AudioThing Materia: an additive resynthesizer that turns any sample into an instrument

Irish developer AudioThing has released Materia, an additive resynthesizer plugin for macOS, Windows and Linux. The idea: load a sample, let it be broken down into partials, then play and reshape the result as a polyphonic instrument. Version 1.0 is dated 12 October 2026 in the changelog on AudioThing’s product page.

Who it is for

Additive synthesis builds a sound by adding up sine waves, the partials, each with its own frequency, amplitude and phase. Resynthesis works the other way round: it analyses an existing sound to find those partials, which can then be edited one by one. Materia is aimed at:

• Sound designers who want to turn a recording (a bowed string, a voice, a found object) into an instrument playable from a keyboard, keeping its character or bending it out of shape.
• Ambient and media composers after slowly evolving pads: every partial follows its own envelope, with a sustain loop.
• Linux users, often left out: Materia runs there as VST2, VST3 and CLAP. Our guide to VST3, AU, AAX and CLAP plugin formats explains which one to pick for your host.

What it costs

Materia is listed at $69 and offered at $39 as a launch deal (43% off), with no end date given by AudioThing. A demo is available: three seconds of silence every 45 seconds, and saving disabled.

All formats are 64-bit only; AudioThing asks for a 2 GHz CPU and 4 GB of RAM. One licence covers three computers, with no iLok, and activation works online or offline with a licence file.

What Materia does

Partials and envelopes

• Up to 96 partials, with the count adjustable from 1 to 96 before or after analysis; each one can be set for frequency, amplitude and phase.
• A 128-point envelope per partial, with editable duration and sustain loop points. A sync option applies the same timing edit to every partial.
• Advanced Analysis gives each partial its own envelope and sustain loop. Add Empty Partials lets you draw in harmonics that were not in the original sample.
• The analysed model is saved with the project, so a preset or session reopens without the original audio file.

Filter, effects and modulation

• Ten-type filter (low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, notch, formant) with key tracking.
• Four effects: an algorithmic resonator that models materials (pipes, plates, glass, wood, stone, gongs, membranes, springs), a tap echo, a multi-stage phaser and a waveshaper, a distortion that reshapes the waveform.
• Modulation: two envelopes and two LFOs with drawable waveforms, routed through a modulation matrix. The main envelope works like a classic ADSR envelope.
• Playing: adjustable maximum voice count, mono and legato modes; the stereo width control has a Spectral mode that spreads individual partials between left and right.

AudioThing’s introduction video shows a sample being analysed and its partials edited:

What it competes with

• Image-Line’s Harmor is still the reference for additive synthesis with audio (and image) resynthesis. It goes deeper, but its dense interface takes real learning; Materia is built around editing each partial directly.
• Vital, a wavetable synth whose basic version is free, can import an audio file and turn it into a wavetable. That is a different kind of resynthesis: the sound is frozen into single-cycle waves, with no envelope per harmonic.
• Arturia’s Pigments includes an additive Harmonic engine among its synthesis engines, but it does not break a sample down into editable partials.

Materia fills a narrow niche: a dedicated additive resynthesizer at a modest price that also runs on Linux. How well the analysis copes with noisy or very transient material is something only the demo can show, on your own samples.

Sources: AudioThing’s Materia product page and user manual. More releases are collected in our Synth Plugins section.