Ewan Bristow HALICA is a new physics-driven granular Synthesizer with real-time sound processing and hand-gesture modulation.
The last two years have seen a real boom in granular synthesizers. What has long been available as plug-ins is now available to a much greater extent in hardware.
The latest soft granular comes from developer Ewan Bristow and it’s called HALICA. It is a granular Synthesizer for the Plugdata with a very special, unusual concept.
Ewan Bristow HALICA
As a reminder, Plugdata is a free, open-source visual programming environment based on Pure Data, which runs standalone or as a plugin.
According to Ewan Bristow, HALICA is built around a unique physics-driven engine that directly shapes your sound through gravitational forces and particle dynamics.
The engines give two operation modes. Either you load a sample (factory or custom) via the sample slot, or you use the live input function, allowing you to process audio in real-time. Once done, the granular fun begins with spreading the particles on your sound.
Every particle’s position is calculated in real-time, with minimal CPU impact, and can be adjusted with various parameters. Mass, air resistance, and max speed can be controlled, equating to grain density and other “typical” granular controls.
Since the physics-driven engine is the motor of the granular engine, it is constantly in motion, which allows you to generate evolving sounds.
As particles move and interact within the virtual space, their position, velocity, and behavior continuously modulate the granular parameters, giving you an entirely new approach to sound design.
Alongside this, Ewan Bristow HALICA also features a multi-FX section with six powerful processors. They range from classic delays and reverb to experimental, spectral resynthesis and filtering. There is also a cassette-like effect with noise, drive, speed, and depth controls.
Multiple modulation options let you fine-tune how the particle system influences your sound, bridging the gap between physics simulation and audio generation. You can also take the modulation further by using your hands.
To make this possible, you need to set up Web-MIDI and MediaPipe. In combination with HALICA, you can control the particles with hand gestures, making it a very expressive granular synth.
First Impression
HALICA offers an intriguing approach to a granular Synthesizer. The physics and alternative ways of using hands to set particles in motion are fascinating. It’s a shame that it’s not a regular plugin, but requires Plugdata to host the engine.
Ewan Bristow HALICA is available now for Plugdata (required) for an introductory price of $15,17 instead of $21,97 with the early-bird coupon code EARLY-BIRD-HALICA at checkout.
Plugdata runs as a VST3, AU, CLAP, and LV2 plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel), Linux, and Windows, and is a free download.
More information here: Ewan Bristow /Gumroad
It’s a cool plugin but has crashed every ableton project I use it on with a MacBook M1 Pro.