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Kaspar Synth. Worth it?
I want a new AU synth. I’ve been on the fence with Kaspar for a long time and with the sale price and the recent @Spidericemidas presets i am almost pulling the trigger. I already have Kauldron, is Kaspar much different? What say ye.
Comments
I like it. AND I think it's under-rated. Prefer it to Kauldron but that's entirely personal taste etc...
I'm really digging kaspar, it's kinda like layr in some ways as you can make synth layers. The @Spidericemidas presets are amazing and they don't even use the morph feature by default.
I don't think you'll be disappointed, especially if you like sunrizer... Different of course but totally able to go from ambient to edm
@reasOne hmm, i love layr but it is very time consuming creating layers. if this is as flexible as Sunrizer then i will have to pull the trigger
I had also ignored Kaspar since its release, until a few weeks ago. I already had the mighty LayR, so I didn’t think it was worth going for Kaspar.
However, I decided to give Kaspar a chance recently, and I’m glad I did!
@reasOne I really love LayR, the quality of its sound is still unmatched on iOS, imo, but I find its UI and workflow can be a bit fiddly and demanding on the eyes. Some of the dials and things are still so small on my 9.7” especially the dual function ones with inner rings, that I have to use a touchscreen pen to program it.
I was pleasantly surprised with the layout, logic and straightforward quick easy UI and workflow of Kaspar.
Now here is an interesting thing, and the big difference for me that I found between programming LayR and Kaspar...
For each synth in LayR, you only get one OSC. Yes, you can make it morph between two waveforms, but still the result is quite bland and uninspiring at first, difficult to get an idea from it, until of course you start duplicating that layer and detuning and panning out say about three copies of it to get a decent pad sound to start building upon.
Each layer in Kaspar gives you THREE OSC to play with right off the jump. A little detuning of say two Saw Waves, and the third one set an octave higher, instantly gives you a pretty gratifying and inspiring sound, that you would be happy with from any ‘normal’ three OSC synth. And Kaspar gives you up to eight instances of this type of thing to layer up!
What I am saying is, you do have to work harder and longer with LayR to build up something thick and substantial. You need less layers to achieve that in Kaspar. With LayR, you really have to know exactly what you want in advance when making a patch, and plan it out carefully, because you only get one OSC to play with at a time per layer so it is harder to feel inspired when working on only one OSC at a time, whereas with Kaspar, you get three OSC to adjust on screen at once per layer, instant and interesting interactions between the different available waveforms, happy accidents, immediate inspiration and easy experimentation per layer.
With LayR, you are really starting from the ground up with individual very simple building blocks. With Kaspar, it is more like having a fully featured Sunrizer synth to play with per layer! And then some! Like up to eight fully featured Sunrizers to layer up!
Faster, easier, instantly inspiring.
I know LayR can give you as many layers as your iPad can handle at once, and Kaspar is limited to eight layers max. But let’s be honest, who really needs eight layers running at once?! And who needs more than that?! With three OSC per layer, great results can be had from just a few layers. Even one layer sounds nice already! You only need a few layers to get something interesting and evolving going on. I think most of my Kaspar patches use only a few layers, maybe up to 4-5 layers in a few cases.
I love both LayR and Kaspar. But Kaspar does make things a bit easier and quicker if your time is limited.
I did start a soundbank in LayR ages ago, with the intention of sharing it, I got about five fairly satisfactory patches done, which took forever, and then needed to get on with making actual music from unfinished projects and stuff, and then I lost the momentum with my LayR soundbank because it is more demanding and time consuming to work with.
Many more great things I could explain about Kaspar, but reply is getting long already!
I think it is definitely worth grabbing Kaspar while it is in the current Yonac sales 50% off! Bargain!
Agreed. I grabbed Kauldron the other day just because it was in Yonac’s 50% off sales, and just to see what it was like. But Kaspar has so much more capability and potential, whilst still being an easy thing to interact with.
Also agreed on the Kaspar vs. Kauldron front. I don’t know what it is specifically about Kaspar and why I prefer it over its sibling, it just has a certain mojo that I find intriguing. It did take me a while to warm up to it, though. I found the factory presets quite clinical; like safe “synthesizer” sounds; fun for the whole family. But it was later discovered that Kaspar can be quite a lunatic with drifting inconsistencies, textures and attitude, while also belting out beautiful poetry for the seductive needs. And that morphing functionality, it’s way more powerful than it seems on first glance.
@Spidericemidas totally agree that layr is a lot of work, if I had the time I would probably get in to it and try harder but I really just prefer a more strait forward approach to creating sounds with the limited music time I have ... Thanks to @brice I can roll with his presets that are amazing and be good! I deff can't see my self topping those!
I wouldn't mind some spider layr presets tho 😁 haha but ya that would be a lot of work..
But kaspar is deep too but feels a bit more natural, even tho you can zoom in on layr parameters to fine tune I find myself just not wanting too, but some day I'm going to dig in and build on it, I've created full songs with layr being the only instrument used, it does great percussion pads leads bass atmosphere! It can be the all in one synth so it's probably worth mastering at some point.. I've pretty much only used presets with minor tweaks and layr muting thus far tho
But kaspar is fun, it kinda reminds me of animoog as well, but with a totally different Vibe, it is more my sound than kauldron but in brand new to kauldron, I just got it on sale, it's great for those loud sounds that cut thru a mix tho so far, while kaspar so far I've only used for plucks and pads and a little bass
Final answer, get it 😁
Quite apart from the sound and functionality, I find the yellow and black color scheme to be a real knife in the eye. Many knives, in fact.
I personally hate the Pittsburgh Steelers so I agree these colors are not my fav 🤣😂🤣😂
“Safe synthesizer sounds” is a very apt description for most of the bland factory presets you find included with the majority of synths.
That’s why awesome and imaginative soundbanks that push more out of these synths, from masters of sound design like yourself and @RedSkyLullaby are so flipping valuable to this community. And I’m trying to make some reasonable soundbank contributions as well!
I prefer to put the movement directly into my pad and scape patches, rather than assigning anything to the Mod Wheel, as I’m not a big Mod Wheel user in my own playing and music making. But I may explore this in future for Kaspar. Mod Wheel stuff is definitely most appropriate, nay, essential, for giving players of Lead/Solo sounds more expression and shaping.
I haven’t even begun to explore Kaspar’s morphing feature yet! But looking forward to learning how it works and how I might incorporate it into my patches.
Thank goodness for the EQ and Compressor in Kaspar’s send fx! Nice one, Yonac! I think multilayered sounds in one patch would not work well together without some EQing included!!
Kaspar has really made an impression on me and grabbed my attention. I’ll be spending a lot of time digging deeper, exploring more of its capabilities and getting to know it better. It definitely suits my personal preference for creating ambient evolving pad and scape type sounds.
There are any number of teams from the city of champions to choose from though! These are Penguins colors!
Haha I suppose thinking of the penguins 🐧 will make this experience much better 😂
( And @reasOne ) Haha! I totally agree with you on that! It kinda reminds me of the old WASP hardware synth with its yellow/black design. Pity it doesn’t have any options for a few other colour schemes that are easier on the eye. Just aesthetics, really, and no difference to its sound and horsepower, but it is always nice when a dev includes various colour scheme options for us to personalise our apps and find something easy on the eye, as no doubt we all probably spend many solid hours working on them and staring at them! Jim Pavlov’s GR-16 is a great example of providing users with more than enough colour schemes to choose from!
I picked this up after many months of being completely indifferent to it – not least because of the color scheme. But wow. This is a great sounding synth. And what’s the deal with the “tape recorder”?
Yep - it does remind me of the WASP synth, but with slightly less charm. Good call. Even black and white would be better.
( and @brice @RedSkyLullaby ) Yeah, Brice’s and RedSky’s presets in LayR are stellar pieces of top class synth programming! Love ‘em and use ‘em!!
Lol. Yeah, I’ll definitely get back to LayR at some point too, and continue with the soundbank I’d already started in it. It is a magnificent synth, capable of providing all the range of sounds you could possibly ever need.
Time is not my bff either. It’s my bloody nemesis, in fact. Never enough time to do everything I want with my music and sound design. Also many other people out there who don’t have the time or knowledge to program their own sounds. That is why I’m so glad there are programmers and sound designers out there like Brice and RedSky providing us with cool sounds for us to get inspired and just get on with making the music!
And I dabble here and there in making soundbanks available, just hoping to add a little something extra into the community that might also inspire, help or be of use to others who are either short on time or don’t have enough programming knowledge themselves. I always learn some new things myself in the process too!
I've always liked KASPAR, but never hear much about it. I didn't want to buy and learn both it and Kauldron, and I chose the apparently lesser known app. I don't have the time or skill to get deep into sound design, so I appreciate those who do. I just started playing with some of the new Spidericemidas patches last night, so thanks for that! Interesting and inspiring sounds.
@Spidericemidas oh definitely @brice and @RedSkyLullaby !
I opted out of Kaspar in favor of EGwaveshaper which I am very pleased with so far. I may come back to Kaspar down the road. Thanks for the opinions and in some cases very long descriptions of Kaspar.
I would throw down for an IAP with a diff coloring scheme.
I just want it on the phone as well. Just a player would do if I could transfer presets.
So this thread caused me to dig out Kaspar. I have no idea why I never dug into... Actually, I think it was that I picked up a few apps around the same time and this was neglected.
I'm not mad at myself for 1) ignoring this app, and 2) spending so much time trying to figure out Layr when Kaspar can do as much or more WAYYYYY easier.
The Arp is really robust
the FX are awesome
The synth engine/topology is really intuitive
It's got really nice, flexible, "unique" envelopes
The midi input for note splits/layers is intuitive
The only bummer is that like all his stuff, it sounds like ass via Bluetooth for some reason...
The big selling point is the "Morph" but I think it's a bit misleading... It's not really morphing synth parameters as far as I can tell. It's really just a quad cross-fade tool. In order to actually morph like Sunriser, etc. you'd need to define a start and endpoint of the state of each synth/layer... You don't/can't do that. You just put each layer in a quad... So yea, it's a way to "mix" the layers, but it's not really "morphing" them...
To my ears the sound is a bit "flat" even with chorus, but when I run it into AUM with a chain like:
Kaspar
Klev ReAmp
FAC Max
It sounds pretty damn amazing
I think Kaspar may just be my new "Berlin School" go-to synth as I can get way more voices & FX in this one app that I can get out of the same CPU in a multi AU setup in AUM and without the brain damage that LayR causes.
I'd say get it...
Dayum! Just had to read that...
I've read that Kaspar is heavy on the CPU. Is there a way to disable some of the layers to reduce that?
I haven’t noticed any significant cpu drain whilst using Kaspar.
Layers can be switched off entirely, from the mixer page.
I get some noise in the higher frequencies. Anyone else? Maybe it’s my headphones. Def noticed it playing your new patches @Spidericemidas (and thanks, by the way!).
[Edit: it was my headphones! Beats Bluetooth wireless... the synth is good. The patches are great. On with the show!]
Hmm...What type of noise is that? Can’t say I’ve noticed anything untoward myself, however, I am using the sounds only between C2-C5, as I found that to be the best sounding range for them, and not hearing any noise between those key ranges...yet.
Might need to tame a few frequencies with the EQ at the higher end for some of the patches? Some of them might get a bit crazy at the higher end? Might need to dial up or down on the key follow for the filter to control things a bit better?
I’m not a sound design expert, so I don’t know if the patches are smooth and under control all the way across the keyboard. Might be that some frequencies are stacking up and causing interference in certain ranges on certain patches?
Sorry. Didn’t mean to criticize as your patches are amazing and I love your community spirit! It’s probably me pushing my headphones or just having it too loud in the mix. Will test some other sounds in Kaspar as I haven’t spent much time with it yet.
No no, not at all, man! Certainly no offence taken. This kind of finding is important to me, and worth raising. If it’s something in my patch design that’s causing or allowing this to happen, then knowing about it and investigating it, is valuable for helping me improve my programming. When providing soundbanks for public use, they need to be robust and consistant enough to be used and played in all sorts of other ways that I may not think of. I’ve a long way to go on my sound design journey, and am absolutely not an expert, so all feedback and findings are welcome! Maybe @brice has some thoughts on this, as I know he has dug into Kaspar much deeper than me. It might be that more EQ work needs to be done from within the patches via the send fx inside Kaspar.
@gusgranite let me know of a couple presets that contain the noise you’re describing. Could be a number of things causing that but I’m inclined to think it’s Kaspar’s filters. Either way I’m curious to know what it is.