The Remnant - Drone Synth

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.