STRÄNG 2.3 Brings Full MPE Support to Quantastical's Convolution Synth

Quantastical Sound has shipped version 2.3 of STRÄNG, its subtractive synthesizer built around a genuinely unusual idea: real-time convolution running inside every voice. The headline addition in this release is full MPE support, which turns a plugin that already had a devoted following among sound designers into a serious option for anyone playing an MPE controller.

What Makes STRÄNG Different

Most subtractive synths pair an oscillator with a filter. STRÄNG instead convolves its "STRING" excitation source directly with the voice's audio path in real time, giving it a resonant, physically-inflected character that's hard to get from a conventional filter-and-oscillator design. It ships for macOS (AU, VST3, AAX, and standalone) and Windows (VST3), priced at $59 with a 14-day free trial.

MPE, Per Note

With 2.3, players using a ROLI Seaboard, the Expressive E Osmose, a LinnStrument, or any other MPE-capable controller now get true per-note pitch, pressure, and slide inside STRÄNG's engine. Critically, pressure isn't hard-wired to one destination: players can route it to swell the note's amplitude, drive the modulation matrix, or both simultaneously. That flexibility matters for MPE performers, since different controllers and playing styles want pressure to do different things — a cellist-style continuous swell is a very different gesture from a percussive pressure hit.

A Physical String Exciter

The update — refined further in the 2.3.3 point release — also adds a physically modeled exciter that plucks a genuine Karplus-Strong string directly into the convolution body. That plucked signal can be blended with STRÄNG's existing STRING bar and shaped with TYPE, ATTACK, DAMP, and DECAY controls, giving the synth a second, complementary sound source alongside its convolution engine. Combined with MPE per-note pressure and slide, the exciter opens up genuinely idiomatic string-like articulation: a slow bow-like swell on one note while a neighboring note in the same chord is struck and left to decay.

Rounding Out the Update

Beyond MPE, version 2.3 adds a dedicated pitch envelope, attack and release controls on the built-in compressor, and bipolar modulation depths that let FM and both onboard LFOs act as modulation targets rather than just sources. Quantastical also introduced a preset pack system, with import, export, and a dedicated .strangpack file format for sharing patches — useful for MPE players who want to trade pressure-and-slide routings the way modular users trade patch sheets. Windows users also get a fix for a GUI performance issue that had been reported on that platform.

Why It Matters for MPE Players

The MPE plugin landscape has grown considerably over the past couple of years, but convolution-based synthesis has been mostly absent from it. STRÄNG's approach — physically modeled excitation feeding a convolving voice, now addressable per note — gives MPE controller owners a texture that sits somewhere between granular synthesis and physical modeling, without requiring a dedicated hardware modeling synth. For anyone building an MPE controller rig around expressive pressure and slide, it's a genuinely new color rather than another take on subtractive-plus-wavetable.

Existing STRÄNG owners can update for free through their Quantastical account; new users can try the full version for two weeks before buying. Full release notes and the changelog for 2.3 and the 2.3.3 follow-up are available on Quantastical's site and were also covered by KVR Audio and rekkerd.org.