Anukari - 3D Physics synthesizer & effects processor

[thetechnobear]

so this randomly (!?) popped up on my youtube feed, downloaded demo and Im really enjoying it, so bought it
(yes, its MPE compatible)

- YouTube

basically, its name pretty much explains what it is, but perhaps a couple of screenshots help too.

basically, you have springs, anchors and bodies, which you can excite, with various exciters - you can then pick up the sound via microphones. each of these has various properties e.g. spring has stiffness, bodies have mass.

all you just ‘drag to connect’, very simple.
you really don’t have to know what you are doing to create sound, its very playful.

whats nice, is beyond this, it has things like FX, and modulators (lfo, env, midi) even sound input can be a feed (hence the FX processor)

also the number of objects can be really large, some great presets showing this.

overall, you some really nice, (perhaps) leaning into the experimental side… and its visually really pleasing to watch it all work.

also, I was pleasantly surprised by its performance, have to say, I expected large models with the graphics to really ‘tank’, but so far with presets I tried it was all pretty good (Im sure you can kill it if you try ;))

Its seems to have been around for about a year, and is beta, with pretty active development… seemed stable to me
(I found one small bug, which Ive reported)

Its currently $70 (plus taxes), rather than $140, beta discount ($70).

tbc, I’ve no affiliation, just randomly came across this… and loved what I saw.

look forward to playing with it some more, I’ve got some ideas about using the Erae 2 surface to play with moving things around, and acivating different exciters based on position etc.

[thetechnobear]

It’s out of beta, 1.0 is now released…

dev has a blog post about the journey, includes some thoughts on the future etc.

intro price $99, full price $149 (+ taxes)
(no date when this ends)

[SteveElbows]

not/now typo? I do that one all the time!

[thetechnobear]

Autocorrect for you.

[NothanUmber]

Very cool project!
Built a bowed spring-balls demon cow contraption, sounds spookey

[thetechnobear]

fun isn’t it…

I think, what I like is its kind of like playing with physical objects and contact mics but in a virtual world… intuitive, playful and fun.
(without the hassle, e.g I never had springs the right size etc)
also unlike physical world, its easy to tune it e.g. for keyboard.
it even supports MPE.

to add a bit of ‘physicality’, I found adding a (midi) controller great.

I used the Erae, which is almost ideal for this as you can do normal keys like playing, or drum pads, or just using as a whole bunch of CC modulations.

important note:
its not ALL physical models its a certain area, and has limitations.

a) No resonators
this was a surprise, it rather focuses on mic pickup with ‘fx’ e.g. reverbs, filters etc
I did make a suggestion to dev, that this could be a ‘future feature’, as its quite important - which they accept, and would add as a ‘request’
But as always, never buy on a feature that does not exist yet!

a) it’s based on Springs, Mallets , Bows, or audio exciters
ok, its more than that, but primarily… its lacks blown physics or similar.
e.g. pipes / tubes - I guess thats also partly related to (a)

note about resonators…
you could feed output into external resonators.
it also does have nice FX e.g. filter, equaliser, formant filters, delay lines - you could use these to mess with modes, in a similar way to how resonators work
(hmm, now im thinking, passing thru something like Mutable Instruments Rings/Elements would be really cool!)

Overall, I just found it was refreshingly different.

ofc, there are quite a few physical modelling vsts or in daw (e.g. Ableton Live ) - notably AAS .
some also cover other physical models, and things like resonators, thru a more ‘conventional ui’ (lots of parameters), and also often more ‘playable presets’ (e.g organs, glockenspiel etc)

so this is more if you want to play, and enjoy a more ‘immersive’ and visual approach…

Also, not mentioned, but I can imagine is useful to some.
as its visual, it also allows you to record video, which could be interesting as a visual backdrop e.g. for youtube video - it does look quite nice.
though not something, Id really buy it for… just an interesting ‘extra’