PhantomTrack — User Manual

A shared "phantom" layer for your whole session.

PhantomTrack is a multi-instance audio effect (VST3 / CLAP / Audio Unit) that builds a third, ghostly voice out of the tracks already playing in your project. One instance pushes a track's audio into a shared pool; any other instance can pull that pool back in, run it through three synthesis engines — harmonic, rhythmic and spectral-wash — and blend the result on top of its own signal. The character of that phantom is morphed on an XY pad between four sonic anchors: Whisper / Poltergeist / Abyss / Monolith.

The result is a layer that "shadows" your music — phantom harmonies, rhythmic echoes and spectral washes that breathe with the source but live on their own track, fully under your control.

1. The phantom layer — the core idea

Most effects process the track they sit on and hand the result back. PhantomTrack does something different: it treats your whole session as a source of raw material and synthesises a separate, parallel voice — the phantom layer — from it.

Think of the phantom layer as an invisible extra musician in the room. It listens to what you feed it, and it answers with:

• phantom harmonies that track the pitch of the source,
• phantom rhythms — grains and echoes derived from the source's transients,
• a phantom wash — an evolving spectral reverb-like bed.

These phantom notes are never a copy of the input. They are re-synthesised from it, so they sit beside the original rather than thickening it directly.

How the layer is shared

PhantomTrack instances talk to each other through inter-instance shared memory (no audio routing, no sidechain cables). Each instance runs in one of two modes:

• RECV (default) — the instance reads the shared phantom pool, synthesises its phantom layer from it, and adds that layer to its own output.
• SEND — the instance pushes its own dry input into the shared pool for other instances to use, and passes its own audio through unchanged.

So the classic setup is: put PhantomTrack in SEND on the track you want to be the source (a vocal, a drum bus, a synth), and put PhantomTrack in RECV on the track(s) where you want the phantom to appear. The phantom of the vocal can now haunt a pad, a reverb return, or an empty track — wherever you placed a RECV instance.

A single RECV instance on its own already works: with no SEND peer it builds the phantom from its own input. SEND/RECV simply lets the phantom of one track surface on another.

2. Quick start

A. One instance (simplest)

1. Insert PhantomTrack on a track.
2. Leave Mode = RECV.
3. Drag the XY pad toward one of the four corners (start at Monolith, top-right, for a dense, obvious effect).
4. Raise Dry / Wet is already at 100 % — the phantom is added on top of your dry signal. Pull it back if you want less phantom.
5. Use Return level to set how loud the phantom sits under the dry.

B. Two instances (the phantom of another track)

1. Insert PhantomTrack on your source track (e.g. lead vocal). Set Mode = SEND. This track now sounds unchanged but feeds the shared pool.
2. Insert PhantomTrack on a second track or an empty aux. Leave Mode = RECV.
3. The two instances find each other automatically — the Linked peers badge in the header shows the connection.
4. On the RECV instance, move the XY pad and raise Return level: you now hear a phantom built from the vocal, living on the second track.
5. Add more RECV instances on other tracks for several independent phantoms of the same source, each with its own character.

3. The three engines

Every phantom is the sum of three streaming engines, mixed and then shaped by a shared post-processing stage. Their relative balance is set by the active anchor (see §4) and trimmed by the three level sliders (see §5).

After the three engines are summed, a post-mix shaper applies the global HP/LP filters, saturation, darkness, ducking, stereo width and pre-delay before the phantom is returned into the dry signal.

4. The four anchors & the XY pad

The large square on the left is the XY morph pad. Its four corners are anchors — complete voicings that set the balance and tone of all three engines at once. Dragging anywhere inside the pad blends smoothly between them.

Info-bar hint: "XY morph — Blend between the 4 phantom characters (Whisper, Poltergeist, Abyss, Monolith)."

The corners are deliberately "sticky": positions near a corner keep that anchor's identity, while the centre is a balanced blend of all four. Toggle Snap to grid to quantise the pad to a 1/8 grid for repeatable positions.

The XY position is two automatable parameters (XYx, XYy, default centre 0.5 / 0.5), so you can ride the character over time from your DAW.

5. Main controls

All ranges below are exact. Hover any control in the plugin to see the same help text in the info bar at the bottom of the window.

Level sliders (left of the pad)

The trims are relative to the anchor: they nudge each engine up or down from whatever the XY pad set. Return level is the master phantom-to-dry balance. Dry / Wet crossfades the whole phantom in and out.

Footer controls

Header controls

6. The Advanced panel

Click Advanced in the header to open a second row of per-engine controls. These mirror values the XY pad would otherwise set for you.

Override-on-touch: while you leave an Advanced knob alone, the engine uses the value the XY pad interpolates from the anchors. The moment you touch a knob (or automate it from the host), that knob "takes over" and the engine uses your value verbatim. Double-click a knob to hand control back to the XY pad.

Wash root note

At the end of the Advanced row, the Wash root note selector controls the pitch the spectral wash resonates around:

"Auto follows the detected pitch. Click to lock to a specific MIDI note."

• Auto (default, value -1) — the wash follows the fundamental detected in the source, so it stays musically related to what's playing.
• Locked (a MIDI note, 0…127) — click to pin the wash to a fixed pitch (for example to lock it to the key of the song regardless of the source).

Ducking is especially useful: set it above 0 and the phantom automatically steps back whenever the dry signal is loud, then swells in the gaps — keeping the original clear while still filling the space.

7. Multi-instance routing (SEND / RECV)

PhantomTrack instances in the same session discover each other automatically through shared memory — there is no manual cabling.

• RECV instances read the shared pool and produce a phantom.
• SEND instances feed the pool and stay sonically transparent.
• The Linked peers badge in the header shows how many other instances are connected. Click it to open the peer list, where you can mute / unmute each peer's contribution for this instance only (it doesn't affect the peer).
• Give each instance a name (click the name field in the header) so peers are easy to tell apart in the list.

Tips

• Several RECV instances can all listen to one SEND source, each with its own XY position and Advanced settings — many different phantoms of the same track.
• A RECV instance with no SEND peer simply builds its phantom from its own input, so PhantomTrack always does something useful on a single track.
• Use the peer list to quickly audition which source(s) feed a given phantom.

8. Presets

PhantomTrack ships with factory presets matching the four anchors, plus an Init centre blend:

• Init — centre of the pad (0.5 / 0.5), balanced.
• Whisper / Poltergeist / Abyss / Monolith — the four pure corners.

Use the Prev / Next arrows in the header to step through presets, click the preset name to open the dropdown browser, and click Save to store the current state (all parameters, including Advanced overrides) as a user preset on disk. User presets live alongside the factory list in the browser; an asterisk after the name indicates unsaved changes.

9. Demo mode & licensing

Without a license, PhantomTrack runs in demo mode: it is fully functional, but the audio is briefly muted for ~5 seconds once every 60 seconds (with short fades so it isn't jarring). A pulsing DEMO badge appears in the header.

Activating a license

1. Click the DEMO badge to open the activation window.
2. Paste or type your license key. Two kinds of key are accepted:
   • XENI keys — offline keys of the form XENI-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX. These validate instantly without an internet connection.
   • Gumroad keys — your purchase key from Gumroad. These are verified online the first time (a working internet connection is required to activate).
3. Use the Paste button (or your platform paste shortcut) to paste from the clipboard, then click Activate.
4. On success the DEMO badge disappears, the muting stops, and the license is saved to disk so the plugin stays unlocked on the next launch — no re-check needed.

The license is stored per user:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\XeniAudio\PhantomTrack\license.key
• macOS / Linux: ~/.config/XeniAudio/PhantomTrack/license.key

If activation fails, the window shows the reason (e.g. "Invalid license key"). Online activation runs in the background, so the plugin UI never freezes while it contacts the server.

10. Window, Studio mode & snap

• Resize — drag the grip in the bottom-right corner to scale the whole window. On HiDPI / 4K displays the plugin opens at a comfortable size automatically. The size is saved in your project.
• Studio mode — click the logo at the left of the header to toggle a diagnostic overlay below the pad.
• Snap to grid — toggles 1/8 quantisation of XY pad drags for repeatable positions.

11. Installation

PhantomTrack ships as VST3 and CLAP on all platforms, plus Audio Unit (AU) on macOS. After installing, restart your DAW and rescan plugins.

Windows

Run the installer XeniAudio-PhantomTrack-V<version>-Installer.exe and follow the prompts. It installs:

• VST3 → C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
• CLAP → C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP\PhantomTrack\

(Or unzip the portable PhantomTrack-<version>-Windows.zip and copy the folders into those locations yourself.)

macOS

Open the PhantomTrack-<version>-macOS.dmg and run the installer package. You can choose VST3, CLAP and/or AU, and install for the current user (~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/…) or all users (/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/…).

Gatekeeper: the macOS installer is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with no warning and no right-click needed.

Linux

Unpack PhantomTrack-<version>-Linux.tar.gz and run the included install.sh, or copy the bundles manually:

• VST3 → ~/.vst3/
• CLAP → ~/.clap/

12. Troubleshooting

The plugin mutes every minute / a DEMO badge is pulsing. That's demo mode. Activate a license (see §9).

Two instances don't link. Both instances must be in the same host process. Check the Linked peers badge; make sure your source instance is in SEND and your destination in RECV. Some hosts sandbox plugins separately — keep instances in the same project/engine.

I hear nothing from a RECV instance. Raise Return level and Dry / Wet, and move the XY pad away from a very quiet corner. Confirm the source actually has signal (and, for two-instance setups, that the SEND instance is receiving audio).

The phantom is too bright / too dark. Use the global LP / HP filters in the footer, the Darkness knob in the Advanced panel, or the Wash LP knob for the wash specifically.

The phantom clashes with the dry signal. Raise Ducking so the phantom steps aside when the dry is loud, and/or add Predelay so it arrives slightly later.

The plugin doesn't appear after install. Restart the DAW and trigger a plugin rescan. On macOS, confirm you installed the format your DAW uses (Logic/GarageBand need the AU).

13. Support

• Web: https://xeni-audio.com
• Email: support@xeni-audio.com

PhantomTrack © 2025–2026 Tony Cuny / XeniAudio. All rights reserved.

Something unclear, or missing from this manual? Write to support@xeni-audio.com.