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What app comes close to hardware you used to use?
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My Alesis Andromeda was my favourite hardware synth. I still kick myself for letting it go.
I suppose an app that comes close is the Virsyn Tera Synth due to its ability to mod stuff.
My Emu Command Station was super cool for having arps coming out its ears and being multitimberal I could make it do wacky arp stuff
Similar to the Virsyn Addictive Pro.
My Waldorf XTK was super sexy if ya love orange things
But now I have either Nave or PPG apps
What hardware do you miss and what apps have you done your best to replace them with?
Comments
I'm still missing proper iOS 'replacements' for Nord Micro Modular, Roland Juno-106 and MC-303, Yamaha SY-85,TX81z and SW1000XG+PLG-150AN and Korg Electribe ES-1 and well 'Gadget' has mostly replaced my Electribe 2...
I prefer iOS apps because for me it's 'easier' and more accessible than hardware synths.
Other positives from iOS are that I now have access to sounds I could never afford back in the days...
when I eventually scored a Kawai XD5 Drumsynth for a good price on eBay, I happened to buy Stroke Machine the next day... only to find out it covers all the strange sounds for which the XD-5 was intended, oops... LOL
ps: the EMU is a cool box
@Samu
Surprised no one has quite covered what the Nord Modular did.
Not sure I'm up on the SY85. Was it similar to the SY77?
@Telefunky
Yeah the EMU was a cool box. I had some of their rack synths too and one of their samplers. Great stuff, but a nightmare to program
DRC serves as a really close stand-in for my actual Juno-106 when I am traveling. A lot of time I compose on it and replace it with the Juno later.
iSpark has a hardware drum machine style interface, very similar to MC-303 workflow.
Midi-learning any app to hardware knobs gives an instant hardware feel. I just started using a Behringer BCR2000 and it has given me a new perspective on many apps.
iElectribe would have to be the closest. If Korg were to make a synth electribe version like iEM1- I would be delighted- or if roland were to make an iMC-505.
) as there are no really good TB 303 apps that I can find.
iKaossilator has replaced the old Kaossilater quite well.
I had iMPC pro a while ago- before I lost the contents of my iPad- and it seemed to be quite like an MPC..... apart from you could not sample via line in.
No apps come have close for me to the Korg Kaoss pads for effects- thankfully I still have them. I also have a Roland TB 03 on order (6 days to go
I beg to differ here as the MC-303 is not only a drum-machine but also includes a quite advanced arpeggiator, step-sequencer(SH-101 style for easy bass-lines etc.), groove-quantize and a basic synth and most synthesis parameters can be recorded/automated making it quite an expressive instrument but a bit 'dated' by modern standards.
I do have iSpark too... (Downside of being an app-a-holic).
Animoog > my guitar
Not in the sense of replicating sounds, obviously. But the way I felt picking up and learning a guitar, the euphoria of exploring a new instrument and producing fascinating sounds. The similarity was remarkable with learning Animoog.
iMS20 - it sounds exactly like my 35 year old hardware MS20 (see photo)
I can hear it.
I really like my SP-404. I can't quite find a proper replacement. There are a bunch of pad type sampler apps but I miss the multiple effects and resampling options of the SP. Beat machine is close and so is Beathawk but still no multiple effect/resampling options. But still, the apps are quicker and there is literally no setup time.
Hi,
I'm not into synths so my answer will be kind of OT I think... But anyway, I used to be an Akai MPC nerd (playing only on MPC) and now that I switched to iPad, I can do much more stuff i.e. I can do almost everything I could do on MPC (not thanks to the unstable and bad adaptation of the MPC by retronyms... other apps are way better) and I can do way more things...
This is one I missed, having come to the iPad relatively late for music making. I'm a guitar player by training but I use a lot of MIDI synth guitar tones these days. I love new ways to make sounds and expressions. Is animoog still a good option or should I look at the newer Moog apps?
It surprises me a small amount that there isn't really a good modern substitute for my old SY77 (actually had two, with many years between them, the first I used as my main sound source for a few years, second one I had for a few days). Either in software on iOS, as a synth engine, or in actual hardware.
Still wanting a replacement for my long-lost Oberheim Matrix-6, still-owned Kurzweil K2VX as well as my never-owned Jupiter 8.
iElectribe is actually better than my ER-1 MK2!
You had a Matrix6! I drooled over one once
just nosey... what selection of apps have you assembled to replicate your MPC workflow?
Ha. Same here about your Andromedia.
I got rid of the Matrix-6 a few years ago because there were no longer any working remote programmers for it and there hadn't been for a couple of years. I could program it from the front panel but it was an entirely joyless experience. Of course, in the last couple of years a few have resurfaced for iOS and I get to kick myself regularly.
@syrupcore
Yep that wasn't a problem with the Andromeda. Probably the best hardware synth interface I've ever used. The software was still a little buggy, but that seemed par for the course at the time. My Waldorf XTK was actually quite easy to use too.
Same goes for the SY85 even though it's only classic sample & synthesis in It's simplest form.
In 'voice mode' it's one sample with pitch, amp and filter envelopes and and one lfo to modulate all with different amounts run thru 2 effects. In 'performance mode' it's possible to layer 4 voices and run the thru the same effects.
In Song mode 8 tracks plus 'drum-track' again thru the same two effects with sends per track.
What set the SY85 apart was it's 'analog-sounding' filters, classic Yamaha samples and the SPX90 based effects.
Gimme an iOS app that is capable of all this on it's own
Had a Kurzweil K2 for a while - weighed a ton!
For real. It's our living room keyboard. I can't hardly imagine people gigging with it!
Haven't gotten rid of the hardware, but have felt deep similarities between:
Nord Lead 3 - Sunrizer. The oscillator section and especially the morph function cover a lot of the same ground.
Juno 106 - Lorentz. Similar features and layout, one oscillator polysynth, that it is hard to get a bad sound out of. Some added, neat stuff, like the resonator and effects, but the inspiration of the 106 seems clear.
Eurorack Modular synth/pile of electronic parts- AnalogKit. I love Analogkit for synth science projects and homemade instruments. I've built lots of analog effects, and really like using analog kit to try out ideas and be able to hear what they would sound like, before spending a bunch of time building a real electronic version. The digital aspect is so handy, because of the limitless modules you can throw together, like, you need 6 envelope generators, not a problem, or 4 delay lines, no problem. Being able to reuse bits, duplicate them, and use other people's clever modules, means not having to touch every little nut and bolt, to get something complex to work. And it remembers the patch. Really like digital modular synths, more than the hardware counterparts. I had a hard time following all of the patch cabling and making sense of a patch if I left it for a week. Lots of pulling all the wires out and starting over, and it takes half an hour to get the thing to make any kind of sound.
Old toy drum machines - Funkbox. All the canned beats and vintage drum sounds, and I love that it just starts making a beat the instant you start it, good for practice and lazy drums. I don't think i would buy any of the hardware drum machines, when I have such a encyclopediac emulation.
Machinedrum- Elastic drums. I was trying to learn a Machinedrum, an expensive analog/synth drum machine, and realized I liked elastic drums much better, because it was so much easier to program, because all the important info wasn't packed into a tiny screen. Similar sounds and sound quality.
Actually, what am I whining about? How soon we forget... The K2VX's spot in the living was previously occupied by a Hammond H-118 (dual manual, full tone wheel, tube amp with a 15" + two 8" speakers built in, full pedal set...). Now that was heavy!
And back on topic... Galileo at good volume does a smashing job of replacing that lovely beast. For 10 bucks and 1/1000th the weight.
I never had much in the way of 'real' music production equipment (a Kawai stand-alone sequencer, a Roland XP-50 & a Roland PMA -5) so I may not be able to peg an app that gets close to those few examples.
Of the few apps I keep around, Music Studio & bs-16i would come close, but I only use MS as a sound bank w/ AB & bs-16i I use for MIDI file playback w/ Inter-App Audio to move tracks over to GB to either use verbatim or as a template to copy w/ GB instruments (for file size considerations, partially). By and far today's music apps are above and beyond the capabilities of those dinosaurs I used to use, considering the technological leaps. It's a better time for me!
There's no iOS replacement for any of the SP series. That's why I still use my 404SX alongside Cubasis. It's more fun than iOS samplers that don't actually sample.
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/comment/275789#Comment_275789
Caustic makes me feel closest to my old hardware setup. I like Gadget too but I don't find the workflow quite as smooth as Caustic. I wish that Caustic update would get finalized. As much as I love making music on iOS, there is a lot to be said about the ability to twist a knob or slide a fader.
okay... very similar to my workflow, only replace Cubase with Auria.
I had a Juno 106 back in the 90s. I was a kid, did not know a single thing about synths. I literally thought that it was a failed Russian experiment, and gave it away. Something that kinda mimics that particular feeling about...Russia & failures...would prolly be iVCS3.