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 for a powerful and interesting soft synth: Quanta or Thor?
Hello guys,
I am in a pickle, as I am looking for "my" soft synth. I know, in the end only I can answer that for me, but I am hoping for some input from yous regarding my two main candidates, Thor and Quanta.
I am using a very nice MicroBrute plus some modular stuff in the non-iPad world and am looking for a nice soft synth to accompany that synth, sorta like a hybrid setup, if I want to put it all together. As you can see from that, I dig patching!
That is where Thor comes in, as it sounds wonderful to me, it is a classic, and it is semi-modular! I really dig all that, however, I have learned two things from the Model 15 and Animoog: sometimes its not for you 
I tried both of them for a long period of time, but just couldn't really enjoy them as much as I do with my MicroBrute or, for example, something like Serum (played around with it in a studio). I also learned, that classic iPad synths sometimes make trouble when you wanna use them with your cool new apps (no AUv3 etc.).
Lately I have been in love with Enso and various other brilliant Audio Damage apps and have stumbled upon their Quanta granular synth. As I am very interested in samplers at the moment and love droney stuff, I must say, that I am leaning towards Quanta. I dig the new adventure feel of a granular synth and believe that its something natural for the digital world (unlike Model 15 was to me). I think that was what impressed me so much about Serum, too, the feeling of "it belongs here and not outside of the screen".
Maybe someone here owns both and could share their thoughts with me? ^^
Comments
You could check out ApeSoft's stuff. I love their granular synths - well all their stuff really. All plays well with AUv3, the developer is awesome, etc. Another synth you might like is Layr.
If you are into Drones and soundscapes I would recommend Quanta, it is amazing when using your own samples, especially when used with Enso. I take the samples I make with Enso then feed them back to Quanta. You might also consider Nave, another kick arse granular synth.
If you are looking for a good all-around synth then go for Thor.
If you are interested in soundscaping then take a look at Spacecraft, it is cheap but extremely powerful and easy to use, though not a synth, more of a sound creator.
Spacecraft. Definitely check it out.
Quanta is harder for me to get into, but has a lot of stuff going on.
Don’t have Thor, but know it sounds great and is known to be very easy to use.
It feels a bit neglected to me, and I always end up buying a newer app. Maybe the next time it is on sale, I will finally get it. I think it is still one of the best sounding iOS synths, even if it is old.
Nave is a wavetable synth (like Serum). Nothing wrong with that, but a different thing.
From those two i would choose Thor - still one of best soundimg iOS synths, fantastic modulation posibilities. Top class synth even on desktop. What a pity it is not AUv3
Sure, but you can load your own samples and create great soundscapes. Just felt that christsinfamie was looking to create experimental drone like sounds.
Sure - Synthscaper is another app that does this, though higher learning curve than Nave.
Thank you for the suggestions, I have heard good things about SpaceCraft, but believe Quanta to be a better fit for me. ^^ My question would be if Thor plays well with others (Audiobus, BM3 etc.), because I know that the Audio Damage stuff does so. Maybe at a later point I will simply get the other of the two soft synths, haha
I also heard wonderful things about the Palm wavetable synths, but none of them look like the year 2019 to me, they all feel like they are missing the latest stuff that makes them easy to use together with other apps and I am really trying to stay inside the box (pad?) at the moment as an experiment. I know, it would be possible to just run an older soft synth via the headphones out into an audio interface connected to the computer, but I am looking for something that can be brought easily into my iPad DAW and I dunno how these older wavetable synths react to that. Maybe at some point I will just get Serum for the big ol' Mac
Or is there a more recent wavetable synth for iPad that you can recommend?
@christsinfamie
Quanta has some GREAT presets it’s really good at putting atmosphere into your song, but wouldn’t use it as my go to all purpose synth. For that kind of stuff I'd use Zeeon, mood, etc.
There is an oft forgotten synth that sits in the middle called Unique check it out.
The Palm synths are great too, but inscrutable between UI and naming conventions. If youre lightly going down the Wolfgang road start with WaveMapper, or say the hell with in and go whole hog with Infinite (which lets you import WaveGenerator and Phonem stuff!!)
Thor is nearly unsupported...if it doesn’t have what you want now, it may never have what you want.
You mentioned no Auv3 being an issue...this will make Thor an issue. Although propellerheads are desktop/laptop platform good guys...they are the exact opposite in mobile land so far.
Really quanta, tardigrain, and spacecraft are all entirely different and all worth the tiny prices they command. All of these are auv3 as well.
If you like serum, why haven’t you tried synthmaster one? It’s wavetable and easy to program! This may be what I would recommend from your initial statement!
Or
Maybe utilize AUM and get a handful of variable iOS synths...make that your hybrid setup...it really gives you a position of control and mixing between your existing setup and iOS.
Tell us what textures-tones you are trying to accomplish and maybe the forum can steer you a little closer to a good decision? As it stands, I can’t determine what sound it is you are trying to accomplish.
I believe you already pointed me in a good direction. I will give synth master one a very close look. I am looking for a new adventure synth that is adding something to my analog hardware synth. Thor probably represents my jumping off point thought wise as it is basically a deluxe virtual version of my hardware setup. Quanta probably represents the wonderful other world you can achieve by virtual synths. I believe that is what I am looking for, that’s why serum spoke to me as it really feels that it belongs in the box and not in a hardware synth. same thing with quanta. I was especially impressed with the flexibility of Serum and hearing that quanta is not really an all purpose synth maybe your suggestion with Synth master one is the solution for me as a wavetable synth is usually pretty flexible and feels natural inside the box to me
I know you didn't mention it. So maybe you've looked and decided it isn't your cup of tea. But if not, check out LayR . There are some nice Brice and Red Sky Lullaby videos.
If I had only one soft synth on iOS it would probably be LayR BUT it is not everyone's cup of tea. Enormously deep. Sound quality great. Won't scratch the granular itch, however.
Just add to the confusion, Scythe Synth is pretty cool for soundscapes/wavetables as well
(Not to be confused with Scythe, a different synth app)
Different from what you are asking about, but since you have a modular and dig patching stuff, definitely take a look at the modern modular stuff on the ipad. Infinite modules, polyphony, custom modules, patch recall. AnalogKit is my favorite still, for its interface, despite being abandoned. Zmors looks good as well.
I usually use the iPad with some hardware analog/VA synths, so I’ve gotten the most mileage with the iPad to fill in the blanks, rather than duplicate the hardware I have sitting next to it- I like the wavetable (Nave, iWavestation, and WaveMapper), physical modeling (Laplace, Mersenne), FM (FM4), Phase modulation (Casio CZ), Granular (tardigrain), and sampler (AudioLayer, Thumbjam, Sir Sampleton, iM1) apps.
+1 for spacecraft
Also do you have audio kit synth one ? It's free and amazing.
Waveshaper is really fun, you gotta tame it, but that's not hard hehe and it's veeeeery user friendly and initiative.
My go to synth is sunrizer, and the presets that @Spidericemidas made for it.
Quanta is rad but harder for me to really blend into my stuff, but that's on me.
Thor...i wouldn't
I'd get Magellan if thor is calling your name
Welcome to the addiction haha
Thor has the most versatility of the synths you mentioned so far, and it does work with current DAWs, but it's definitely not a smooth ride. Usually I'll have to open it first, then load it into AUM or AB3 or whatever.
On the other hand, Quanta is awesome, but fairly limited in its use (pads, soundscapes etc), unless you are willing to put in the time to make your own presets from scratch and really learn how graintable synths work.
I would personally suggest checking out two free synths: Sylo synth is one of the OG graintable synths and is still totally viable and a good intro to that type of synth.
The other suggestion is Audiokits Synth One. It's not exactly like Thor, but covers alot of the same ground in that it works for any style. It's got a ton of presets, including a bank from people on this forum, is super easy to use and gets updates constantly. It's not AU yet, but the dev says it will be soon, and based on their track record I'm certain it will be.
If you are still hankering for more graintable synths, Quanta, Tardigrain, Spacecraft and apesoft's iPulseret and iDensity are all cool, though it seems like you're probably set on Quanta.
If you decide to look at some other synths that can fill the same role as Thor: Zeeon is a forum favorite, I would definitely get the forum presets and Brice Beesly's synths wave pack, it's a couple bucks if I recall, but super worth it.
Some other's mentioned here:
Mood, which is excellent, can do Moog style stuff but also has an FM module, a sampler and a ton of other functions, you can get almost any sound you can think of, but has a bit of a learning curve to utilize it's full potential.
Unique is cool, and one I use quite a bit, but it's kind of geared toward formant sounding stuff, which can make the sounds seem a bit similar at first. You can definitely get other sounds out of it, but the factory presets are very much in this style.
My personal faves are DRC and Poison 202, they are both analog style Swiss army synths. DRC can be demoed for free, and it probably a little deeper, plus it has some great sound packs and has a desktop version that you can share presets with, if that's useful at all.
Poison is kind of styled for EDM, electro/house/whatever, but is one of the easiest synths to program, in my opinion, and has a random generator that's great for giving you a foundation to buikd from. It's also super stable as an AU, one of the few that has never crashed or frozen on me, and it's light weight enough that I can easily have 8-10 instances going at once.
Sorry if that's more info than you wanted, but definitely check out SynthOne if nothing else, it's got something for everyone and it's 100% free, no extra stuff to buy or anything.
AudioKitSynth1 is free!!! What’s the matter with you guys? ( I loved Thor, btw, but left it in the dust.... no midi in (out?) Anyway, it won’t play a prerecorded midi track in a DAW and that is no good for me these days.
Are you sure you had Thor set up correctly? I am pretty sure it takes MIDI input.
It does, but it’s port doesn’t show up, so you have to use something like AUM and give it a dedicated channel I believe. Will check with new AB3 midi
Also, there’s SynthQ https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/synthq/id950094378?mt=8 – you might like it.
fwiw I think Quanta is on sale at the moment. You should also check out Aparillo from Sugar Bytes...synth is wonderful. I used it on almost every track of my new album.
Ah, thank you @espiegel123 and @Thardus, Thor is really a beauty. I will try it with AB3 as you suggest!
I don't think AB is needed. Search for Thor and Cubasis and you will find a thread explaining the setup.
Thor
I love that synth
If you need midi on Thor in Audiobus, there’s always Midiflow for AB
Quanta and thor are both fairly deep synths.
Both have a large modulation matrix with all important sources and destinations.
The major difference is in the oscillators.
Thor covers traditional ground (with an insane choice of oscillators) while Quanta covers granular sonic ground that is neither achievable with thor nor with Nave.
I would suggest listening to many sound demos of these synths and decide upon what's missing more in your arsenal of synths.
What makes Quanta very flexible and somewhat unique is that it supports both the IAA and the AUv3 standards.
@LinearLineman
Open both the thor and Cubasis apps, then in Cubasis, on a MIDI track, check the left panel:
Routing > MIDI output > thor.
When you've chosen thor as a destination for MIDI, the left panel should look like this:
Thor.
Quanta.