Sound design company FrozenPlain has announced the release of Dulcitone, a virtual instrument that faithfully recreates a 19th-century Model F dulcitone.

Built for the free and open-source Floe player (macOS and Windows), the library captures the delicate, celesta-like character of the tuning-fork piano and makes it accessible to today’s composers and producers.

At £30, Dulcitone delivers a distinct voice well-suited to film scoring, video game soundtracks, and atmospheric or ambient productions.

A Forgotten Voice, Reimagined

Dulcitone

The dulcitone was first developed in the late 1800s, offering a gentle, chiming sound created by struck tuning forks. For this release, FrozenPlain partnered with Steve Christie at Vintage Keys Studio to meticulously sample a 5-octave Model F instrument using both Oktava MK012 close mics and AKG 414 room mics. The result is a blend of fine detail and natural resonance.

Performances were captured with three different mallet types — soft, rubber, and wooden — giving users a wide tonal palette:

  • Soft mallets: mellow and intimate
  • Rubber mallets: warm with subtle percussive bite
  • Wooden mallets: bright and articulate

Each note features up to 8 round-robins and 5 velocity layers, ensuring lifelike realism and expressive dynamics.

More Than Just Sampling

What sets Dulcitone apart is its integration with Floe, FrozenPlain’s newly developed, open-source sample player. Floe serves as both the playback engine for Dulcitone and the backbone for all future FrozenPlain libraries. Its open architecture also invites third-party developers to contribute.

Key Floe features include:

  • Sound design tools: ADSR envelopes, multimode filters, EQ, LFOs, and an integrated effects rack
  • 3-layer engine for complex textures
  • 10 studio-grade effects, including convolution reverb and bitcrushing
  • Smart preset management with tagging and search
  • Cross-library integration, allowing users to blend sources from any FrozenPlain instrument

Together, Floe and Dulcitone form part of a growing creative ecosystem designed to encourage flexibility, exploration, and collaboration.

Bonus: Music Box Suite Update

Alongside the release, FrozenPlain has redesigned its Music Box Suite to run inside Floe. The updated library now includes 25 sound sources and 28 curated presets, reworked to take advantage of Floe’s macro system, tagging, and categorization.

  • Music Box Suite is priced at £20, with the update free for existing owners.
  • Music Box Suite Free has also been refreshed, offering 1 sound source and 9 expressive presets — a compact introduction to Floe’s workflow and sound-shaping potential.

Compatibility

Dulcitone and Floe run on:

  • Windows (64-bit, Windows 10+, CLAP & VST3)
  • macOS (11+, Apple Silicon or Intel, CLAP, VST3, AU v2)

Compatible hosts include Reaper, Bitwig, FL Studio (2024+), Studio One Pro (v7+), Cubase, Ableton Live, Logic Pro, GarageBand, and others.

Availability

With its unique sonic footprint and seamless integration with Floe, it offers a modern way to rediscover one of the most unusual instruments of the 19th century. For full details, visit www.frozenplain.com