NOMN has announced the release of a new MIDI plugin which explores the pattern logic of music making. A real-time DAW-integrated pattern engine, RESERVOIR is a polyphonic texture orchestrator which generates, perforates, and shapes 12 simultaneous voices of MIDI through a pipeline of mathematically grounded algorithms, each rooted in a specific tradition — and enhanced by a machine learning layer.
Composers have been working with statistics, algorithms, and early computational methods for creative use for over 75 years — and the algorithmic impulse goes back much further than that. Voice-leading rules, functional harmony post-Bach, species counterpoint: in their own way these are all algorithms. Schillinger, Xenakis, serialism, Markov processes, cellular automata, L-systems — the 20th century formalized a lot of it. RESERVOIR brings that lineage into a real-time DAW-integrated MIDI engine with an Echo State Network whose memory of recent output feeds back into what comes next.
RESERVOIR features
- 12-Layer Polyphonic Generation: Independent rhythm, perforation, and pitch per layer with 5 coordination modes and composite density normalization.
- Echo State Network: Recurrent network reading self-referential musical features and outputting continuous modulation biases. A machine learning layer that evolves the composition from its own output.
- 18 Rhythm Engines: Full implementation of Schillinger’s Book I rhythmic vocabulary plus stochastic, Euclidean, L-system, Markov grid, genre-seeded corpus patterns, and a strict subdivision grid for arp-style workflows.
- 12 Pitch Algorithms: Including a harmonic conductor with user-defined chord vocabularies, automatic voice leading, and ESN-driven harmonic transitions.
- MIR Capture System: Real-time MIDI performance analysis. Play a phrase; RESERVOIR absorbs its character and generates from it.
- Genre-Seeded Pattern Wander: 764,000 MIDI drum files processed into genre-specific prototype patterns. The NOMN Drum Computer engine walks these patterns with controllable wander rate.
- Genre Groove Microtiming: Per-genre timing deviations extracted from the drum corpus for stylistically authentic humanization.
- GPU-Accelerated Visualization: Real-time radial and score display of all layers with 8 color analysis modes rooted in Scriabin, Schillinger, and Rimsky-Korsakov color theory.
- 100+ Scale Library: Western modes, Japanese koto tunings, Indian ragas, synthetic formations, and custom pitch sets.
- In-Plugin Codex: A per-card glossary explaining the math and lineage behind every rhythm, perforation, and pitch engine.
- MIDI Learn: Right-click binding of any parameter to a hardware controller or incoming CC, saved with the project.
- Preset Morphing: Automatable crossfade between any two presets for smooth timbral transitions.
- Audio Gating: Apply perforation patterns to live audio input for rhythmic sculpting of external signals.
- MIDI Export: Multi-track output preserving per-layer polyphonic structure.
- DAW Transport Sync: PPQ-based timing for perfect tempo sync, transport jumps, and loop handling.
Available for Windows and macOS (VST3 and AU), RESERVOIR is priced ¥9,999 (~$63.45 USD).
More information: NOMN
