Blake Corman of Chiral Audio wrote in to share about a collection of mechanism-first plugins, in which each product implements the governing equation of a physical or mathematical system rather than using the science as a thematic vibe.
Chiral Audio™ is an independent audio plugin studio building mechanism-first tools for sound design and music production. Its catalog turns physical systems into playable effects: Kuramoto synchronization in Foxfire, logistic growth in Autocatalysis, Korteweg-de Vries wave behavior in Soliton, the Boltzmann distribution in Boltzmann, Anderson localization in Anderson Freeze, Schwarzschild time dilation in Geodesic, and the Arrhenius rate law in Arrhenius.
The following plugins are currently available:
- Foxfire: Foxfire runs the Kuramoto model for coupled oscillators as a chorus-ensemble. Sixteen voices drift, partially sync, flicker at the critical point, and lock.
- Autocatalysis: Autocatalysis is a resonance effect governed by population dynamics. Sixteen tuned resonators bloom through an S-curve, the same shape that describes bacterial growth and autocatalytic chemistry.
- Soliton: Soliton is a feedback delay where dispersion and saturation balance so each repeat reshapes itself and the line sustains without decay.
- Boltzmann: Boltzmann is a MIDI sequencer and arpeggiator that draws each note from an energy landscape governed by the Boltzmann distribution. One Temperature control runs the whole field, from frozen on the root to evenly random.
- Anderson Freeze: Anderson Freeze is a disorder-driven spectral freeze. A Disorder control detunes per-band resonant feedback loops until the spectrum localizes in place, high frequencies first, the same mechanism Anderson localization describes in disordered solids. A second Quantum Zeno mode holds the spectrum by re-sampling it at a measurement rate.
- Geodesic: Geodesic is a relativistic multi-tap delay and freeze where each tap’s clock rate is set by Schwarzschild time dilation. Near taps stretch and darken; the field can hold at a horizon, then thaw.
- Arrhenius: Arrhenius is a multi-band thermal gate governed by reaction kinetics. The Arrhenius rate law gates eight frequency bands stochastically, so one Temperature control sets how often the instrument fires, from a sparse, frozen loop to a dense, boiling one.
Available for Windows and macOS in VST3 and AU plugin formats, the plugins are on sale at launch pricing starting from $15 USD. Value bundles are available as well.
More information: Chiral Audio
