A synthesiser you can program in musical language. Describe a warm bass, a glassy bell or a pad that slowly opens up. sonarch chooses the right engine, builds the signal flow, connects the controls and delivers the sound you asked for, ready for you to play, edit and save.
Version 1.0 · macOS & Windows · VST3 & AU plug-in or standalone · Runs entirely on your computer Introductory price £79 / €89 / $99 · One-off purchase, perpetual licence · Excludes local sales tax where applicable
Actual product · one description, four playable variations · select to enlarge
Why we built sonarch
Stay with the idea, not the menus.
Go deep because you want to. Not because you have to.
We’re musicians. We love making music, and we love sound design too. But when a track is taking shape, the most important thing is staying with the idea.
Often, you already know the kind of sound you need. You just want to get to it, without opening another handful of plugins or remembering which oscillator, envelope and delay settings made that sound on that synth.
That’s why we built sonarch. Describe what you hear in your head, try the sounds, then refine, change direction or start again in words. You don’t need to move a control or understand the signal path to keep creating.
And when sound design is the moment? Open up the instrument and explore. The depth is there. The detour is optional.
Three steps from a sentence to a sound.
You don’t need to know which synth to open or which knob to turn. Start with the sound you want.
01 / DESCRIBE
Use your own words.
Describe the sound in plain musical terms: an instrument, a texture, a feeling. No technical jargon needed. Type your idea or build it visually with Blocks. sonarch chooses the engine and builds the patch.
“a warm, spacious pad”02 / PLAY
Four readings of the same idea.
Explore four readings: Literal, Characterful, Modern and Wildcard. Play them, compare their character and choose the one that fits your track.
Literal · Characterful · Modern · Wildcard03 / KNOW WHY
See what your words did.
See which words shaped the sound, which engine was chosen and what wasn’t used. Refine your description or take the controls.
“brighter, with less reverb”
Hear it in action
Made with sonarch sounds.
Short demo tracks built from described sounds. Every instrument you hear was generated from a single sentence.
Prefer to pick rather than type? Blocks lets you build and refine a sound simply and quickly: era, sound model, archetype, tone, shape, motion, space and finish, each one a musical choice, not a parameter.
Actual product · the chain writes your description as you go · select to enlarge
Every block is a musical word. Choose Punchy, Drifting or Glassy and the description writes itself above the chain.
Change one thing, keep the rest. Swap the sound model or the era and your other choices stay in place. Generate again and compare.
Mix and match with text. Start in Blocks, refine in words, or the other way round. It’s the same description underneath.
Explore the instrument
Follow the sound.
Keep the essentials close. Open up the instrument when you want to take an idea further.
Compact view
Everything you need, within reach.
A panel that fits the patch, with useful controls and macros in musician-friendly language. Try the sound with your part, make a change, and keep playing.
Actual product screenshot · select image to enlarge
Build a sound in stages
Start with one idea and keep adding to it.
Evolve your description, then hear a fresh variation A from the full prompt at each stage. Explore layers, movement and finishing touches.
Choose your starting sound
YOUR DESCRIPTIONREAL sonarch ENGINE · LISTEN BELOW
FM electric piano, dry
FM electric piano, dry
Hear the keys first.
A bell-like electric piano, played through three chords. Start dry to hear its attack and decay clearly.
Real sonarch engine renders. Choose a sound and a stage, then press play.
STEP 1 OF 3
Four deliberate readings
Which one feels like your track?
Same words. Four interpretations from the real engine, each a deliberate reading of your description.
“wavetable lush strings”
THE DIRECT READINGLiteralStart with the straightforward interpretation.LEAN INTO CHARACTERCharacterfulExplore another expression of the same idea.A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVEModernTry the modern reading against your part.ROOM TO EXPLOREWildcardA deliberate alternative, not a random reroll.
Advanced · the full instrument
When you’re ready, go as deep as you need.
Behind every generated sound is a complete synthesiser. Open the Advanced view and sonarch exposes up to 64 controls across Sources, Tone, Motion, Connect, FX and Perform, plus a five-band parametric EQ, for endless tweaking and refinement. Every one of them can be assigned to your MIDI controller. And because each synthesis model keeps its own architecture, the controls you see always belong to the character of the sound.
Actual product · Advanced view, Connect tab · select to enlarge
FX · click any stage to compare it on and offMotion · shape an LFO, then connect it to something you can hearEQ · five-band parametric, drawn over the live spectrum
Each model, its own controls. Choose a vintage analogue model and you get its oscillators, filter and LFOs. Choose vintage wavetable and you pick from its wavetables. FM gives you operators and algorithms. The Advanced view fits the engine you’re playing, so a sound inspired by a classic polysynth behaves like one.
Six focused tabs, plus EQ. Sources, Tone / Body, Motion, Connect, FX and Perform, each explained in plain language with a Guide one click away. Finish with a five-band parametric EQ drawn over the live spectrum.
Up to 64 controls, all live. Knobs play as you move them. Undo and redo are always there, so you can explore without losing the sound you liked.
Assign anything to MIDI. Map any control to a knob or fader on your controller and perform the sound, not just program it.
Keep the recipe
A how-to sheet for every sound you make.
Want to know how it works? sonarch can create a how-to sheet for your sound, showing its sources, filter, envelopes, movement and effects.
See what was read, what was chosen and what wasn’t acted on. Explore the live settings and save the sheet for later. Use the step-by-step guidance as a starting point for recreating the sound on another synth, where its capabilities allow.
Make music first. Learn the sound design when you want to.
Actual app how-to sheet · select to enlarge
Six synth engines
Vintage soul. Modern imagination.
Three engines deliver vintage character. Three more bring modern tones and body. Describe the sound you need, then refine it into something that fits your music.
Explore the classics
VINTAGE ANALOGUE
Warmth. Weight. A little electricity.
Rich basses, lush strings and singing leads. Bring classic analogue character to your next part.
VINTAGE FM
That unmistakable digital touch.
Classic four-operator FM character. Explore bell-like electric keys, metallic tones and expressive digital sounds.
VINTAGE WAVETABLE
Digital colour. Always unfolding.
Glassy pads, hollow bells and shifting tones. Start with the character of vintage wavetable synthesis and follow it somewhere new.
Take it somewhere new
TRUTONE · MODERN FM
Clear. Punchy. Full of possibility.
A six-operator FM engine for modern tones with depth and body. Explore expressive keys, bright plucks and detailed metallic textures, then shape them to fit your part.
saK1 · HYBRID SAMPLE SYNTHESIS
Familiar sounds. Unexpected combinations.
Bring sampled character into a synthesis workflow. Layer complementary voices, blend sources or explore Sympathy for changing textures.
sonarch SUPERSYNTH
Analogue energy. Modern ambition.
sonarch’s modern analogue-style powerhouse. Explore bold leads, broad pads and evolving textures, with room to shape the sound further.
Not everything. The sound you need next.
sonarch isn’t trying to replace your DAW or an 80 GB sample library. It has a different job: give you quick, repeatable access to the kinds of sounds you’re looking for, with the flexibility to make them your own.
The machine models capture the architecture and calibrated character of their inspirations; they aren’t component-by-component replicas. The aim is the right kind of instrument, programmed for your words.
Arpeggiator & step sequencer
Hold a chord and find a groove.
Let the arpeggiator turn your held notes into a moving pattern. Go up, down or back and forth, and hear a simple chord become the start of a track.
Want to write the rhythm yourself? Shape up to 16 steps in Pattern Lab and adjust the notes, lengths and velocities. Build the sound and its pattern in one place.
Pattern Lab · step sequencer shown · select to enlarge
From the creator
Why I built sonarch.
I’m a musician myself, and over the years I’ve accumulated a room full of hardware synths, plug-ins and terabytes of sample libraries, only to increasingly find myself overwhelmed by the choice and complexity.
Quite often, I don’t want to spend twenty minutes searching for a sound. I already know roughly what the arrangement needs, and I want to get there while the idea is still fresh.
That’s why I built sonarch, short for Sonic Architecture.
The aim was never to replace the joy of sound design or the studio full of hardware. It was to create a faster route from hearing an idea in your head to having a playable instrument in front of you, without breaking the creative flow.
System requirements
What sonarch 1.0 needs to run.
sonarch runs standalone or as a VST3 / AU plug-in.
macOS
Intel: macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later
Apple Silicon (M1 and later): macOS 11 Big Sur or later, running natively
Formats: Standalone app, AU and VST3 (64-bit)
Windows
Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
Formats: Standalone app and VST3 (64-bit)
Both platforms
A 64-bit VST3 or AU compatible host for plug-in use
An audio interface or built-in audio output
A MIDI keyboard is recommended but optional; a built-in preview is included
Internet connection needed only to download the installer. sonarch runs entirely offline.
AAX (Pro Tools) is not currently supported. CPU load depends on the patch, polyphony and sample rate; it is comparable to other modern software synthesisers of similar depth.
A little more about sonarch
Good to know.
Do I need to understand synthesis?
No. Start with words you’d use with another musician: warm, bright, soft, punchy. sonarch programs the instrument and puts useful controls within reach.
Is this just searching for presets?
No. sonarch is a synth-engine patch-generation system. It interprets your description, selects an appropriate engine and dynamically builds a playable patch, configuring the sound sources, signal path, modulation and effects to shape the tone you asked for. It isn’t just matching your words to a list of finished presets. The sound and its controls stay editable: change its character, refine individual elements or start again, using words or the synth controls.
Do I need an account or an internet connection?
No. sonarch runs entirely on your computer, from understanding your words to building and playing the sound. Your descriptions aren’t sent to a server, and no part of sound generation happens in the cloud. No account, no internet connection and no waiting for a cloud service. Just describe the sound and keep playing.
Can I play and change the sounds?
Yes. Play with a MIDI keyboard or use the built-in preview. Compare variations, shape the sound with controls or refinements, and save the result.
Is it a subscription?
No. A one-off purchase gives you a perpetual licence to sonarch. No recurring subscription payments, keep your focus on making music.
Can I come back to the same sound?
Same prompt. Same four variations. No random surprises. sonarch builds repeatable results, so you can return to a description with confidence. Save the patch to keep your chosen sound and edits. The readable patch format also makes it possible to inspect and share what you’ve made.
Can I combine two sounds?
Yes. Build a two-part patch, such as a pad with a pluck, and refine the parts. If a description could mean a layer or a characteristic of one sound, the explanation helps you see how it was interpreted.
Which platforms does sonarch support?
sonarch 1.0 supports macOS and Windows. Use it as a plug-in in compatible music software or as a standalone app. AU and VST3 are available on macOS; VST3 is available on Windows. See the full system requirements.
Your next instrument · Version 1.0
Be the first to know when sonarch 1.0 is released.
macOS & Windows VST3 & AU plug-in & standalone
Introductory price
£79€89$99
One-off purchase, perpetual licence · Excludes local sales tax where applicable