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.
Looking to buy PPG Infinite. Is it as good for sound design as I suspect?
Been seeking an app for some cinematic-esque sound design. The interface for Infinite has always put me off but is it easy to get around or flaky as it looks?
Comments
I’d get Layr before PPG Infinite. I have both and find Layr more fulfilling for rich cinematic and abstract sounds.
I use layr already and it is the king for sure. But I’ve heard some really unusual (in a good way) sounds from Infinite. Intrigues me.
Infinite can reach these clear glassy tones I haven’t heard on another iOS synth.
I suggest reading the manual if you get it. The english isnt perfect, but there are several tips and a whole lot of information that isn’t intuitive, or maybe even possible, to figure out, without knowing it’s in there.
And beware, the mod matrix is fiddly as all get out.
Those things out of the way, should be a designer’s/fiddler’s (in my case) dream. Layr will get you cinematic in all the classic subtractive synth ways, but Infinite can do some downright unique beautiful/weird/scary things if you put in the time.
Hugh possibilities and not as complex as it looks. Problem I find is that there is almost too many things to alter. often I find myself feeling I’m not in direct contact with the sound - by this I mean that some synths give you less, but you feel you can get in and alter the sound to what you want with little effort. You can often alter lots on infinite that seemingly does very little - almost feels like micro managing your sounds.
Hope this makes sense. It’s still a very capable synth that has a seemingly unique tonal palate.
Just to add: I’m a big fan of the PPG apps and have made hundreds of sounds for some of them. Only made 30 for Infinite so far, but it excels at all the metallic / glassy / percussive sounds PPG apps are known for (and so much more).
If you was really to put major effort and time in, Infinite could give you results you’d struggle to get in many other synths.
the manual is essential - and the matrix took me hours (for personal fallback into habits).
It breaks down to this:
swipe left/right within the inner area to choose the column,
swipe up/down in the left label area to select the row,
then drag within the top area for modulation amount and polarity
to remove a node use row selection mode but drag vertically out off matrix area
While it excels in those glassy sounds/pads, it also can do surprisingly warm and articulated bass sounds.
What sets it apart from (probably) all the other tone generators is the overtone spectrum generated by it's special way of detuning and noise mixing which results in very 'lively' sounds.
Once you've learned the meaning of the abbreviations (top labels) and developed some feel for the matrix handling, it's quite smooth to operate.
Sound quality is outstanding, as with all of Wolfgang's apps.
Just a short play so far and the sounds are quite out there. Really beautiful tones I haven’t heard from any synth, let alone iOS synths. The modulation looks tricky and I’ll have a deep look at the manual tonight. The interface isn’t as fiddle as I thought.
I really wished you could make that matrix bigger when using it. I struggle with its tiny tiny nature lol
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8velfx2n58qgb54/Fruitbat1919 Infinte.infbndl?dl=0
Here’s my altered and new sounds. Early days for myself with this too
indeed, a bigger matrix would be so much more convenient...
Great synth, but I hope they make full app gui in the AUs for their apps soon.
Yeah really could do with it now
A double click and open it up to full screen isn't too much to ask for, is it?
I revoke the 'so much more' for a simple 'more'.
It's actually quite precise in hitting and the values on drag scale well (depending on positon and direction), it can be fast or very precise.
Probably the small size is kind of over-intimidating.
But on the other hand it's cool to have so much control right at the fingertip (LFO, Envelope, the XY Pads etc), a thoughtful layout.
Yeah the layout is well designed. I just have trouble seeing it, especially after long hours programming. I am however of the older variety lol
Let me just add - it’s so easy to change things on it once you have selected what you want. The finger control of the interface is really tight and works really well.
Infinite is very unique and i also agree that it can achieve these crystal clear sounds which are hard to get with other synths. I just own Infinite pro for mac which is quite the same plus some more options to tweak and import/resynthesize sounds but also there it is a quite unique tool.
It also has some kind of new synthesis form which doesn´t exist anywhere else.
But you also can see it as kind of extended wavetable synthesis plus extras.
Morphing is a wonderful thing here and maybe the best morphs (beside Sculpture) i heard yet in a synth.
You also can import things from other PPG apps like Phonem etc.
Infinite might not be the best ready to play synth since it´s made for really deep tweaking and experiment with all it´s hidden features.
The GUI is not the most user friendly (as the other PPG apps) but the synth engine behind is just another genius from the great inventor of wavetable synthesis. Wolfgang Palm is such a great and friendly guy and his brain seems full of wonderful synthesis ideas
I own Infinite Pro since months but still just scratched it and i guess it still needs time to really learn it.
Oh....and the short answer to the topic is just....damn YES. It´s wonderful for some unique sound design.
That's what drives me nuts with most iOS apps, I need a 15" iPad like yesterday...
Don't know about Wolfgang Palm's eye-sight but once it starts to get bad I suspect we'll get more zoom features than we're ever going to need
Yeah I will have to invest in the larger variety iPad sooner rather than later