RELIC guide
Three controls, four characters, and one design rule — at AGE 0 the plugin sounds like bypass.
What RELIC is
RELIC is Nolvra's free character plugin: tape, vinyl, VHS and radio in one box, driven by a single AGE macro. It has three controls and no menus. It runs as AU or VST3 on macOS and VST3 on Windows, and it is free with a Nolvra account — no time limit, no feature locks.
The three controls
- CHARACTERTAPE · VINYL · VHS · RADIO
- AGE0–100, default 0
- MIX0–100, default 100
AGE
AGE is a macro. Behind it, six parameters move per character, each on its own curve — so AGE 40 on TAPE and AGE 40 on RADIO are genuinely different processes, not the same one at the same depth.
AGE 0 sounds like bypass. That is a design rule, not an accident: every amount curve starts at zero and the engine fades the character in near the bottom of the range, so you can leave RELIC inserted on a chain and it costs you nothing until you turn it up.
MIX
Straight wet/dry, defaulting to fully wet. Because AGE already scales the effect, MIX is mostly there for parallel character — heavy AGE at low MIX gives you grit riding under a clean signal, which is a different sound from moderate AGE fully wet.
The four characters
TAPE
Saturation, high-end loss and gentle wow as AGE climbs. The default and the most transparent at low settings — this is the one to reach for when you want glue rather than an effect.
VINYL
A low-pass with a mid lift, plus crackle, pops and dust. The noise floor is part of the character, so this is the one that reads as "old record" rather than "warm".
VHS
Adds modulation on top of the degradation — a chorus-like wobble from the transport rather than the medium. This is the character for drifting, unstable-sounding pads and vocals.
RADIO
Bandwidth restriction plus static: as AGE climbs, the passband closes in from both ends — the bottom edge walks up from around 150 Hz toward 480 Hz and the top edge falls from around 9 kHz to 3 kHz. Use it for transitions, distant vocal effects and anything that should sound like it is coming through a speaker rather than at you.
Where to put it
On a bus rather than the master, most of the time. RELIC's characters are strongest as a decision about one element — the drums, the vocal, the sample — and a whole-mix pass at high AGE tends to cost you low end you wanted to keep.
For transitions, automate AGE rather than MIX. AGE moving from 0 to 60 across two bars is a build; MIX moving does the same thing more crudely because the dry signal fights the wet one on the way.
Signing in
RELIC is free but it does need a Nolvra account. Sign in to the Nolvra Hub — on macOS or on Windows — and RELIC unlocks in the same session — you do not need to close and reopen your DAW. If you are signed out, RELIC shows a sign-in overlay rather than failing quietly.
The Hub does not need to stay running afterwards.
Still stuck?
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