The person behind nClear Audio
Ilia “nClear” Tsvetkov
I have made music since 1999 and released my first record in 2001. I teach sound, and I understand its physics and how audio is processed in a computer. These plugins come from that.
- Making music
- Since 1999
- First release
- 2001
- Teaching sound
- Since 2013
- Videos on how sound works
- 70
Sound
Twenty-five years of records, mixes and lessons.
- Music since 1999. First release in 2001. Drum and bass as nClear, hip-hop as Liquid Stealers, house and tech as Tone Rows.
- Records on labels. Offworld Recordings, KOS.MOS.MUSIC, Med School Music, Soul Deep, Celsius, Lush Stuff and others, on vinyl and digital.
- Mixing and mastering. For my own releases and for other artists.
- Teaching since 2013. At the Institute of Sound Design and at Pioneer DJ. Hundreds of students have taken my classes.
- Explaining how sound works. 70 videos on the physics of sound, digital audio and common audio myths.
- DSP from the signal up. I know what a processor should do to a signal before I build it, and how to measure whether it does.
How the plugins get made
Most of the work is below the surface.
Research, measurement, listening, and knowing what a processor should do to a signal before it exists. The code is the visible tip.
- Research comes first. For one tube compressor I studied the circuit diagrams, built simulations and took measurements: about 70 GB of test material.
- A test needs a known answer. Before I write a useful test, I have to know what the correct result is. Gluon alone has 20 test files with several hundred checks.
- Audio never waits. The interface can be late drawing a frame. Audio has a deadline for every buffer, so the audio thread works without waiting for anything.
- Old projects sound the same. In Sibalance a switch became a knob. Projects saved with the old switch still sound exactly the same.
- One family. I built the design system in Figma and moved it into shared code, so every plugin starts with the same colours, controls and behaviour.
- Every platform, properly. Builds for Mac, Windows and Linux; on Mac, Intel and Apple Silicon, signed and notarized, with an installer that checks the system.
And yes, AI agents write the code.
I decide what to build, pick the test signals, measure the results and listen for problems. I do not accept an output because it makes sound. If something breaks, I cannot blame the AI: it is my product, and I fix it.
Every release also has to pass the six rules of the nClear Audio Standard.