Product Design / Native Instruments
Absynth 6
Preset Explorer & Instrument UX
Co-designed the AI-powered preset exploration system and end-to-end UX for the revival of a legendary synthesizer.
Reviving a Legend
Absynth was discontinued in 2021. It was also one of the most beloved, and misunderstood, synthesizers Native Instruments ever released. Reviving it was both an honor and a serious challenge.
Absynth isn’t a “modern” synth. It has a deeply idiosyncratic architecture: a powerful mutator engine, extremely flexible envelopes with up to 68 breakpoints, and a modulation system that still does things competitors can’t.
The Challenge: Legacy
We had less than 12 months. More importantly, the new version had to be 100% backwards compatible. The user base demanded their legacy patches work perfectly. This meant we couldn't just overwrite the UX with modern paradigms; we had to design around the quirks of the engine.
Modulation routing could not be rewritten. Many early concepts had to be discarded because they would jeopardize compatibility.
The Process
We audited everything that made Absynth Absynth. Rather than hiding its weirdness, we leaned into it – sometimes even turning it into a feature.
I focused heavily on the Envelope System. Editing, creating, and navigating envelopes was powerful but intimidating. Designing within the constraints of dynamic menus, parameter precision, and engine limitations turned this into a genuinely satisfying puzzle. We delivered an MVP that received immediate praise from the sound designers creating the factory content.
The Preset Explorer
One feature stands out: the Preset Explorer.
It wasn’t planned. Working with my colleague Ninon Devis (AI Researcher), who trained models to map timbral similarity across hundreds of presets, I built a series of interactive prototypes to visualize and navigate sound in space.
The idea resonated. But with limited development resources, we couldn't implement it. To move it forward, I spent my spare time translating my JavaScript logic into JUCE (C++), utilizing AI coding assistants to bridge gaps in my low-level knowledge. By building the first prototypes and a standalone Electron version, I de-risked the implementation and wrote a detailed spec based on coordinate data alone.That code made it into production.
The result was a polarizing feature. Some users loved it; others hated it. Feedback ranged from “motion-sickness inducing nonsense” to “this should be in every synth.” That split makes sense. We designed it for the Explorers – users who want to discover the unexpected, not just search for a filename.