Node-based audiovisual environment

The correspondence
is the primitive.

Sound and image in one signal graph, for macOS.

Most tools run audio and video as parallel chains you keep in step by hand. In Incept a sampler's pan and a shape's position can be the same value — in the lineage of Quartz Composer, Max/MSP, Pure Data, and mTropolis.

Alpha coming soon — signups open with the first TestFlight build.
v0.1 alpha · macOS 14+ · 122 node types · GPL-3.0
PATCH · STEP → SAMPLER → SHAPE● live
StepSequencer trigger · E(3,8) Sampler audio · one-shot Shape · bound
The thesis

Not synchronized.
Identical.

Other environments leave the correspondence to you: envelopes mapped onto opacity, beat clocks mapped onto cuts. Here the correspondence is the thing you patch — a sound and a shape read the same upstream signal, so an audio effect has a visual consequence by construction.

Drag the shape across the stereo field, through a filter, into a reverb send. The mix changes because position was never separate from pan — there is nothing to keep in sync.

MULTIBALL → SPATIALAUDIO● live
Sampler · audio
Gain1.00
Pan+0.00
The source orbits the field. Gain and pan are read from its geometry — not set by hand.
Two modes, one patch

Wire mode, Performance mode.

Build the signal graph in Wire mode. Performance mode is the same patch behind a control surface you lay out yourself — for playing it, not editing it.

01Wire editornode graph · inspector · timeline · step sequencers · transport
Incept Wire editor
02Performance modea console you build — panner · mixer · sequencers · scopes
Incept Performance mode
Capabilities

A general instrument.

Composable node graphs, modulation on every port, on-device neural generation, live capture, and real-time or offline render — for the Apple stack.

graph

Composable node graphs

Patch 122 Apple-native nodes into live signal graphs. ⌘K fuzzy-inserts any node at the viewport center.

motion

Modulation everywhere

Every port is animatable, with LFO, Tween, envelope, and modulation slots. MIDI and (planned) OSC drive any parameter.

neural

On-device generation

SDXL Base/Turbo, SD 1.5, HTDemucs stem separation, and MusicGen — CoreML, no cloud round-trip.

See all capabilities →
Node reference

122 Apple-native nodes.

Sources, audio, controllers, math, visual, 3D, vector, analysis, neural, and I/O — patch them freely. Press ⌘K and type to insert any of them.

Sampler Oscillator StepSequencer Euclidean MultiBall XY Reverb SpatialAudio Scene3D StemSeparator MapRange Instancer
Full node reference →
Architecture

Apple frameworks underneath. Plugins on top.

CoreImage, AVFoundation, Metal, and CoreML underneath — composable graphs, a SwiftUI editor, and live + offline runtimes on top.

Plugin authors depend only on InceptCore. Drop a .js script node in your Plugins folder and ⌘R, or ship a Swift Package.

InceptCore — Node · Port<T> · Graph · Time · AnimatableValue
InceptNodes — 122 Apple-native primitives
InceptRuntime — LiveRuntime + OfflineRuntime (.mov · 360°)
InceptJS — JavaScriptCore script-node bridge
InceptEditor — SwiftUI graph editor + Performance mode
incept-serve — standalone HTTPS host for WebXR scenes
~1,900 tests · swift build · swift test
Roadmap

Where it's going.

A daily-driver alpha: editor, live + offline runtimes, on-device neural generation, spectral analysis, 3D/WebXR, granular synthesis, a full logic/control-flow set, and a JS plugin system are in place. Next: convolution reverb, audio and image switching, user Metal shaders — and the first TestFlight builds.

Read the roadmap →
v0.1 alpha · daily-driver runnable

The alpha opens soon.

Editor, runtime, offline .mov export, on-device diffusion, stem separation, 3D/WebXR, and live capture — already in place. Signups open with the first TestFlight build.

Coming soon — check back, or watch the roadmap.
Colophon · 奥付

Three pigments in registration.

A woodblock print is carried by a few flat colours, each cut on its own block and aligned by registration marks (見当, kentō) so they land in place. This interface is built the same way: three pigments over a warm block ground, each carrying one meaning, never more.

beni
Action

The seal. Reserved for what you can do — the call, the primary button, the bound output. Rare on purpose, so it always means something.

#C0342B
bero-ai ベロ藍
Signal

The linework. The everyday voice of the page — labels, node names, the wires and steps of a running patch. Prussian blue, the pigment that changed ukiyo-e.

#2E769B
kihada 黄檗
Live

The lit state. Only what is happening right now — the live dot, a sampler firing, the playhead crossing a step. Ochre drawn from Amur cork bark.

#E0A82E
Ground 版木 #17130E · paper 楮紙 #F0E7D5 · set in Mincho 明朝 over JetBrains Mono