ndbroadbent/experimental_vsts

experimental_vsts is a small collection of unusual audio plugin instruments for music production software, built with the JUCE framework so they compile and load without any manual setup of extra tools. Each plugin generates its sound waves from an unusual source instead of typical synthesizer building blocks. Fractalis builds its waveforms from fractal math, the kind of repeating, self-similar pattern seen in things like coastlines or snowflakes. You pick one of five fractal algorithms, then reshape it with three knobs, and the plugin also blends smoothly between two related versions of the shape over time so the sound keeps shifting instead of staying static. It also has more familiar synth controls such as filter cutoff, drive, and an envelope that shapes how a note starts and fades away. Calabi traces its waveforms from a type of six dimensional geometric shape used in advanced physics, projected down into a two dimensional picture drawn on screen. A curve winds across that shape, and the shape of that curve becomes the sound wave you hear. Knobs rotate and stretch the underlying geometry, changing both the picture and the sound together, and the lattice points of the shape also ring like a struck bell alongside the main tone. TreeVST grows a procedural tree for every note. A seeded, randomized growth pattern builds branches and leaves, and the finished tree is sliced into horizontal bands from root to canopy, with each band becoming part of the waveform. Playing a note scans up the tree from root to canopy over a settable amount of time, so low notes near the root sound dark and simple while the canopy sounds bright and busy, and a season setting changes how dense or sparse the leaves are. All three plugins share the same output stage: filter, envelope, drive, and a small on-screen keyboard for testing sounds without a separate MIDI keyboard. The project builds with CMake, downloads its dependencies automatically on first build, and copies the finished plugins into the standard macOS plugin folders. There is no stated license in the README.