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.
Comments
When I saw the update I got excited thinking that they added IAA but I am not really complaining, I am very happy about any update to this wonderful synth app...
Great. I like the button adds.
Thanks.
The new filter saturators are good. More punch for a vintage sound.
I thought about posting this also. The addition of the hold and arp buttons to the main screen isn't an insignificant thing, but I think it's more encouraging just to see that this older app got an update to help keep it running properly on the newer iOS versions. This app actually has a distinct sound to it that is unique in its retro-ness.
The most maddening thing about the app to me is the preset management - seems like a minor thing, but the factor presets are not named or categorized. There actually are some free preset downloads floating around on the web that you can import with "Open In".
An oldie but a goodie!
If you like the way this synth sounds, but are put off by the presets, consider buying the Sunsine ones for it. I got both packs on sale a while back, and found a handful that I really loved, which was enough to get me going to start programming some more of my own.
There are things about the interface of this synth that really annoy me, like having to jump back and forth between the 3 oscillator pages just to see what the settings are of each, but it is actually one of my favorites on iOS, sound wise. Though the dual delays are a big part of that...!
^Everything @Zymos said. All of it.
Those are good comments, @Zymos. I think I downloaded preview packs or something from Sunsine for Cassini, that might have even been what I referenced. But Sunsine is a nice alternative to Synthpatcher.
And yes, the interface is annoying, but the app is old enough now it probably isn't realistic to expect them to blow it up.
I actually quite like the interface—it's very clear even if it a bit overblown (do I really need key tracking to adjust the decay on a filter envelope?).
There are just some things that are a pain like not being able to see all of your OSC waveforms together. I think I'd prefer to see an additional OSC tab that had the core OSC stuff from all three OSCs on the same page and then the three existing pages for the envelopes and LFO stuff. Same with the dual filter pages actually. It just gets in the way of programming bit to not be able to see the essential bits all at once.
I mean, these are tiny niggles in the end. It's a stupidly wonderful synthesizer.
The various new saturations on the filters are really nice! Defiantly adds yet another layer of creativity to this beautiful synth.
one thing I've always found strange about Cassini, and all of this developers synths for that matter, is that you can't modulate the full range of the filter-not even close. ie turn cutoff to 0, env mod to max, sustain at max and you'll notice it.
Cassini just went on sale, now down to $2.99
I want to buy, but i have a question cassini have presets? And how many? Thx in advanced sorry for my english.
@ Aphex yes, comes with quite a few presets.
@Coloobar said:
Nice! I wanted the iPad version! Not that 5.99 was too high, but for 2.99, I'll bite.
@Aphex - Yes, there are probably about 60 presets or so (totally guessing) They are in banks A through D, but they do not have names or categories. And of course you can tweak them or create your own sounds.
I'm having a hard time with this one. $2.99 is not a lot to spend, but after searching for samples around the web I haven't heard anything yet that makes me want to own this synth (especially the Sunsine presets). Lots of reviewers say they love the sounds it produces and the warm tone, but I'm not hearing it... compared to other 3-osc synths that are available (Magellan and Thor). Anyone have any good samples that might sway me?
Thanx @Trueyork and @StormJH1
@Coloobar. I found some samples here. http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/icegear-cassini-synth-for-ipad/151717
I was searching samples too and is hard to find
i do like Cassini - but i found many of the presets to sound very similar and mostly underwhelming. Tried to make some of my own presets and made a few slightly better sounding ones, but I still think this synth can sound alot better - would be nice if somebody who knew synthesis well could produce a video about coaxing better sounds from Cassini... any volunteers?
@Coloobar said:
I don't want to say anything to sway you into thinking it's a synth you "need" if you already have those concerns about it. I don't have Thor, but Magellan is a much more modern feeling product, and with the hundreds of presets I have for it and the endless customization options, I'm sure you could get many of the same sounds out of Magellan. I do find that there's a sameness to a lot of the sounds in Cassini, but that also appeals to me when I want to load up quickly and find a lead tone. I don't use it really for bass, etc., though it probably can be set up to do other things. Whereas Magellan does everything.
If you're in the "hobby buying" phase like I was/am, then $2.99 for a quality synth is a no-brainer, but you can't do that ad nauseum, and I understand not wanting to have apps clogging up your device that you don't want to delete, but also aren't really using.
@StormJH1, there's one thing Cassini does and Magellan doesn't, and that's sync leads. In fact, Magellan misses an extra envelope for modulation, and that could make it even better than it is.
I wouldn't call Cassini 'warm'. It's a pretty digital sounding synth. It can do warmish things but I very much like that it's in a non-virtual-analog space.
I think the bulk of the presets are pretty bad at showing off the synth but I very much like the Sunsine presets. But again, if you're looking for 'warm' those aren't going to do much for you.
The dev put up a few short but very illustrative videos on programming the synth here: http://ios.icegear.net/cassini_iphone/videos/ and http://ios.icegear.net/cassini_ipad/videos/ for ipad. I know Tim Webb at Discchord did a fairly in depth video at some point as well.
yep, Tim convinced me a few years ago with this video review:
http://discchord.com/blog/2012/8/8/review-cassini-synth-for-ipad.html
The keyboardmag.com article also mentioned that it can remap incoming and outgoing MIDI notes to a defined scale. Nice feature . Argon and Thumbjam (and perhaps others?) can do this too.
Cassini iPhone edition was just put on sale for $1.99 now too. http://www.iosnoops.com/appinfo/cassini-synth-for-iphone/516479081