MetaSynth

Digital Audio Workstation and Sound Design Studio for macOS

Sound Design

Create unique loops, one shots, and samplers using the Sample Editor, Effects Room, Image Filter, and Spectrum Synth.

Image Sequencing

Use pixel control to craft audio with a level of fidelity beyond MIDI with the Image Synth and Sequencer.

MIDI Sequencing

Control MetaSynth synths and samplers with traditionally composed MIDI sequences, and export to pixel control with Xx.

“MetaSynth is a truly great creative tool, in my mind what music software should be all about. It has genuinely changed the course of my career!” – Mel Wesson (Sound Designer for Hans Zimmer)

MetaSynth is an award-winning macOS suite of apps for sound design, music composition, and mixing. It uses 64-bit floating-point math for all audio operations end to end. This provides the highest possible resolution and prevents the accumulation of rounding errors during complex, multi-layered processing. Users include:

Recording Artists : Richard David James (Aphex Twin), Thomas Banghalter (Daft Punk), Xavier de Rosnay (Justice), Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL), Herbie Hancock, VNV Nation, Die Form, Audio Terrorist, El Silencio Blanco, Zohreh, Homeless Balloon, Biosphere, BT, Ian Boddy and Eric Persing (Spectrasonics), and many more. For links to user projects, please see the Community page.

Producers and Sound Designers : Hans Zimmer, Dan Wyman, Dane Davies – The Matrix Resurrection and The Matrix Trilogy (Dane Davies), Mel Wesson – Black Hawk Down, The Dark Knight; The Da Vinci Code Trilogy, King King, Inception, James Bond ‘No Time To Die, Hannibal, Joe Walker – Dune Pt 1, Dune Pt 2, Arrival, Sicario, 12 Years a Slave; David Thiel – Transformers, Juan Cruz Masotta – El Dandy, also Run Lola Run, Dante 01, Death Race, An Mil…. It’s also used to develop sounds for at LucasArts (Star Wars), RockStarNorth (Various), and Ableton (LIVE packs).

Professors and Studients : Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Berklee College of Music, Stanford University, Art Institute of Chicago, California Institute of the Arts, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, New York University, San Francisco Art Institute, University of California, and many more…

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“MetaSynth is deeper than deep space”– Keyboard Magazine

The MetaSynth Tools

Image Synth

The Image Synth is our paradigm-smashing composition environment where you paint to control sound. It can drive a host of built-in synthesizers and samplers with nearly infinite customizable micro-tonality far beyond what MIDI can represent. Create samples and loops for composing in the Montage Room, or use as a multi-layered improvisation sequencer!

“The Image Synth can integrate 1000s of voices tuned in any possible way. This is clearly beyond what MIDI (127 notes, 32 voices max in general) was designed to do. This is one of the unique strengths of the entire application. MIDI only has note on and note off and envelope information is carried separately with the instruments and controllers. In the Image Synth, the luminance codes the envelope during the duration of the note which allows for very subtle musical control. The RGB color also controls stereo placement for each note, so you can have a note starting left and moving right while fading out which would be very hard to do in MIDI unless you code that behavior in the synth, but then every note would behave like that. I like to view the Image Synth as a very complete notation system which includes envelope and pan control in the same representation.” – Eric Wenger (Creator of MetaSynth)

Spectrum Synth

The Spectrum Synth analyzes sounds and creates events that capture the original’s harmonics which you can manipulate, filter, and re-arrange to invent new sounds. Save as samples and create a custom sampler for sequencing in the Image Synth, Sequencer, or Xx (MIDI).

“MetaSynth is a brilliant interpretation of graphic synthesis. The ability to tilt or warp an image meant that within seconds one could be exploring unimagined sound territories.” – Curtis Roads (Author Composing Electronic Music)

Image Filter

Use images to filter audio files. Apply precise dynamic stereo filters to create a limitless range of effects from the conventional to the otherworldly. One image can generate complex pans which evolve over time.

“Metasynth has allowed me to open up areas of expression in my music that would otherwise have remained closed to me. Hence it has become a tool that I do not want to miss anymore.“ – Dr. Daniel Hensel (Award-Winning Composer)

Effects Room

The effects room provides a new approach to sound effects. Both traditional effects like delay, reverb and chorus, can be found here, and a wealth of unusual effects like our granular synthesis-based Grain and Shuffler. The unique graphic envelopes make it easy to turn “standard effects” into something unique.

“The consistent user interface in the effects room makes the job of applying multiple effects is a real time saver” – Dr. David Taddi (Harvard University)

Sample Editor

Render the audio from each room to the Sample Editor, then send it to other rooms for modification, add the results to a composition in the Montage recording studio, or use the samples to build unique instruments.

You guys make my life not only fun, but doable! – Samuel Estes (Cinesamples)

MetaSynth Instruments

MetaSynth comes with a collection of Synth patches and Sampler bank “plug-ins” which can be controlled by the Image Synth, Step Sequencer, and Xx (MIDI). Use the library of presets which come with MetaSynth, purchase expansion libraries, or create your own library.

Tired of all those classic synth emulation plug-ins? Give MetaSynth a try and it could bring some sound design colour into your life… – Future Music Magazine

Image Sequencer

This is an image based non-MIDI sequencer where you can compose musical phrases and rhythm loops then render audio, export to the Image Synth, add to your Montage Room composition, or export to Xx (MIDI).

There are few tools that offer such ground-breaking sound-design features as MetaSynth. – MusicTech Magazine

Xx MIDI Sequencer + Sequence Generator (separate application purchase)

Xx is a stand-alone MIDI sequencer that uses MetaSynth as its sound engine. Play all of your MetaSynth instruments with a controller, edit the sequence notes, modify controllers with drawing tools, and publish the results as a MetaSynth project to mix in the Montage Room.

Xx contains several auto-generation tools for creating patterns, building chords, or composing entire sequences. Once you have a “theme” use the randomization tools to create “variations” and build a full musical composition.

“You guys have done an excellent job on Xx and it is a boon for artistic expression.” – Benjamin Harrison (Synaptic Groove)

Montage Mixing Room (aka MetaTrack)

A 24-track mixing environment. Use this room to mix down full-length compositions or to layer and composite the sounds you create in the other rooms including samples, image synth presets, and image sequences. The MetaTrack application is now integrated into MetaSynth

“Mixing in MetaSynth keeps everything in 64bit float end to end.” – Marcus Moreland (Asylum Arts)

Key and New CTX Version Features

• Effect Room:
  • New: Automatic file management with a given project.
  • New: The entire state of the effects room is now auto-saved for any given project.
• Image Synth:
  • New: Loop Image Synth canvas selection to perform live.
  • New: 16 Bit Image Support – increases low amplitude representation, subtlety in re-synthesis, and improved analysis fidelity. From 256 to 65,536 shades per color channel!
  • New: Four new choices of color/luminosity for visual display.
  • New: Additional custom tuning and scales.
  • New CTX 1.5.0: Transport Control for ArtMatic Designer videos for composing.
• Image Filter:
  • New: Loop selection for live performance (CTX 1.4 and later).
  • New: 16 Bit image support to increase low amplitude representation, subtlety in re-synthesis, and improved analysis fidelity. From 256 to 65,536 shades per color channel!
  • New: Four choices of color/luminosity display.
  • New: More custom tuning and scales.
• Spectrum Synth:
  • New: Extract spectrums from audio with no length limits.
  • New: Two additional stereo-graphic representations.
  • Coming Soon: Version 2.0 will have a whole new spectral analysis engine!
• Image Sequencer:
  • Seamless dynamic selection playback looping.
  • Export to Image Synth preset or Xx (MIDI).
  • New: Image sequence with no length limits.
• Xx (MIDI for MetaSynth) – Separate Application Purchase
  • Use MIDI to play MetaSynth Instruments – Synths and Samplers.Convert MIDI file projects to MetaSynth Montage projects.Use MetaSynth Effects in MIDI Projects.Auto Generate and Customize Random MIDI sequences.
  • Import/Export MIDI Files to other applications.
  • New: Create MetaSynth Project with Xx, and Export MIDI to MetaSynth Sequence.
  • New: Render all audio Tracks, and Remap Measures to Tonality.
  • New: AutoScroll during playback, Play from selected location.
  • New: Make Chord with Selection, Repeat Selection, Generate Bass and Chords by Measure.
  • New: Transport Control of ArtMatic Designer videos for composing.
• Montage Mixing Room:
  • Produce 24 Track mixes using Image presets, Image sequences, and audio.
  • New: Improved Project Folder management workflow for files and sub-folders.
  • NEW CTX 1.5.0: Transport Control of ArtMatic Designer videos for composing.
• General New Features:
  • Rebuilt for macOS AppKit (11 and later) also backward compatible to MacOS X 10.10-10.14.
  • 5 User Interface Themes: Blue Steel, Classic, Dark Noise, Shaded, Shaded Metal and Paper Blueprint.
  • Resizable main window and dialogs, generalized vector graphics for envelopes and wave-tables.
  • Consolidation and extension of shortcuts and tool-tips.
  • Multi-threading for all image manipulation tools/process which increases in pixel-graphics speed 8 to 16 times.
  • Supports filenames up to 64 characters (Legacy MetaSynth had a 32 character limit).
  • Updated documentation, training videos, artist interviews coming soon. Watch the Learning page.

“I’m startled by the sheer density of what’s on offer. Each of the ‘rooms’ is stuffed to the gills with features and unexpected parameters. I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface, and thinking about the potential for creativity is dizzying. And it’s all organized and easy to use: the UI is excellent. I will reiterate that it’s not a platform to come to if you aren’t willing to be surprised, and aren’t open-minded or of an exploratory nature, but if you are there are riches here to keep you going for years.” – EditMSM (KVRAudio)

“Whenever someone listens to my music and asks ‘How did you do THAT??’, they are listening to a MetaSynth-generated chunk. It is the most revolutionary music tool I ever saw.” – Juan Cruz Masotta

MetaSynth+Xx CTX with Expansion Packs

Expansion Packs for MetaSynth+Xx CTX 1.x allow you to explore the full potential of the application suite by adding Instruments, Image Synth presets, Scales and more.

MetaSynth Toolkit

The King of MetaSynth expansion packs containing Effects (5+), Image Synth Presets (25+), Image Filter Presets (30+), Custom Scales (8 Categories), WaveSynths (25+), MultiWaves Synths (200+), GrainSynths (10+), Samplers (4 Additive, 4 AM, 9 FM, 5 Detune…), and MultiSamplers (10+). It is a nearly infinite tool containing over 10,000 audio samples, graphic files, and high level presets capable of creating anything from the most beautifully lush and diffuse ambient atmospheres and effects, to the nastiest Electro lead synth or groove imaginable. 

SynthWaves

The first is an absolutely massive collection of over 25,000 meticulously designed wavetables for MetaSynth’s WaveSynth (oscillator), MultiWaveSynth (multi wave, FM, WaveShaper…), and GrainSynth (granular) ‘synth plug-ins’.

Classic Samplers

Dial the wayback machine with MultiSamplers from MetaSynth’s Mac OS “Classic” era, including orchestral, techno, and world instruments.

Abstract Samplers I – MultiHits

This pack of 18 MultiSamplers and 112 Image Synth Presets, focuses on unconventional atonal loop-adders, rhythmic textures, glitched-out underground sounds, and unusual percussion hits which are designed to be mixed with conventional music elements.

Abstract Samplers II

Coming soon…

Abstract Samplers III

Coming soon…

“MetaSynth is, I believe, an extraordinary piece of software.” – Dr. M Rosas Cobian

Music Produced by Eric Wenger with MetaSynth+Xx

Eric Wenger – MetaTech (1998)	Eric Wenger – Spectrum Scapes (1999)
Eric Wenger – An Mil (2000)
Zohreh + Wenger – Navai (2005)	Zohreh + Wenger – Navai [remixes] (2007)
Raphel Elig + Eric Wenger – Dante01 (2008) Full Score	El Silencio Blanco – Misteriosa (2010)
Audio Terrorist – Entertainment for the Day (2015)	PURPLEMAZES – Destiny (2022)

“MetaSynth is not only guaranteed to enrapture music pros but is also yet another reason to consider the Mac the premier audio-creation platform“. – MacWorld Magazine

Get started creating unique beats, loops, sound designs, soundtracks, and songs today.

You can create textures and patterns that would be impossible without a serious investment in a high-end system like Symbolic Sound’s legendary $7,000 Kyma environment. If you’ve conquered the universe of soft synths and are ready to create textures that will amaze and astound even seasoned vets, MetaSynth is a wormhole into an alternate dimension of sound. – Keyboard Magazine

MetaSynth+Xx CTX In the News

If you’re not afraid to try something different, MetaSynth is worth it’s weight in gold. The program demands that you get into a different creative mindset, but it really does repay the effort you expend with a constant stream of inspirational sounds…It doesn’t come cheap, but after a few hours of use, we came to think of MetaSynth as a bargain. If you make a living through sound design or are the type of person who loves to explore new sonic territories, you absolutely must check out the demo. Highly Recommended. – Computer Music Magazine