Nikolator is a physical modeling synthesizer from Hügelton Instruments, released in September 2026. It does not use a conventional oscillator. Instead it models a musical Tesla coil, simulating the resonant circuit, the electrical discharge, and the sound that discharge produces in the air, which gives it a timbre that no waveform generator or sample can copy.
You shape the sound with electrical controls like voltage, current, and arc length, along with a drive envelope, a 4 by 6 modulation matrix, and a paraphonic valve low-pass filter. It plays in mono or poly, costs as little as $1, and runs on macOS and Windows. For the full breakdown, see the Nikolator first look.