The Remnant vs Undersong

The Remnant is a feedback-matrix drone synthesizer. 8 FM voices modulate each other through an 8x8 routing grid. Signal circulates, persists, and transforms. You set conditions. The sound decides what to become. VOICES 8 FM oscillators with continuous waveform morphing: sine, triangle, saw, noise. Each voice has pitch, fine tune, morph, character (thin, normal with sub-octave, or wide unison), and level. Every voice can modulate every other voice through the matrix. FEEDBACK MATRIX The 8x8 grid is the core. Each cell controls how much one voice modulates another via FM. Diagonal cells create self-feedback. 7 topology presets configure the routing: Pairs, Ring, Star, Mesh, Chain, Random, and Custom. Each topology produces a fundamentally different timbre from the same voices. Edit individual cells by dragging. The synth auto-detects manual edits and switches to Custom. DRIFT Per-voice random pitch wandering. Each voice drifts independently with its own random LFO. Amount sets the deviation range. Rate controls the speed. Low settings: the sound breathes. High settings: voices pull apart into slow harmonic interference. EVOLVE Autonomous matrix mutation over time. Three modes: Wander drifts the matrix randomly. Breathe scales it in sinusoidal cycles. Decay dissolves the network into silence. Duration: 5 seconds to 10 minutes. Modulates on top of your settings, so knob positions are always respected. SNAPSHOTS 8 slots that capture the full sound state: all voice parameters, body/FX settings, drift, evolve, the full feedback matrix, topology, and XY pad positions. Long-press to save, tap to recall. Glide morphs every parameter simultaneously over up to 30 seconds. Transition between completely different sounds. XY PAD Two-axis touch controller. Each axis maps independently to one of 11 destinations: FM Density, Self-Feedback, Drift, Morph, Saturate, Air, Body Decay, Pitch Spread, Tension, Atmosphere, Chaos. Snap-to-center returns on release. Per-sample modulation for FM targets. PLAY MODE Transforms the drone into a touch instrument. 8 velocity-sensitive pads gate individual voices through attack/release envelopes. Expression modes: Volume, Filter (2-pole lowpass), or Morph (pad Y overrides waveform). Pitch bend on pad X. Per-voice latch. Latch All for quick voice management. MIDI input on C4 through G4. RESONANT BODY Physical resonance filter with 4 modes: Chamber, Cave, Metal, Void. Turn Decay to maximum and the body self-oscillates, becoming a sound source on its own. EFFECTS Saturate adds tanh waveshaping from subtle warmth to full destruction. Space spreads voices across the stereo field. Air adds reverb. HARMONY Free or scale-quantized pitch. 13 scales including Major, Minor, Dorian, Pentatonic, Blues, and more. Root note and reference tuning (432/440/442/444 Hz) configurable. 25 factory presets across 7 categories. Save your own. 2x oversampling for alias-free FM. Double-precision phase accumulators. Works as AUv3 in GarageBand, AUM, Logic Pro, and any AUv3-compatible host. Runs standalone on iPhone and iPad. Also available as VST3, AU, and CLAP on desktop. Special thanks to Gavinski for extensive beta testing and feedback that shaped this instrument. From All The Machines. Instruments and effects for sound designers, producers, and experimenters.

Undersong is an AUv3 audio effect that plays along with whatever audio you send it. It's technically an audio effect, but it acts more like an instrument. It's based on an idea I had for a live performance that ended up taking on a life of its own. The short version is that everything Undersong plays comes from the audio coming in. It listens to your track for "action", like a pluck, a drum hit or a swell, and each of those can spawn a particle. A particle is one small synthesized note, often a pluck but not always, and it's always in key. Soft playing gets soft and lower responses, and digging in gets you brighter ones. I feel like Undersong is something that wishes to be the main focus of a composition, but how you use it is totally up to you. I really enjoy using it as the centerpiece of ambient jams with a bit of percussion or a slow moving bassline alongside. If you're not sure where to start, send in a drum loop (even just a series of blips or clicks will work...), turn up the Mix to 100% and just experiment for a while. Twist some knobs and see what you find. You can't break it. The particles can be one of 12 materials, mostly inspired by modular synthesis techniques. Each material can then be performed and shaped by one of 10 modes and 10 patterns. That makes for 1200 combinations before you turn a single dial. One of the modes, Aurora, stops making particles altogether and turns into a self-generating ambient pad that your playing strikes. It's one of my favorite things in the device. I tried to build this like a playground for ambient performances. It's maybe a bit like sitting down at someone else's modular rig... it takes some exploration. I've set up an environment that I think is inspiring and I hope you can find your way around and enjoy it as well. There's various ideas and features hidden throughout (in plain sight) that work nicely together or on their own. Gravity, an idea I brought over from my Augur device, pulls the notes toward your root so the melodies sound like they're actually in your key. With Ear on, Undersong listens for the pitch you're playing and answers in unison, grain plays tiny pieces of your own audio back as notes, and Input lets little glimpses of your audio through, so you hear the thwack of your pick or your snare, but ringing at the particle's note. Step puts everything on a steady rhythm, one note per step, with Density deciding how busy it is. Step plus the Loop pattern is a fun little corner to jam in. Freeze holds whatever's currently ringing out so you can play over it. There's a Drone dial that builds a bed under everything, and 35 scales plus your own custom ones. Plus a quick one-knob reverb, because I really like reverb and I think almost every one of my devices has received at least a little reverb, just in case you need it quickly. To sum up, I'm proud of this and I have been consistently getting lost in it while building and testing. I feel it's the kind of device that you have to get to know a bit. It's pretty dense. It's maybe not for everyone, but for the people who it resonates with, I'm glad you're here and I hope it brings you some inspiration. If you run into any issues or have some feature requests for a later update, don't hesitate to reach out at ian@ijoaudio.com. I appreciate you very much. Cheers! ian - ijo audio