Inside the spectral world of Oscillarys: a deep dive with Ocean Swift Synthesis

The boundary between organic and synthetic is becoming increasingly blurred in the world of cinematic scoring. Pioneering this change is Ocean Swift Synthesis, a developer dedicated to crafting instruments that don’t just sit in a mix, but breathe within it. Their latest instrument, Oscillarys, sets the standard for in motion-based synthesis, leveraging the power of Kontakt to turn raw Eurorack bleeps and vintage vocal takes into lush, evolving textures.

We sat down with Yaron Eshkar from Ocean Swift to discuss their sound design methods, the importance of deep NKS2 integration for accessibility, and why they’ve moved their entire architectural focus into the Native Instruments ecosystem.

Discover Oscillarys

Oscillarys is a synthesis engine built for motion. When you were developing the three identical synth layers and that specific serial filter routing, how did you ensure the instrument felt alive rather than just another source for static tones?

A lot comes already from the sources – many of the samples have detailed motion and lush stereo pictures that already provide a great deal of movement, but this is all about the extensive modulation capabilities. Every layer features deep internal and external modulation – LFOs, envelopes, and polyphonic aftertouch are all available, but the individual per-note randomization options on so many key controls like filter cut or amp decay open up a whole new dynamic.

Combine that with options for rhythmic gating per layer and delay per layer – each layer provides its own evolution while the main filter section can introduce some uniformity by swaying the entire tone together. Then comes the cheat code: throw that into Replika and Raum in the main effects section.

The library features a massive vault of over 1,500 samples, ranging from raw Eurorack modules to vintage “melatronesque” organic vocals. Can you walk us through the process of blending these raw analog sources with digital and organic elements to achieve that spectral texture?

The way we do those looping oscillators is the basis for everything – it’s a really fun and creative process. The basis is the looping of source sounds into playable, long, detailed, perfect loops. From there, anything can come into play.

What is even organic and what is synthetic? If we grab an open-source violin from the net and loop it for the tonal essence, sample a gnarly Eurorack analog oscillator, and record a vibrating ocarina sourced from a vintage 90s rompler – then throw all those as layers into Absynth and tinker with some cloud filters, record that and loop it into an oscillator, and finally present it as a source sound to the user, what is it at that point?

We are absolutely obsessed with this inception paradigm – take that journey I described above, and now that the sample is in Oscillarys, we can layer it with two such other sources and… sample that, loop it into an oscillator and… present it to the user as a source sound in an Oscillarys update, our spectral oscillators sample packs, or in one of our other projects.

You’ve implemented deep NKS 2 (Native Kontrol Standard) integration and detailed help tags for the visually impaired community. Why was it important for Ocean Swift to go beyond standard mapping and ensure that every knob and slider was fully accessible to all creators right out of the box?

It started when I was still working at Native Instruments in the Kontakt team and we were handed the responsibility of integrating the direct Kontrol S-Series MK3 connection with Kontakt. It is ironic in hindsight – at first I was a bit upset about being handed this project. Through this I learned a lot about NKS and was lucky enough to be part of implementing NKS2, and thus grew to appreciate and love its possibilities.

The second experience which made us fully committed to NKS came from discussions with Chris Ankin who runs the KK-Access blog. We finally began to truly grasp how transformative and empowering NKS is for the visually impaired community, and how every good implementation detail removes a barrier and enables creativity.

With NKS2, many of the barriers to creating truly committed mappings that the original NKS suffered from were removed, and the methods of implementation in Kontakt were improved; I guess we kind of took it upon ourselves to champion this cause a bit!

A standout feature is the User engine, which allows producers to drag-and-drop their own audio into your signal chain. What was the inspiration behind turning a flagship synth into a high-end processing shell for a user’s own sample collection?

I remember the interview with Ilan Eshkeri on the Native Instruments blog, where he discusses using Kontakt as a front-end for his own samples. In a way, when users can load their own samples, we are exposing highly configured Kontakt engine front-ends with our instruments, which we hope is lots of fun for use cases like he describes in the article.

Just as we love exploring and loading our unique sample collection into other engines like Absynth and treat them as our own sound design playground, we want to give our users the same experience with our own instruments. It is also a way to expose Kontakt Player users to a flow which enables them to use their own samples in Kontakt, which is generally reserved for Kontakt Full users in the wider context.

Ocean Swift has a long history of creating unique synthesizers, and while legacy standalone plugins like Polyphenom and Aeolian Meditation served as the architectural inspiration for Oscillarys, you’ve now moved fully into the Kontakt ecosystem. How has the evolution of the Kontakt engine allowed you to push the boundaries of cinematic scoring in ways that weren’t possible when you first started?

That’s a great observation. When we were building standalone VSTs, a massive amount of our energy went into the “under the hood” maintenance, making sure the plugin wrapped correctly for different DAWs, managing installers, and handling basic things like MIDI.

Moving fully into the Kontakt ecosystem, especially with the latest versions, has felt like a massive weight being lifted. It allows us to focus 100% on sonic architecture. The evolution of the engine – specifically things like the deep wavetable support, latest generation effects like Raum, the Monark filter, Kolor, and others – gives us a high-end toolkit that would have taken years to build from scratch. Not to mention all the bonuses like having our instruments directly integrated with NKS hardware, accessibility features already baked in, advanced browsing paradigms, and working with NI’s amazing partnering team.

Bring your own sounds into the signal chain

By prioritizing accessibility and the user-first engine, Ocean Swift is proving that complex synthesis doesn’t have to be a closed box. Whether you are dragging in your own field recordings or exploring their massive 1,500-sample vault, Oscillarys provides the tools to find new ideas fast.

Discover Oscillarys