Bismuth

Iridescent color resonator. Refract your sound into tuned harmonics, shimmering tones, and vivid, colorful textures.

What is Bismuth?

Bismuth is a resonator effect designed in collaboration with Virtual Riot. It introduces tuned resonant filters to any incoming signal, generating lush harmonic layers quantized to specific chords and scales. Like light passing through a prism, what goes in clean comes out fractured into hidden harmonics and crystalline color.

Bismuth runs as a standalone plugin (VST3, AU, AAX) in any major DAW, or as an effect node inside BEAM, where you can place up to 3 Bismuth nodes in serial or parallel for deeper harmonic layering.

Interface tour

Bismuth is organized into six sections that move from harmony to motion to shaping.

1. Chord Panel (left) — Defines the resonant harmony: chord type, voicing, and envelope. Switch to MIDI mode to play Bismuth like an instrument.
2. Arp — Cycles through the notes of your chord for rhythmic, melodic, or evolving motion.
3. Spacing — Warps, smears, and shifts the resonant frequencies away from the strict harmonic grid.
4. Motion — Adds amplitude modulation to the resonance, from gentle breathing to sharp rhythmic bursts.
5. Filter — Carves the frequency band that Bismuth resonates, with Q, Tilt, and Scoop for tonal shaping.
6. Depth — Blends the processed signal against the dry input.

Chord Panel

Everything in Bismuth starts with a chord. The Chord Panel tunes the resonant filters to the notes you want, and shapes how those resonances attack and decay.