Elements — Spectral Synthesizer | Beta 1.0 | Free | macOS VST3

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Hi everyone,

I'd like to introduce Elements, a free spectral wavetable synthesizer I've been building since late 2025. I work professionally as a Lead FX Artist and Elements is what happens when that world collides with my other passion, electronic music and synthesis. It's a nerdy synth, beware of that!

The concept
Elements generates sound from the interaction of three ingredients: a geometry, a material, and a light source. Think of it like setting up a render: a sphere of ruby, a dodecahedron of obsidian, a torus of amber — shine a light on it and the optical physics become the synthesis engine. Fresnel equations, Beer-Lambert attenuation, real spectral transmission curves.

What's in Beta 1.0
10 materials based on real optical data (Diamond, Water, Amber, Ruby, Gold, Emerald, Amethyst, Sapphire, Copper, Obsidian)
4 geometries (Cube, Sphere, Torus, Dodecahedron) — each responds differently to rotation
3 light sources (Sunset, Daylight, LED Cool) with Gaussian spectral distributions
Light intensity controls pitch bidirectionally — 50% is neutral
Physical Envelope mode: ADSR derived from optical properties (IOR, thickness, transmission)
Geometric Deformer (Sphere only): Simplex Noise + sinusoidal wavefolder, produces continuous timbral drift
Real-time 3D viewport
8-voice polyphony, VST3, Universal Binary

Video demos




Known limitations
No preset system yet
Light source selection doesn't persist between sessions
Deformer is Sphere-only for now
macOS only — Windows planned

Links
🔗 Download Beta 1.0
📖 Documentation

This is just the beginning — v1.1 is already in the works, with a parameter sequencer, preset system, and more geometries for the Deformer.
Free, and always will be. Happy to answer any questions.

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Sounds great. Looking forward to the Windows version when it rolls out.

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Thanks! Windows is on the roadmap — planning to have a build out with v1.1

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If that physical interaction of light and an object translated sound is actually whats being computed and not just a fancy blob visual, then thats tres cool, sadly thats not what Im hearing

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audio unit ?

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VariKusBrainZ wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2026 10:18 pm If that physical interaction of light and an object translated sound is actually whats being computed and not just a fancy blob visual, then thats tres cool, sadly thats not what Im hearing
The physics is actually being computed — the 3D viewport is a visualization of the same scene that drives the synthesis engine, not a separate blob renderer. The Fresnel response per wavelength, Beer-Lambert attenuation through the material thickness, and the spectral transmission curves of each material are all calculated in real time and mapped directly to harmonic amplitudes.

That said, I'm curious what you're hearing that doesn't match the expectation — is it a specific material/light combination? Happy to dig into it.

Please check this section of Elements online doc if you want more details;
https://elements-synth.github.io/elements/science

Thank you for the comment!

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muki wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2026 10:49 pmaudio unit ?
Sorry, not in this release — VST3 only for now. AU support is on the roadmap.

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New beta release (0.9.2) now includes Windows vst3 version!

https://github.com/elements-synth/elements/releases

Bear in mind that this plugin was originally developed on MacOS, the Windows version hasn't been extensively tested, please report any bugs or issues found.
Thanks!

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New video! Three instances of Elements running simultaneously, using Bitwig's modulators to animate the geometry rotation in real time — curve and step modulators turning modulation into timbral movement.


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I made a plugin that is different from yours. I searched the internet and nothing showed up except for yours. I was wondering if I could work with you or at least show you mine. I was hoping we could work on it further and submit it to KVR. I don’t have much experience, so it would be helpful. If you’re not interested I understand. The beta version for mine is already functioning so if not that’s fine. How do I contact you if you’re interested? Can you send social media links?

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I tried to reach out on LinkedIn even though it’s not business related. Did you see my previous comment? The LinkedIn request says pending.

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I wasn’t aware of your plugin when I made mine, but let me know if you want to reach out if you saw my other comments.

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Well, a lot of fancy terminology for a synth that sounds like a sawtooth wave with a filter. Not getting a lot of variation in sound out of this thing and I've tried everything.

I guess you can't really expect a lot from a free synth but I have Synthedit synths that give more variety of sound than this.

Disappointed but not all that surprised.

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Any chance of an AU build?

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