Space
The texture amount - from a whisper of bloom to a full cinematic wash.
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An instrument by Gus Vega
UMBRA
Feed it sound. It becomes atmosphere.
An ambient texture instrument (AU · VST3) that turns anything you play into evolving, cinematic movement - space, motion, and emotion in twelve controls.
Every knob does one thing. Smoothly.
UMBRA transforms incoming sound into a living texture - blooming reverb, tempo-locked movement, granular sequences, shimmer. At zero, your sound passes through untouched; turn a control and only that colour appears.
The particle field on screen is the sound made visible - a slow, orbiting cloud that reacts to what you play and shapes itself to each sound.
The controls
Seq
A tempo-synced granular sequencer that arpeggiates your sound into melody.
Filter
A resonant sweep - open and airy down to a dark, singing low.
Pulse
A 4/4 sidechain locked to the host - that breathing, pumping motion.
Arp · Drive · Shimmer · Drift
Rhythmic filter movement, warmth, octave shimmer, tape drift.
Reverb · Echo · Chop · Glitch
Lush space, dub echo, rhythmic gating, cinematic slicing.
Penumbra
UMBRA ships with Penumbra - eight signature sounds. Save your own with a turn of SELECT.
Half LightFathomPetrichorStandstillUndertowThermalNadirPrism
Under the hood
UMBRA is one hand-written, portable C++ DSP core wrapped in JUCE - it ships as AU, VST3, and a standalone app from a single codebase. The same core is built to run on the hardware, so the sound never drifts between targets: one engine, every device.
Additive engine
Every control is an independent effect. All knobs at zero is a bit-exact dry passthrough; turn one and only that colour is added.
Real-time visualizer
A GPU (OpenGL) particle field of ~1,700 points, reacting to level and to each knob, molded into a per-sound formation.
Sample-accurate sync
Pulse, Arp, Chop and Glitch lock to the host beat grid via the transport position, and warp with tempo automation.
Level-safe by construction
Every knob combination is verified against a peak ceiling with offline C++ test harnesses - it cannot clip or run away.
The hardware
A physical UMBRA is being prototyped now - a standalone box running the same engine on an embedded processor, with real knobs and a screen for the particle field. No computer, no DAW; just the instrument.
Currently in private beta
AU & VST3 for macOS. A public release is on the way.
Follow for the release →