreset API.
Any combination of FX Chain units can be save as a named patch by clicking on the Patch menu in the FX Chain header (next to the Global mode button). Choose Save Patch... to name and save the patch for future use. By default, the current patch configuration will persist as the "Custom" patch between sessions.
![]() | When Global mode is switched on, as it is by default, the current loaded FX Chain patch will be applied to all songs. |
![]() | When Global mode is switched off, FX Chain patches will be saved (with all their parameter settings) along with the current track. Whenever this track is played, the saved FX Chain will be applied. |