nitride

A native FM synth experiment for macOS, exploring playable ways to push sounds from familiar tones into unstable textures.

Work in progress. It's playable as a standalone app or an Audio Unit, with presets and host automation. The sound and interface are still evolving; this isn't a finished release.

Try it

Requires macOS 15+ on Apple Silicon, a macOS SDK + Clang, and CMake 3.24+. The build downloads JUCE automatically.

make standalone

For your DAW, run make reload-au to build, install and validate the AU in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components. It also generates and installs the 69 categorized native presets in ~/Library/Audio/Presets/nitride/nitride/, including on a fresh clone. Existing preset files and user edits are left untouched. Restart your DAW, then look for nitride as an AU instrument; in Logic, browse its host Settings menu above the plugin interface. No private evaluation workspace or separate preset download is needed.

Poke around

• make studies — sound experiments and comparisons.
• make gestures — the playable control-surface study.
• make check — local development checks.
• Contributing — build, test and development notes.
• Architecture — how the instrument fits together.
• Design notes — the original brief and evolving direction.
• Motion LFOs — waveforms, independent destinations and tempo sync.
• Motion/envelope presets — eight finalized motion-led sounds, MIDI demos and playing notes.
• Detuned analog presets — eight finalized Beak>/Portishead mood interpretations, including piano-like keys and a loose drum.
• Filter modulation — key tracking, velocity and audio-rate FM.
• FM expansion — primary ratio, independent envelope, shapes and network-preserving operator mix.
• Preset exploration — versioned review sounds, MIDI demos and iteration notes.
• Evaluation journal — embedded Logic trial presets, persistent feedback and resumable history.
• Factory presets — 69 finalized sounds, Logic-native categories and the standalone browser.
• Preset provenance — original Nitride interpretations and the local-only research boundary.
• Release qualification — measured timing/performance evidence and pending M2/Logic acceptance.