Touch the sound to create ambients.

Standalone App + VST3/AU plug-in. Win and Mac.

Friction turns any audio into a playable canvas. Scrub, glide, and trace your way through samples to unlock deep, evolving ambiences. Each movement becomes music.

See it in action

INTERACTIVE GRID

Friction is an ambient VST instrument that lets you interact with sound. As you drag your mouse across the grid, each axis controls a different audio source—X for one, Y for the other—transforming static input into rich, evolving textures and immersive soundscapes.

Whether you're brushing across field recordings or caressing orchestral stems, each movement reveals a new sonic layer. It's not just playback—it's performance. Designed for ambient artists, sound designers, and explorers of texture.

Your trackpad is an instrument.

Your trackpad is not just a controller — it’s an ambient instrument. Every touch becomes a gesture of texture and space, translating subtle finger movements into evolving soundscapes. With each swipe, tap, or press, you sculpt drones, atmospheres, and harmonic shifts in real time. It's intuitive, expressive, and endlessly dynamic — a new way to perform ambient music directly from your fingertips.

DRAG TO DAW OR AUTOMATE.

Once you've shaped your sound, Friction gives you two ways to bring it into your production. You can record audio on the built-in recorder and drag and drop the rendered audio directly into your track, perfect for locking in textures and snapshots.

Or, automate your gestures in real time — every move you make on the grid is captured as automation data and sent to your DAW as parameter changes. No audio rendering needed.

Spectral-Freeze + Granular

At its core, Friction combines a custom spectral freezing engine with layered granular synths to transform any audio input into a playable ambient surface. The spectral freezer isolates a time slice of the sound and holds it in place, allowing detailed exploration of its frequency content.

On top of this frozen layer, dual granular processors continuously resample each audio source—mapped to the X and Y axes—creating fluid, multidimensional textures that respond to your mouse movements in real time. This architecture allows Friction to morph static material into lush ambiences, blending spectral detail with temporal motion.