iOS synth for pads and strings

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JavaJ wrote:Well, I bought a venti pumpkin spice latte today and it was awful. $5 totally wasted.
Bummer. Did you just not like it or was it poorly made? I really like the Pumpkin Spice Latte and, in fact, am drinking one right now. Made perfectly. Perfect amount of warmth to bring out the pumpkin flavor.
JavaJ wrote:Spent $2 on the voices pack and didn't realize that it was a subset, expecting a ton of pads. I think there are 8. Still not what I was looking for, and now know not to expect that much in the packs.
The packs do offer quite a bit, but maybe not in the style you are looking for. A year ago, the one thing I really wanted were pads. When Alchemy Mobile was released I thought Alchemy would fit that role as it seems to have lots of available pad sounds. What I discovered was the pad sounds generally were along the lines of spacey/ethereal/open sounds and not really a style for backing pads which is what I needed it for. I do enjoy creating space/ambient music so I actually did enjoy the sounds it contained. But I'd listen to the soundpack demos and would find some of my favorites in the demos were not in the Mobile version. It was a bit of a bummer to have to find that out after purchase, so now I try to warn people that you are not necessarily getting what you hear. Camel Audio wants to update their demos so they have specific ones for the Mobile version, but they haven't done that yet.

I do recommend fiddling with the controls. Take a pad sound and adjust the cutoff and resonance values. Also move the X/Y pads around. Sometimes I find the X/Y pads will adjust between an analog pad sound and some otherworldly sound. If you set the X/Y pad just right, you end up with a nice pad sound and can adjust filters to your liking. If you have the Pro version, you can save this sound.

Do you have Alchemy Mobile Pro? If you do, I suggest creating a Camel Audio account (actually you probably already have one through the Mobile app) and downloading the Alchemy Player Demo. You don't have to install it, though. In your Account Page, under the Support Menu, select "Product Downloads" on the left hand side. On the page should be downloads for "Alchemy Player Content" and "Alchemy Player 50 Bonus Presets". If not, then click on the link at the top for downloading Alchemey Player 1.5. Then download the Presets and Samples on that page. You can now install these in your Mobile version following the steps here. One thing to note here is, once these are installed, you can't remove them unless you completely delete the app off your device (which in turn also deletes any saved files you have). Warning!!! I installed the "Content" package which took up 200MB of my space. I think the Content added 150 more sounds. If you are low on space, you may not want to install these. You can always listen to the sounds first on your computer, though some of the sounds don't perfectly translate across to the Mobile version. Let me know if you have any questions on this.

The other thing is, Alchemy may just not be the right tool for you. In the end, I ended up creating my own pads on hardware synths. But eventually I would like mix things up with iPad pads.

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whoa- didn't know that you could install the plug-in sounds in the mobile app- that is very gbreat news- thanks for that.
As for the Pumpkin Spice Latte- it was so sweet- It made my head tingle. My wife got the "syrup cream" which is for the non-coffee drinking people- it was also way too sweet- so maybe I am more a salty vs sweet guy :).

I am thinking you are right though- it's odd that such a simple requirement is hard to come by. I am wondering if Animoog would have the necessary engine to create them though- I just can't remember the polyphony on it (which does make a big difference with pads as you don't want it to cut off with every new chord).

So maybe any sound designers out there could take a stab at doing some simpler backing pad presets- for layering with lead instruments versus having their own complex structure or arp??
Jason Schoepfer
Rocky Mountain Sounds
http://www.rockymountainsounds.com

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A 4-year-later *Bump*: What ios-synths would be suggested now?

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Feb 2014: Cakewalk Z3TA
Jan 2015: Roland SOUND Canvas for iOS
May 2015: KORG iM1
May 2015: KV331 Synthmaster
Listen to me at soundcklick:
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telebunke wrote:Feb 2014: Cakewalk Z3TA
Jan 2015: Roland SOUND Canvas for iOS
May 2015: KORG iM1
May 2015: KV331 Synthmaster
Thanks! :tu:

This thread is so old, I really wasn't expecting anybody to even respond!

OK, I've looked at:

Thor
The Crudebytes stuff - really nice!
Nave
Virsyn recently came out with ios Poseidon - interesting -
Auturia's iSEM & iProphet (iprophet's polyphony seem's limited - (4) Voices?)

The above is actually the *short* list - what seems like the best balance (so far) is: Thor, since it has several different sonic engines to make patches with.

I have to pick iM1 as having the biggest 'WOW' factor among my acquisitions - Nave and Poseidon are both deep and brilliant, and very capable of outworldly pads, but iM1 is just flat-out great for several reasons.

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I agree. The M1 for IOS, like the Legacy M1, is great and even easier to work with. With all those sound cards too! Wouldn't it be nice if Korg released a Wavestation IOS app for Xmas?
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Here's an interesting thought:

Cakewalk Z3TA is a recompile/port;
Roland Sound Canvas is a recompile/port;
KORG iM1 - ditto;
KV331 - ditto (I'm guessing here moreso then the above);
Thor - same;
both Arturia's, and Virsyn's Poseidon - same;
Crudebytes is primarily samples that 'stream' from memory (like Gigasampler)

- It seems to me that Nave is the only one from our above mentions that is genuinely an ios original - but (and I hate to say it) - Waldorf is being their usual 'spotty' self when it comes to support - I caught a ridiculously obvious fopaw with Nave's polyphony in their latest (September) compile - you get exactly half the polyphony on an Air 2 versus an Air 1 (12v24)

My greatest hope is for the ever-brilliant and generous Bulent to kick everyone elses a$$ with his ios KV331, which will (in time - finger's crossed) become soooo much more then a preset player -

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bftucker wrote:I agree. The M1 for IOS, like the Legacy M1, is great and even easier to work with. With all those sound cards too! Wouldn't it be nice if Korg released a Wavestation IOS app for Xmas?
:tu: THAT would be a dream come true, bftucker -

And while we dream: Why hasn't Roland recompiled their D50 for ios? They already did that for their Vsynth platform - Seems a no-brainer to me!

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Mitosynth is wide open for pad design, incredible. My fav recompile is Crystal XT, again incredible pads in Conrardy set and factory, and wide open for design....

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WOW- cool to have my original post bumped. I have actually started to create a bank of pads for Korg iM1. They sound great thusfar (at least from just playing them on the ipad). Once I have done my full bank, I want to go to my controller and iConnectAudio4+ and tweak them more. Sadly, I have no way of assigning the modhweel to filter cutoff which is a real shame. Still, the sounds are actually quite good and use samples you would not expect to be turned into pads (percussive and even pianos).
Jason Schoepfer
Rocky Mountain Sounds
http://www.rockymountainsounds.com

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iM1 - as mentioned - love it.
Nave - Wow (and yes as mentioned a Wavestation port would be glorious)

Just acquired these two over Christmas;

Sunrizer - beautiful (was actually looking to buy a HW JP8080 recently)
Cassini - as yet unmentioned but a more than capable bread n butter synth with great evolving pad capabilites (had it on iphone for a while but found it fiddly to use on it's small screen. it's way easier on ipad)

Not a synth but also acquired over Christmas, Modstep (one sequencer to rule them all, now I don't have to tether it to the PC)
Just make the music that you enjoy (failing that go for a walk, watch some porn, have a fight with a random bloke until something else happens).

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