Bertom Audio

Sometimes, people expect plug-ins to work like standalone apps. They are not. A compatible plugin host is required (a "DAW"). If you are new to audio plug-ins, the first step is to choose a DAW that supports one of the plugin formats available for your system.

For Pay-What-You-Want plug-ins, it is up to you :)

For paid plug-ins, updates (e.g. v1.2 to v1.3) are free. On the other hand, upgrades to new major versions (e.g. v1.x to v2.x) are not. Different major versions are usually considered to be different plug-ins.

However, licenses are perpetual and will remain valid for the version you bought.

Free updates are available using the same download link you received when you first got the plugin. The files will be up to date. If the plug-in is Pay-What-You-Want, it is also possible to buy it again, for example if you got it for free the first time and now want to pay something. It is not required and absolutely up to you.

If you are upgrading (e.g. v1.x to v2.x) a paid plug-in, the new major version is usually considered to be a different plug-in that needs to be bought separately (see "Are updates free?").

Paid plug-ins use a license file. Once you have downloaded the plug-in and your license file, the activation happens entirely offline. It is simple and non-intrusive.

After your purchase, you should have received two emails: one with the plugin download link, and another one with your license file attached.

1. Download your license file on your computer.
2. Open the plugin in your plugin host.
3. Click on the "Load license" button.
4. Select your license file.
5. Done!

Note that the plugin makes a copy of your license file during the activation so you can safely move the one you downloaded when it is done.

It is strongly advised to make a backup copy of your license file.

After your purchase, you should have received two emails: one with the plugin download link, and another one with your license file attached. Check your Spam folder and wait a few minutes. If the email does not arrive, contact me: tom[at]bertomaudio.com

• Look for the email with your license file attached you received when you bought the plug-in.
• If you still have an activated installation of the plugin, you can get your license file back from the copy the plugin made for itself during the activation. See "How to deactivate or change a license file?" for the location.
• Contact me: tom[at]bertomaudio.com

Licenses are granted to persons, not machines. You can use a plug-in on any computer you own and use personally without having to purchase additional licenses.

Licenses are currently not transferable.

For Pay-What-You-Want plug-ins, yes and unconditionally.

For paid plug-ins, a free demo is always available for you to make sure that the plug-in is working properly on your system, and that you actually like it before you decide to buy it. Therefore, a refund can only be requested in the unlikely event of the plug-in not working properly compared to the demo within 14 days after purchase.

Try the demo carefully before buying.

The plug-in makes a copy of your license file during the activation. To deactivate it and see the demo screen again, you need to remove this copy.

Windows: C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Bertom Audio\PLUGIN_NAME\
Mac: ~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Bertom Audio/PLUGIN_NAME/
Linux: ~/.config/Bertom Audio/PLUGIN_NAME/

"PLUGIN_NAME" being the actual name of the plug-in.

When Bertom Audio was using Gumroad, there were only Pay-What-You-Want plug-ins, and they are still Pay-What-You-Want today. Therefore, you can get a new download link for free by typing 0 in the "suggest a price" field.

If you need an invoice for a purchase you made on Gumroad, you can still generate it from your Gumroad receipt. For more information, see Gumroad documentation.

No, and there is no dll to find. Only VST3, AU, and AAX plug-ins are available. VST2 is being deprecated and newer developers are not allowed to distribute them anymore.

These are generic recommendations. It is expected that you have access to the documentation of your specific DAW to find the exact procedures.

1. Check if your DAW requires you to turn on some settings to allow plug-ins (GarageBand, Ableton Live...).
2. Make sure that your DAW is looking in the correct folder and that the actual plug-in file is in there too.
3. Completely shutdown and reboot your computer.
4. Run the deepest plug-ins rescan your DAW can do, clearing its plug-in cache if possible.

1. EQ Curve Analyzer needs two instances of itself to work. See the tutorial in the user guide.
2. Some DAWs try to suspend effects processing intelligently to improve performance. It can prevent EQ Curve Analyzer to work properly and will result in the "Suspended processing" screen. As a workaround, enable track input monitoring. (Note that in Logic Pro you need to enable "Software monitoring" in Settings > Audio > General)
3. It is not possible to use a plugin while analyzing it. You will not hear anything. It is inherent to this type of analysis and cannot be fixed.

This is a rare issue. Unfortunately, I have never been able to reproduce it or find a fix. If you encounter this or if you know anything that could help to fix this, please contact me.

The error message seems to mean that Windows tries to uninstall something that is not installed, or at least that it thinks is not installed. It seems to be related to the installation of the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable when it is already installed on a system whose MSI package management is somehow broken. But these are only speculations based on bug reports.

If the plug-in major version (first part of the version number) changed, then it may be a different plug-in from the point of view of the host and you should keep both installed until you are done with the old one.

However, if they are the same major version, the issue is probably that the name of the actual plug-in file changed and that your specific DAW relies on filenames to differentiate plug-ins. This happened with Denoiser 2.1.0, EQ Curve Analyzer 1.3.5, Air Shelf 1.2.0, and Phantom Center 1.0.3.

Before the change, almost all variants of a plugin had different filenames (64-bit, 32-bit, and specific CPU features) but it caused some issues in DAWs that rely on filenames like yours (not being able to share projects between different variants).

As a workaround, you could rename the new plugin file to match the previous one, but keep in mind that you would then need to rename this file everytime you update the plugin. The filenames history is supplied with the concerned plug-ins.

If the plug-in UI is too big for your screen and you cannot access the cog button anymore, you can manually delete the "properties.bin" file:

Windows: C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Bertom Audio\PLUGIN_NAME\properties.bin
Mac: ~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Bertom Audio/PLUGIN_NAME/properties.bin
Linux: ~/.config/Bertom Audio/PLUGIN_NAME/properties.bin