Crickets Audio has released Strata, a multi-track frequency spectrum monitoring plugin that displays the spectrum of every track in your project layered into a single graph.
Most spectrum analyzers show you one track at a time. Strata flips that and shows everything together, with each track stacked on top of the others.
The main idea here is to make masking, arrangement conflicts, and overall spectral balance easier to see at a glance. It’s a different way of looking at a mix, and it can highlight problems that are easy to miss when you’re switching between per-track analyzers.
Strata comes as two plugins. Strata Track goes on each track you want to monitor, and Strata Vision is the visualizer that gets dropped on its own track. The two communicate over TCP rather than shared memory, which means a single Strata Vision instance can collect data from a large number of Strata Track instances. The developer has tested it with up to 500 tracks in a project.
The graph itself is highly configurable. You can resize the window to any aspect ratio, switch between themes (including ones tailored to specific DAWs like Bitwig, Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio, Logic Pro, and Reaper), pick from a range of color palettes (Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, Rainbow, plus monochromatic options), or import your DAW’s track colors automatically in supported hosts.
It’s not just about the looks, either. Things like frequency and amplitude ranges, smoothing, slope, and FFT block size are all adjustable.
There’s also a “realms” feature for power users. You can split your project into multiple monitored groups, each with its own Vision instance. I think this could be handy in large sessions where you want to drill into a specific bus or group without losing the global view.
One quirk worth flagging is the Fader Problem. Because Strata Track sits in your track’s plugin chain rather than post-fader, it only sees the signal before the DAW fader.
The developer documents this clearly and offers several workarounds, including keeping track faders at 0 dB and using a utility plugin for volume, creating monitoring tracks with routing, or using Strata Track’s built-in Fader parameter to mirror your DAW fader setting.
On the licensing side, Strata is hassle-free. There’s no iLok, no subscription, no machine ID lock, no requirement for internet access after install, and it never blocks audio even if the license certificate is missing. You also get five years of free updates included.
Strata is available in two license grades. Strata Prime ($25) monitors up to 8 tracks and is limited to one realm. Strata Standard ($75) includes unlimited tracks and up to 100 realms. There’s no difference in features otherwise, and upgrading from Prime to Standard doesn’t require a reinstall.
Strata is available in 64-bit AAX, AU, and VST3 formats for macOS 14, 15, and 26 (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Windows 10 and 11. Officially supported DAWs include Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, Cubase, FL Studio, GarageBand, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Reaper, Reason, and Studio One.
Strata Standard is currently 50% off until May 23, 2026. BPB readers can stack an extra 10% off on top using the code BPB2026 at checkout on the Crickets Audio website during the sale period.
There’s also a 14-day demo if you want to try before buying.
More info: Strata (currently 50% OFF, extra 10% with code BPB2026)
Last Updated on May 14, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
