Download Arkestra

Released June 2026

Arkestra 3.0 is a ground-up rebuild. The entire interface, the rendering engine, the modulation system, the MIDI stack, and the audio pipeline were either rebuilt or significantly rearchitected. What you're getting isn't an update — it's a new app that happens to open your old projects.

Here's what's new.

3D point cloud engine

A full real-time 3D scene engine. Import or generate point clouds, apply displacement with audio, video, shaders, or physics — then compose it with your 2D layers like any other track. Lighting, depth of field, per-particle size variance, proximity lines, scan lines. Each chain in a 3D track carries its own independent scene.

Fluid simulation

A GPU-accelerated fluid sim that runs as a displacement source for 3D tracks. Vortex, spin, and rotation forces. Fully mappable. Fast enough to run at performance framerates.

Particle simulation

A Lagrangian physics sim for 3D point clouds. Forces, spring, rotation, damping, time and distance lifetimes. Particles respond to the scene and to each other. Everything MIDI-controllable.

Arkestra Studio

Type what you want to see and get a working ISF shader or effect chain back. Full built-in shader editor with GLSL code editing, live parameter preview, parameter range editing, and one-click publish to your public creator profile. Browse and remix shaders from other creators in the community browser.

Laser output

Drive laser projectors directly from Arkestra. Converts rendered visuals to ILDA-compatible point data with auto-discovery of Ether Dream 2 DACs on your network. Vertex scan modes, radial tunnel paths, a 2D laser preview canvas, and per-track laser settings. An oscilloscope audio engine with audio output to hardware.

Audio reactivity, rebuilt

New onset-based beat detector with BPM calculation, confidence scoring, and adaptive thresholds. Drum onset detection that isolates kick, snare, and hi-hat separately. Cleaner band separation, faster transient response. Sync to Ableton Link for automatic tempo lock.

MIDI, rebuilt

Every parameter in the app is MIDI-mappable. Learn-style CC, Note (with velocity and keytrack modes), and Program Change mapping. Multi-controller support. A unified mappings list across positional and per-parameter maps. MIDI Clock sync. Drum machine reliability improvements. Context-sensitive map mode routing so the right parameter always catches your assignment.

Timeline and automation

A full automation timeline with Bezier curve editing and real-time recording. External transport follow via Ableton Link and MIDI Clock. Per-parameter automation lanes.

OSC input

Map any OSC address to any parameter. Per-address input range scaling, smoothing, and activity display. Scales persist per project.

Vision tracking

Face and body tracking that drives parameters directly. Route tracking data to any mappable parameter — no external tools.

Real-time datamoshing

Not a filter. The actual frame-blending and macro-block displacement running live in the effect chain.

Slit scan

Real-time slit scan effects. Time-sliced horizontal and vertical scan lines, configurable speed and direction, fully mappable.

Oscilloscope

A hardware-quality oscilloscope renderer with HDR phosphor glow, Lanczos upsampling, and full XY mode. Waveform type per-channel is mappable. Oscilloscope audio output is captured in recordings.

Screen recording, built in

Record your output directly from Arkestra. HD, Instagram, and high-quality presets. Per-recording FPS control. System audio capture included — no virtual routing required.

Synthesizer

A fully-featured synth engine built into Arkestra. Multiple waveforms including SharkTooth and Saturated. A 24 dB filter with key tracking, drive, and glide. Tape echo and plate reverb. Gate and Drone modes. Eight bundled presets. Synth audio feeds into your recordings.

Global modulation

Global LFOs, sequencers, and values shared across your entire project. Map any parameter to a global source once and control it everywhere. Promote a local modulation source to global from the right-click menu. The new Global Value bus adds a free-running, smoothed, attenuated signal that anything can follow.

Track macros

Up to 5 assignable macro faders per track. Map any combination of parameters to a macro for single-knob control during performance. Supports all mapping sources.

Mask support

Per-layer alpha masks with collapse/expand and compositing mode toggle.

Keyboard mappings

Map keyboard keys to any parameter alongside MIDI and OSC. Displayed in a unified mapping list.

Copy, paste, duplicate

Full copy/paste/duplicate for effects, chains, and tracks. Standard keyboard shortcuts throughout.

Local media browser

Browse, search, and manage local video and image files directly in the sidebar. Folder favorites, drag-to-add, thumbnail previews.

Templates

Community and personal templates in the start screen. Publish, update, and share templates directly from your projects.

Shader community browser

Browse, preview, and add shaders published by other Arkestra users. Publish your own with a confirmation dialog, screenshot capture, and live metadata editing.

Rebuilt UI

The entire interface was rebuilt from scratch. Icon-based sidebar navigation. Collapsible effect groups. Drag-and-drop reorder within and across chains. Right-click context menus throughout. Parameter inspector with full mapping controls. Tab selections and section collapsed states remembered between sessions.

Ableton Link is free

Sync visuals to your DAW or any Link-enabled app in the room. No license required.

Echo plugin still bundled

Still free.

What stayed the same

Your projects open. Your MIDI mappings migrate. The ISF shader library is intact and expanded.

Changelog: beta.34 → 3.0.0

Changes shipped between the final beta and stable release.

Added

• Synthesizer — Full synth engine with multiple waveforms (SharkTooth, Saturated), 24 dB filter, key tracking, drive, glide, tape echo, plate reverb, Gate/Drone modes, musical note stepper for Pitch CV and Transpose, and 8 bundled launch presets. Synth audio is included in recordings.
• System audio capture — Record your Mac's audio output directly into video files via Core Audio tap. No virtual routing required.
• Particle simulation — Lagrangian physics displacement for 3D point clouds with forces, spring, rotation, damping, and separate time/distance lifetime controls. Per-particle size variance. Everything mappable.
• 3D simplex noise displacement — Built-in noise displacement option for point clouds without needing an external shader.
• Per-chain 3D scenes — Each chain in a 3D track now holds its own independent 3D scene.
• Accumulation-based depth of field — Replaces point-scatter DOF with a film-like accumulation approach. Significantly more natural results.
• Global Value generator — A mappable value bus with smoothing and attenuator. Drive any number of parameters from a single free-running source.
• Convert to Global LFO / SEQ / Macro — Right-click any local modulation source to instantly promote it to a project-wide global generator.
• Undo — Cmd+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z now work reliably throughout the app, including effect enable/disable.
• Oscilloscope redesign — HDR phosphor glow, Lanczos upsampling, exponential tone mapping, AUTO SIZE for XY signal, expanded exposure range. Waveform selection per channel is now mappable.
• Laser oscillator audio in recordings — Audio output from the laser oscillator engine is now captured into recorded video files.
• Active macros in track inspector — All active macros for a track are listed in the inspector with inline rename and delete.
• Feature request link — Direct link in the sidebar navigation.

Changed

• Redesigned recording panel — Start Recording is the clear primary action. IG preset supports 60 fps at 13 Mbps. Always starts at HD 60 fps.
• Free recording limit raised — From 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
• 3D proximity and scan lines respond to lighting — Scene lighting now influences proximity line and scan line rendering.
• Tab selections and collapsed states remembered — Inspector section states and tab selections persist between sessions.
• Generators and Inspector icons reflect active state — Both browser icons light up whenever their respective generators or global modulation sources are active.

Fixed

• A large number of stability, rendering, and modulation fixes across MIDI, parameters, 3D, audio, and the UI. See git log for full detail.