ascent manual

What it does

ascent builds tempo-synced risers and falls with one control: filter, reverb, echo, noise, gate, drive, motion and fat grow together up to the drop, and with auto drop the track comes back full on the bar.

ascent builds rises and falls in time: filter, reverb, echo, noise, gate and drive grow together until the drop.

Rise starts on the next bar and lasts from 1 to 32 bars.
Auto drop: the track comes back full on the drop bar.
Seven styles, from Air to Apex. A MIDI note starts it on the exact sample.

Quick start

Pick a preset (it also sets the bars), or choose how many bars the build lasts, 1 to 32, above the map.
Press Rise: ascent starts on the next bar and climbs by itself. With auto drop the track is back, full, on the drop bar. A MIDI note starts it at once.
Or drag the arc by hand, or automate Intensity.

The display

The map shows the build: top left what is happening (armed · starts in 2 beats, rising · bar 3.4 of 4, drop · the track is back, full), top right the curve. Drag the curve up or down, drag its end point to change the peak. Hover a point to read bar and intensity there. The lanes (filter, space, echo, noise, gate, drive, motion, fat) light up from the left as the build goes; hovering a knob lights its lane and back. The arc on the right is the intensity: drag it, or press Enter to type a value; during a build it shows the applied intensity and counts down to the drop.

The ascent map: bar buttons, rise and fall, the styles from Air to Apex, auto drop, the output spectrum and the dashed curve rising to a peak of 110 % before the drop. — **The build as a map.** Time runs left to right in bars, up to the drop wall; the intensity curve is dashed for what is to come, and behind it the hill is the output spectrum. Above it: 1 to 32 bars, rise or fall, seven styles from Air to Apex, and auto drop. Drag the curve to change its shape and the end point for the peak.

Eight lanes from filter to fat with their values now and at the peak. — **One lane per effect.** filter, space, echo, noise, gate, drive, motion and fat, each computed with the same formulas as the processor. On the left, each value now and at the peak.

The intensity arc at 0 %, by hand, the curve, peak and tail knobs, the host tempo and the Rise button. — **The intensity arc.** The control that moves everything, 0 to 110, by hand or with a countdown to the drop. curve, peak and tail set the shape, where the build arrives and the tail after the drop. Rise arms the build on the next bar; during it the button is Stop.

The filter column: HP selected, amount 100, the response over the spectrum and 20 Hz to 15.1 kHz, now 20 Hz. — **Filter.** HP, LP or BP and how far the filter moves. The window shows the real response over the output spectrum, and the line under it reads where the filter goes from and to, and where it is now.

The space column with the echo stems and a 4.4 s tail, and the texture column with the gate pattern. — **Space and texture.** space draws the echo repeats and the reverb tail, with decay and pre-delay. texture shows one bar seen through the gate, with noise, gate, drive and motion.

The assistant with what it heard, eight proposed values, the style, contour, space and texture locks, propose again and apply to B. — **Suggest a build.** The assistant listens to the track and proposes style, curve, peak, space, echo, noise, gate and drive, locally and offline; the locks keep style, contour, space or texture. apply to B puts the proposal in slot B, to compare with A.

Every picture on this page is a capture of the real interface, from the current build.

Controls

The names are the ones your DAW shows for automation, read from the plugin itself; ranges and defaults are the plugin's own. Every knob: drag (Shift for fine), wheel for small steps, double-click for the default, Enter or a click on the value to type it with units (6k3, 250ms, -3 dB).

Main controls

Control	Range	Default	What it does
Intensity	0 % to 110 %	0 %	Where the build is, 0 to 110 %. Drag the arc or automate it.
Bars	1 · 2 · 4 · 8 · 16 · 32	4	Length of the build: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 bars.
Direction	Rise · Fall	Rise	Rise (up to the drop) or Fall (from the peak back to the dry track).
Style	01 Air / Soft · 02 Halo / Soft · 03 Echo lift / Soft · 04 Skyline / Medium · 05 Pulse / Medium · 06 Surge / Hard · 07 Apex / Hard	02 Halo / Soft	Seven characters, from Air (soft) to Apex (hardest).
Curve	0.25 to 4	1.8	The shape of the climb: early, linear, progressive, exponential or last-second.
Peak intensity	20 % to 110 %	100 %	How far the build goes.
Auto drop	Off · On	On	Back to zero exactly on the drop. Off: the build holds the peak.
Filter	0 % to 100 %	100 %	How far the filter moves.
Filter type	High-pass · Low-pass · Band-pass	High-pass	High-pass, Low-pass or Band-pass.
Space	0 % to 100 %	100 %	Reverb amount.
Echo	0 % to 100 %	100 %	Echo amount, at the division of the style.
Decay	0 % to 100 %	50 %	Reverb decay (50 = the style's room).
Pre-delay	0 ms to 200 ms	0 ms	Reverb pre-delay.
Noise	0 % to 100 %	0 %	Rising noise.
Gate	0 % to 100 %	0 %	Rhythmic gate depth.
Gate rate	1/4 · 1/8 · 1/16 · 1/32 · 1/8T · 1/16T · Roll	1/8	1/4 to 1/32, triplets, or Roll (accelerates to 1/32).
Drive	0 % to 100 %	0 %	Saturation (8x oversampled).
Motion	0 % to 100 %	0 %	A barber-pole phaser that rises with the build and speeds up toward the drop.
Fat	0 % to 100 %	0 %	Keeps the riser full while the filter removes the lows.
Drop tail	0 % to 100 %	0 %	Reverb and echo keep ringing after the drop instead of being cut.
Width	0 % to 150 %	100 %	Stereo width.
Output	−18 dB to 6 dB	0 dB	Final level.
Fallback BPM	60 BPM to 200 BPM	120 BPM	The tempo when the host gives none.
Rate-true sound	Off · On	On	Keeps the sound the same at every sample rate.

Every parameter (25)

Numbered parameters are grouped in one row (for example Band 1–8), with the number of copies.

Parameter	Range	Default
Intensity	0 % to 110 %	0 %
Style	01 Air / Soft · 02 Halo / Soft · 03 Echo lift / Soft · 04 Skyline / Medium · 05 Pulse / Medium · 06 Surge / Hard · 07 Apex / Hard	02 Halo / Soft
Filter	0 % to 100 %	100 %
Space	0 % to 100 %	100 %
Echo	0 % to 100 %	100 %
Width	0 % to 150 %	100 %
Output	−18 dB to 6 dB	0 dB
Bars	1 · 2 · 4 · 8 · 16 · 32	4
Curve	0.25 to 4	1.8
Peak intensity	20 % to 110 %	100 %
Auto drop	Off · On	On
Bypass	Off · On	Off
Fallback BPM	60 BPM to 200 BPM	120 BPM
Noise	0 % to 100 %	0 %
Gate	0 % to 100 %	0 %
Drive	0 % to 100 %	0 %
Gate rate	1/4 · 1/8 · 1/16 · 1/32 · 1/8T · 1/16T · Roll	1/8
Filter type	High-pass · Low-pass · Band-pass	High-pass
Direction	Rise · Fall	Rise
Decay	0 % to 100 %	50 %
Pre-delay	0 ms to 200 ms	0 ms
Fat	0 % to 100 %	0 %
Motion	0 % to 100 %	0 %
Drop tail	0 % to 100 %	0 %
Rate-true sound	Off · On	On

Presets

74 presets in 9 categories. Each one sets its length in bars.

House & Techno 12Strobe Runner, Acid Climb
EDM & Trance 14Mainstage Ignition, Snare Roll Rise
Trap & Drill 9Bass Escape, 808 Drop-Out
DJ Sweeps 5DJ High-Pass, Open The Mix
Uplifters 7White Noise Uplift, Jet Uplift
Downlifters 8After The Drop, Cathedral Fall
Cinematic 9Ghost Cathedral, Trailer Hit
Lo-fi & Tape 5Tape Rewind, Cassette Swell
Fills & Breaks 5Stutter Fill, Reverse Suck

Click the preset capsule in the top bar to open the preset sheet: search (every word must appear in the name, category or description), categories with their counts, ★ Favourites, tags on every row, and in B, which loads a preset into the slot that is not playing so you can compare. A click loads a preset and leaves the sheet open; ↑ ↓ move, Enter loads and closes, Esc closes. The arrows ‹ › beside the capsule step through the list; a dot says the sound was changed.

All 74 programs, as the DAW lists them

White Horizon
Mainstage Ignition
Strobe Runner
Velvet Vacuum
Broken Satellites
Electric Pressure
Ghost Cathedral
Bass Escape
Glitter Avalanche
Dry Tension
Echo Panic
Slow Orbit
Neon Tunnel
Last Second
Snare Roll Rise
Underwater Close
Telephone Climb
After The Drop
Sixteenth Shutter
Triplet Lift
Cathedral Fall
Dark Swell
Laser Band
Thirty-Second Rush
Soft Exhale
Big Room Roll
Tape Rewind
Stadium Breath
Quarter Pump
Fog Bank
Siren Sweep
Gentle Outro
Hard Stop Tension
Spaceship Landing
House Lift
Techno Tension
Warehouse Roll
Acid Climb
Trance Gate Lift
Trance Breakdown
Festival Lift
Progressive Bloom
Trap Build
Drill Slide
808 Drop-Out
DJ High-Pass
DJ High-Pass Long
DJ Low-Pass
Open The Mix
Bass Return
White Noise Uplift
Airy Uplifter
Gated Noise
Quick Uplift
Noise Downlifter
Impact Tail
Breakdown Fall
Cinematic Swell
Tension Drone
Trailer Hit
Lo-Fi Lift
Tape Stop Filter
Cassette Swell
Stutter Fill
Triplet Fill
Roll Fill
Echo Throw
Reverse Suck
Barber Rise
Fat Festival
Ring-Out Drop
Jet Uplift
Phase Cathedral
Fat Trap Build

A/B and undo

A and B hold two complete settings. equal vol. plays B at the loudness of A, so louder never fools you. in B in the preset sheet loads a preset straight into the other slot. Undo and redo (the curved arrows, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z) are kept separately for A and B; switching slot is not a step.

Listen modes

ascent has no delta mode. bypass veils the glass and the map says bypass · original sound. Use A/B with equal vol. to compare two builds.

Simple, advanced and sizes

simple keeps the map, the arc and the bridge with its four columns (filter, space, texture, output; at L also the assistant); at S the six lane knobs. advanced opens a drawer with build (curve, peak, drop tail, auto drop, the seven styles, every gate rate) and engine (tempo without a host, rate-true sound, suggest a build); at S also filter and space and texture and output.

Pick a size with S, M and L in the top bar, or drag the window corner. A click on the status line zooms the contents from 75 to 200 %. The help strip in the footer describes the control under the pointer.

ascent in the Essential (S) view, 640 by 400 — Essential (S), 640 × 400

ascent in the Studio (M) view, 1000 by 640 — Studio (M), 1000 × 640

ascent in the Full (L) view, 1280 by 800 — Full (L), 1280 × 800

More features

Suggest a build

ascent listens to the track and proposes style, curve, peak, space, echo, noise, gate and drive with its own rules, locally and offline, and says why. keep locks groups, propose again gives a variant, apply to B puts it in slot B. The optional online AI uses your own API key and sends only sound statistics.

MIDI start

Any MIDI note starts the build at once, on the exact sample of the note: put it in the piano roll where the build should begin and the drop falls exactly after the chosen bars.

Tips by genre

EDM and trance: Mainstage Ignition, Festival Lift, 8 to 16 bars with Roll on the gate.
House and techno: House Lift, Techno Tension: gate at 1/8 and a high-pass.
Trap and drill: 808 Drop-Out, Triplet Lift: the 808 leaves, triplet gate, dry stop.
DJ transitions: DJ High-Pass and DJ Low-Pass: filters only, no volume rise.
After the drop: Direction Fall: After The Drop, Cathedral Fall.

CPU and latency

Latency: 31 samples, 0.65 ms at 48 kHz.
Quality: Drive oversampled 8x. New instances sound the same at 44.1, 48, 96 and 192 kHz and in mono.
CPU: About 2.2 % of one core; under 0.2 % at rest.
MIDI: Any MIDI note starts the build on its exact sample. MIDI learn from the status line.

CPU: one stereo instance at 48 kHz, 512-sample blocks, on a test signal, as a percent of one core of a recent desktop CPU. Indicative only: your system will differ.

Version and changes

This manual describes ascent 0.9.5. Updates never change how a saved session sounds: when the sound changes, it arrives as a new option or only in new instances.

Latest builds

0.9.5 2026-10-24 ["Its own product now: its licence, the Beat Kit's (KIZAMI, KITTO, TATAKIT, FUZZO, ASCENT) or ZOKKU All's unlocks it; old beta trials keep working. Sound and saved sessions unchanged."]
0.9.4 2026-10-24 ['Activate online and Activate offline in the licence sheet activate ZOKKU All; a saved session stays byte for byte the same after it is reopened.']
0.9.3 2026-10-24 ['A ZOKKU All licence unlocks it too; the free trial is the ZOKKU All one: 7 days, one trial for all eleven.']

Before

0.9 Revisited interface: now/peak marks on the bridge knobs, simple/advanced, preset sheet with in B.
0.6 Motion, Fat and Drop tail.

Common to every plugin: windows, presets, keyboard and typed values.