Caelum Audio Choric review

Caelum Audio Choric: What is it?

British developer Caelum Audio has only been active for a handful of years, but has already made a solid impression with a run of effective but affordable plugins. 

Choric is the company’s latest. It’s a flexible and creative take on classic chorus, unison and ensemble effects, presented in a straightforward, single-window UI. 

The signal flow breaks down into several sections. The first is a resonant input filter, which can function in low-, band- or high-pass modes, or be bypassed completely. Filtering is applied directly to the audio input, with controls to adjust the cutoff and resonance.

Post-filter, the signal feeds into a central section where the main action happens. This comprises modulation and pitch shifting. The modulation section contains the standard parameters you’d expect from a chorus. 

Choric goes deeper than many bread-and-butter effects though, with tools to fine-tune the character of the effect. 

Caelum Audio Choric: Performance and verdict

The Looseness parameter can apply wonkiness to the timing of the effect. There’s also a Spread control for moving the voices out across the stereo field. Choric also allows for the chorus modulation to be synced to project BPM, as well as offering an assortment of basic LFO shapes to adjust the shape of the modulation, with sine, triangle, saw, inverse saw and random options.

There are also three characteristic switches. Dark rolls off some of the high end of the chorus, independently of the input filter. Warm adds a subtle saturation boost that can impart a touch of analogue-like character, which works great paired with the Looseness parameter. Finally, Flip CH inverts the right channel of the modulated signal for added width.

The pitch shifting section can be used to apply a shift of up to +/-12 semitones to the modulated signal. There are controls here for setting the pitch shifting range in semitones, plus the amount, which dictates how much of the modulated signal is affected. Choric also has a Preserve Transients function, which makes the shift sound less unnatural, particularly for vocals and percussion.

The output section has a master dry/wet control, a gain control, and a width parameter, which can boost or cut the side signal relative to the mid.

As chorus effects go, there’s a lot to play with here, and Choric is at its best when pushed into weird and creative applications. We particularly like what it can do to synth pads and ambient textures – with a healthy dose of pitch shifting and some characterful modulation, it’s possible to add moving layers above or below your source sound that can really add depth. It’s a lot of fun to apply to drums too, using the filter to target just high or low elements.

Disappointingly there are no modulators beyond the main one. We had a lot of fun creating patches by sweeping the input filter cutoff and pitch-shifting amount to create dynamic effects. Obviously, most DAWs will allow you to automate or modulate this externally, but it would be nice to be able to set it up within the plugin. That aside, this is a fresh and fun take on a classic effect.

MusicRadar verdict: Choric is a fresh, creative but easy-to-use take on the more classic chorus and ensemble sounds.

Caelum Audio Choric: The web says

"It’s got the basic bases covered but where it really excels is when you push things into experimental territory."
Attack Magazine

Caelum Audio Choric: Hands-on demos

Caelum Audio

White Noise Studio

The Sound Test Room

Nu-Trix The Synth Guy

Caelum Audio Choric: Specifications

• KEY FEATURES: PC/Mac (Native Apple Silicon support). AU, VST3 & AAX . Also compatible with iOS & iPadOS. Requires iOS 11 or higher. Standalone and AUv3.
• CONTACT: Caelum Audio