Icegear - Nambu (FM)

Samu

@Spidericemidas said:

@Samu said:
@Spidericemidas I know you love arpeggiators so using the LFO to 'step sequence' the pitch of each oscillator/operator could be something for nice automated melody generation

Haha yes! Cheers. There's so many things and options to explore in this one! Thanks Samu 👊🙂

But I already found a 'limitation'. It won't go faster than 1/16th note...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v1h3d3wr2idopm3/NambuArp.mp4?dl=0
(I'm a chip-tune junkie, so optimally each step would have a duration of 20ms for 'chip arpeggios' the current setting are sufficient for melodies, bass-lines etc.).

parnarules_85

Difficult to resist this one...is this introductory price likely to be its lowest or better wait until Black Friday?

david_2017

@parnarules_85 said:
Difficult to resist this one...is this introductory price likely to be its lowest or better wait until Black Friday?

Icegear Sales are really rare and not that much. I would guess if it is in sale again you will get it for 12.99

parnarules_85

@david_2017 said:

@parnarules_85 said:
Difficult to resist this one...is this introductory price likely to be its lowest or better wait until Black Friday?

Icegear Sales are really rare and not that much. I would guess if it is in sale again you will get it for 12.99

Ok, thanks. Might have to grab it now then

Gavinski

Definitely a dev that deserves our support. So much time and thought put into these beautiful apps

Spidericemidas

@Gavinski said:
Definitely a dev that deserves our support. So much time and thought put into these beautiful apps

Indeed. I felt honoured but a bit bad for receiving a Nambu promo code, so I went straight to the app store and bought Yukawa and Koshiba as I didn't have those ones from IceGear 😁

Stuntman_mike

Beautiful 🤩

Telstar5

Bought

Samu

@Gavinski said:
Definitely a dev that deserves our support. So much time and thought put into these beautiful apps

Yepp!

It's deep and just about the only 'wish' I have left is to increase speed for the two step-sequencers to at least 1/64 and a 'free mode' where we can set the step-duration in ms.

And if I'm nitpicking a 'wave selection' for each of the 8 'slots' in the LFO waveform. (ie. select a wave per 'slot' from the available ramp up/down, square, sine). We can already set the level for each slot so...

Overall it's a very well thought out synth with very flexible routing and modulation options.

The included 'texture' samples are fun to explore too

Looking forward to seeing more videos on this, dare I say amazing and unique synth on iOS/iPadOS.

It's one of those synth that truly reward those who take the time to explore it!

Cheers!

gregsmith

Instabought. My god the iPhone interface is so well thought out 👏👏👏

waka_x

how is it on CPU!?

lukesleepwalker

@gregsmith said:
Instabought. My god the iPhone interface is so well thought out 👏👏👏

THIS. Gorgeous synth that is deeeeeep too.

Samu

@waka_x said:
how is it on CPU!?

I think it depends on how complex the preset gets...
There's even a mention in the manual to turn off the operators that are not in use to save CPU.

I've not installed it on the iPad Air 2 yet but on the 11" M1 it fluctuates between 6-40% depending on which preset is used and how many notes are played at once. I don't think AUM has multi-core support yet?!

In Cubasis it's no issues with multi-core processing enabled...

This is just initial observations as I've had the app less than 1 hour...

waka_x

thnx Samu.
btw
where is Brice Beasley when we need him!?:)
( thinkin out loud...:)

knewspeak

@Samu said:

@Gavinski said:
Definitely a dev that deserves our support. So much time and thought put into these beautiful apps

Yepp!

It's deep and just about the only 'wish' I have left is to increase speed for the two step-sequencers to at least 1/64 and a 'free mode' where we can set the step-duration in ms.

And if I'm nitpicking a 'wave selection' for each of the 8 'slots' in the LFO waveform. (ie. select a wave per 'slot' from the available ramp up/down, square, sine). We can already set the level for each slot so...

Overall it's a very well thought out synth with very flexible routing and modulation options.

The included 'texture' samples are fun to explore too

Looking forward to seeing more videos on this, dare I say amazing and unique synth on iOS/iPadOS.

It's one of those synth that truly reward those who take the time to explore it!

Cheers!

Can the texture samples be used as a modulator and carrier, can you import your own samples?

Samu

@knewspeak said:

Can the texture samples be used as a modulator and carrier, can you import your own samples?

Yes, They can be used as both carrier and modulator depending on how you route them in the matrix.
No, You can't import your own samples, it ships with 128 samples that cover a lot of ground.

(All the samples/textures one after another, they can be transposed across the keyboard and some have loops too and you can play them polyphonically just like any other operator).

Check the rest of the videos too, they give a very good overview of the synth.

knewspeak

Cheers @Samu that does sound very close to the SY77/99 architecture, hope sample import is a future possibility, I think I’ll pick it up.

Samu

@knewspeak said:
Cheers @Samu that does sound very close to the SY77/99 architecture, hope sample import is a future possibility, I think I’ll pick it up.

There's enough synthesis capabilities in Nambu for creating samples for use with other apps
I would not mind being able to increase the speed of the step sequencers past 1/16th and getting a few more.

Honestly I have to try really hard to come up with ideas on how this synth can be improved. It's very well thought out!
On thing would be to be able to use the operators as modulation sources for any parameter but that's really pushing it...

It will be interesting to see where this synth goes, it has a lot of potential.

Cheers!

Spidericemidas

FM programming is new to me. I've never really dabbled before. But the layout of this makes it really easy to see what's going on and get good results quickly. It'll take some time and deep diving though to really do its features proper justice. It's got my attention 100%. It's proving to be the best experience I've ever had with programming a synth. Just wonderful to sit down with and go on an exploration. ❤

lukesleepwalker

@CapnWillie said:

@lukesleepwalker said:

@CapnWillie said:
Lagrange is one of if not my favorite iPad Synths. Will definitely be grabbing this when it drops.

Yessir, I am still figuring out all the possibilities with Lagrange. In my top three on iOS for sure.

@Poppadocrock said:

@CapnWillie said:
Lagrange is one of if not my favorite iPad Synths. Will definitely be grabbing this when it drops.

Lagrange can do so many sounds with all those oscillator types

Indeed. Can’t even begin to wrap my mind around what something like Nambu is capable of. It’s likely I never will but I’ll explore nonetheless. Another expensive month in app land.😩🙃🤗

Teraverse has tickled my interest with its big, warm sound so Tera Pro is beckoning and this is simply irresistible considering my affinity for Lagrange and Kronecker. Can’t imagine this dev not knocking it out of the park.

Just bought Nambu and it's closest to Lagrange in terms of sounds/possibilities but it's just bigger and deeper. I just stared at those A, B, C, D, E, F buttons on the left side of the UI and thought "there's no effin way I'm that clever". Lagrange's two voices still leave me scrambling to think in layers. Even Kronecker's 4 voices are complex to me in terms of sound design. So, six different voices? Mind completely blown... And that doesn't even get into the Matrix in Nambu. This one is an absolute BEAUTIFUL BEAST.

lasselu

@thesoundtestroom said:
Here is my first video for Nambu, just a general getting started thing and a bit of patch design and a few presets played.
It is a beautiful thing.

Nice one, Doug! Jeez, this thing is deep...

thesoundtestroom

@lasselu You’re very welcome, yes it is deep but really intuitive too😊

Poppadocrock

$14.99 in USA

Dam I want this, love to see a vide Though. There stuff is typically lightweight on cpu too.

Poppadocrock

How’s this compare to something like Bleass Omega?

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

@Spidericemidas said:

@waka_x said:
Spidericemidas:
yes, I trust you but
I already have Aparillo and ID700
as non-orthodox FM experimental instruments
and I can't hear anything interesting or special in Nambu patches or demos.
( and its not exactly cheap for me to buy it for testing...)

yep- Nambu looks impressive on screen
and on paper
but I'll wait for some sound demos...

Ah. I don't have Aparillo or ID700.
Yeah, I agree, quite often factory patches don't give you an idea of the true potential of a synth. Sometimes I think even the devs don't fully realise what their synths can do until a sound designer with more time on their hands sits down and digs in and pushes things further.

I always call factory presets "safe" presets. Not too wild or adventurous. More middle of the road "safe" stuff to appeal to probably a majority. So at first things don't sound too different from most other synths.

If ID700 and Aparillo are already in your collection, there's no need for you to rush, waiting for a sale or waiting to see what sound designers here can coax out of it first is a fine approach 🙂

ID700 responds very well to MPE. Does Nambu?

Slush

So, lets say you want to create a sound but without the fm-part, I see you can add an analog style oscillator, and a resonator, is it possible to create the same kind of sounds with Nambu as you can do with, for example Lorentz?

Samu

@Slush said:
So, lets say you want to create a sound but without the fm-part, I see you can add an analog style oscillator, and a resonator, is it possible to create the same kind of sounds with Nambu as you can do with, for example Lorentz?

The 'matrix knobs' are just interactions between the 'operators' it's got nothing to do with FM.

When you send 'input' to the FM operator it's frequency modulated and when you send input to regular oscillator it is ring-modulated. You cal also send them directly to the output.

If you plan to 'copy cat' Lorentz you need to think about the routings and feed all the operators thru a 'filter operator' and then thru a resonator if you need it etc. etc. etc.

But yes, in practice you can create similar sounds but you need to 'think' a bit about how you route the signals...

CalCutta

Apologies if this has been commented on already. I want to sing the praises of the Envelope color grouping idea for this synth. As someone who mainly uses hardware and iOS synths, I haven't seen a grouping-scheme for individual stages across multiple envelopes before. Brilliant idea! The fact it's optional as well is even better. All the kudos for that.

Slush

@Samu said:

@Slush said:
So, lets say you want to create a sound but without the fm-part, I see you can add an analog style oscillator, and a resonator, is it possible to create the same kind of sounds with Nambu as you can do with, for example Lorentz?

The 'matrix knobs' are just interactions between the 'operators' it's got nothing to do with FM.

When you send 'input' to the FM operator it's frequency modulated and when you send input to regular oscillator it is ring-modulated. You cal also send them directly to the output.

If you plan to 'copy cat' Lorentz you need to think about the routings and feed all the operators thru a 'filter operator' and then thru a resonator if you need it etc. etc. etc.

But yes, in practice you can create similar sounds but you need to 'think' a bit about how you route the signals...

Thanks for the explanation Samu.

Gavinski

@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

@Spidericemidas said:

@waka_x said:
Spidericemidas:
yes, I trust you but
I already have Aparillo and ID700
as non-orthodox FM experimental instruments
and I can't hear anything interesting or special in Nambu patches or demos.
( and its not exactly cheap for me to buy it for testing...)

yep- Nambu looks impressive on screen
and on paper
but I'll wait for some sound demos...

Ah. I don't have Aparillo or ID700.
Yeah, I agree, quite often factory patches don't give you an idea of the true potential of a synth. Sometimes I think even the devs don't fully realise what their synths can do until a sound designer with more time on their hands sits down and digs in and pushes things further.

I always call factory presets "safe" presets. Not too wild or adventurous. More middle of the road "safe" stuff to appeal to probably a majority. So at first things don't sound too different from most other synths.

If ID700 and Aparillo are already in your collection, there's no need for you to rush, waiting for a sale or waiting to see what sound designers here can coax out of it first is a fine approach 🙂

ID700 responds very well to MPE. Does Nambu?

It's not mpe