Imaginando COLAPSO: an additive synth that plays the periodic table

Braga-based Portuguese developer Imaginando has released COLAPSO, an additive synthesizer plugin for macOS and Windows whose partials come from the measured emission spectra of 22 chemical elements. The launch is dated 7 October 2026 in Imaginando’s announcement.

Who it is for

Additive synthesis builds a sound by adding up sine waves, the partials. COLAPSO does not let you place those partials freely: it takes them from the lines of light an excited atom emits (hydrogen, neon, iron, gold…), transposed into the audible range. It is aimed at:

• Sound designers and media composers, the audience Imaginando names itself: metallic pads, slowly evolving timbres, sounds halfway between a note and noise.
• Anyone curious about additive synthesis who finds partial editors too dry: you pick an element from a periodic table, then play with a handful of macros.

It is not an all-round synth for classic basses and leads: the developer presents it as an instrument you explore rather than program.

What it costs

Imaginando gives no end date for the launch price. One licence covers five computers; the demo has no time limit but plays a short noise burst every 60 seconds and cannot save. Existing customers and education buyers (50% off) get lower prices.

No CLAP or AAX: our guide to VST3, AU, AAX and CLAP plugin formats helps check compatibility with your host.

How COLAPSO works

A spectrum as an oscillator

• 22 elements, 422 measured emission lines. COLAPSO keeps the intervals between the lines and transposes the set so the strongest line lands on the key you play, so some partials fall below the note and some above.
• Up to 16 partials per oscillator, three oscillators per voice. A Mix control glides each partial towards its counterpart in a second element.
• Stretch widens or squeezes the intervals, Cavity pulls them onto the harmonic series (the “musical” spectrum of a string or a pipe).

Plasma, evolution and uncertainty

• Temperature rebalances the partials and, pushed far enough, switches to another spectrum (the ionised atom); Field splits each partial into a stereo pair either side; Absorption crossfades the tone into noise.
• Every partial has its own decay, taken from measured lifetimes and stretched from tens of milliseconds to several seconds, so the timbre keeps changing while the note is held.
• Observation trades time precision against pitch precision: a sustained tone turns into a series of pulses, then a click.

Modulation, filters and effects

• Four LFOs and four envelopes, all drawn by hand; each envelope stage runs from 1 ms to 8 s. Our guide to ADSR envelopes covers what each stage does.
• Nine filter types per voice (SVF, ladder, comb, formant…), two serial insert effects from eight types, one send (chorus, phaser, delay or reverb) and a glue compressor on the master bus.
• Up to 8 voices in Poly, Mono and Unison modes; MIDI learn, host sync, MIDI clock or Ableton Link.

Imaginando’s official introduction:

How it compares

• AudioThing Materia, released a few days later, is also additive, but by resynthesis: it extracts up to 96 partials from a sample you supply, for $69 ($39 at launch). Our AudioThing Materia article explains how it works. Materia starts from your sounds, COLAPSO from a library of spectra set by physics.
• FRMS, by the same developer, is a hybrid granular, FM, subtractive and additive synth and more versatile; COLAPSO is narrower but more distinctive.

COLAPSO stands out with a sound source no other plugin offers, at a modest price; its limit is the same concept: 16 partials per oscillator and 22 fixed spectra make it a texture tool more than an all-rounder. The unlimited demo lets you judge before buying.

Source: COLAPSO product page and launch announcement at Imaginando. More synth plugins are gathered in our Synth Plugins section.