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.
Synthmaster 2 ..opinions
Hello,
I’m debating on purchasing Synthmaster 2 as it’s on sale now. I had SM1 and found it ok, but somewhat buggy. I’m wondering if you recommend it? Some of my favorite synths like Hilda, Pure Acid, Subscription Synth, Sunrizer p, Drambo, Dagger, to name a few.
Any input as I’m not wanting a synth to slow me down or to “dust” in my iPad.
Thank
Comments
Yes
Quite a list of synths you have there… what exactly they don’t do that you need? Maybe its easier to say what you are lacking and then someone may tell you if SynthMaster 2 fills the gap.
Hehe.. that’s a good point. I’m kinda saying use what I have in my portable studio and more is not better. It sometimes even ruins the creativity. It’s not the cheap price of this, but more I’m afraid to ruin my creative flow. However, it might end up being another great synth and tool. I like also a lot Audio Kit’s free Synth One , but it’s not Auv3. I also enjoy Propellerheads’ classic Thor, but again not Auv3. I am looking for more creating interesting sounds and not commercial boring sounds that some synths kinda have, Bram Bo’s Hilda is my probably favorite.
I forgot to mention I also have Moog’s Model 15, but I have never got into making sounds too much with it. It sounds great though.
The first that strucks me when running Synthmaster 2.x is the sound quality, the amazing high quality sound out of SM2!
Hold in mind also - Synthmaster overall (not the SM One that’s another lighter thing) is among the five to ten most popular software synth on desktop, ever!
Pretty big names and artist are in love with Synthmaster 2.x - in the works just now is also Synthmaster 3…
Just to be clear - Synthmaster 1 and Synthmaster One are NOT the same product…
I love it. It’s a little heavy on memory but the full pack of patches is endlessly fun, especially the synth giants. Font is too bloody small mind you! Saw something about getting version 3 for free when it come out with a full purchase of 2, but that might just be desktop. Sounds like 3 will be early in the new year.
Synthmaster One and Synthmaster 2 are non- debatable IMO. Add SM2. Period.
/DMfan🇸🇪
Ok, I think I’m convinced. Thanks
huge amount of presets, huge amount of options to sculpt sound...but you'll need to click through many windows to access everything - especially the FX busses. it's a bit buggy sometimes, can be hard to get envelopes to click in place where desired. a powerhouse synth but i tend to reach for smaller, leaner and more limited (yet targeted to one sound/style/method) synths when i want a certain sound
It looks cool, but it’s not for my workflow and style. I’m
Not a fan of over complicated synths. I want to work from mind to sound quickly. Thanks, maybe the Moog Model D might work better for me.
SM2 is one of my favourites, but I find it very complicated to program, however since I'm rather a preset player than a knob tweaker it's not a big issue for me. If I was a knob tweaker I would go for something simpler like butter synth.
Synthmaster 2 is one of my go to synths. Incredible sound, fantastic options, BUT messy to program. Generally I hunt through presets and tweak tho.
Buttersynth can do what SM2 does as well, much easier to program, BUT not nearly as many presets and heavier on the CPU.
In my opinion these are currently the only 2 "super" synths to consider if you're normally a niche synth player and want to have all the sound options in your back pocket.
My memory got lost…
But, what I meant is that Synthmaster version 1 isn’t the same as Synthmaster One (now we talking desktop)…
As I remember Synthmaster v1 and v2 was around $299 and the “simplier” Synthmaster One was $99…
Had forgotten that first Synthmaster for iOS was version 2.x…
I gave synth master 1 and 2 a good try, and for me they were just not fun. I didn't find myself wanting to use them. Yes, very powerful, and given enough time, you can do anything and it's great, but the interface is clearly made for desktop, and the experience is very clunky and difficult (for me). Buttersynth is a lot more fun for me, a more focused power if you will.
Unless Op left one out they didn’t mention a wavetable synth in their list.
I haven’t used SM1 all that much but SM2 is very good. Sound wise it’s one of the best on iOS. The UI kinda blows and it I’ve read about some bugs but never experienced them myself.
Ive been using terapro with all iaps and addstation a lot recently. Ive had sm2 for a year with 2000 presets but don’t use it often. Probably because the interface is small. Though sm2 sounds excellent and I have spent days going through presets and selecting favorites. Also like yonacs synths too
SM2 was my first "big synth" purchase for the iPad. I've used it quite a bit, but now that I have more options I tend to not use SM2 as much. The good that I've seen:
Lots of modulation options and they are easy to assign. When you tap on a control it will show you the modulation source in the matrix. Makes it easy to track down what parameters are changing with the mod wheel (for example). SM2 is actually 2 synths in one, as Layer 1 and Layer 2 each have the same set of options from input & routing all the way to effects.
A major selling point, and the reason I decided on it, is it's completely cross-platform with shared purchases and preset syncing! I do not use a Mac (shocker I know), but it runs fine of my Linux laptop and I'm easily able to sync any presets between it and my iPad.
One unique feature is that in addition to the 2 oscillators per layer you also have 4 mod oscillators on each layer. These are not LFOs, they are proper oscillators you can use to PM or FM your main oscillators. Unfortunately, that also means you can't FM oscillator 1 with oscillator 2 or vice versa, and the mod oscs don't support wave tables, so no wavetable FM like in ButterSynth.
Yes, the UI can be a bit weird. You can't access the macros while using the keyboard unless you use apeMatrix or AUM with a separate keyboard AU.
Overall its a super powerful synth and a highly recommend it, especially if you aren't using a Mac.
I'd say that ButterSynth can do a lot of what SM2 does, but it does not have nearly as many modulation sources nor routing options. Although SM2 doesn't have any granular synth options, no sample playing, nor explicit subbass option. And the biggest feature missing from SM2 that BS has is wavetable FM. @kv331audio, can we get modulators with wavetables please?
Oh I forgot to mention, I also have ButterSynth . It’s cool, but I gotta get more into it.
Depends on the use. ButterSynth has been my goto for basses and leads since I picked it up. It tends to crash on me fairly often though, so SM2 is a good backup. For pads or chord synths I tend to use FRMS. If I want a more creative lead I'll use Laplace. Since black Friday I've started using Factory as well. I find these are simpler than SM2 if I have a sound in mind I want to come up with. If I want to use a preset though, SM2 is my goto.
I have FRMS too, by recommendation. I still have not made any really good sounds from it. I need to dive into it too. I guess it's me.
Top 5 synth to me…
It has a computer workstation counterpart.
It sounds great
It’s very powerful if you write patches
If you don’t program your own patches, it has many presets available
I don’t see how you could go wrong
But that’s me
I do use a couple of synths more than this one…
Tera Pro is my most used synth
Only bugs I've experienced in SM2 are related to user preset management, specifically on ios. Dev is promising a fix for SM3 at least.
Thanks.. Maybe I will grab it while it's cheaper.
I have all the iap presets and its a huge variety of sounds, really
Sometimes overwhelmingly so, like when “I just want a nice clean house bass sound”. /me scrolls through 100 bass arp presets.
There are many (great) ways to sort and filter all of the presets (plus an effective search option). Filter by instrument, by tone, by developer, etc. This is incredibly helpful.