Phonon

Your precision granular laboratory for sonic alchemy

With sub-sample precision and audio-rate modulation, Phonon transforms any source into a spectrum of new sound - from vaporised textures and dark drones to sharp, machine-funk beats.

Discover and delight in vibrating matter differently with Phonon :)

If Purchase and Trial buttons aren’t working (please email and let me know), you can download from https://polyfreq.moonbase.sh/download/phonon and manage account/purchase from https://polyfreq.moonbase.sh/

Feature Summary

From surgical time-stretching to total sample destruction, turn any sound into a playable, expressive synth

• Granular Engine: Eight voices and sub-sample precision bridge the gap between classic textures and sharp “graintable” synthesis
• Effects: Shape your sound with a character-driven signal chain, from saturating drive to resonant filtering and a utility reverb for glue or depth
• Modulation: Drag-and-drop, flexible, audio-rate modulation matrix with unique sources like metadata and noise flavours
• Presets: Easily capture, export, evolve and share your sonic creations with sample embedding and eight-way snapshots.

Phonon provides a drag and drop workflow in a resizable interface, for ease of use as a standalone instrument or plugin-based production in the DAW of your choice.

Users Say

What can you do with Phonon?

• Pitch shifting
• Time stretching
• Sample mangling
• Sound design
• Classic textural, granular clouds
• Synchronous, tuned granular tone creation
• Create a synth from any sample
• Rhythmic grain generation, synced to host
• Beat retiming and timbre distortion

Features in Detail

Innovative, precision grain engine

• 8 voices of polyphony
• Tune pitch automatically or manually to the sample’s root note
• Up to 256 grains per voice
• High quality grain playback
• Precise, sub-sample grain scheduling
• Many randomisation options for asynchronous control (for versatile, classic, randomised granular textures)
• Unprecedented timbral control, with separate control of grain density and grain rate
• 4 keyboard follow modes
• Grain shape control between gentle curves and sharp, rectangular window for “graintable” synthesis
• Stereo pan and randomisation - or modulation - for versatile perceptual widening control
• Cross-fade between granular and straight sample playback for further fun
• Legato mode for mono with ability to slur notes without retriggering the envelope
• Extra creativity controls: snappy onsets, control grain length at source or playback (linking or unlinking grain pitch and length), and auto-tune

Powerful modulation capabilities

• Easy drag and drop modulation, with connections list view if needed
• Audio / grain-rate modulation
• Modulate almost every synth or effect parameter
• Highly flexible modulation matrix
• 9 modulator types, with scope for new options in future - send us your requests!
• Envelope, LFO, spline curves, MIDI control with remapping, Step Sequencer, Noise types and sample and hold, XY Pad, Macro knob, and Metadata modulation, offering sample RMS as a modulation source, enabling envelope follower effects and much more
• 12 modulator slots per patch
• Individual send levels and inversion option per destination
• Instantiate any modulator as many times as you like, up to available slots - have 12 different LFOs if you want!

Versatile effects for final sound shaping

• Saturating amp with drive that spans from warm to harsh harmonics
• Filter with 4 modes and resonance (low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, notch)
• Simple reverb to blend tones and add space
• Limiter or saturator final output stage
• Meters show true peak, program level (fast and slow in LUFS) and reduction amounts

Presets

• Easy to share with preset and pack export feature
• Presets include embedded samples
• 8 snapshot slots per preset
• Undo and redo between snapshots

General features and workflow support

• Drag and drop samples to load, with automatic resampling to host samplerate
• Resizable GUI
• Built-in, hideable keyboard for instant play in both standalone and VST
• Sync BPM and time signature to host in the plugin version, or set independently in the standalone version
• Beat sync option to link time-based parameters to tempo

Technical specs

• Standalone or VST3 plugin
• Windows 10 or later
• Mac (Intel and Apple Silicon), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or later

Phonon Guide

Both the VST and Standalone versions of Phonon take MIDI input or you can play notes on the built-in keyboard.

Phonon - 30 Day Free Trial

• 30-day free trial
• Phonon v1.0.0 is available now
• Windows PC and macOS (minimum version 10.13)
• Currently VST3 and standalone formats

For Sonic Explorers

Permanent license extends to all future versions of Phonon.

If Purchase and Trial buttons aren’t working (please email and let me know), you can download from https://polyfreq.moonbase.sh/download/phonon and manage account/purchase from https://polyfreq.moonbase.sh/

Feedback

Please get in touch for any reason. We’d love to meet producers and musicians and any other potential collaborators of any form.

Reach out via our contact page or our socials.

• Feedback and Feature Requests

  • Tell us how you’re using Phonon and what features you’d like to see

• Preset packs

  • If you’d like to sell or share preset packs for Phonon, we’d love to hear from you.

• Marketing affiliates

  • Do you run a YouTube channel or other channels where you’d like to talk about Phonon? We have paid affiliate links and would love to hear from you.

• Creative sound and visuals

  • We’d love to collaborate with audio-visual artists, and anyone who might be inspired by PolyFreq and Phonon.