FRINGE 1.1 Get 1.1.0

Photonic synthesizer · v1.1

Play light
as sound

Fringe turns a real-time wave-optics field into a musical instrument. Diffraction, interference, and freehand barriers become timbre — detectors become voices.

Download Fringe 1.1 Try in browser first Source
  • VST3
  • AU
  • CLAP
  • Standalone
  • macOS universal
  • Windows
  • Linux

Engine

Optics as synthesis

FDTD wave field

Real-time finite-difference wave simulation. Slits, lenses, Mach–Zehnder, freehand barriers — geometry shapes the sound.

Detector sonification

Three vertical probes (L/C/R) scan the field into stereo voices with saturation, resonant peaks, FDN reverb, and sub.

Musical defaults

Factory mid/bass tuning, pentatonic scale mode, warm filter ceiling — less screech, more body.

Interactive stage

20:9 cinematic UI. Supersampled field graphics. Drag probes. CINE age palette or SCI lab map.

Performance input

MIDI pulse/hold, mod wheel → freq, CC74 → filter, QWERTY pentatonic, spacebar wavefronts.

Modulation

Three LFOs with depth/rate and host-automatable targets for freq, speed, slit, sens, filter, reverb.

Optical presets

  • Single Slit
  • Double Slit
  • Convex Lens
  • Diffraction
  • Mach–Zehnder
  • Draw
  • Open Field

v1.1.0

Download

Free · open source (GPL-3.0) · GitHub Releases

macOS Universal arm64 + Intel · VST3 · AU · CLAP · Standalone Download zip → macOS Intel only x86_64 · VST3 · CLAP · Standalone Download → Windows x64 VST3 · CLAP · Standalone Download → Linux x86_64 VST3 · CLAP · Standalone Download →

All releases: github.com/walkthroughwonder/fringe-plugin/releases · Prefer browser demo before installing

Setup

Install

Always load Fringe as an instrument, not an effect.

01

macOS

Unzip, run Install-Plugins.command, or copy:

  • VST3 → ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
  • AU → ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
  • CLAP → ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/

Gatekeeper: Privacy & Security → Open Anyway, or xattr -cr the bundle. Notarized zips include NOTARIZED.txt and skip this step.

02

Windows

Copy Fringe.vst3 to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\. Place CLAP in your host’s CLAP path. Rescan plugins. Load as instrument.

03

Linux

Copy VST3 to ~/.vst3/, CLAP to ~/.clap/. Rescan your host. Load as instrument.

04

Renoise & DAWs

Renoise: Prefs → Plug-ins → VST3 → Rescan → Instrument → Plugin → Edwin Rosero: Fringe. Click the editor for Space / QWERTY. Same idea in Reaper, Ableton, Bitwig (instrument slot).

Quickstart

Make a sound

InputAction
SOURCEContinuous field on/off
SpaceFire a wavefront pulse
Z–PQWERTY pentatonic rows
MIDI notesPulse (default) or hold mode
Drag SRC / DETMove source plane & detector
Double SlitClassic interference preset
CINE / SCICinematic vs scientific field view
Draw + paintFreehand walls (Width = brush)

Open source

Build & license

Source is on GitHub under GPL-3.0 (JUCE under GPL). Commercial closed-source shipping needs a commercial JUCE license.

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="arm64;x86_64" \
  -DFRINGE_BUILD_CLAP=ON
cmake --build build --config Release -j
./scripts/package_release.sh

github.com/walkthroughwonder/fringe-plugin

Notes

Known limits

  • macOS builds may be ad-hoc signed until Developer ID secrets are configured (Gatekeeper: Open Anyway).
  • Load as an instrument, not an insert effect.
  • FDTD is heavier than a basic synth — raise buffer size if needed.
  • Full notes: KNOWN_ISSUES.md