AU · VST3 · STANDALONE — macOS 10.15+ / Windows 10+

Chords that sit in the room.

Play one key and the Underground Engine voices a whole dub chord — then you ride DUB, SPACE and TONE while a 16-voice engine breathes underneath. Built for deep / dub techno and minimal, not for EDM drops.

  • 62 factory presets
  • 7 chord shapes, 3 voicing controls
  • MIDI out + clip drag-out
  • No iLok, offline activation
The EarsDeep Underground Engine interface: toolbar with DICE and performance macros, chord engine, arpeggiator, dub synth and FX chain.
The whole instrument at 100 % — resize it, every vector stays crisp.
DEEP HOUSE· DUB TECHNO· MINIMAL· AMBIENT

Not a demo loop. The engine.

Three clips below were rendered straight out of the plug-in — same engine you get, nothing re-recorded or mastered afterwards except a −1 dB peak normalise.

Deep chord

preset “BC Deep Chord”

i – VI – VII – IV in C minor, two bars each. SPACE opens up over the middle of the clip, DUB follows.

Dub stab

preset “Concrete Echo”

Short stabs into a long room. TONE closes while SPACE widens, then a dub throw into the tail.

Ratchet arp

preset “Ratchet Sync”

The same chord engine as sixteenths: ratchet, accent and a synced tremolo on top.

Four things it does that a preset bank can’t

01

Voicing, not just chords

Seven dub shapes (m7, m9, m11, sus2, sus4, add9, inverted dub) and three controls that change how they are stacked: INVERSION walks the bass tone up an octave, VOICES thins a five-note m9 down to a triad, DROP 2 drops the second highest tone for that open, slightly jazz voicing.

02

Macros that rewrite every preset

DUB, SPACE and TONE are real automation parameters (−1 … +1) that offset whatever preset is loaded. One automation lane sweeping SPACE opens the room of all 62 presets with the same musical curve. They survive preset changes, so DICE never yanks a macro you ride.

03

The chord leaves the plug-in

MIDI out sends the generated chord (or chord + played notes, or played only), and the MIDI pill drags a ready-made clip into Live, Logic, Cubase or Reaper. Layer your own bass, piano or a hardware synth under the same harmony.

04

A dub chain, not a test bench

Tempo-synced delay with filters inside the feedback loop, a dark space reverb, master low-pass, tape drive and width. Two tempo-synced LFOs breathe on the cutoff and the delay feedback; DUB DLY / DUB VRB are throw buttons for dub-mixer gestures.

Tour

Panel 01: quick chord-type chips in the header, five voicing knobs and the DROP 2 switch.
Panel 01 — chord & scale engine. Chips jump between shapes; the five knobs set octave, spread, strum and the voicing (inversion / voices); DROP 2 opens it up.
Toolbar with the DICE button and the DUB, SPACE and TONE performance macros next to the oscilloscope.
Performance strip. DICE jumps to a random preset (the die shows the last roll); the three macros ride the delay, the room and the filter of whatever is loaded.
Keyplayed or drawn in
→
Chord engineshape · voicing · strum
→
Arpoptional, tempo-locked
→
16-voice synthsaw/pulse/noise · filter
→
Dub FXdelay · reverb · drive
→
Outaudio + MIDI

62 presets, sorted like a record bag

Every preset is one slot — no “sounds” that secretly load three layers. Favourites, free-form tags and a morph bar let you keep your own order.

Arps

Arp Sequence · Arp Ladder · Arp Ratchet · Arp Depth · Ratchet Sync · Dub Arp Echo · Steel Arp · Low Ratchet

Bass

Sub Pressure · Rubber Bass · Dub Sub · Tremolo Sub · Pulse Bass · Tape Sub · 808 Dub · Moog Growl

Chords

BC Deep Chord · RS Warehouse · Dub Stab · Detroit Basic · Pressure Drop · Night Bus · Channel One · Concrete Chord · Deep Six · Taped Chord · Tremolo Dub · Night Drive · Smoked Chord · Dub Chamber · Basement 4am · Vault Chord

Pads

Chord Wash · Ocean Floor · Mauve Sky · Glass Cathedral · Slow Tide · Fog Bank · Dub Pad · Breathing Pad · Wind Tunnel · Deep Field · Harbour Fog · Tape Choir

Plucks

Minimal Pulse · Wire Pluck · Bell Dub · Shaker · Glass Drop · Needle Drop · Cold Bell

Textures

Tape Dub · Concrete Echo · Kingston Tunnel · Dub Texture · Sub Room · Tape Hiss · Deep Water · Pressure Room

Small things you’ll use every ten seconds

  • Undo / redo across preset loads, morphs and chip clicks.
  • A/B compare two versions of the same sound, with a morph bar between them.
  • Right-click MIDI Learn on any control — mappings travel with the session.
  • Esc panics (drops a latched arp), R rolls the dice, ← → walk the bank.
  • C / V copy and paste the whole sound between instances.
  • Click the scope to freeze it; double-click the meter to reset the peak hold.
  • Tags & favourites live next to the presets, keyed by name — they survive reordering.

Pricing

Try everything for 14 days. If it earns a place in your template, buy it once.

Trial

€0

14 days, all features

  • Full engine, all 62 presets
  • No audio watermark, no session limit
  • Saving your own presets needs a licence
Download trial
Launch price

Full licence

€39 €29

one-time · VAT included · no subscription

  • AU + VST3 + Standalone, macOS & Windows
  • 2 computers with one key
  • Free updates for all 1.x versions
  • Offline activation, no iLok, no dongle
  • Royalty-free in your own releases
Buy €29

Launch price for the first 100 licences, then €39.

FAQ

What exactly do I get after paying?

A licence key for your name + e-mail and the installer download. Paste the key into the About window (click “UNDERGROUND ENGINE” in the top bar) — the trial badge turns into “FULL” and saving your own presets unlocks. No account, no dongle, no phone-home on every start.

How does the trial differ from the full version?

For 14 days everything works: all presets, all macros, MIDI out, clip drag-out. After that the engine keeps making sound, but you cannot save user presets until you licence it. We deliberately do not mute audio or inject noise — that would just ruin your session.

Is it Apple Silicon native?

Yes — one universal binary for Intel and Apple Silicon, macOS 10.15 and newer. Windows 10/11 is x64.

Does it work as a MIDI effect?

It is an instrument with MIDI out. To drive another synth, put it first in the chain and set MIDI Out to “Chord” or “Chord + played”. The MIDI pill also drags a clip straight into your DAW.

Can I use it in commercial releases?

Yes, royalty-free. You may not resell the plug-in, the presets as a product, or reuse the factory bank inside your own soundware.

Refunds?

14 days, no questions asked — the licence is deactivated and the money returned. Just mail the order number.

Which DAWs are tested?

Ableton Live 11/12, Logic Pro, Cubase, Studio One, Reaper and Bitwig. If something misbehaves, send the host + version — we answer.

One key. A whole chord.

Download the trial, drop it on a track and press DICE a few times.