Six insects that sing together, and a chorus you can steer.
60 parameters, generated from the parameter registry and checked against the plug-in on every build — so this page and the software cannot describe different instruments. It says what each control does, not what it sounds like.
Version 0.9.1 · Windows x64 · VST3, CLAP and standalone · offline activation, no account, no telemetry.
Six lanes, each holding an insect species recorded in the field, each running its own clock and listening to its neighbours. Weak coupling drifts; strong coupling locks into synchrony or alternation, set by the phase-response slope measured in Mecopoda. Lanes compete to be heard first, and the leader is boosted by the 8 dB the precedence-effect literature measures. Lane position is pan and distance at once, so moving a lane away both moves it in the stereo field and stops it hearing the others. The chorus display is measured, not derived: lane positions, one coupling link per direction drawn as thick as the coupling the lanes actually feel, who leads and by how many milliseconds, and the regime - which can disagree with the REGIME control while the chorus is still converging. The factory library is InsectSet32 - 32 species, 335 field recordings, CC BY 4.0, credited on the panel and in the installer. This is a 0.9.1 pre-release. All sixty controls are implemented and measurably reach the DSP, with the parameter-liveness sweep in the core's test suite. Every later version, including 1.0, is included.
The regime control: -1 is alternation, +1 is synchrony, and the coupling map period-doubles past the top of its travel.
How strongly every lane pulls on its neighbours.
Reset restarts a pulled neighbour's phase at each fire; Period perturbs its period instead.
How quickly a neighbour's influence falls off with distance between lane positions.
The chorus breathing cycle - depth and rate, on the ~5 s canopy cycle measured in Magicicada.
The boost the lane heard first earns; 8 dB is the figure the precedence-effect literature measures.
Dolbear tempo - the chorus runs in its own time, faster when it is warmer, valid roughly 13-32 C.
Key centre the pattern degrees resolve against.
Mode the pattern degrees resolve through, chromatic through whole tone to harmonics.
How recordings become playing slices: whole file, equal parts, or transient onsets.
Sounding voices. Lowering it does not cut voices already sounding; the next trigger steals.
Output level, -24 to +12 dB, applied after everything.
Pattern length in steps - how much the lane plays before returning to its first step.
The lane's base fire interval, before coupling and temperature move it.
How much this lane lets its neighbours pull it.
Pan and distance at once: a lane moved away is displaced in the field and hears the others less.
Which species from the factory library this lane plays.
Which slice of the current recording the lane plays, taken at each fire.
The lane's level in dB.
Pitch offset added to the pattern degree at every fire, resolved through root and scale.
Pattern length in steps - how much the lane plays before returning to its first step.
The lane's base fire interval, before coupling and temperature move it.
How much this lane lets its neighbours pull it.
Pan and distance at once: a lane moved away is displaced in the field and hears the others less.
Which species from the factory library this lane plays.
Which slice of the current recording the lane plays, taken at each fire.
The lane's level in dB.
Pitch offset added to the pattern degree at every fire, resolved through root and scale.
Pattern length in steps - how much the lane plays before returning to its first step.
The lane's base fire interval, before coupling and temperature move it.
How much this lane lets its neighbours pull it.
Pan and distance at once: a lane moved away is displaced in the field and hears the others less.
Which species from the factory library this lane plays.
Which slice of the current recording the lane plays, taken at each fire.
The lane's level in dB.
Pitch offset added to the pattern degree at every fire, resolved through root and scale.
Pattern length in steps - how much the lane plays before returning to its first step.
The lane's base fire interval, before coupling and temperature move it.
How much this lane lets its neighbours pull it.
Pan and distance at once: a lane moved away is displaced in the field and hears the others less.
Which species from the factory library this lane plays.
Which slice of the current recording the lane plays, taken at each fire.
The lane's level in dB.
Pitch offset added to the pattern degree at every fire, resolved through root and scale.
Pattern length in steps - how much the lane plays before returning to its first step.
The lane's base fire interval, before coupling and temperature move it.
How much this lane lets its neighbours pull it.
Pan and distance at once: a lane moved away is displaced in the field and hears the others less.
Which species from the factory library this lane plays.
Which slice of the current recording the lane plays, taken at each fire.
The lane's level in dB.
Pitch offset added to the pattern degree at every fire, resolved through root and scale.
Pattern length in steps - how much the lane plays before returning to its first step.
The lane's base fire interval, before coupling and temperature move it.
How much this lane lets its neighbours pull it.
Pan and distance at once: a lane moved away is displaced in the field and hears the others less.
Which species from the factory library this lane plays.
Which slice of the current recording the lane plays, taken at each fire.
The lane's level in dB.
Pitch offset added to the pattern degree at every fire, resolved through root and scale.
Every parameter above comes from metadata/brood.yaml, the
single definition of this instrument. The build refuses to publish if the
C++ registrations, that file and this reference describe different
instruments — and it refuses if any declared parameter fails to change the
output, because a control that does nothing is the failure that passes
every other test.