Created by Finn Mitchell-Anyon, an independent plug-in developer based in New Zealand, Droplets is an innovative sequencer application/plug-in equipped with a built-in synth engine that boasts a rather unusual interface.
A row of taps along the top of the GUI dispense virtual droplets at musical intervals, which then trigger notes as they bounce off of a collection of floating bars. Users are able to change the interval by turning the handle of the tap, while changing the length of the bars will alter the pitch of the sound they produce — a range of preset scales are provided, each determining the pitches that the bars can be tuned to, and there’s the option of creating custom scales. It’s possible to control how tightly notes are quantised, too, with a variable control defining how closely they are placed to the nearest 16th or 12th division.
A Physics section then provides some more obscure settings such as Wind, which causes the droplets to be ‘blown’ in random directions in order to create varying patterns, and Gravity, which changes both the strength and direction of the simulated gravitational pull, making it possible to create new patterns with the same note arrangement.
Plenty of onboard sounds are available thanks to a built-in synth engine that offers FM, sampling, additive and subtractive synthesis, and comes packed with a range of modulation and effects capabilities. Droplets can also be used purely as a sequencer, and will happily generate MIDI that can be routed to other software or hardware instruments.
Check out the video below to see Droplets in action.
Compatibility
Droplets is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or above, and Macs running macOS 10.10 and higher. VST3 and AU plug-ins are available, along with a standalone application. Finn is keen to point out that the requirements are actually the result of his best guess, and will happily provide a refund should users find that Droplets does not in fact work with their system! There are also some important notes for Ableton users listed on the Dropets product page.
Pricing & Availability
Droplets is available now, priced at $20.
