The Instrument

NamaSteps is a physically-modelled Indian-instruments synthesizer in a single VST3. It does not play samples. Every sound is generated from first principles — the same physics that makes a real sitar buzz, a real tabla ring with a pitched bloom, a real shehnai cut through a room. Nine presets, three synthesis engines, and a parameter surface deep enough to push any of them somewhere a recording could never go.

The research behind it is the point. The tabla presets use modal synthesis built on C. V. Raman's 1920 acoustic analysis — five nearly-harmonic modes at stretched ratios, with the fundamental deliberately suppressed on Tabla Na so the ear extrapolates pitch from the upper harmonics, exactly as it does with the real drum. The plucked strings — sitar, veena, tanpura — run a Karplus-Strong waveguide with a genuine jawari model: a tanh nonlinearity in the feedback loop plus amplitude-driven delay-length modulation, the two mechanisms that actually produce the curved-bridge buzz. The winds and bowed strings — shehnai, bansuri, sarangi — use a refined subtractive engine with breath and bow-friction transients. A universal strike-noise layer gives every voice its correct attack: a finger click, a pick chiff, a reed onset.

The Presets

• नाTABLA NAHigh dayan stroke — modal, fundamental suppressed.
• धाTABLA DHABass + high stroke with the bayan pitch-bend.
• राRANDOM RAGADraws a random instrument on every load.
• शेSHEHNAIConical-bore double-reed — bright, nasal, heavy gamak.
• बंBANSURIBamboo flute — pure tone, breath-driven kampan.
• सांSARANGIBowed string — slow onset, deep gamak, sympathetic shimmer.
• वीVEENAKarplus-Strong pluck, moderate jawari, rich vibrato.
• ॐTANPURADrone — maximum jawari, cyclic re-pluck, harmonic bloom.
• सिSITARKarplus-Strong pluck with full jawari + sympathetic strings.

Three Engines

• CLASSICRefined subtractive engine — nine wave shapes, full envelope, filter, and modulation surface. Drives the shehnai, bansuri, and sarangi.
• PLUCKKarplus-Strong waveguide string with the jawari nonlinearity and sympathetic-string bank. Drives the sitar, veena, and tanpura.
• MEMBRANEModal additive synthesis — five stretched-harmonic modes from Raman's tabla analysis. Drives both tabla presets.
• PHYSICAL CONTROLSPluck Brightness, Jawari, Modal Stretch, and Strike sit in their own section — the four parameters that shape the physical models directly.
• MODULATIONVibrato, dual arpeggio paths, duty-cycle sweep, phaser, and a buffer-shift pitch stage for meend and gamak ornament.
• FILTER + EFFECTSResonant LP/HP with ramps, bit-crush, compression, and overtone shaping for the nasal and bowed timbres.

Architecture

Acquisition

Pay with PSYKO — the native token of the Psykovsky ecosystem on the BNB Smart Chain. Connect any BEP-20 wallet (MetaMask, Trust, etc.), confirm the transaction, and the plugin download begins automatically. No accounts, no email confirmations, no refund department.