Kiwisynth: the wavetable synthesizer, in full

Sound · Oscillators

One engine, five oscillator modes

Three main oscillators, a sub, and a noise source mix together. Each main oscillator can run as a wavetable, a SuperSaw, a plucked string, a tuned resonator, or a cloud of grains, so a single engine covers a wide range of sounds. A little warmth runs under all of it on every note, and that is part of the instrument's character.

Wavetable: move the position to sweep through a row of waveforms, with Warp for Bend, PWM, Sync, or Wavefold on top
SuperSaw: a thick stack of detuned saws in one step, the wide sound behind dance leads
Karplus-Strong: a plucked-string model with damping, brightness, and pick position
Modal: a tuned partial bank that rings like a bell or marimba. Granular: a source scattered into grains, rarely still even before you add movement
Load your own WAV as a wavetable, or a sample to granulate. The preset then saves as one self-contained file

Shape · Filter and motion

Dual filters, and motion you can dial in

Every voice has two filters, the second off until you switch it on. Cutoff sets where the filter acts, Resonance adds a peak that can ring into self-oscillation, and Drive adds saturation for warmth. Above that, the motion controls keep a sound from ever feeling static.

Filter types from LP12 and LP24 to a ladder-style MGLow24, high-pass, band-pass, notch, comb, and formant
Run two filters in series, parallel, or split
Unison stacks voices, Detune spreads them, and Drift lets each wander on its own
Breath adds the small movements of a real player: drift, swell, and a vibrato that fades in

Shape · Modulation

Build modulation where you want it

There is no grid to fill in: modulation is added at the knob you want to move. Right-click and pick an intent: Wobble for a looping LFO, Fade in or Fade out for an envelope, Follow mod wheel, velocity, or a macro, or Humanize for a fresh random offset per note. Each intent reads the knob and picks musical defaults, so a wobble on wavetable position is a slow drift and the same wobble on pitch is a narrow vibrato.

Drop a source onto an LFO's rate or an envelope's time, so one movement drives another
Per routing: depth from -1 to +1, smoothing in milliseconds, and audio rate where it earns it, on FM depth or oscillator tune
The Matrix tab is a read-only map with a live trace per source; the modulation timeline draws every modulator over the last note's eight seconds
Sources: 4 LFOs, 2 envelopes, 2 MSEGs, 2 step sequencers, 4 macros, Sample & Hold, keytrack, velocity, mod wheel, aftertouch, and full MPE

Shape · Bloom

Sources that respond to how you play

Three modulation sources that read your performance, not just your notes. They come set up inside presets, and you can point any of them at a knob.

Chord

A reading of the chord you hold. A plain fifth reads low; a dense or dissonant chord reads high. The sound answers the harmony you play.

Bloom

A rise from nothing to full over the first seconds of a held note, at the Note Bloom Rate. Each note carries its own, to open a filter or lift an effect as it sustains.

Repetition

A value that climbs each time you return to the same note, nudging a repeated part toward variety.

Effects

A rack on the finished sound

Per-voice distortion plus a rack of effects on the mix. Drag the cards to reorder them, and every effect has a bypass, so anything you switch off costs no CPU.

Chorus to thicken and widen, with an Ensemble mode that drifts like an old string machine
A tempo-syncable stereo ping-pong delay, and a reverb with a shimmer tail for cinematic pads
3-band EQ, multiband saturator, an auto-filter, a phaser, and a tape character on the whole mix
A Volume Shaper for tempo-locked pumping and trance-gate patterns, built in, no external kick needed

Performance · Chord and arpeggiator

One finger, a running arpeggio in the right key

The Perform tab is a pipeline your notes travel through: chord, then arp, then voices. The Chord stage turns one key press into a stack that follows your key, so you play a degree and the key decides the quality. Switch the arpeggiator on after it and it arpeggiates the chord that one key built.

Eight patterns: Up, Down, Up and Down, Down and Up, As Played, Random, Random Unique, and Chord
Six rate divisions, gate length, octave range, and a velocity fade. Chance drops steps at random while the timing keeps running, for a broken feel
Ratchet fires a step two, three, or four times in quick succession
Chord types run from Power and Octave to Triad, Sus, and Quartal, with Close, Open, and Drop 2 voicings
Both are off by default, so no preset changes under you until you switch them on

Scripting

A Script page for what the knobs cannot do

The Script page adds a small BASIC-style language that reaches what the matrix structurally cannot: branching on a threshold, memory across events, a gesture staged over time, a CC that fires a note. It never replaces the engine, it adds to it. The knob still owns its value; the script contributes a movement.

Ten handlers: on init, on key, on note, on release, on tick, on beat, on cc(N), on pitchbend, on aftertouch, on transport
on key runs before the voice exists, and is the only place pitch and velocity are writable. One line of scale_quantize there means never playing a wrong note again
Deterministic by design: the clock counts samples, not wall time, and the seed is pinned, so an offline render and a live take agree. Print the track twice and get the same take
Sandboxed: no file or network access, a statement budget per handler, and a script that cannot crash the audio thread

Presets

Tools for finding and blending sounds

A factory library covering bass, keys, lead, pad, percussion, pluck and texture, plus a system for shaping them into your own. Filter by category, by how involved a patch is, or by character words like warm, bright, dark and evolving.

A/B morphing

Load two presets into slots A and B and move a slider between them. Kiwisynth blends their parameters and their movement, so the in-between positions are real sounds of their own.

Smart browser

Filter the library by category, by how involved a patch is, and by character words like warm, bright, dark, and evolving.

Section presets

Borrow just the oscillators, the filter, or the modulation from another sound, and keep the rest of your patch.

Modulation randomiser

Reshape only the movement of a patch and leave the base sound alone. You set how far it goes, from a nudge to a full rewire.

Animate This

Right-click a control and it adds a fitting movement to that one knob, chosen for what the knob does.

Save and share

Save your own sounds alongside the factory set, and export a preset as a file. A patch that carries imported audio saves self-contained.

Guides

Build one and you learn the instrument

Loading a preset shows you a finished sound. Building one teaches you why it works. The manual carries a complete build from a blank patch for every category in the browser: bass, lead, pad, pluck, keys, percussion, texture, and FX, plus two full styles. Read the guides →

Every number is explained

Each control gets a starting value and a range to try, with the reason behind it. A number you cannot explain is a number to copy, not a control you have learned.

It says how far to trust it

Every figure is tagged: acoustic fact, production convention, or Kiwisynth's own judgment. The guides tell you which of their claims are the weakest, and to trust your ears over them.

It transfers

Why vibrato sits between 5 and 7 Hz, and why octaves fuse where fifths read as harmony, are facts about instruments. They will serve you in any synth you open.

Under the hood

Specifications

Oscillators	3 main (Wavetable, SuperSaw, Karplus-Strong, Modal, or Granular), plus a sub and a noise source. OSC3 silent by default for per-oscillator stacks
FM	A layer over the three oscillators: 4 operators, 5 algorithms, per-operator ADSR and feedback
Filters	2 per voice: LP12, LP24, MGLow24, HP12, HP24, band-pass, notch, comb, formant, with series, parallel, or split routing
Modulation	4 LFOs, 2 envelopes, 2 MSEGs, 2 step sequencers, 4 macros, Sample & Hold, keytrack, performance and MPE, and the Bloom sources
Effects	Per-voice distortion (soft clip, hard clip, fold back, bit crush, decimate) plus a reorderable rack: Auto-Filter, Chorus, Delay, Reverb, Equaliser, Multiband Saturator, Volume Shaper, Tape, Phaser
Perform	A one-way pipeline: keys, script, chord, arp, voices, MIDI out. 8 arpeggiator patterns; chords follow the key across 10 scales and 4 tunings
Scripting	BASIC-style, 10 per-event handlers, a Script Depth knob, deterministic by default, sandboxed
Performance	Poly and mono voicing, glide / portamento, full MPE, mod wheel, sustain pedal
Presets	A factory library across seven categories, plus your own. `.kwpreset`, or `.kwsz` when a patch carries imported audio
Formats	VST3, CLAP
Platforms	Windows 10+ and Linux (glibc 2.35 or newer, X11)

Open the editor and shape your own sounds