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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

What’s the most FUN hardware synth of the moment?

By fun, I mean exactly that – just mindless enjoyable smile-inducing fun.

I don’t mean intellectually stimulating mountain climbing achievements of complex modular environments. Nothing complex. Nothing that requires too much learning. Nothing that’s more like showing off in front of everyone.

I don’t mean super-simple toys that you get and after a week never touch again because you’ve used it all up and there’s nowhere to go now – seemed a good idea when you bought it and was fun when it arrived, but that’s it.

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Comments

  • I feel very fortunate to say my dream synth, the new Prophet 10. I sold off more than half my studio to get it, but it was worth it. Every time I play it I have a smile like it’s Christmas morning 1991 and I just got a Sega Genesis 😂

  • WYSIWYG analog has always been my most fun hardware experiences. No screens, no menues, no presets. Gear with larger knobs, not too many options, but extremely well thought out controls are my favorite. Moogerfoogers have been some favorites of mine. The big knobs, the resistance when you turn them, sturdy build quality, and a sound quality akin to live elictricity. 105m, 103, 102 and the CP251 accompanied by a DRM-1mkii and a little microbrute is a fantastic, screen-less, preset-less setup for me.

    I think the Matriarch would probably be my favorite synth ever, falling under this category, but I haven't been able to get one yet.

  • Drum machine wise a volca drum achieves a track but also acts as a synth without beats ( through effects )

  • Hydrasynth.

    It has depth when you need it and a big random button for when you just want to explore.

    They have done a really good job of making the structure available while enabling near full on modular if you want to go that path.

    I bought the desktop version which has playable pads with poly aftertouch but the keyboard version has poly aftertouch keys and a big ribbon controller.

    The only "missing" element for me, if standalone is important, is the lack of a built-in sequencer.

    Otherwise I think the Pro 3 might also spark joy in a user.

  • I’ve got favourite synths that aren’t fun, and I’ve got fun synths that aren’t my favourite

  • edited February 2021

    For me, the Synthstrom Deluge. Super-easy to get going but lots of depth under the hood. Including this because I assume there won't be a separate thread for grooveboxes!

  • Then again, there is the Microfreak which has fun written all over it.


  • “Which one of you is Funn?”

  • O.I.S : gotta go with the micro freak! OR yea volca drum is a synth for sure. I imagine DFAM and BFAM are the funnest with the patching and insta smile, but thats a moog guess.

  • edited February 2021

    More fun when we cruise towards workstations. Maybe a bit expensive but there is nothing like this beautiful “evolving” workstation beast, Fantom - with frequent updates. Last week they released v2.10 along with model expansions for JUPITER-8, JUNO-106, SH-101 & JX-8P (worth $600 and free for a limited time) -

    https://www.mobilemusic.us/articles/hardware/274-updating-my-studio-with-roland-fantom-workstation

  • This is always a crazy question because I can honestly say I’ve never approached music (or any other art form) with the idea that it’s “fun”. I feel compelled to do it (for some reason) and synths and other audio equipment are simply tools. Of course with that said, there is equipment I prefer working on, but fun? 🤔 I did just dig out my Waldorf Microwave XTK from the closet and I forgot how much I enjoy that thing. So maybe that can constitute fun.

  • Another vote for Hydrasynth, or maybe the OP-Z.

  • @Apex said:
    This is always a crazy question because I can honestly say I’ve never approached music (or any other art form) with the idea that it’s “fun”. I feel compelled to do it (for some reason) and synths and other audio equipment are simply tools. Of course with that said, there is equipment I prefer working on, but fun? 🤔 I did just dig out my Waldorf Microwave XTK from the closet and I forgot how much I enjoy that thing. So maybe that can constitute fun.

    Same here. I make a song as though it’s a project management and creative agency job. Anyone who knows me here knows that I certainly know my synthesis methods and science.

    But, sometimes you just want fun.

  • DeepMind 12 looks a huge amount of fun for such a (relatively) low entry price.

  • edited February 2021

    I see lots of apparent feature rich synths here, however I feel it's a public service to shout out loud that DFAM may seem like the simplest module possible, yet manages to constantly blind me with it's seemingly impossible combination of bottomless depth and indulgent immediacy. How the hell did they create such a magical box?

    Unreal bass timbres out of the thing too -- is the heart and soul of every piece of music is becoming entwined with.

  • edited February 2021

    Semi-hardware: NI Maschine. Modular gear is fun to get lost in.

    Grooveboxes are the most fun because you get everything in one package. Definitely, want a MC707 as a result.

  • Well I can’t say what’s the most fun because I don’t own a ton of them , only 2 but I’m having a lot of fun with my Moog Sub 25 I bought a couple months ago. Before that I only had a minibrute which is also fun but more limited. I plan on getting the Behringer Poly D next because that looks like a whole lot of fun , then I’ll probably the Korg Prologue 8 or 16. I think I’ll be good as far as analog synths goes for a while after that.

  • To me, smile-inducing hardware is Nord Lead 3 into a SPL Vitalizer MK2-T and Sub37 into a Zoom MS-100BT.

  • Any synth + dirt simple hardware looper always makes me smile. Until I wish I could save it.

    Fun is relative but Matriarch is winning hard for me these days. Can be complex or simple and it has what feels like an infinite number of 'sweet' spots.

    DFAM + MicroFreak sounds like a really fun combo.

  • @auxmux said:
    Semi-hardware: NI Maschine.

    I do love it... hmmmm... you did touch on ‘what is hardware?’ too I suppose.

  • @AudioGus said:

    @auxmux said:
    Semi-hardware: NI Maschine.

    I do love it... hmmmm... you did touch on ‘what is hardware?’ too I suppose.

    Same, I'd consider the iPad hardware too, but that's not how most consider it, just because it lacks physical controls. But it's more hands on, than a computer + mouse by miles.

  • @tk32 said:
    DeepMind 12 looks a huge amount of fun for such a (relatively) low entry price.

    It definitely is! I bought mine new a couple years ago for around $600. While being my only HW synth, its incredibly “deep” as the name implies.

    I’ve learned how to use it by using iOS synth apps. Subtractive synthesis of course, but also synthesis in general. I love sequencing it with iOS sequencers, and the DM12 itself makes a great MIDI controller too!

  • @auxmux said:

    @AudioGus said:

    @auxmux said:
    Semi-hardware: NI Maschine.

    I do love it... hmmmm... you did touch on ‘what is hardware?’ too I suppose.

    Same, I'd consider the iPad hardware too, but that's not how most consider it, just because it lacks physical controls. But it's more hands on, than a computer + mouse by miles.

    The Maschine MK3 along with the software on touchscreen is my new couch rig. So cozy!

  • Dreadbox Typhon for me at this time. The mix of great oscillators & fx gives rise to more fun than I’ve had in a long time. How I would love a Poly based on this architecture.

  • I’m having a lot of fun with the Modal CraftSynth 2.0 - just a monophonic dual oscillator with loads of knobs along with a good app to control it. It also plays nicely as a bridge between MIDI and voltage triggers (so I can keep the Korg Volca Modular and/or Bastle Drum in time). As well as a key part of the HW setup, it’s also very good taking parts into Ableton and building tracks up just with the CraftSynth as a sound source.

    Cheap and battery powered - suits me perfectly :-)

  • The Craft synth briefly intrigued me a few weeks ago. Does it feel like somewhat more than “this could’ve just been an app instead” when you’re using it?

  • Pulsar 23 is super fun to play. Hard to imagine anything more fun than that one. Mine’s for sale, if I can figure out how to get it shipped without having to walk into a shop.

  • Honestly, if FUN is the prime factor I'd have to say Circuit Tracks. It has all the fun of the OG Circuit along with the new Probability, Mutate, Pattern settings features and all of the Sequencer stuff.

    The Circuit isn't for everybody. Some don't like the fact it has no screen or that the 8 Macro knobs could be assigned to any different number of Synth Parameters with only experimentation revealing what those are.

    And that's probably the biggest reason the Circuit is so much fun.

  • @u0421793 But it still won't keep you warm on a cold night at the docks! haha

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