Focus Time by Touch The Universe Productions is a free experimental sample-based instrument created for the KVR Developer Challenge. Its central idea is visual: load a sample, draw motion directly on a tempo-synced timeline and let different processing engines interpret that curve.

Draw the Motion Instead of Programming It

Focus Time takes a workflow that will feel familiar to users of curve-based time effects and applies it to a sampler. Rather than building automation lane by lane, you draw a shape and the audio follows it. The moving playhead makes the result easy to understand visually while you work.

The same gesture can create very different results depending on the selected engine, from rhythmic repeats to stretched ambience and pitch-driven movement.

Twelve Creative DSP Engines

The instrument routes its timeline curves through a collection of time, pitch and texture processors. The feature set includes time warping, repeating, frequency shifting, formant-style movement, harmonic manipulation, spring-style reverb, tape delay and other experimental engines.

This makes Focus Time less of a traditional sample player and more of a sound-design workstation built around a single visual interaction.

Glitch, Ambient and Cinematic Uses

Short percussion can become stuttering rhythmic structures, vocal fragments can be stretched into unstable atmospheres, and simple tonal samples can be transformed into animated pads. Because the curves are tempo-aware, it can also create repeat and movement effects that remain tied to the arrangement.

A separate factory bank has been offered with roughly 500 MB of material and hundreds of presets, although the instrument can also be used with your own samples.

Free Experimental Release

Focus Time is available as a free VST3 for Windows and macOS through its KVR Developer Challenge distribution. KVR lists the current version as 1.01. The developer has also documented a temporary macOS quarantine workaround because the build may not be notarized on every system.

Mac users should therefore read the current installation notes before adding it to a production machine.

A Tool for Producers Who Like to Break Samples

This is not a conservative rompler. Focus Time is at its best when the source is treated as raw material for transformation. If you enjoy Gross Beat-style drawing, granular experimentation, glitch editing or long ambient resampling sessions, its workflow can generate ideas very quickly.

At a Glance

Developer: Touch The Universe Productions

Type: Experimental sampler / time warper

Version: 1.01

Price: Free

Format: VST3

Platforms: Windows, macOS

Focus Time Video Demo

Download Focus Time for Free

Get the current free version directly from the official developer page.

Official Download Page

Final Thoughts

Focus Time is rougher around the edges than a mature commercial sampler, but that is also part of its appeal. The curve-drawing workflow is immediate, the engine list is adventurous and the free price makes it easy to use as a dedicated sample-mangling playground.