BLAZAR

An experimental physical-modelling synthesizer built from imaginary physics.

Musical instruments made from models of physics.

BLAZAR creates sound from interacting worlds of MATTER, FIELD, PARTICLES and PLASMA. Explore glassy pads, strange resonances, evolving atmospheres, unstable textures and sounds that can seem to have a life of their own.

It isn't an emulation of an existing instrument. Pick an object, give it energy, disturb its surroundings—and discover what it wants to become.

Don't remove instability. Make instability playable.

Download BLAZAR for Windows and macOS · Free and open source

• Windows 10/11: 64-bit VST3 instrument.
• macOS 11 or newer: VST3 and Audio Unit (AU) instruments for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. The downloadable Mac build has been signed and notarized.

Both downloads are available under Assets on the GitHub Releases page. You can also build the Mac plugins from source.

Thanks to NothanUmber for the macOS port, cross-platform build testing and bug fixes.

Four worlds, one instrument

Each world has its own character. The interesting things happen when they meet.

World	Explore
MATTER	Resonant objects: strings, plates, glass, bells and stranger shapes. Strike, pluck, scrape or sustain them with an exciter.
FIELD	Harmonic structures, stretched partials and shifting spectral patterns. A place for luminous tones and slowly changing pads.
PARTICLES	Discrete events: drops, sparks, impacts, chirps and dust. Let them sound directly or use them to excite another world.
PLASMA	Continuous turbulent energy across 12 models. Explore flowing, stormy and unstable textures—or let the medium drive other worlds.

Blend them gently for a playable instrument, or increase their interaction and listen for something unexpected. All sound is procedural: no external sample library is needed.

What does it sound like?

Think glassy pads and ringing objects, strange percussion, drifting atmospheres, granular rustles and textures poised between a note and a weather system.

A patch can be delicate, resonant or unsettled. Hold a chord and let it develop; try a short phrase and hear how the same world responds to a different gesture. Exploration is part of playing it.

Make it move

The main controls invite you to shape behaviour as well as tone:

Control	Try this
ENERGY	Push the system towards a more excitable response.
MOTION	Change the pace of evolution, from a slow drift to more restless movement.
EVOLVE	Set how much the sound changes as it unfolds. Start low, hold a note, then bring it up.
SPACE	Let the sound spread through diffusion and echoes.
PULSE / RATE	Add tempo-related rhythmic breathing and choose its pace.
TENSEGRITY	Explore coupling between the worlds: how much they influence one another.

MIDI pitch bend, mod wheel, channel pressure and sustain give you further ways to play the instrument.

Forty starting points

BLAZAR includes 40 factory programs. Treat them as instruments to play and starting points to pull apart: change a world, alter an exciter, or see what happens when an apparently quiet layer starts driving something else.

Save your discoveries as user patches and organise them into named banks. Factory programs are embedded; user patches live in:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Dog Lab Plugins\Blazar\User Patches
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Dog Lab Plugins/Blazar/User Patches

User patches use the same .blazar.json format on both platforms. Copy bank folders between these locations to transfer them.

Download and install

BLAZAR is an instrument plugin for compatible DAWs. There is no standalone application. No formal certification across DAWs is claimed.

Windows installation

Requirements: Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and a compatible VST3 host. The original Windows release was built and validated on Windows 10 using the project's test host.

1. Open the v1.0.0 release and download BLAZAR-1.0.0-Windows-x64-VST3.zip.
2. Close your DAW and extract the ZIP.
3. Copy the entire Blazar.vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\. Keep its Contents directory intact. Administrator permission may be needed.
4. Restart your 64-bit VST3 host, rescan plugins, load Blazar as an instrument and send it MIDI notes.

If your host reports missing Microsoft C++ runtime DLLs, install the Microsoft Visual C++ v14 x64 Redistributable.

macOS installation

Requirements: macOS 11 or newer, an Apple Silicon or Intel Mac, and a compatible VST3 or AU host.

1. Open the v1.0.0 release and download Blazar-V1.0_macOS.zip.
2. Close your DAW and extract the ZIP.
3. Copy the complete plugin bundle or bundles into your user plugin folders:
   • VST3: Blazar.vst3 → ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
   • Audio Unit: Blazar.component → ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
4. Restart your DAW and rescan plugins if needed. Logic Pro and GarageBand use Audio Units; other compatible DAWs can use VST3.

The downloadable macOS build is signed and notarized. You do not need an Apple Developer account to install it. The original v1.0.0 source tag predates the Mac port and its later fixes; see Source versions and releases.

Open source and building

Curious about the physics? The source is here to explore, modify and rebuild.

Source versions and releases

The original v1.0.0 Git tag corresponds to the initial Windows source release and predates the macOS port and later bug fixes. The macOS download was prepared from a newer source revision. Accordingly, downloading the v1.0.0 tag alone will not reproduce that Mac build. For reproducible Mac builds, use a checkout that includes the merged macOS changes, and refer to the SOURCE.md bundled inside the Mac ZIP for its source information. A future release should tag the exact shared source revision used for both Windows and macOS binaries.

Windows

For a Windows x64 Release build, install Visual Studio Build Tools with Desktop development with C++, a Windows SDK, CMake 3.22 or newer, and Git. Run these commands in a Visual Studio developer shell:

git clone --branch v1.0.0 --recurse-submodules https://github.com/bjglover/blazar.git
cd blazar
./build.ps1 -JucePath "$PWD/dependencies/JUCE"

The script builds the plugin and validation tools, then runs CTest. Output: build-release/Blazar_artefacts/Release/VST3/Blazar.vst3. Copy the whole bundle when installing.

JUCE 8.0.12 is pinned to commit 29396c22c93392d6738e021b83196283d6e4d850. See SOURCE.md for exact corresponding source, submodule/archive instructions and build requirements. Pure DSP checks can also be built without JUCE using -DQUASAR_DSP_ONLY=ON.

macOS

Requires macOS 11 or newer, Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install), CMake 3.22 or newer, and Git. Install CMake so that cmake and ctest are on your PATH. No Projucer project, external audio SDK, samples or fonts are required.

From a checkout containing the macOS port (the original v1.0.0 tag predates it):

git submodule update --init --recursive
./build-macos.sh

The script builds universal arm64;x86_64 Release binaries with a macOS 11 deployment target, then runs CTest. For a faster Apple Silicon development build, use ./build-macos.sh -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64; Intel-only builds can use x86_64. An external JUCE 8.0.12 checkout can be selected with -DJUCE_LOCAL_SOURCE=/absolute/path/to/JUCE.

Outputs:

• VST3: build-macos/Blazar_artefacts/Release/VST3/Blazar.vst3
• Audio Unit (AUv2): build-macos/Blazar_artefacts/Release/AU/Blazar.component

To install, close your DAW and copy the complete bundles into your per-user plugin directories:

mkdir -p "$HOME/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3" "$HOME/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components"
ditto build-macos/Blazar_artefacts/Release/VST3/Blazar.vst3 \
    "$HOME/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Blazar.vst3"
ditto build-macos/Blazar_artefacts/Release/AU/Blazar.component \
    "$HOME/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Blazar.component"

Restart your host and rescan plugins. Use the Audio Unit in Logic Pro or GarageBand, or the VST3 in a compatible host. BLAZAR is an instrument plugin; no standalone application is built. The build ad-hoc signs both bundles for local use; it does not create Developer ID signed or notarized release packages. Distributors with their own signing pipeline can disable this step with -DBLAZAR_ADHOC_SIGN=OFF.

CTest exercises the DSP, the built VST3, state recall, MIDI, user patches and editor controls/lifecycle. GUI tests need a logged-in graphical session; use ctest --test-dir build-macos -C Release --output-on-failure -LE gui in a headless environment. After installing the Audio Unit, validate its host interface with Apple's tool:

auval -v aumu Blzr Dglb -strict

If a newly installed Audio Unit is not discovered, close your audio hosts and run killall -9 AudioComponentRegistrar, then retry validation or reopen the host. This refreshes macOS's component discovery service.

A universal build contains both architectures, but CTest runs the native architecture of the current machine. Validate on Intel and on the oldest supported macOS before publishing a release; a successful build or auval run does not establish compatibility with every DAW.

Local signing and notarization

These instructions are for developers preparing their own macOS distribution builds. If you downloaded the official signed and notarized Mac ZIP, you do not need to perform these steps.

Two optional scripts prepare the AU and VST3 for distribution outside the Mac App Store. Run them locally after building and testing; CI does not invoke them. You need an Apple Developer Program membership, a Developer ID Application certificate with its private key in your local Keychain, and Xcode with notarytool and stapler available through xcrun. Both steps need internet access, including signing's secure timestamp request.

An Apple Development certificate is for development and cannot be used for this distribution/notarization workflow. Passing its SHA-1 fingerprint still selects the same development certificate. Create a Developer ID Application certificate for your enrolled team in Xcode's account settings under Manage Certificates → +, or follow Apple's Developer ID certificate instructions. Creating a local Developer ID certificate requires the team's Account Holder role; a free Personal Team cannot create one. After creation, the certificate and its private key must be available in your local Keychain.

Find your signing identity, then sign copies of both Release bundles:

security find-identity -v -p codesigning
./sign-macos.sh "Developer ID Application: Your Name (TEAMID)"

You can pass the certificate's SHA-1 fingerprint instead of its name. The script replaces the copies' ad-hoc signatures, enables the hardened runtime, requests a secure timestamp and verifies every architecture against the Developer ID Application certificate requirement. It writes the signed bundles and license/source information to build-macos/signed, leaving the build products untouched. No additional entitlements are needed for these plugins.

Store notarization credentials once using Apple's interactive prompts. For Apple ID authentication, use an app-specific password, not your normal account password; notarytool also supports App Store Connect API keys. Choose the team that owns the signing certificate. Credentials stay in Keychain; neither script requires passwords or private keys in the repository.

xcrun notarytool store-credentials blazar-notary
./notarize-macos.sh blazar-notary

The second script uploads a ZIP of the signed directory to Apple, waits up to 30 minutes for acceptance, saves Apple's diagnostic log, staples and validates both bundles, then creates build-macos/notarized/Blazar-macOS.zip. Distribute this final ZIP; submission.zip is the input archive without stapled tickets. Review notarization-log.json for warnings even after acceptance. Publish the corresponding source revision alongside the binaries as described in SOURCE.md.

If waiting times out, processing continues at Apple. Resume the same submission without uploading again:

./notarize-macos.sh --resume blazar-notary build-macos/notarized

Resume also retries ticket attachment after a transient stapling failure. It uses the saved submission archive, so rebuilding the project cannot change the submitted payload. A rejected submission produces no final ZIP; inspect the log, correct the problem, sign again and submit into a new output directory.

Both scripts support --help. Optional paths allow separate release directories:

./sign-macos.sh "Developer ID Application: Your Name (TEAMID)" build-macos /path/to/signed
./notarize-macos.sh blazar-notary /path/to/signed /path/to/notarized

Output directories must not already exist for a new run; keep or move previous results, or choose new paths. A fresh build must be signed and notarized again. The scripts follow Apple's command-line notarization workflow.

Licensing

BLAZAR is free and open source under AGPL-3.0-only, without warranty. See LICENSE, licensing details and NOTICE.

JUCE 8.0.12 uses its AGPLv3 option. VST3 SDK 3.8.0 and other dependencies retain their compatible original notices.

Made by Dog Lab Plugins using vibe coding.