GrabTone

I've always been drawn to the synthesizer sounds of Stevie Wonder. Those tones are rich, warm, and expressive—but they're not trying to imitate natural instruments. They feel like instruments of their own.

At the same time, I've always wanted an easy way to create sounds like that, without needing deep knowledge of synthesizers or samplers.

The idea for GrabTone actually came from the sine-bank engine I built for the VocoderMorph module in GrabTracks. I originally developed it following my own taste, wanting to layer an analog-style synth character into vocoder sounds. Once that was working well, I started wondering:

Why not build a synthesizer around this idea?

That's how GrabTone was born.

GrabTone works with just two audio files:

• A provides the shape and motion of the sound.
• B provides the timbre and tone.

GrabTone doesn't try to perfectly reproduce the source sounds. Instead, it transforms them into something new—an expressive, analog-flavored synthesizer tone that can easily be played as a MIDI instrument.

I intentionally kept the interface minimal and easy to understand. My hope is that many musicians—even those who aren't particularly technical—will enjoy exploring sounds simply by dragging in different audio files and playing.

Give it a try and see what kind of instruments you can create.

GrabTone is currently free with a promo code (limited time).

Promo code: GRABTONEPROMO100.

Formats: VST3, AU
Platforms: macOS, Windows.