Absynth 6 Preset Explorer: where AI meets musical intuition

In much of today’s AI-driven music technology, the emphasis is on speed and output, on systems designed to deliver finished results with minimal process. At Native Instruments, our interest lies elsewhere: how can computational tools support the act of making music without substituting artistic intention?

This perspective shaped the design of the Absynth 6 Preset Explorer. Rather than using AI to generate sound, we use it to listen – analyzing and organizing presets to reveal relationships across a vast library. The goal is orientation, helping artists navigate complexity while keeping creative intent firmly in their hands.

This approach reflects a broader principle at Native Instruments: AI should deepen the creative journey, not bypass it. When machines take on the analytical labor, they open space for imagination, intuition, and decision-making, capacities we believe should remain uniquely human.

We kept these principles in mind when incorporating AI into Absynth 6. I developed the Preset Explorer from early research prototypes to its final form, partnering closely with Product Designer Eric Oake to design and iterate on the system’s interaction logic and spatial behavior – together translating raw machine insight into a navigable, musical experience – with the support of Lead Product Designer Hannah Lockwood.

Jump to these sections:

1. The challenge of the infinite library
2. A navigable sound space
3. From analysis to amplification
4. Maintaining human agency
5. Deepening creative knowledge

Discover Absynth 6

1. The challenge of the infinite library

Sound libraries have traditionally been organized as lists: folders, categories, and names that attempt to describe sound in language. These structures work at small scales, but they become increasingly fragile as libraries grow. Labels are subjective and naming conventions drift, often turning the search for a specific texture into a linear exercise in scrolling.

For an instrument as vast as Absynth, this abundance is a double-edged sword. Its sheer richness offers nearly infinite potential, but navigating that volume requires a high level of orientation. The design challenge was not simply to add more labels, but to rethink the nature of discovery itself, trying to find a way to reveal how sounds relate to one another.

2. A navigable sound space

The Preset Explorer introduces a spatial approach to browsing. Instead of presenting presets as a static list, it organizes them according to how they actually sound. Using AI analysis, each patch is positioned based on its “timbral DNA,” capturing perceptual qualities such as brightness, sustain, noisiness, alongside subtler traits.

Brian and I shared the same conviction: when musical interaction is reduced to prompts and descriptions, something essential is lost—the embodied feedback loop between gesture, sound, and intuition. The Preset Explorer was designed to keep that loop intact.

“The map effectively removes language from the search process. I feel like music and language are usually different parts of the mind, and as soon as language gets too involved it tends to dominate. It feels irritating and intrusive to reduce the subtle feelings and sensations of sound down to a string of words. I think that’s why I never liked text/tag-based browsers.” — Brian Clevinger, creator of Absynth

What emerges is a navigable sound space in which related textures naturally sit near one another. Similar sounds cluster; contrasts become visible; transitions feel fluid rather than categorical. In this environment, browsing is no longer about locating a file by name. It becomes an act of exploration: moving through timbral relationships, discovering connections, and letting sound itself guide the journey.

3. From analysis to amplification

Revealing timbral relationships is only useful if they can be navigated musically. A central part of the Preset Explorer’s development was the translation of abstract machine analysis into a tactile interface – a process that required a deep synchronization between research and interaction design.

Rather than exposing raw data, the team developed a physics-based spatial layout where each preset behaves like a particle. Ninon designed the system’s underlying kinetic logic: an environment where presets are drawn toward their sonic coordinates while simultaneously repelling their neighbors. This balance allows dense areas of the map to expand naturally, ensuring that clusters remain meaningful while every preset stays distinct and immediately accessible.

Eric focused on prototyping this interactive physics model into a playable experience, making these high-dimensional relationships perceptible in real time. Building on this foundation, he introduced a dynamic focus model inspired by gravitational pull: when a sound is selected, it subtly rises to the foreground, sharpening the artist’s attention without collapsing the surrounding context.

This structure enables a fundamental shift in navigation. Instead of moving through a list, artists traverse the field in multiple directions—via mouse or keyboard—following timbral paths rather than preset names. A dedicated Audition Mode supports this continuous listening: sounds can be previewed or loaded fluidly, without breaking the flow of exploration.

In this context, browsing becomes exploratory rather than procedural. The system reveals structure and proximity, but the interpretation and final choice remain firmly with the artist.

“The goal wasn’t to visualize data, but to make timbral relationships feel navigable through interaction. The map only works if it responds musically – if movement, focus, and listening form a continuous loop rather than a series of decisions.” – Eric Oake

4. Maintaining human agency

A central design pillar behind the Preset Explorer was to support “accelerated intentionality”. The system takes on the analytical work of mapping Absynth’s sonic universe, but creative direction remains with the artist throughout the process.

While the spatial map reveals the overall terrain, musicians are never confined to it. Interactive filters let artists define their aesthetic focus in real time, narrowing in on evolving textures, darker timbres, or more aggressive material as their intent shifts. The sound field responds immediately, reshaping itself around these choices rather than enforcing a fixed structure.

One of my favorite parts of the research was defining the mathematical formulations for the sound-characterizing sliders. It wasn’t just about the data; it was about asking which perceptual features resonate with the artist, and then translating those human sensations into custom algorithms.

To create this effect, Eric, Hannah, and the team fine-tuned the sliders for the smoothest and most musical experience.

Crucially, this interaction remains grounded in listening. Navigation unfolds as a continuous auditory experience, encouraging movement through timbral relationships without fragmenting attention or interrupting momentum.

5. Deepening creative knowledge

Absynth has long been known for its depth. One of the ambitions of the Preset Explorer was not simply to speed up navigation, but to make the library itself more knowable over time.

By organizing presets according to their sonic characteristics – alongside traditional labels – the Explorer makes patterns visible. The underlying “sonic language” of Absynth begins to surface through use, rather than through documentation. Families of sounds emerge, and the relationships between timbral qualities become clearer.

Design plays a quiet but important role here. Structured subtypes and consistent colour sets tie metadata to spatial regions of the map, reinforcing associations without demanding attention. Navigation, filtering, and discovery operate as a single, coherent system, allowing understanding to accumulate gradually through exploration.

As a result, the creative question begins to shift. Instead of asking Where is the sound I need?, artists start to ask What happens if I move this way? The library becomes less a catalogue to search and more a material to work with, something that invites experimentation, variation, and invention.

“The richness of the Preset Explorer comes directly from the way research, design, and engineering worked as one. It was a rare collaboration where technical depth and human sensitivity reinforced each other at every step, and that synergy fundamentally elevated the final experience.” – Hannah Lockwood, Lead Product Designer

Explore Absynth 6 Preset Explorer today

The Absynth 6 Preset Explorer reflects Native Instruments’ broader approach to AI in music technology. Rather than using machine intelligence to bypass creative decision-making, it uses it to clarify structure in complexity.

By taking on the analytical work of mapping a vast sound library, the system frees artists to focus on what matters most: listening closely, following intuition, and shaping ideas as they emerge.

Absynth has always made space for the weird, for sounds that resist categorisation and invite exploration. In that sense, the Preset Explorer extends the instrument’s character: a system designed not to smooth out strangeness, but to make it accessible, navigable, and playable.

Explore the terrain. Apply your focus. Invent what comes next.

Discover Absynth 6