Animatek G1-Emu is a free emulator of the Nord Modular G1 Synthesizer for macOS, Linux, and Windows – in early alpha.
New week, new emulators. Yes, the week is off to a busy start with emulators. Following the official release of the TUS 88emu and the beta of the Triplex R-330 this morning, yet another one has appeared.
However, this one isn’t from the TUS team. Javier Melgar, aka Animatek, has released an emulator of the Nord Modular G1 Synthesizer.
Animatek G1-Emu
“The Usual Suspects” lists the emulators they are currently working on on their website. This list includes the Nord Modular G1, which is based on the Motorola 68331 and four emulated DSP56303s; however, development is not currently focused on this model, but rather on the Nord Lead 3 emulator.
The Nord Modular G1 was a digital virtual modular Synthesizer in hardware form that could be fully edited using dedicated software, yet the patches could be carried within the hardware itself.
It included all the familiar modules of a real modular synthesizer: oscillators, filters, envelopes, effects, logic gates, sequencers, and more. You could even build polyphonic patches, though the polyphony would fluctuate depending on the patch’s complexity.
For those who cannot wait for the TUS version, Animatek has now released a preview of its G1-Emu emulator as a super early alpha. As shown on GitHub, it was created using the AI coding tool Claude.
According to Animatek, it was built on the TUS Gearmulator and runs the original G1 operating system ROM (rack OS 3.03) on emulated hardware.
Emulator – 2 Parts
As of today (September 21, 2026), it is still a very early alpha version. The dev says many things aren’t working perfectly yet and will have bugs, etc. But the OS boots, the NME connects over the PC port, and uploads patches.
Attention: Animatek says that it doesn’t sound clean in the attached video, but the plugin already produces clean sound.
Like the original hardware, the emulator has two parts: the sound engine that generates the sound and an editor. You need the latter if you want to build new sounds from scratch and do in-depth editing.
Any editor that speaks the G1’s protocol should work. Several modern editors are available, including a new, open-source one from the G1-Emu developer called Animatek NME, the Nomad / NMEdit, or the nordmodulareditor.com
First Impression
Several new Nord Modular editors have hit the market in recent months. So it was only a matter of time before the first emulators appeared—especially since the synth is based on well-known Motorola chips.
Right now, however, it is only a preview or early-alpha version. If you want to help the developer, you are invited to test it and report bugs or suggest improvements. However, if you want to use it in projects, I would hold off for now and wait for a stable beta or official release.
Animatek G1-Emu is available now as a super-early alpha version on GitHub for macOS, Linux, and Windows.
More information here: GitHub
I would LOVE a NM G2 version as well.
THAT one , even had a real software version, was monophonic
and worked stand alone only. BUT Clavia stopped supporting that one,
a long time ago sadly. I really liked that one. Hoping someone will bring that one to life soon. One can hope in these emulation rich times. 😻