Press kit

The short version

Silicon Antiques is a one-person software company in Wales making synthesizers for the Mac. Its three instruments are free: Mellt FM-1, a seven-operator FM synth; Tant KS-2, a Karplus-Strong string synth; and Tonnau WT-3, a wavetable synth with an Era control that dials back through the history of digital sound. All three share a pin-matrix modulation interface borrowed from the 1960s and 70s, and none of them models analog gear. Released on 12 November 2026, for Apple Silicon Macs, as AU, VST3 and Standalone.

The longer version

Silicon Antiques was started in September 2026 by Andrew White, who makes software synths in Wales and has spent a long time thinking about why digital instruments so often apologise for being digital. The company's position is the opposite: use the sound engines that digital does best, and give them the interfaces of the classic synths of the 60s and 70s. If you want analog sounds, use analog gear.

The three instruments are free and share a modulation interface: a pin matrix, with sources down the side, destinations along the top, and a pin wherever they meet. On Mellt FM-1, a 23-voice, 7-operator FM synth, the twelve algorithms are chosen on a routing board that shows the operator wiring as pins, and 21 modulation sources reach 111 destinations through a 2,299-point matrix. Tant KS-2 is a 23-voice Karplus-Strong string synth with one noise exciter, two filters per voice and six effects. Tonnau WT-3 is a three-oscillator wavetable synth whose Era knob, one per oscillator, turns a modern, clean oscillator back stage by stage into something that sounds like the digital machines of the early 1980s. Tant and Tonnau each hold two complete pin matrices that can be morphed between.

The names are Welsh: mellt is lightning, tant is a harp string, tonnau is waves. Coming soon: Dwndwr, a drum machine; Arweinydd, a step sequencer for hardware synths; Carn, the three engines in one instrument; Corwynt, a synth you play by drawing shapes; and Eirlaw, a loop-and-break sampler. More on the Coming soon page.

Facts

Company	Silicon Antiques, a sole trader, Wales, UK. Founded September 2026. One person.
Founder	Andrew (Andy) White
Products	Mellt FM-1 (FM), Tant KS-2 (Karplus-Strong), Tonnau WT-3 (wavetable)
Download	Free. Email address required for the download link; marketing consent is a separate, unticked box.
Platform	macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 or later) at launch; a universal build for Intel Macs follows soon after. AU, VST3 and Standalone. No Windows version yet.
Release	12 November 2026. What has changed since is on the Workbench page.
Mellt FM-1	23 voices, 7 operators each reading a wavetable, 12 algorithms, 38 built-in wavetables per operator plus a User slot, 11 envelopes, 11 LFOs, 3 envelope followers, 21 sources to 111 destinations, 2,299 pins, MPE, MIDI Learn.
Tant KS-2	23 voices, noise-burst excitation, pick position, 2 filters per voice (Ladder, State Variable, Comb, Formant), 4 envelopes, 3 followers, 6 effects, 22 sources to 81 destinations, 1,518 pins per set, two morphable sets, MPE.
Tonnau WT-3	16 voices, 3 oscillators plus noise, 2,048-sample frames, up to 256 frames per table, 38 built-in tables plus User and 3 import slots, 4 warps (Sync, Bend, Mirror, FM), Era per oscillator, 2 filters per voice, 6 effects, 23 sources to 93 destinations, 1,851 pins per set, two morphable sets, MPE.
Website	siliconantiques.com
Contact	[email protected]. One person reads it, usually the same day.
Social	Bluesky · Instagram

Things worth knowing

• No analog modelling, on purpose. The company line is "if you want analog sounds, use analog gear". The vintage part is the interface, not the sound.
• The pin matrix is the product. All three synths route modulation on a grid of pins, the way an EMS VCS3 did in 1969. Mellt also chooses FM algorithms on one.
• Era. Tonnau's oscillators have a knob that dials back through the technical history of digital synthesis: bit depth, aliasing, wave stepping, interpolation. One patch, four decades.
• Honest numbers. The site shows no download counts until a synth passes 500 real downloads, counted from delivery-email clicks. No seeded or rounded figures.
• Built with AI, and said so. The three synths were designed by Andy White and written with AI coding tools, as was most of this website. Andy specified every control and every number, tested every build and kept what worked, since August 2026, four or five hours a day, most days. The company's view is that the question worth asking about any instrument is whether it has quality and a point of view, not what wrote the code; that AI-assisted development is what lets one person build and give away three full synthesizers; and that it opens instrument-making to people who know exactly what they want. Andy will happily debate this. The full statement: Made with AI.
• Built in the open. The Workbench page is a dated log of what shipped, what broke and what was decided, including the slips.

Quotes you can use

"I'm bored of using digital code to model analog hardware. These are digital instruments with the sound engines digital does best, and the interfaces of the synths I grew up wanting." Andy White, founder

"A pin matrix turns FM from a list of numbers into a map. Once people see an algorithm as a pattern of pins, they stop being afraid of it." Andy White

Images

Click any image for the full-size file, or download the whole kit as a zip (logos, the three panel shots, and a photo of Andy). Screenshots show the Vintage panel, which is the one that ships. Credit "Silicon Antiques" where a credit is used.

More screenshots of every page of each panel are on the synth pages: Mellt, Tant, Tonnau. Audio and video demos will be linked here when they're ready.

Asking for something

Review copies: the synths are free, so the download page is the review copy. If you'd like a build before release day, email and say which outlet; a pre-release installer can usually go out the same week. Interviews: email, with a rough idea of length. Andy is in Wales, UK time.