Some synths give you knobs. The Swarm gives you a flock. The debut instrument from Morpheral Machines, a new plugin studio founded by Eduard Müller, the creator of the Renoise tracker, uses simulated flocking agents to move through a grid of wavetables. It also supports MPE, CLAP note expressions and VST3 note expressions, which makes it an interesting new option for expressive players.

The release was reported by Noizefield in early November 2026.

How the flock works

Each voice in The Swarm can run up to 24 band-limited wavetable oscillators. Rather than being set statically, these oscillators are driven by "boids", a well-known flocking algorithm in which simple agents follow rules about separation, alignment and cohesion. The boids move across a 2D wavetable grid, which can range from 3x3 up to 13x13 waves.

To shape that movement, the synth offers 12 attractor types and up to 9 predators. Attractors pull the flock toward certain areas of the grid, while predators scatter it. The result is a sound that drifts, clusters and breaks apart in ways that would be hard to program with ordinary LFOs.

Around this engine sit the more familiar parts of a modern synth:

The Swarm also ships with a free companion instrument called Desense.

Why MPE players should care

Generative and behavior-based engines often struggle to feel playable. They can sound beautiful but leave the performer as a spectator. Per-note expression is one of the best answers to that problem.

Because The Swarm supports MPE and note expressions, your gestures can become forces acting on the flock rather than just volume or filter controls. Possible approaches include:

Pressure as energy. Map per-note pressure to how strongly attractors pull, or how fast the boids move. Pressing harder could make a note's timbre churn more quickly, while a light touch lets it settle.

Slide as position. Using CC74 (slide) to shift where the flock gravitates on the wavetable grid would give each finger its own timbral "location", so a chord can contain notes with clearly different characters.

Per-note pitch with detuned oscillators. With up to 24 oscillators per voice, per-note pitch bend applies to a dense, chorused sound. Slides and vibrato on such thick voices can sound especially lush.

The 32 modulation routings per voice give plenty of room for this kind of mapping. If you are building your own routings, our guide to wiring MPE gestures into a modulation matrix is a useful starting point.

MPE vs. note expressions

The Swarm supports both classic MPE and the newer plugin-level approaches: CLAP note expressions and VST3 note expressions. These do similar jobs in different ways. MPE spreads notes across MIDI channels, while note expressions attach per-note data directly to note IDs inside the host. Which one you use depends on your DAW and controller. For a deeper explanation, see our article on the CLAP plugin format and note expression.

The synth also supports MTS-ESP microtuning, which fits well with an instrument that already leans experimental.

Formats and pricing

The Swarm is available as VST3 and CLAP on Windows, macOS and Linux, plus AU on macOS. Introductory pricing is $59 / €59 until 30 November 2026, after which it rises to $79 / €79.

Eduard Müller's background with Renoise suggests a developer comfortable with unconventional workflows and a cross-platform user base, so Linux and CLAP support feel natural here. For MPE players looking for something that behaves less like a classic subtractive synth and more like a living texture, The Swarm is worth a demo.

Find more details on the official The Swarm page.