Indian santoor ยท Free beta
Every string ringing,
tuned to your raga.
Halcyon Santoor plays like the hammered string instrument of Kashmir and Indian classical music: light walnut mallets on courses of shimmering steel and brass strings, every string free to ring and to sing along with the others. Choose your Sa and thaat, play from any MIDI keyboard, and hold a note with the mod wheel to roll it. It runs as an Audio Unit in Logic Pro, and as VST3 or CLAP in most other music software.
Hear it first: four short examples
Free while in beta. Version 0.1.9, built 21 October 2026. By downloading you agree to the licence agreement.
ListenHear it played
Played from MIDI, straight out of the plugin with its own reverb, mastered for the web: no other instruments, no editing.
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0:26
Alaap in Yaman
Slow and free, long notes rolled with the mod wheel. Sa on D.
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0:22
Jhala in Kafi
The melody between ringing Sa strokes, getting faster.
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0:20
Bhairavi
A morning melody on C sharp, softer mallets.
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0:24
Arpeggios
For your own productions: A minor, F, C, G in a wide room.
The instrumentSit down and play
The soundPlayed, not replayed
There are no recordings inside. Every note is computed as you play: the mallet's wooden tip meeting the wires, three strings per note tuned a hair apart so they shimmer and beat, the brass and steel ringing on, and the walnut box giving it its warm, hollow voice. Hit harder and the tone gets brighter, and the pitch rises for a moment, just as the real wires do.
A real santoor has no dampers, so every string rings and answers the others. Here too: play a note and the strings that share its overtones start to sing quietly along. No two strokes are the same, and repeated notes land on strings that are still moving, so fast passages and rolls sound alive.
- 0samples: fully modelled
- 3strings to every note
- 11thaats, just or equal
- 11factory presets
The controlsFour knobs, and the raga
Tone, Resonance, Decay and Reverb sit under the instrument. The gear opens everything else: the tuning, how it responds to your playing, and the sound of the room. Drag a knob up and down to turn it; double-click to reset. The arrows at the top step through the presets.
The santoor
- Tone
- Soft mallets to bright, glassy ones.
- Resonance
- How much the free strings sing along.
- Decay, Reverb
- How long the strings ring, and the room around them.
Tuning
- Sa and thaat
- Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi, Todi, or every note.
- Intonation
- Just, tuned to the drone like a player would, or equal temperament.
- Off-raga notes
- Snap to the nearest string, or stay silent.
Playing
- Mod wheel roll
- Hold a note and push the wheel: alternating mallets roll it, faster as you go.
- Pitch wheel
- Strike, then bend, up to an octave: each note follows the wheel for a moment after the stroke, then rings on where you left it.
- Stroke, Variation
- The wooden knock of each stroke, and how different each one is.
- Hand damping
- Let every string ring, or mute notes as you release them.
Sound
- Unison spread
- From a tight unison to a wide, shimmering one.
- Strike point, A4
- Where the mallets land, and the concert pitch.
- Width, Room, EQ
- Stereo image, room size, a gentle tone balance.
Getting startedInstalling the beta
The beta installers aren't signed by Apple or Microsoft yet, so your computer asks you to confirm once. There's no sound library to download: the instrument is computed as you play.
macOS 11 or later
- Open
HalcyonSantoor-0.1.9-macOS.pkg. - If macOS says it can't check the file for malicious software, click Done. Then open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.
- Follow the installer. It adds the Audio Unit, VST3 and CLAP versions for all users.
- Restart Logic Pro. On a Software Instrument track, you'll find it under AU Instruments, then Halcyon Audio.
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
- If your browser says the file isn't commonly downloaded, choose Keep. In Edge it's under the … menu next to the download.
- Run
HalcyonSantoor-0.1.9-Windows-Setup.exe. If Windows says it protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway. - Pick VST3, CLAP or both, and finish the installer.
- Rescan plugins in your music software. The VST3 goes to
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3.
Fine printAbout this beta
- This is the first public beta of Halcyon Santoor.
- Formats: Audio Unit (macOS only), VST3 and CLAP. A software instrument: MIDI in, stereo out. The range is G2 to D6; notes outside it fold into it by octaves.
- The Windows version hasn't had much testing yet. If it doesn't show up or misbehaves in your host, we'd like to hear about it.
- Projects you make with this beta should reopen in later versions, but keep backups while things settle.
- Full credits for the software it's built with are in the third-party notices.
File checksums (SHA-256)
bb6de5113b5a5d71e7bd4b17a5c858ce0b2d789305d186be0cd75da27c375aef HalcyonSantoor-0.1.9-Windows-Setup.exe 8b4f57bb041493b9e9affba708fff2178b43cb40e42f1276548a79aa27f7e778 HalcyonSantoor-0.1.9-macOS.pkg