Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Apps for soft pads
Curious as to what you all are using for ambient synth pads. So far Sampletank has been fairly useful for me... Please share.
Comments
For soft pads mitosynth is spot on, but you could use anything ( sunrizer,nave,animoog,Magellan, ipolysix....for example )
Yep, Mitosynth can create the most airy and glassy pads in the iOS world i think! You also can add your own samples here too.
Sweet! Mitosynth sounds like a pretty clear choice, I will definitely give it a listen. Have to explore Magellan some more. I'm using it for synth leads now, haven't fiddled with the pads in there in a while. Thanks guys!
iDensity, Sparkle, Stria, iPulsaret and ivcs3 being patriotic.
Then borderlands, Soundscaper and fieldscaper and Animoog.
Then any synth with a few sources for everything actually.
Addictive Synth is also worth considering for this. Also Kiev in Gadget.
Forgot to mention Auria Pro and time stretching.
Nice one. Samplr would fit in with this type of soft pad as well.
As for synths, +1 for Mito. I'd add iSem and Cassini. Cassini has a soft sound to me generally, modulation for days and the amazing delay2. You kinda have to work for it though. Oh, Strng and String Ensemble might be worth checking out too.
-1 for Magellan, Addictive Synth, iPolysix.
I guess "soft pad" is pretty vague and any synth with a LPF can make some version of a soft pad but those three synths are all on the "tough" end of the spectrum to me. Mind, I love the first two—they'd just be down my list when looking to make soft pads.
Surely anything that is capable of varying the attack time of the amplitude envelope, and optionally, is polyphonic, would fit the requirement? That’s pretty much almost any sound generating app other than drum machines. Oh, and not Hexaglyphics.
Good point - you can get some nice textures by having a slow attack on samples that wouldn't normally have that, like piano, guitar or harp.
For synth's and sound generators I'd say tc-11 and nodebeat are worth a look, also mixtikl is good for long evolving textures. For fx apps a nice eq followed by a nice long reverb on a send bus so you can shape the verb so it's not over powering, unless of course that's what your looking for, delay based fx are also useful, echo, chorus, flange etc.
Along with the suggestions mentioned above this is how I create soundscapes, time stretching especially can be very useful. One last thing, it might be worth checking out the apps by brian eno and peter chilvers like bloom hd for inspiration, they keep things nice, simple and very soothing.
I just have to recommend Scape if you're gonna check out the Eno apps. I'm still impressed by it and put it on sometimes when I just want something in background.
Alchemy Mobile here, amazing pads. Sunrizer does nice warm pads too.
Caustic has a nice pad synth I use a lot and Alina can do nice ol school stringish pads... Also use the bus and add some long delay and verb to everything...
Thanks for the wealth of suggestions. I've checked out several of these and they look great. Particularly mitosynth and sunrizer. Gotta make some decisions and not go broke
I'm with @Tarekith on this one. Alchemy, Sunrizer. As others have said, the intermorphic apps and nodebeat. I use Audiostretch and Crystaline quite a bit too. GarageBand had some nice ones if your ok with busing into that.