Modular synth prototype, coming soon to an iPad near you.

[SingleCell]

Hey guys and gals,

I've been working on a modular synth for use in my Android sequencer app, Caustic and I'm having lots of fun with it so I think there's some potential for a stand-alone iPad app.

The idea is simple, build your own synth from parts and patch it up however you want. I've got about 20 different components to choose from so far and still lots of ideas for new ones.

Right now I'm looking for user feedback and demo patches to ship with the first version of the app, so I've made a prototype version you can run on your computer. I've got PC and (Intel)Mac versions available.

Download link and more info on my website.

What do you think, if it supported CoreMIDI, would you use it on your iPad?

[IncarnateX]

Hi SingleCell. Your Caustic for Android is great and I am still grateful for selling me a special version due to my arm6 processer, so I will give you some hints in return here.Case is simple IMO. If you want to enter the iPad synth market the quality of the synth will not secure your sales. What you need to compete with other synths for iPad are features that make it possible to coorperate with other music apps.That is features like

1. An audio recorder with Copy and paste ( this is the most important for corporation at all)
2. Background audio (for playing along with other apps)
3. Virtual Midi ( for controlling it with sequencer programs like Genome)

If you throw in a step sequencer, it will even be more competitive. Check out the Korg iMS-20 because that is the kind of modular synth you will have to compete with.

I love anything modular with virtual cables and would buy it straight away if it has these features. Quality wise I am sure it will be a fine and usable synth.

Cheers

[revo11]

Your android stuff is great!

Here's my suggestion - have some sequencing/pattern capabilities, at least in a minimalist form ala nord modular or jasuto (now defunct). I have too many good sounding instrument apps on my ipad I never use because it's just not worth it to leave my main-song-environment (usually nanostudio, sunvox, or nanoloop) workflow to play a few notes, even if the app does sound good. So nowadays I've given up on most of the one-trick instrument apps.

[Tim Webb]

This is the sort of thing a lot of people have been asking for! I just played around with the Windows version and can really see the potential here.

I unable to really play with it though. Despite its insistence that "[Midi Connected]" I was unable to use my keyboard, and couldn't find a way to double check which MIDI connection it thought it had.

The idea is golden though.I like the Reason-style flipping back and forth, rather than trying to cram everything on the front. Your inclusion of master effects was a welcomed touch to greatly expand the sounds.

I'd echo the need for a sequencer, but rather than look at iMS-20 as the competition, consider it cautionary tale. Lots of folks love it, but the sequencer is the worst part. Just because we're being retro, doesn't mean everything needs to be as clumsy as the hardware it is emulating!

(Meh, the site is blocking my Sig. This is Tim from discchord.com)

[aMUSEd]

Looks great. I would possibly buy it but what would make the biggest difference for me would be alternative performance approaches that fit the touch paradigm better than traditional keys and knobs. Take a look at Animoog for example, it does still have traditional knobs for programming but for performance it has a very innovative non traditional keyboard that works a bit more like a Continuum and has clever implementation of aftertouch and other expression features - I prefer this to my midi keyboard for playing that synth. Plus it has a big multi param XY pad for realtime performance tweaks. At the very least these sort of features would turn it from being a cool synth to programme to being a playable instrument.

[audiojunkie]

Hi SingleCell. Your Caustic for Android is great and I am still grateful for selling me a special version due to my arm6 processer, so I will give you some hints in return here.Case is simple IMO. If you want to enter the iPad synth market the quality of the synth will not secure your sales. What you need to compete with other synths for iPad are features that make it possible to coorperate with other music apps.That is features like

1. An audio recorder with Copy and paste ( this is the most important for corporation at all)
2. Background audio (for playing along with other apps)
3. Virtual Midi ( for controlling it with sequencer programs like Genome)

If you throw in a step sequencer, it will even be more competitive. Check out the Korg iMS-20 because that is the kind of modular synth you will have to compete with.

I love anything modular with virtual cables and would buy it straight away if it has these features. Quality wise I am sure it will be a fine and usable synth.

Cheers

IncarnateX is absolutely correct. Because of the sandboxing approach that iOS uses, it is impossible to interact between programs without the above listed features, and most people who want to create music will want to have these features. An additional option to consider is the upcoming Audiobus technology. The app looks good though.

--Sean

[martygras]

+1 to proper implementation of aftertouch.
There's not many of us out here, but this would be useful when using an EWI as the midi controller.

The routing leads make it look a little difficult to read. I guess there's no way around that though.

[loungedumore]

Liking it a lot ( testing on OSX 10.7.4 )
Really good . So far no major issues .
It would be far better to test if core midi was built in though .

As of now it sounds good is easy to use and seams stable .

Suggestions :

Cables should be different colors for more intuitive use .

Gestures on the iPad for selecting / deleting panels and flipping to the modular section would be handy .

All parameters to have cc's through Core midi

The LFO's higher rate not quite fast enough for real decent audio rate stuff


Non performance based suggestions :
A Wavetable OSC , Maybe a salen key filter or other esoteric filter choices would set it a part from the pack too .... think polyvox , Matrix 12 , OSCar etc. , and just because I'm crazy The env from the ensoniq ESQ1 / SQ80 would be insanely useful in a modular !

[Dogboy73]

Looks fantastic. I'd love this on iPad. Would be like a stepping stone into real modular synthesis, which scares the piss out of me!

[SingleCell]

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. I had started to reply yesterday and was about to post when KVR went down for maintenance.
Here's some replies to the comments so far:

1. An audio recorder with Copy and paste ( this is the most important for corporation at all)
2. Background audio (for playing along with other apps)
3. Virtual Midi ( for controlling it with sequencer programs like Genome)

1 - I still have to look into Audio copy/paste, it should be possible.
2 - Same, I haven't looked at what's involved there, I'm hoping it's just a flag I can set on my app, and offer the option to users.
3- Yes, definately. Unfortunately my iPad can't drive any of my MIDI controllers (which work fine on my android phone?!) so I haven't been able to look into CoreMIDI at all yet. I'll have to pick one up that's compatible to test, as well as get MIDI sequencer apps like Genome.

Check out the Korg iMS-20 because that is the kind of modular synth you will have to compete with.

Well, I was thinking of asking a few bucks (4-5$, tops) for this one, nowhere near 30$, I'm not looking to compete with Korg's monster... I know people will still get compare though.

Here's my suggestion - have some sequencing/pattern capabilities, at least in a minimalist form ala nord modular or jasuto (now defunct). I have too many good sounding instrument apps on my ipad I never use because it's just not worth it to leave my main-song-environment (usually nanostudio, sunvox, or nanoloop) workflow to play a few notes, even if the app does sound good. So nowadays I've given up on most of the one-trick instrument apps.

Keep in mind this will become just another machine you can add to your rack in Caustic, but without the keyboard. (Caustic will also likely come to iOS)

So hopefully Caustic's pattern sequencer will please those who want in-app sequencing and I can keep this one more as a live tool.

@Tim Webb: thanks for the mention on your website, means a lot to me. As for your MIDI device on windows: The app will search for and connect to the first MIDI device it finds and use it as a simple keyboard controller. If you've got more than one device, try unplugging the others then restarting the app. Sorry it's really just a hacked together prototype and I don't have tons of hardware to test with.

@aMUSEd: Yes, I really want to offer a 4th view, with multi-param XY controllers, strip keyboards, and whatever else ends up being fun to use. I'd like to make this view modular as well, meaning you can place a few XY pads, map them to whatever params you want, then add a animoog-style expression keyboard, all in a grid view like the components. Now, whether or not this makes it into the first release, I still haven't decided, but it's definitely where my mind's at with this thing. The possibilities become endless.

@loungedumore: Thanks for testing. My apologies for the lackluster Mac version, you have to understand I had never touched a Mac until 3 weeks ago when I bought a mac mini as a dev kit. So not only is this my first OSX software "release", it's my first OSX anything. I'm just happy it runs at all on someone else's machine. As for your suggestions: cable colors=good, I'll try some random colors to see if that clears things up. For the faster LFO, you can always use a sub-osc in the meantime, but I can certainly offer a few more notches on the rate knob. Those are great ideas for new components, I'll look into your suggestions. I can definitely do a wavetable OSC, I've got that in Caustic and I'll look into your filter suggestions. I'm not really happy with the ones I have now...My plan is to keep adding components to it as long as there's interest. (and they'll be free, I hate in-app purchases)

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

[HeavensOnEarth]

The app will search for and connect to the first MIDI device it finds and use it as a simple keyboard controller. If you've got more than one device, try unplugging the others then restarting the app.

Others are having this problem on ios too. The MIDI interface predates plug and play. I think it's time for a better music hub which shares not only notes, clock, controllers, and sysex, but also metadata (artist, label, etc), key, time signature, rhythm patterns for other apps to provide accompaniment, chord roots, etc. I think it could be encapsulated as a virtual midi device. I suggested it on the Juce forums. Could take a while.

Really nice work. Some people usually say they want more modern looking controls. Generally though, I think the style you chose has in the passt better survived the passage of time.

[loungedumore]

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. I had started to reply yesterday and was about to post when KVR went down for maintenance.
Here's some replies to the comments so far:

1. An audio recorder with Copy and paste ( this is the most important for corporation at all)
2. Background audio (for playing along with other apps)
3. Virtual Midi ( for controlling it with sequencer programs like Genome)

1 - I still have to look into Audio copy/paste, it should be possible.
2 - Same, I haven't looked at what's involved there, I'm hoping it's just a flag I can set on my app, and offer the option to users.
3- Yes, definately. Unfortunately my iPad can't drive any of my MIDI controllers (which work fine on my android phone?!) so I haven't been able to look into CoreMIDI at all yet. I'll have to pick one up that's compatible to test, as well as get MIDI sequencer apps like Genome.

Check out the Korg iMS-20 because that is the kind of modular synth you will have to compete with.

Well, I was thinking of asking a few bucks (4-5$, tops) for this one, nowhere near 30$, I'm not looking to compete with Korg's monster... I know people will still get compare though.

Here's my suggestion - have some sequencing/pattern capabilities, at least in a minimalist form ala nord modular or jasuto (now defunct). I have too many good sounding instrument apps on my ipad I never use because it's just not worth it to leave my main-song-environment (usually nanostudio, sunvox, or nanoloop) workflow to play a few notes, even if the app does sound good. So nowadays I've given up on most of the one-trick instrument apps.

Keep in mind this will become just another machine you can add to your rack in Caustic, but without the keyboard. (Caustic will also likely come to iOS)

So hopefully Caustic's pattern sequencer will please those who want in-app sequencing and I can keep this one more as a live tool.

@Tim Webb: thanks for the mention on your website, means a lot to me. As for your MIDI device on windows: The app will search for and connect to the first MIDI device it finds and use it as a simple keyboard controller. If you've got more than one device, try unplugging the others then restarting the app. Sorry it's really just a hacked together prototype and I don't have tons of hardware to test with.

@aMUSEd: Yes, I really want to offer a 4th view, with multi-param XY controllers, strip keyboards, and whatever else ends up being fun to use. I'd like to make this view modular as well, meaning you can place a few XY pads, map them to whatever params you want, then add a animoog-style expression keyboard, all in a grid view like the components. Now, whether or not this makes it into the first release, I still haven't decided, but it's definitely where my mind's at with this thing. The possibilities become endless.

@loungedumore: Thanks for testing. My apologies for the lackluster Mac version, you have to understand I had never touched a Mac until 3 weeks ago when I bought a mac mini as a dev kit. So not only is this my first OSX software "release", it's my first OSX anything. I'm just happy it runs at all on someone else's machine. As for your suggestions: cable colors=good, I'll try some random colors to see if that clears things up. For the faster LFO, you can always use a sub-osc in the meantime, but I can certainly offer a few more notches on the rate knob. Those are great ideas for new components, I'll look into your suggestions. I can definitely do a wavetable OSC, I've got that in Caustic and I'll look into your filter suggestions. I'm not really happy with the ones I have now...My plan is to keep adding components to it as long as there's interest. (and they'll be free, I hate in-app purchases)

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

All ideas sound great so far . core midi , virtual midi and audio paste are the bare necessities these days hope they go well for you . 3 weeks ? Damn good on ya for it working at all !
I for one am very interested in seeing this in the app store .

[IncarnateX]

Hi SingleCell
I have tested the synth and I must say it sounds pretty good in my ears. I was able to do some very smooth and silky leads and some interesting low end basses. If this synths makes it to Caustic 2 I would really like an update to my arm6 version (which you PM'ed me some months ago). Hope this can be done. So far I haven't been able to download any of your updates because of the arm6 thing, but the version I have works fine as is.

If this synth makes it to iOS I' ll buy it right away. And if Caustic 2 makes it to iOS with this synth onboard, I' ll buy the whole friggin deal again

Cheers

[SingleCell]

Hi SingleCell
I have tested the synth and I must say it sounds pretty good in my ears. I was able to do some very smooth and silky leads and some interesting low end basses. If this synths makes it to Caustic 2 I would really like an update to my arm6 version (which you PM'ed me some months ago). Hope this can be done. So far I haven't been able to download any of your updates because of the arm6 thing, but the version I have works fine as is.

If this synth makes it to iOS I' ll buy it right away. And if Caustic 2 makes it to iOS with this synth onboard, I' ll buy the whole friggin deal again

Cheers

Thanks for the vote of confidence mate. I think you've still got the latest version of Caustic, I haven't put out an update in ages. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a scatterbrain so I tend to develop "parallel" rather than in a nice straight line. This makes it harder to release updates because things are always a bit broken and half finished in my development branch. It does mean though that once things settle down I should have lots to offer in the two next updates, which should only follow each other by a month or two. And I'll be sure to PM you when they're out. I'm really hoping to have all this available before xmas.

[IncarnateX]

Thanks for the vote of confidence mate.

You are most wellcome.

God's Speed to you.