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.
Can only keep one ios synth: which one and why?
After seeing it brought up in the Nave thread, I thought it would be an interesting discussion. If you can only use one ios synth, which would it be? A little different take on the 'favorite ios synth' from ways back...
Comments
Mine would have to be Thor. The reason being is simple, I use Reason as my main DAW. A lot of ground can be covered with that amazing synth.
Thor without question. Great quality, and you can make pretty much any sound with it. I started with it again after reading a post from the guy who does subtotal, talking about becoming a "synth guru" by learning one synth inside and out. I got the book "steal this sound" and started working through some of the sounds there using Thor, then started doing the Thor demystified tutorials. I can't believe how much ground can be covered with such simple things as one oscillator and pwm, or 2 oscillators and modulating the sync, Etc.
Can only pick one unlikely hypothetical situation- what would it be??
But if I HAD to answer your question, I think iSEM. Not the most versatile, but it just has a great sound. I don't even know why I love it so much, it's not like I really care if something is a recreation of a famous vintage synth. It's just the one I turn to again and again.
But I deny your hypothetical situation!!
Thumbjam, for its versatility and ability to create your own instrument. Although, I do like Thor as well as iSem as mentioned above.
I would have picked Thor, but it annoys me to no end that its excellent step sequencer will not sync to external MIDI clock. It's just an awesome synth in both features and sound, but...
Sorry Thor, could be just you and I on a desert island, but I'm pissed at you!
I use iSEM onstage at every gig for synth bass, so I would have to bend the rules and say just one for onstage iSEM, one for variety in programming thor. But I may be using thor onstage soon enough, I haven't programmed any bass sounds yet because that's what I always program and I'm trying to learn other techniques right now. But iSEM sounds amazing through a big PA.
If Gadget doesn't count then I guess I would have to go with Alchemy Mobile. I like the sounds and think it has the best interface for merging quick and easy ideas with enough tweakability to allow you to actually "play" the synth and get unique results while recording. I have a lot of complaints about it, but I still find myself reaching for it more than anything else most of the time.
Impaktor. There's nothing out there, software or hardware that does what Impaktor can.
I would probably flip a coin between Thor and Zeta.
Thor is not getting a lot of attention from Propellerhead, and that's a little concerning... Didn't get any iOS7 makeover, no IAA. Of course these are not necessary, but it's the principle of it, maybe a hint of their plans.
No doubt Alchemy!
Packed with great sounds & additional libraries to buy, and a nice little sequencer for sketches!
Sunrizer. Easy, versatile.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
ThumbJam gets the most use but I'd go with TC-11 because it's deep, expressive and lovely. That or Gestrument.
Tc-11 on a desert island is wonderful idea. Definitely has the highest years-to-find-the-bottom length!
I'd probably go with Magellan because you get two.
iSem is easily my favorite synth right now though.
In anyone's opinion, is Thor a candidate for porting to iPhone someday? Or is there too much overhead? If I had to go with only one synth, with my brief foray into the iOS music scene & the synths I have had a chance to play with I would have to choose either Music Studio or Addictive microSynth, and only because of either my amount of experience (little) or what I've read people comment about here. Unfortunately, it seems that the iPad/Air/What-Have-You group & the iPhone group is separated basically by the number of apps available to each - which for me tends to skew the ability to make a learned decision, let alone participate on a level playing field... :-(
I can't imagine trying to fit that many controls comfortably on an iPhone screen myself.
All the above
I love all my synths especially the ones with more than two oscillators like Z3TA+ but if I really had to choose it would be.
A) the one synth I go to the most for instant gratification.
C) a synth that let's me port my desktop presets to the IOS version.
and as far as I am aware there is only one synth that ticks all the boxes and that is Alchemy.
I love ThumbJam above all of these I guess, but I honestly didn't view it as a synth until reading this thread. After thinking about it, I guess it absolutely does qualify. It just blows my mind that I never viewed it as one until today. It's always been it's own little iOS miracle app, in my mind anyway. I would have said Alchemy up until I started thinking about it. I'm still like 20% sure impaktor isn't a synth.
Impaktor is absolutely a synth in the most literal sense of the word. There are no samples used within it.
As a matter of fact, I happen to agree that Impaktor is quite unique as a synth, not just in functionality, but in the tones, themselves.
Wow. It was my post in the Nave thread that got this thread going. The funny thing is that it wasn't originally meant the way it came off. It was just supposed to be the opening sentence of a paragraph talking about how different people releate to different synths in different ways, but my little boy woke up and wanted his dad so the post got cut short.
I have a Waldorf XTk and I like wavetable synthesis, so for me Nave makes sense. I can program it easily and I like the way it sounds. But I can easily see where other people might find it confusing and not like the way it sounds. It is interesting how some synths will inspire you, but leave others cold. I have always thought posts that ask, "Should I buy this?" or make blanket statements like "Everyone should buy this," are a bit off.
I'm 100% sure Impaktor is a synth, but fairly certain that Thumbjam is not really one.
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120504093917/warhammer40kfanon/images/0/05/Jackie-chan-meme.jpg
^^lol...lol again, that's twice today.
Ok, I change mine to SampleTank then...
Bebot because it's cute as fuck.
@WMWM said:
I see what you did there....
I wouldn't consider thumbjam a synth. Sample player of the gods? Yes. Does it create sound through synthesis, no.
And music studio is cheating! If it's not, I'd take Eden.
@CalCutta said:
Yeah man it defo is a synth, oscillators, filter, resonance, pitch, decay...
And no I personally never viewed TJ as a synth even though there is such a thing as PCM synth or rompler isn't there? So I wouldn't completely disqualify it
Edit: saying that, if we start calling TJ a synth then probably grandma's honky tonk piano will be next!
Stroke Machine
12 independent synths for perc / drums + 12 melodic synths, with waveshaping, mods, samples and all of that!
@supadom a rompler/PCM synth starts with samples as an oscillator source and then allows synthesis stuff on top like filters, envelopes and lfos. That's not Thumbjam.
@Sebastian said:
I only disqualified MorphWiz because he's ugly as dung.
@syrupcore you're right, I'm mixing cucumbers with pomegranates
Edit: still in its original form pcm synthesis was what tj is: emulator of real instruments. Many of the pcm synths have none of the sound shaping tools such as filters, envelopes, detune etc.
So actually things are a bit more blurry really.