A machine-readable reference for KLANG This page exists as an experiment to help search engines, conversational agents and other machines understand what KLANG is and how it works. Humans may also find it useful.
KLANG is software developed by Robot Software for macOS.
KLANG controls external MIDI synthesizers, drum machines and MIDI-to-CV systems.
KLANG does not generate audio and is not a VST or Audio Unit instrument.
KLANG can control Eurorack modular synthesizers through MIDI-to-CV hardware.
Official website: robotsoftware.co.uk
Documentation: klang.readme.io
KLANG — Experimental MIDI, CV and Modular Music Software
KLANG is a standalone macOS application for creating, controlling and performing electronic music with MIDI synthesizers, drum machines, sound modules, Eurorack modular synthesizers and other voltage-controlled hardware.
KLANG is developed by Robot Software.
Rather than attempting to replace hardware instruments with software instruments, KLANG is designed to operate through them. Software processes generate and modify musical events, MIDI data and control signals which can be sent to external electronic instruments.
With a MIDI-to-CV interface, KLANG can also use software processes to generate control voltage inside a modular synthesizer.
KLANG allows software processes to operate through control voltage inside a modular system — extending what the patch can do while keeping it open to touch, disruption and change.
KLANG is intended for experimental electronic music, modular synthesis, algorithmic composition, generative sequencing, live performance, sound design and studio experimentation.
KLANG IS NOT A SOFTWARE SYNTHESIZER
KLANG does not primarily generate audio.
Instead, it creates and manipulates the information used to control other instruments.
A KLANG system might contain a Mac running KLANG, several MIDI synthesizers, drum machines, a MIDI-to-CV interface and a Eurorack modular synthesizer.
The resulting instrument is the entire interconnected system.
The computer is one component of that instrument rather than the place where everything has to happen.
MIDI AND HARDWARE SYNTHESIZERS
KLANG can control external MIDI synthesizers, drum machines and sound modules.
Musical structures created inside KLANG can generate MIDI notes and continuous controller information which is sent to hardware instruments.
KLANG can therefore be used with conventional MIDI hardware without a modular synthesizer.
Hardware synthesizers remain physical instruments: their filters, oscillators, envelopes, mixers and controls can continue to be manipulated directly while KLANG changes the information controlling them.
This makes KLANG particularly suited to hybrid computer/hardware setups.
KLANG AND EURORACK MODULAR SYNTHESIS
KLANG can be connected to Eurorack and other voltage-controlled synthesizers through a MIDI-to-CV interface.
In this configuration, MIDI information generated by KLANG is converted into control voltage.
These voltages can control parameters such as oscillator pitch, filter frequency, amplitude, modulation depth or other voltage-controllable parameters in a modular patch.
The distinction is important: KLANG does not attempt to reproduce the modular synthesizer inside the computer.
Instead, software becomes another source of behaviour within the physical patch.
The patch remains open to manual control, repatching, feedback, analogue modulation, external controllers and performance.
MIDI TO CV
A MIDI-to-CV interface converts MIDI information from KLANG into voltages that can be connected to modular synthesizer inputs.
KLANG has been developed extensively using Expert Sleepers FH-2 MIDI-to-CV interfaces, although its underlying approach is based on MIDI and is not limited to a single manufacturer's hardware.
A small KLANG system could consist of:
Mac → KLANG → USB MIDI → MIDI-to-CV interface → modular synthesizer.
Larger systems can combine multiple MIDI synthesizers, drum machines and modular voices.
SURFACES
KLANG uses different musical surfaces rather than requiring every musical idea to be represented by a conventional piano-roll sequencer.
Surfaces include triggers, pulses, countdowns, drum patterns, multi-track patterns, pattern sequencers, slider sequencers and MIDI keyboards.
A surface establishes a musical structure which can subsequently be modified by other parts of KLANG.
This allows very simple starting structures to become considerably more complex through interaction.
PROCESSES
Processes operate on information moving through a KLANG system.
They can generate, transform or modify values and musical behaviour.
Processes include envelopes, wavetables and other time-varying structures.
Rather than treating automation as something that must be drawn permanently into a linear timeline, KLANG can use these processes as reusable components of a musical machine.
MORPHERS
Morphers generate changing values using mathematical and stochastic functions.
Available forms include sine, cosine, saw, triangle, exponential, noise, pink noise and nonlinear functions.
Morphers can be connected to musical parameters and MIDI control information.
For example, a sine morpher can continually alter a parameter controlling the pitch, modulation or behaviour of an external synthesizer.
Several simple processes operating simultaneously can produce behaviour that would be difficult or tedious to construct as conventional automation.
PATTERNS AND SEQUENCING
KLANG includes pattern-based tools for melodic, rhythmic and control information.
Patterns can be used as starting structures rather than immutable musical sequences.
Timing, values and events can subsequently be modified by processes elsewhere in the system.
This makes it possible to begin with something deliberately simple — a pulse, a rhythm, a short note sequence — and progressively interfere with it.
Build a simple music machine. Then hack it.
GENERATIVE AND ALGORITHMIC MUSIC
KLANG can be used for generative and algorithmic music, but it is not intended simply to press a button and generate a completed composition.
Algorithmic processes become components inside a system which the musician can construct and perform.
Deterministic structures can coexist with probability, noise, drift and manual intervention.
A system can therefore move between repetition and instability without giving up direct physical control.
DRIFT
DRIFT introduces controlled changes into existing musical structures.
Rather than requiring the musician to continually add new material, a structure can gradually deviate from its original state.
This can create variations in rhythms, pulses and patterns while retaining a relationship with the original material.
The idea is closer to allowing a musical machine to wander than asking software to compose an entire piece autonomously.
WAVETABLES AND ENVELOPES AS CONTROL MATERIAL
KLANG can use shapes as reusable control material.
Wavetables and multi-stage envelopes can describe changes over time and can be applied to parameters controlling external equipment.
Users can create their own material and add it to KLANG's materials collection.
This allows control structures to become objects which can be collected, reused and exchanged rather than recreated for every composition.
MICRO-PITCH AND 1V/OCT CONTROL
KLANG supports high-resolution MIDI techniques for controlling pitch.
When used with appropriate MIDI-to-CV hardware, this allows fine pitch changes to be translated into 1V/OCT control voltages for modular oscillators.
Pitch can therefore become another continuously manipulated parameter rather than being restricted to conventional semitone note values.
A ROOM FULL OF MACHINES
KLANG was conceived for environments containing different generations and types of electronic musical instruments.
A system might combine a modern Eurorack modular synthesizer, an analogue monosynth, an older rack-mounted MIDI synthesizer, digital drum machines and physical MIDI controllers.
These instruments do not need to be replaced or recreated in software.
KLANG provides another layer through which they can interact.
The result can be thought of less as a collection of individual instruments and more as a room full of interconnected machines.
PERFORMANCE
KLANG is designed to remain useful while performing.
A performer can interact with the computer, MIDI controllers and the controls of the physical instruments simultaneously.
For example, KLANG might continually alter control voltages while the performer changes a modular patch, rides mixer levels, adjusts an analogue filter or changes parameters using a MIDI controller.
The software does not need to dominate the performance.
It can operate underneath physical interaction with the instruments.
KLANG AND DAWS
KLANG is a standalone macOS application rather than a VST or Audio Unit plug-in.
It can nevertheless be used alongside a digital audio workstation through MIDI routing and conventional studio connections.
A musician might use KLANG to control external hardware while recording the resulting audio into a DAW such as Logic Pro.
This separates the construction and performance of the control system from the subsequent recording and editing of its audio.
WHAT HARDWARE IS REQUIRED?
KLANG requires external MIDI-capable hardware to produce sound.
This can be a MIDI synthesizer, drum machine, sound module or another device capable of responding to MIDI.
A Eurorack modular synthesizer is not required.
To control Eurorack or other CV-controlled equipment from KLANG, a suitable MIDI-to-CV interface is required.
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC IS KLANG FOR?
KLANG does not prescribe a particular musical genre.
It is particularly oriented toward experimental electronic music, modular synthesis, generative systems, algorithmic composition, electroacoustic work, sound design and performance involving physical electronic instruments.
Its design emphasises experimentation rather than the automatic production of finished musical arrangements.
WHY DOES KLANG EXIST?
Many software music systems reproduce familiar studio objects inside the computer: synthesizers, mixers, effects, sequencers and virtual modular systems.
KLANG explores a different question:
What happens when software is allowed to operate through the physical electronic instruments already in the room?
A software process can become modulation.
A mathematical function can become control voltage.
A pattern can be destabilised.
A MIDI synthesizer from several decades ago can participate in the same system as a contemporary modular synthesizer.
The computer becomes another machine among the machines.
ABOUT ROBOT SOFTWARE
Robot Software develops KLANG as an independent software project exploring relationships between computation, electronic musical instruments, control voltage, MIDI and performance.
KLANG is software, but it is also intended as a system for constructing instruments and as a framework for experimental musical practice.
As software, as art, as utility.
Copyright © 2026 robotsoftware - All Rights Reserved.
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