Great sounding Synth Apps are not exactly few and far between on iOS right now. Companies like Moog, Korg and Waldorf all have superb Apps available for synth aficionados.
Great sounding free synth Apps though? They’re not so common.
The newly released Synth One from AudioKit is a pleasant surprise in that it not only offers the ‘pro’ Synth App experience for free, it also surpasses many of the aforementioned ‘pro’ apps in terms of sound quality and feature set.
A two year labour of love, Synth One is the brainchild of developer Matthew Fecher. Fecher enlisted the help of over 100 volunteers from around the globe (including musical wizards who have worked with the likes of Tycho, Brice Beasley , Rihanna and many more) to what he calls “The Largest Free & Open-source iOS Music Project in History.”
Just because Synth One is free doesn’t mean it’s light on sounds or features. The App comes with over 300 presets, five oscillators (FM with mod wheel, sub, noise, and two digitally controlled oscillators), two assignable LFOs, touchable ASDR envelopes for amp and filter, mono glide and legato, high pass and band pass filters, and more. Check out the full feature list below.
- Hybrid Analog/FM Poly Synthesizer
- Over 300+ Presets crafted by famous sound designers
- Audiobus 3 & Inter-app Audio (IAA)
- AUM, BeatMaker 3, Cubasis, GarageBand compatible
- Five Oscillators (2 DCO, FM, Sub, Noise)
- 2 Assignable LFOs with dozens of routing possibilities
- 100+ Alternative Scales & Tunings
- Vintage-Style 16-Step Sequencer
- Classic poly arpeggiator
- MIDI in (Control with a MIDI Keyboard or DAW)
- Touchable ADSR Envelopes for Amp & Filter
- FM Oscillator w/ Mod
- Dedicated Sine/Square -12/24 Sub Osc
- 4-Pole Vintage Low-Pass Filter
- High-Pass/Band Pass Filters
- Mono portamento & legato
- Beautiful Sean Costello Reverb
- Multi-tap (ping-pong) delay
- TouchPads
- Preset Import/Export & More…
- MIDI Learn on all knobs
- MIDI Bank (MSB)/Patch Change & Sustain Pedal support
- Compact app size (under 50mb)
- FULL SOURCE CODE COMING IN JULY 2018
Impressive as all that is, it means nothing if Synth One’s Sounds don’t measure up.
Thankfully that isn’t the case; many of the 300+ presets were created by talented sound designers like Red Sky Lullaby and Electronisounds.
Using Synth One’s suite of controls to sculpt your own sounds is a breeze. The App’s interchangeable sections and clear layout make finding your way around very straightforward.
I take Synth One for a spin and find out a little more about its backstory in the video below;
With the full source code slated for release later this month, i’m also excited to see what others will do with Synth One’s framework. I imagine ports to other platforms are likely (fingers crossed for a macOS release). Audio Unit V3 support is also on the way, so using Synth One as an AU inside GarageBand for iOS should open up new sonic possibilities too.
AudioKit Synth One is absolutely brilliant and i’d highly recommend heading to the App Store ASAP and giving it a whirl. You’ll be glad you did.