Engine 01 · Wavetable Synth
VLS Kaleidoscope
A morphing wavetable engine with built-in spectral blender and Euclidean motion. Sonic Glow Award winner 2023, Future Music Synth of the Year.
Open engine page ›_VLSound Audio Labs · Berlin / Brooklyn
Premium instruments built by working sound designers.
Boutique-grade synthesizers, samplers and sound design tools engineered for producers who refuse to sound like everyone else. Every preset is hand-crafted in our studios. No subscriptions. No DRM. Lifetime updates.
In-production proof
Adopted on charting records and taught in 180+ programs.
18,000+
Verified customers across 92 countries
3,200+
Presets across 14 virtual instruments
47
Billboard-charting albums using VLSound
180+
University audio programs teaching with VLSound
- SOSSound On Sound · #4 Plugin Brand 2024
- CMComputer Music · Cover, Issue 312
- SGSonic Glow · Best Virtual Instrument 2022 & 2023
- EDUBerklee · SAE · Full Sail
Flagship engines
Hand-built instruments, not stock-licensed libraries.
Four proprietary engines anchor the catalog. Each is built in-house by 11 developers and tuned by 22 working sound designers.
Engine 02 · Granular Sampler
VLS Granular Lab
Polyphonic granular engine with source-morph macros and an 8-channel grain bus.
Open engine page ›_
Engine 03 · FM Synthesizer
VLS Opal Six
Six-operator FM with feedback matrix, per-operator waveshapers and a built-in effect rack.
Open engine page ›_
Engine 04 · Multisampler
VLS Archives
Deep multisampler with 24-bit/96 kHz round-robin playback and a per-key expression lane.
Open engine page ›_Release log · 2024
4 engine upgrades · 17 new libraries shipped in the last twelve months.
- OCT 24 VLS Kaleidoscope 2.4 — Spectral blender overhaul Engine upgrade · 184 MB Free update Open ›_
- SEP 24 Brooklyn Tape Vol. 3 — C90 Loops & Texture Beds Sample library · 6.2 GB €149 Open ›_
- AUG 24 Berlin Modular — Buchla & Serge Impulse Pack IR library · 3.4 GB €89 Open ›_
- JUL 24 Opal Six 1.8 — Per-operator waveshaper expansion Engine upgrade · 96 MB Free update Open ›_
The studios · since 2009
Built by working sound designers in Berlin and Brooklyn — not licensed from a stock catalog.
VLSound was founded in 2009 by former Native Instruments and Ableton engineers in a single Berlin room. Sixteen years later the team is 22 sound designers across four studios and three continents, all with working credits on commercial releases. We do not license third-party content. Every preset, wavetable and impulse response is patched, recorded or sculpted in-house.
The hardware alone is $2.4M of analog and boutique outboard spread across studios in Berlin, Brooklyn, Nashville and Tokyo. The source standard is 24-bit, 96 kHz uncompressed across the entire catalog — the average library weighs 8.4 GB for a reason. We hand-curate what ships. We never use AI to generate sound.
One engineer owns a category end-to-end: patch design, recording, preset maps, manual, demo track. The work is slower this way. It is also why producers keep the engines on the master bus for years.
- 2009Founded in Berlin by ex-NI & Ableton engineers
- $2.4MAnalog & boutique outboard across 4 studios
- 22In-house sound designers, all with working credits
- 14Proprietary engines shipped since 2009
Press · Awards · Academic adoption
Recognized by the industry that uses us.
2023
Sonic Glow Award
Best Virtual Instrument — VLS Kaleidoscope
2023
Future Music
Synth of the Year — VLS Kaleidoscope
2024
Sound On Sound
#4 on the Best Plugin Brands reader poll
2024
Computer Music
Cover feature — Issue 312, March 2024
2022
Sonic Glow Award
Best Virtual Instrument — VLS Archives
EDU
Berklee College of Music
Curriculum instrument, since 2019
EDU
SAE Institute
Approved teaching tool across 28 campuses
EDU
Full Sail University
Featured in advanced production coursework
The catalog
Browse the library. Three thousand, two hundred presets. One-time pricing. Lifetime updates.
30-day refund on every product · iLok-free · macOS / Windows / Linux