Sumu

Sumu combines additive resynthesis with FM and vector field spatialization. Each voice of Sumu has 128 sine + noise oscillators connected as 64 FM pairs. Each oscillator pair can be set to its own location in a reverberant space, outputs from which are filtered via self-oscillating, analog-modelled filters.

Sampled sounds in Sumu are represented as collections of up to 64 bandwidth-enhanced partials, each with a frequency, volume, and noisiness that can change over time. This representation of sound makes all kinds of creative changes possible, from natural-sounding time stretching to exotic timbral manipulations.

Like the other Madrona Labs synths—Aalto, Kaivo and Virta—Sumu has a semi-modular architecture with patchable modules around a central patch bay. In Sumu, however, each patch cord carries 64 channels of data: enough to convey data about the entire sample as independent partials, or complex shapes as modulators.

A free, open-source companion app, Vutu, converts sounds from WAV or AIFF into Sumu's enhanced-bandwith partials format.

The 1.1 release, available now, has over 180 presets from Madrona Labs and other contributors.

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