F_SWARMZ

Swarm Ecosystem Synthesizer

F_SWARMZ is a generative stereo synthesizer built around a living swarm of eight interacting oscillators. Instead of controlling every oscillator separately, you control the laws of the ecosystem: movement, attraction, repulsion, chaos, harmonic behavior, waveform morphing, FM interaction and stereo spread.

The central canvas shows the swarm. Each dot is an oscillator. Its horizontal position influences waveform character, its vertical position influences pitch, and its distance to other oscillators influences FM interaction.

Main Controls

• DRIFT sets the basic movement speed.
• ATTRACT pulls oscillators toward each other.
• REPEL pushes oscillators apart.
• CHAOS adds random motion and instability.
• SPIN adds circular/orbital movement.
• REFLECT controls how strongly the swarm bounces and folds back inside the field.
• MEMORY controls inertia and smoothness of movement.
• FM sets the amount of distance-based modulation between oscillators.
• HARM controls how strongly the swarm follows musical rules.
• FOCUS morphs the behavior from loose, ethereal drone movement to tighter playable response.
• LOCK controls how strongly pitches lock to the selected musical structure.
• EXCITE controls the amount of energy injected by gate or trigger input.
• SPREAD sets stereo width based on oscillator position.
• LEVEL sets the final output level.

Musical Controls

• ROOT selects the musical root note.
• SCALE selects the pitch scale.
• RANGE selects the vertical pitch range.
• CONST selects the constellation behavior.
• TRANSPOSE shifts the complete swarm in semitones.

Constellation Modes

• FREE uses the selected scale and range without strong role assignment.
• TRIAD pulls oscillators toward root, third and fifth relationships.
• SEVENTH adds seventh-based harmonic structure.
• PENTA distributes the swarm over pentatonic relationships.
• DRONE keeps part of the swarm close to the root while the rest moves around it.
• PROG favors wider progressive intervals such as fifths, sevenths, ninths and elevenths.
• OCTAVES restricts the swarm to octave relationships for stronger playability and coherent layered tones.

Inputs and Outputs

• PITCH CV controls the root pitch using 1V/oct behavior.
• GATE/TRIG injects energy into the swarm when a gate or trigger is received.
• MOD 1-6 are assignable modulation inputs.
• OUT L / OUT R provide the stereo audio output.

MOD Inputs

Each MOD input can be assigned to a target parameter. Use these inputs to control movement, musical behavior, FM depth, waveform bias, position offsets, constellation mode, output level or stereo spread from external CV sources.

Usage Tips

For slow ethereal drones, use low DRIFT, low CHAOS, high MEMORY, moderate HARM, low FOCUS and wide SPREAD. For playable sounds, increase FOCUS, LOCK and HARM, and try OCTAVES, TRIAD or SEVENTH constellation modes. For unstable insect-like textures, increase CHAOS, FM and SPIN while keeping HARM lower. For coherent ambient beds, use DRONE or OCTAVES with high MEMORY and moderate movement.

Important

F_SWARMZ is not designed as a conventional oscillator bank. The best results come from balancing the ecosystem. Small changes in movement, harmonic strength and FM depth can have a large effect on the result.