Instruments / Synth & Arpeggiator
Lingua Sacra
Press INVOKE.
A psytrance synth in the scales of four sacred languages: Cuneiform, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic. Press INVOKE and the arp plays, locked to your tempo.
Coming soon
Create a free account and tick the news box: we'll write the day it opens.
Key features
- 28 scales: Nippur lyre modes, eight ragas, six prayer modes, seven maqamat
- 32 arp patterns at 1/8 to 1/32, locked to your tempo
- Word to Melody: Gematria, Abjad, Katapayadi or Sexagesimal
- Lyre of Ur, sitar and tanpura, shofar and cantor, oud and ney
- Three seals modulate any knob with rhythms drawn from geometry
- Drag the arp out as a MIDI clip
What is Lingua Sacra?
Lingua Sacra is a psytrance synth and arpeggiator plug-in in sacred scales from Sacred Audio, coming soon for macOS (VST3, AU and Standalone). A psytrance synth in the scales of four sacred languages: Cuneiform, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic. Press INVOKE and the arp plays, locked to your tempo.
Rooted in Cuneiform, branching into Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic. Each tongue brings its scales, its voice and its letters.
Press INVOKE and the arp plays, locked to the bar. Hold a key and it follows. Type a word or a mantra and its letter values become the melody.
The Tree of Tongues
Drag one puck between the four traditions and the voicing morphs between them.
Seals as modulators
Star polygons, the Platonic solids and the Merkaba pulse at every point and every crossing. Drop a seal onto any knob.
ORACLE
One button rolls a new idea inside the tradition you are in.
How it's built
The modelling, the research and the choices behind Lingua Sacra.
Where do the scales come from?
The Nippur modes are the seven-note modes reconstructed from Old Babylonian lyre-tuning texts, alongside an Ur pentatonic and a Hurrian hexatonic. Sanskrit brings ragas and thaats, Hebrew the Jewish prayer modes (shteygers), and Arabic the maqamat.
What about quarter tones?
Lingua Sacra plays in 12-tone equal temperament. Maqamat with quarter tones, such as Rast, Saba and Bayati, use their standard 12-tone approximations, so everything stays in tune with the rest of your track.
How does a word become a melody?
Gematria, Abjad, Katapayadi or Babylonian sexagesimal give each letter a number, and the numbers become steps in the scale. שלום (shalom), for example, is 376.
Where does the groove come from?
The seals pulse where their lines truly cross. A pentagram's crossings divide each edge in the golden ratio, so the pulses fall long, short, long. The sound engine is a plucked Karplus-Strong string with six sympathetic strings, a six-mode body, jawari buzz and a reed.
64 factory presets
Cuneiform
- Enki's Lyre
- Ziggurat Steps
- Lyre of Ur
- Seven Gates
- Hurrian Hymn
- Sumerian Stargate
Sanskrit
- Om Tanpura Arp
- Bhairav Dawn
- Yaman Ascent
- Malkauns Midnight
- Kundalini Rise
- Mantra Machine
Hebrew
- Aleph Fire
- Ahava Rabbah
- Shofar Blast
- Merkavah Ride
- Ein Sof
- Burning Bush
Arabic
- Hijaz Snake
- Nahawand Night
- Saba Sorrow
- Whirling Dervish
- Abjad Code
- Andalusian Stars
16 per tongue; a selection shown.
Details
| Category | Instruments: Synth & Arpeggiator |
|---|---|
| Formats | VST3, AU, Standalone |
| Type | Instrument (synth and arpeggiator) |
| macOS | macOS 11 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel |
| Release | Coming soon |
Questions about Lingua Sacra
What is Lingua Sacra?
Lingua Sacra is a psytrance synth and arpeggiator plug-in in sacred scales from Sacred Audio, coming soon for macOS (VST3, AU and Standalone). A psytrance synth in the scales of four sacred languages: Cuneiform, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic. Press INVOKE and the arp plays, locked to your tempo.
When is Lingua Sacra released?
Lingua Sacra is in development. Create a free account and tick the news box, and we'll e-mail you the day it opens, with a free trial.
Will Lingua Sacra run on Windows?
The first release is for macOS 11 or later, on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Windows versions are planned.