What I'm doing, dated.

Released

Mellt FM-1, Tant KS-2 and Tonnau WT-3 are out today, version 1.0.0, free from the download page. Each is one installer with AU, VST3 and Standalone, for Apple Silicon Macs (M1 or later) on macOS 12 or later. Apple has notarised all three, so your Mac opens them without a warning. On Tuesday night they were downloaded from this site onto a Mac that had never had them, and installed clean. Safari may first ask whether to allow downloads from this site; choose Allow.

What didn't make it. Tant's external-audio exciter, the drum loop plucking the strings, came out before release; it comes back in Tant's first update, with video of it working. There are no video demos yet for any of the three; the audio clips are on each synth's page. The Standalone apps don't have an icon yet. And Intel Macs are still waiting: the universal build is next.

From today the update promise runs: a crash or lost-work bug that I can reproduce gets a fix within thirty days, and each synth gets a maintenance release at least every six months, for at least two years. Found something? Email [email protected].

Fonts at home, and a phone pass

Two of the loose ends from the 20th are tied. The type now lives on this site rather than at Google: six small font files, no third-party request on any page. And the site has had a proper look at phone width: the numbered feature lists stack instead of squeezing, the comparison table says it scrolls sideways, and the download button in the menu takes its own line. One change I made on the 20th and didn't log: Vintage is the default look now, with Bench in the footer toggle, because I preferred it on a big screen. The old logo on the press kit and the social accounts is still to do.

A new face, borrowed from the planned releases

The site now wears the look the planned releases will ship with: a dark panel on a darker ground, a walnut rail, Inter and Plex Mono, and the bored-socket matrix where the pin grid used to be. Bench by default; a Vintage theme in the footer if you'd rather it warm. Two loose ends I'll tidy: the logo on the press kit and the social accounts is still the old one, and the type comes from Google Fonts until I host it myself. The synths' own screenshots are unchanged: that's what they look like.

Made with AI, said out loud

There's a new page, Made with AI, that says plainly how these synths were built: designed, specified and tested by me, written with AI coding tools, since August, about 300 hours by release day. I'd rather say it than be asked. The argument for doing it this way is on the page, and I'll have it with anyone who wants to. Also today: a YouTube channel, finally, and three more small corrections from the manuals.

Corrections from the manuals

The manuals are being written from the code, and the code is checked against them, so from now on the manual wins wherever this site disagrees with it. First batch of corrections applied today: Mellt ships with 49 presets, not 15; there are 38 built-in wavetables plus a User slot, not 39; Mellt's feedback is a pin on the routing board's diagonal, not a knob, and the FM sound-design recipes now say which operators to silence; the envelopes on Tant and Tonnau retrigger with each note unless you set one to Free; and only the limiter, the flanger's Through-zero mode and the harmonic tremolo's Crossover and Scan look ahead, not the delay or reverb. I'd rather fix it in public than quietly.

Three more on 20 October: Burst Colour on the Karplus-Strong page changes tone more than level, not "not its loudness" (below about three-quarters of the way dark the pluck does get quieter); the wavetable page now says thirty-eight built-in tables; and Tonnau's Lo range tops out at 50.0 Hz, written the way the readout writes it.

A small slip, and an Apple developer account

The working release date has moved from 1 November to "early November", which at the moment means a day or two later. It's still not confirmed and it still moves if the installers aren't right. The thing I'm doing about it this week is joining the Apple Developer Program, which is what lets me sign and notarise the installers so your Mac opens them without a warning. One name on the certificate, mine, because it's one person.

Three more for the synth nerds

The Learn section grew: an introduction to Karplus-Strong and how each fix to the 1983 algorithm became a knob on Tant; a history of wavetable synths and why the same table sounds different on every machine that read it; and FM without the maths, with four Mellt patches built step by step. The patch numbers came out of my preset lab, rendered through the real engine. I haven't played all of them on a keyboard yet. If one of them lies to you, tell me.

Apple Silicon first

Decision from the build side: the first release of all three synths will run on Apple Silicon Macs only, M1 or later. Building, signing and testing a universal binary as well was the thing most likely to push the release past November, so it's been cut from version 1.0 and goes first in the queue after. If you're on an Intel Mac, I'm sorry for the wait, and I'd like to hear from you so I know how many of you there are. Every page now says this plainly.

Second skin, first person, and a release date to aim at

Several people who saw the first version of this site told me it read like a template. They were right. This is the rebuild: dated, in my own voice, with this page so you can see the work. The screenshots went up yesterday; the audio is still missing.

Working release date for the free synths is now 1 November (since moved to early November, see above). Not confirmed, and it moves if the installers aren't right. I wrote up why Mellt has seven operators rather than six, which is the question I get asked most.

Google Search Console is set up, so from here on I can see what people search for before they land here.

Email list, hosting, screenshots, and an honest counter

• The download form is live and really connected. Double opt-in, a separate unticked box for news, and a privacy page that says what I do with your address.
• A download counter is coded but hidden. It only appears once a synth has passed 500 real downloads, counted from clicks on the delivery email. No seeding, no rounding up. I was tempted. I didn't.
• Moved the site and its downloads onto Cloudflare. Forty-two screenshots of the Vintage panel went up across the pages.
• Confirmed from the code that Mellt's routing board is a picker for the twelve algorithms, not a free patch bay, and softened the copy that implied otherwise. If I get free routing working, I'll say so here first.

Name checks, and a letter to a record label

Searched the UK and EU trade mark registers and the web for Mellt, Tant and Tonnau. Mellt and Tonnau are clear. Tant collides with a registered mark held by Recordiau TANT, a Welsh record label. It covers CDs and printed music, not software, but it's music, it's Wales, and I'd rather ask than assume. A letter went to them asking whether they'd object. Decision on the name by 27 October either way.

A logo and a first website

The mark is a five-by-five pin matrix with eleven pins forming an S. It took most of an evening and about thirty rejected versions. The first site went live the same night, with "screenshot coming soon" boxes where the synths should have been.

Day one

Registered siliconantiques.com and .co.uk, set up email, claimed the social handles, and filed a UK trade mark application for the name SILICON ANTIQUES in classes 9 and 42. The synths themselves had been in progress for a long time before this; the company started today.