Våld Labs has opened a public beta for Kurare, a polyphonic synthesizer plugin built on the Kuramoto model of coupled oscillators. Version 0.5.0 is free to download for macOS and Windows while the beta runs, ahead of a commercial release.

The Lisbon studio gives each note two oscillator swarms, which it calls red and white, with up to 32 oscillators in each and 16 voices of polyphony. The Kuramoto model, set out by the physicist Yoshiki Kuramoto in a 1975 paper, describes how a population of oscillators falls into step on its own. Våld Labs applies it so oscillators in a swarm either pull each other toward a shared phase or drift apart.

Watch videoKURARE | Every note is a crowd A swarm synthesizer by Våld Labs Open Beta

The four swarm controls

Populate sets how many oscillators are in a swarm, from one to 32. Decouple governs coupling strength, moving a swarm between a locked tone and a loose cloud. Diverge spreads the oscillators across sub-octave and overtone layers, and Excite adds instability. “Coupling freezes; temperature boils. The signature sound lives right at the threshold,” Våld Labs says.

Each swarm has its own filter, with a choice between an SEM-inspired state-variable design and a Polivoks-inspired one added in this version, plus filter and amplitude envelopes. There are three LFOs, two generative modulation lanes, and reverb and delay. Wave sources include procedural and classical sets and three collections drawn from the AKWF library.

The onboard sequencer carries seven algorithms taken from Vekte, the company's generative MIDI sequencer, with a separate part per swarm, an arpeggiator, and scale and chord options. A disc at the centre of the interface shows where each oscillator sits on a set of octave rings.

Price and availability

Kurare 0.5.0 is free during the beta, in VST3 and AU, as a macOS universal build and a Windows x64 build distributed through GitHub. Våld Labs says AUv3 and iOS versions are planned. The company posted a call for beta testers on the KVR Audio forum on 25 August before opening the beta to the public.

Via Våld Labs, with further detail from the developer's KVR Audio thread and Matrixsynth.