The Backups — a six-voice harmony plugin by Nico Baran, a Fixers production. Six singers, twelve harmony engines, fifteen presets. VST3 and AU for macOS, VST3 for Windows.

THE FIXERS ★Backstage Pass $49.99
A Six-Voice Harmony Plugin by Nico Baran✦presented by The Fixers, a boutique plugin company
● ON AIR
The Actual Plugin

Six Voices. One Stage.

Sing one line and The Backups puts a sixties revue behind it: six singers who read your pitch, find the key and take their parts. The stage is the plugin. Everything you hear, you can see.

The real plugin, running in your browser — click a singer, turn a knob, open the Showbill
6Singers12Engines15Shows8Knobs1Key Detective
Soprano to Bass

The Cast

Six singers, top line to bottom. Each one is a full harmony voice with their own part, and each one is drawn on stage: the lit ones are singing, the dim ones are sitting this one out.

Clicking Ronnie on stage lifts her into a spotlight with her part editor: on, interval, level, pan, detune, formant with lock, and delay
Click a singer to give them notes

Click anyone on the stage and the rest of the room drops into the dark. They step into a spotlight with their own part sheet — and the others turn their heads toward them. Everything a real arranger would ask a backup singer for is on it:

  • Interval±24 semitones, snapped to your key in Key & Scale mode
  • Level · Panwhere they stand and how loud they sing
  • Detune±50 cents, for doubles that don't phase
  • Formant±6 semitones of throat, with a lock for all six
  • Delay0–80 ms of their own, so doublers land a hair late
Fifteen Shows, Fifteen Stages

The Showbill

Every preset is its own show with its own set, lighting, knobs and dividers. Pick one below and it goes up on the stage — this is the plugin's real pixel art, running live in your browser.

03Saturday Night Special
Engine · Smart Scale

Not just harmony — and not just vocals. Four of the fifteen shows sing no harmony at all, only you, wider: 02 Neon Rooftop is a bright double, two of you hard left and right; 06 Live B&W Broadcast is the ultra-wide, short, tight one — two pairs pinned to the sides inside fifteen milliseconds; 10 Winter Wonderland is a six-voice unison chorus spread across 43 ms; 12 Aquarium Lounge is a soft quad double with a shimmer on it. Put any of them on a guitar, a synth line or a lead vocal.
The Showbill dropdown

Click the preset name in the plugin and the showbill deals in: a still of every stage, tagged DOUBLER, CHOIR, OCTAVES and so on. Hover a card to preview its set on the main stage. Favourite one and it gets signed — a gold autograph across the still — and filed under SIGNED. Your own shows live under MINE.

Hit SAVE and you can print the show as a ticket stub, a 1080 × 1350 PNG of your stage, numbered, for the group chat.

The Showbill preset grid inside the plugin, with a signed Mirrorball card and the factory stills
Sixty Years Of Harmony, Backstage

The Green Room

Twelve harmony engines, hung in the order they were invented. Each one is voiced like the gear it studies, so switching engines changes the whole character of the group, not just the maths.

Tonight's Programme

Twelve Engines · In Era Order
1963
Ring ShiftFrequency shifter

Moves every partial by the same number of hertz, so harmony goes inharmonic. Bells, ghosts, sci-fi.

1966
ADT VarispeedTape

A second tape machine running slightly off speed. The pitch comes from wow and drift, not splices — dark, alive, made for doubles.

1975
Splice '75Delay line

One tap racing through a short buffer and hard-splicing when it runs out. Lo-fi, 11-bit, rolled off at 16k. The glitch is the charm.

1977
Random SpliceDelay line

Two crossfaded taps with a jittered window, so the seam never lands on the same bit of waveform twice. A soft warble on held notes.

1979
Ensemble BBDBucket brigade

The shifted voices run through bucket-brigade lines, string-machine style. Two singers start to sound like a section.

1982
Studio DoubleDelay line

Opposed ±7 cent shifts on 11 and 23 ms delays. Bright, wide and expensive — every big eighties lead vocal.

1984
Hall ShiftReverb-coupled

The shift lives inside a short reverb loop, so each repeat drifts a little further. Kept dry enough to sit in a mix.

1990
Smart ScalePitch tracking

Tracks your note, checks the key and picks the right interval as you sing. Thin and present, with that first-intelligent-harmonizer edge.

1999
Throat ModelPSOLA

Pitch-synchronous grains that leave your formants where they were. Wide intervals without the chipmunk.

1999
Spectral ChoirPhase vocoder

One shared phase vocoder for all six voices. Glassy on top, smooth underneath.

Ours
Sequin GrainsGranular

A granular cloud with sparkle and width. Less a harmony part, more a shimmer around one.

Ours
Six RoomsHybrid

Every singer gets their own engine and their own room. A small revue spread around the building.

All twelve share the same analogue back end — tape saturation, a gentle top roll-off, per-voice drift and noise — plus a subtle tape print over the whole plugin. Change engines from the Green Room box in the strip: click through, the year on the door tells you which decade you're in.
Brushed Aluminium, Walnut Cheeks

The Console

Eight knobs on a 1960s desk under the stage. Each show re-trims the console — champagne for the lounge, chrome for the disco, frosted silver for the holiday special — but the controls stay put.

This is the plugin itself, running in your browser — drag a knob.

MIX

How loud the group sits against you. Push it all the way: an output limiter means full mix never clips.

50%
SPREAD

How far apart the six stand across the stereo field, from a huddle round one mic to the whole stage.

62%
HUMANIZE

Timing and pitch drift per singer, so it sounds like six people instead of one person six times.

25%
TONE

Tilts the group from dark ribbon-mic to bright presence without touching your lead.

0.0 dB
AIR

A short, bright space around the stack. Room, not a reverb wash.

40%
GLIDE

How the singers slide between notes. Low is tight and snappy, high is lazy doo-wop scoops.

36 ms
DUCK

The stack bows out under your attacks and swells back in after, so the words stay yours.

20%
DRIVE

Saturation on the group, five ways — valve, tape, transistor, fuzz or transformer. A little glue, or a lot of AM radio.

+2.7 dB
Knob shine

Past about three-quarters the knob starts to glow; near the top the rim catches a glint; at 100% it sparkles. You'll know when you've maxed one.

Lock it

Right-click any knob to lock it. Locked knobs keep their value when you change shows, so your mix level survives a preset hunt.

MIDI learn

Same menu: MIDI learn, move a CC, done. Forget it just as fast. Locks and mappings are saved with your session.

Below The Console

The Strip

Six little pixel dioramas along the bottom of the plugin. They look like set dressing. They're not — every one of them is a control.

Live from the plugin — drag The Crowd, flick through the Green Room, hold the Showstopper.

Green Room1963 → OURS

The engine selector. Click through the twelve engines — ten more arrive with the packs — and the singers waiting backstage change with the decade.

The Crowd6 → 36

Drag across to fill the house. Past six, extra voices join in behind the group — up to thirty more for a gang-vocal chorus.

EncoreCH 1 · 2 · 3 · OUTRO

Arrange the build. Chorus 1 brings on two singers, chorus 2 four, chorus 3 all six, the outro adds the crowd. Cap it at 4 or 6, or add an 8VA layer on top.

Soundcheck64 S · LOOP · CUES

Keeps the last 64 seconds of your lead, cut into bars. Jump to your loudest, flattest or quietest bar and loop it while you dial the group in.

Wear & Tear9 PM → 3 AM

Drag through the night. By 3 AM the singers go a little flat, drift a little late and get sloppier. It's dramatic.

ShowstopperHOLD

The Star Turn. Hold it and the whole group comes in for the big finish: every silent singer joins the full stack, octaves above and below, with a plate swell.

Who Called This Key?

Key Detective

Backup singers need to know what key they're in. So the plugin works it out for them.

Set it to AUTO and it listens to your lead, names the key and shows you how sure it is. When your song changes key, it notices, tells you which bar, and asks: follow it, or stay? Or set it to MANUAL and call the key yourself.

MAJORMINORDORIANMIXOLYDIANCHROMATIC

Press LISTEN and play it a few bars — a vocal, a piano loop, a guitar, a sample. It hears the melody and the whole spectrum, names the key with a confidence, and stops by itself when the take ends. Tell it what it's hearing (voice / lead or instrument) and it's sharper still.

Want exact chords instead? Switch the harmony source to MIDI chord and play the voicing on a keyboard: hold the notes and the singers take them.

The Boring Stuff, Done Properly

Under The Lid

Drive, five ways

One knob, five characters. Pick one in settings — each is level-matched, so switching changes the vibe, not the volume.

  • VALVEAsymmetric, even harmonics, soft shoulders. The house sound.
  • TAPEA soft knee, a little squash, the top rolling off as you push.
  • SOLIDTransistor: a harder knee, odd harmonics, edgier.
  • FUZZStraight into the rails, and it stays there.
  • IRONTransformer: the bottom blooms, the top stays clean.
Tape print

A subtle tape pass over the whole plugin: saturation, a low bump, a soft top and a hiss you'll never hear. Dial it in settings.

Never clips

An output limiter sits at the end of the chain, so full mix with all six and the crowd stays clean.

Zero latency (live)

A live mode drops the limiter's look-ahead for tracking and stage use.

Stereo

Wide, narrow or mono-safe, so the stack still works when the club PA sums to one side.

Input trim + auto-gain

Hot or quiet source, the singers get a sensible level. The meter shows you what's coming in.

S-Guard

Sibilance control on the group, so six singers don't mean six times the esses.

Humanize seed

The drift is seeded. Re-roll it until the group feels right, and it recalls exactly with your session.

Window size

100% to 150%, plus large and extra-large text for when the stage is across the room.

Film grain

The Fixers' own grain over the whole UI. On by default, one click off.

Four More Bills · Ten Shows Each · Engines Of Their Own

The Packs

Fifteen shows come with the plugin. These are four more troupes you can hire — each one a different room, a different job, ten shows that land in the Showbill under their own heading — and engines you can't get anywhere else, ten between the four of them. One key, and they're yours for good.

Pack 01 · Ten Shows · 3 Engines

The Horn Section

For soul · funk · pop · hip-hop

What it's for: horn-section hooks, stabs and arrangement punch — the part a three-piece brass line would play, sung.

How it sounds: tight cluster voicings that move as one, with the brass articulations built in — stabs, doits, falls, shakes and a bell-up on the last hit.

Its own engines: Brass BellSection FanValve Stack

The six step off the risers and pick up brass. Sharp suits, one mic between three, the arranger counting them in from the dark.

  1. Brass Stabs
  2. Horn Line
  3. Fanfare
  4. The Doit
  5. Falls
  6. Harmon Mute
  7. Bari Bottom
  8. Section Shake
  9. Bell Up
  10. Big Hit
$19.9910 shows · 3 engines · one key
Add To The Bill
Pack 02 · Ten Shows · 2 Engines

The Revival

For choruses · anthems · big endings

What it's for: the chorus that has to be twice the size of the verse, and the last one that has to be twice that again.

How it sounds: five and six-part stacks with a full house behind them — the crowd up past twenty, wide, loud and certain.

Its own engines: Pulpit PlateCongregation

A gospel hall on a Sunday night. Every seat taken, the balcony singing along, someone's tambourine a hair ahead of the beat.

  1. Revival Tent
  2. Amen Corner
  3. Choir Loft
  4. Handclap Row
  5. Organ Swell
  6. The Balcony
  7. Full Congregation
  8. Testify
  9. Sunday Best
  10. Raise The Roof
$19.9910 shows · 2 engines · one key
Add To The Bill
Pack 03 · Ten Shows · 3 Engines

The Machine Room

For sound design · electronic music

What it's for: when you don't want singers at all — textures, risers, pads and inhuman backing vocals.

How it sounds: the ugly end of the Green Room, on purpose — ring mod, hard splices, granular clouds and glassy phase-vocoder choirs.

Its own engines: GearboxServo ShiftPunch Card

The basement under the stage, where the tape machines live. No lights, a lot of fans, everything humming in a key nobody chose.

  1. Oscillator Row
  2. Patch Bay
  3. Test Tone
  4. Magnetic Ghost
  5. Reel Two
  6. Glass Choir
  7. Cold Storage
  8. Short Circuit
  9. Vacuum Tube
  10. Signal Lost
$19.9910 shows · 3 engines · one key
Add To The Bill
Pack 04 · Ten Shows · 2 Engines

The After Party

For modern pop · hip-hop · electronic

What it's for: ad-libs and doubles on a modern vocal — the layer under the hook, the answer at the end of the line.

How it sounds: sub-octave ad-libs, pitched-down doubles and wide loose-tuned stacks that sit behind the lead instead of beside it.

Its own engines: Late PlateSmoke Ring

Two a.m. in a club that didn't exist yet. Smoke machine, one strobe, the coat check closing and nobody leaving.

  1. Two A.M.
  2. Smoke Machine
  3. Strobe
  4. Back Room
  5. Ad-Libs
  6. Sub Octave
  7. Neon Rain
  8. Coat Check
  9. Last Song
  10. Daylight
$19.9910 shows · 2 engines · one key
Add To The Bill
All Four Packs
The whole run — forty shows across all four rooms, and four keys in one email. Cheaper than three packs bought alone.
$59
Save $20.96 vs. separately Take The Lot — $59

Packs need The Backups to play. Each key arrives by email: open the Showbill, pick the pack's category, click any locked show and paste its key — all ten sign on at once.

Box Office · Open Now

Get Backstage

Admit One · Lifetime
$49.99
once. yours for good.
VST3 · AU · macOS & Windows
Buy Now $49.99
  • One-time payment. No subscription, no rental.
  • Lifetime license, on up to 3 machines.
  • Your key arrives by email the moment you're on the bill.
  • Paste it into the contract in the plugin and sign. The dashes go in by themselves.
  • VST3 and AU on macOS (universal), VST3 on Windows (64-bit). One key, up to three machines.
The license window: a black lacquer folio with a free-trial card on the left and a signable artist agreement on the right
Rehearsal · Try Before You Buy

Sit In On A Rehearsal

Download the full plugin and try every singer, show and engine for a session. The trial plays a short noise about every 20 seconds — get backstage and your key silences it for good.

⌘ Mac InstallerUniversal · VST3 + AU⤓ ⊞ Windows Installer64-bit · VST3⤓
macOS · VST3 · AU  /  Windows · VST3 · license key delivered by email
Same Studio · Different Worlds

Also On The Bill

The studio. Analog tape character from a crew of six pixel engineers.

Visit the studio ↗

The stay. Room-themed reverb: twelve rooms, four glowing bulbs and a casino floor.

Check in ↗