Synton  groovebox for Mac

The whole song
in one window

Synthesize, sequence and arrange on your Mac: sixteen tracks, eleven engines and a timeline. Every engine draws what it plays.

Download for MacListen to it

Version 0.1 · macOS 11 or later · Apple silicon · 8 MB

16
Tracks
11
Engines
235
Presets
17
Visuals
ANALOGFMTINEORGANWAVETABLESWARMVOICEMACHINERIFTPERCSAMPLER

Visuals

Every sound gets a picture

The screen above the knobs draws the open track in moving line art while it plays. Any sound can take any of seventeen scenes, and each one follows the notes: a pinball table drops a ball for every note of a chord, an 8-bit ship fires on the lead.

PILE DRIVERon the bass
PINBALLon the chords
TESLA COILon the lead
ARCADEon the lead
FILM REELon the lead
FORGEon the bass
PUMP JACKon the pad
ROCKETon the lead
BELLSon the chords
WIND MACHINEon the pad
PRISMon the chords
DRUM STAGEon the drums

Listen

Made from nothing but Synton

Six example songs ship inside the app, built only from its own engines, drum kits and effects. Open any of them from File ▸ Examples and take it apart track by track.

  1. PARALLEL FIFTHS
    Melodic techno · 150 BPM
  2. GLASS GLIDE
    Synth pop · 120 BPM
  3. PARTIAL DIVE
    Dubstep · 130 BPM
  4. GLIDING DRAWBARS
    Organ ballad · 130 BPM
  5. GATED SUB
    808 trap · 141 BPM
  6. SPLINTER
    Glitch · IDM · 160 BPM
  7. KOLBASER
    Hardbass · 155 BPM · full track

KOLBASER is a longer piece written in Synton, not one of the built-in examples. Each recording is the app’s own render, matched in loudness and encoded as MP3.

Features

From the first loop to the finished file

Write, shape and arrange in the same window, with the keyboard or the mouse, while the song keeps playing.

Clips on a timeline

Drag Clips along the rows, link copies so one edit changes them all, and name the parts with Markers. While the song plays, press 1–9 to jump to a Section when the current one ends; hold the key to loop it.

The board: sixteen-track rows of Clips under the INTRO, THEME, LIFT and END Markers

235 presets, heard as you browse

Click a preset and the track plays it at once, in the running pattern. Search by name or open a group: bass, lead, pad, keys, pluck, texture, FX and drum kits.

The Preset browser open beside the sound: groups on the left, leads on the right

Write with the keyboard

Click the roll to place the Cursor and play the Mac keyboard: each note goes in where it stands. Or turn on recording with R and play along in time, with a bar of count-in if you want one.

The piano roll with a lead line and the piano keys under it

✦ Idea writes a part

Idea writes notes for a track in the song’s key: a bass that sits on the kick, harmony under the lead. Roll again for another take; the original stays as a ghost until you apply.

The Idea panel over the piano roll, with new notes drawn over the original

Sing the line

Hold ● Sing and hum or whistle a phrase. Voice turns it into notes on the open track, on a grid of 1/16 or 1/8.

The Voice panel: Sing, Import, the grid choice and the pitch and speed fields

Every control, one search away

Find a parameter lists everything the sound can do. Pin the controls you reach for to the panel; a Macro turns several of them with one knob.

Find a parameter open on the sound panel, with the pinned controls on top

Draw the moves

Any parameter can get a Lane over the song’s time. Add Points with a click, draw by hand with ⌘, or record a knob while the song plays.

The hall effect with its DECAY and PREDELAY Lanes over the song's time

Sample anything

SAMPLER records from the microphone or imports an audio file, up to five minutes per sample, and keeps it in the app’s sample library.

Export the song

Render the whole song through the same engine you hear, to a file you can send.WAVAIFFFLACMP3AAC

Two send effects and a master

Every track feeds two send effects, such as a delay and a hall. The master bus has a ten-band EQ, compression, saturation and a limiter.

Dark or light

Two looks for the whole window, Visuals included. Drag the seam to compare; Settings switches them, or follows macOS.

GLASS GLIDE in the light look
GLASS GLIDE in the dark look
DarkLight

An agent can play along

Synton comes with a command-line tool and an MCP server. Claude Code, Codex or another coding agent can read the open song, write notes and Lanes, render it and measure the result. Each change is one Undo step in the app.

# read the song that is open in Synton
$ synton project inspect @app
# open up the lead's filter
$ synton project set @app --track LEAD cutoff=1800
# render one Section and measure it
$ synton render @app lift.wav --section LIFT
$ synton analyze lift.wav

In the box

The spec sheet

Tracks
16, drum or melodic
Engines
ANALOG · FM · TINE · ORGAN · WAVETABLE · SWARM · VOICE · MACHINE · RIFT · PERC · SAMPLER
Drums
Synthesized kits, eight pads
Presets
235 factory, plus your own
Visuals
17 line-art scenes, any on any engine
Sound
Pins, Macros, Find a parameter
Arrange
Clips, linked copies, Markers, Sections
Live
Jump to Section 1–9, hold to loop
Record
Step entry, live with count-in, knob moves
Write
Idea: notes in key, role and groove
Sing
Voice: a hummed phrase to notes
Automation
Lanes with Points over the song
Effects
2 sends · master EQ, compressor, saturation, limiter
Sampler
Up to 5 minutes, microphone or file
Export
WAV · AIFF · FLAC · MP3 · AAC
Agents
Command-line tool and MCP server
System
macOS 11 or later · Apple silicon · 8 MB

FAQ

Questions

Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or later) on macOS 11 or later. Intel Macs are not supported. The app is 8 MB.

No. The way Synton sequences is inspired by the OP-XY, but the engines, presets, Visuals and the timeline are Synton’s own, and it runs on the Mac.

Yes. SAMPLER imports an audio file or records from the microphone, up to five minutes per sample.

File ▸ Export Audio renders the whole song to WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 or AAC. Projects save as .synton files, and the app reopens your last session where you left it.

Yes. The six example songs open from File ▸ Examples as ordinary projects: every Clip, sound and Lane can be inspected and changed.

Synton includes a command-line tool and an MCP server. A coding agent such as Claude Code or Codex can read the open song, change sounds, notes and Lanes, render the result and measure it. Each change it makes is one Undo step in the app.

Start a song tonight

Open an example, turn a knob, and the screen draws what you changed.

Download for Mac

Version 0.1 · macOS 11 or later · Apple silicon · 8 MB