MNTRA Arca

Dark and ancient string textures captured at our legendary Montreal RCA Victor studio. Creatively processed and warped to offer a wide range of expressive otherworldly sounds; from dystopian clusters to dark & ethereal textures.

Arca includes 85 presets sculpted by our award-winning sound designers, 35 instrument sample maps, and intuitive animated 3-axis controls. Powered by our MNDALA 2 engine.

Inside Arca

• 85 Presets
• 35 Individual Instruments
• Up to 29 Round Robins
• Recorded at leading-edge 32-bit 384khz resolution
• CPU-friendly in-DAW playback at industry-leading 24-bit 96khz resolution
• VST/AU plugin for Windows & Mac OS (10.11+) including M1 Chip support
• Plugin app and samples watermarked to you
• Easy downloads and updates via Pulse Downloader
• 10.33 GB GB installed, 15 GB recommended for setup
• Minimum 8GB of RAM and an i5 or better CPU required, SSD drive recommended
• Supported by all popular VST/AU compatible DAWs

The Story of Arca
Arca is an exploration into the dark side of string textures. Inspired by our love for sci-fi, we set out to create a playground of multidimensional sound possibilities. Using a selection of ancient bowed world instruments as sources that were then deeply processed to extend their timbres to beyond the realms of imagination, we have created a curated collection of dark, cinematic soundscapes. Taking full advantage of our MNDALA 2 Sound Design Engine, these unusual sources have been artfully sculpted to offer a wide variety of uniquely expressive sounds.

Arca is built around our powerful 3-axis control system represented by a custom Perform view animation created for seamless intuitive live expression. Each preset is a unique performable instrument unto itself to be learned and explored.

We simplified the manipulation of these sound-shaping parameters by creating global controls that are assignable to any MIDI sliders, knobs, or controllers. Map the controls once and you are ready to go without having to re-map them for each new MNDALA 2 instance.

In addition to the curated sound worlds we created within Arca’s many presets, you can easily sculpt your own sonic landscapes using MNDALA 2‘s powerful non-linear Sound Design environment.

What's Inside?

Acoustic Strings Sample Maps

• String Trio Long MF
• String Trio Long F
• String Trio Short
• String Trio Glissandi Trill
• String Trio Up-Down Glissandi
• String Trio Scratch
• Cello Long Harmonics
• Cello Short Harmonics
• Kemenche Long Gut
• Kemenche Long Metal
• Kemenche Long Harmonics
• Kemenche Short Harmonics
• Morin Khuur Long Harmonics 1
• Morin Khuur Long Harmonics 2
• Morin Khuur Short Harmonics 1
• Morin Khuur Short Harmonics 2
• Nyckelharpa Long
• Nyckelharpa Short

Creatively Processed Sample Maps

• Space Debris Long
• Tesla Coil Long
• Cosmic Critters Long
• Cyber Synth Long
• Hive Synth Long
• String Warp Long
• Solar Flare Long
• String Zap Short
• Cyber Crush Short
• Cyber Stab Short
• Wasp Strings Glissandi Trill
• Astral Wail Glissandi Trill
• Space Drive Up Down Glissandi
• Android Harmonizer Up Down Glissandi
• Grain Madness Up Down Glissandi
• Sonic Flange Up Down Glissandi
• Digital Scramble Scratch