Most Interesting FX App?

wired2moon

There are some weird and wonderful FX apps out there, what’s the most interesting one in your opinion? What does it do? I have some dosh to spend on an app but there’s nothing I specifically need. There are so many I know nothing about, so looking for ideas. Anything goes!

michael_m

Everybody’s opinion on what is interesting is going to differ, so I think you’ll get a lot of different answers. What type of effect do you have in mind? Might be good to try to narrow it down.

CracklePot

This old one is still one of the weirdest I have ever come across.
And yes, I have way too many apps. 😁

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moebius-lab/id1108915352

Poppadocrock

Couple potential apps for the list.

Velvet Machine - an envelope app, with reverby and all kinds of sounds
Rymdigare - very unique, fun playground of modulation
Flux Pro 2 - envelope type app that can do many things to the sound. Multi fx modulation plug-in.
Glitchcore - chop up your audio for glides and stutters
MonoGranulator - real time granular fx
Blesss Granulator - granular fx
Bleass PhaseMutant - fm as an fx
Spectrum FX - couple cool free AU’s inside.There’s 3 synths, 1 fx, I think. Granular fx.
Moebius Lab - IAA multi fx
Elastic FX - IAA only 4 fx out of many options each has automation x/y.
Koala fx - pretty good, and has stutter, chop, etc…

Stuntman_mike

+1 Rymdigare, it’s like a really expensive boutique pedal/synth along with a very interesting, fun, animated UI

Fun review: https://cdm.link/2021/10/rymdigare-for-ios-combines-fx-in-a-fanciful-ui-and-makes-everything-fuzzy-and-wonderful/

mojozart

I suggest you try one FX from each of:

apeSoft
Igor Vasiliev
Sugar Bytes

I would say Igor and Alessandro (apeSoft) are vying for strangest creations, but Sugar Bytes creations like Turnado are plenty weird.

CracklePot

@michael_m said:
Everybody’s opinion on what is interesting is going to differ, so I think you’ll get a lot of different answers. What type of effect do you have in mind? Might be good to try to narrow it down.

I pretty sure he is looking for a compressor. 🤣

Stuntman_mike

@CracklePot said:

@michael_m said:
Everybody’s opinion on what is interesting is going to differ, so I think you’ll get a lot of different answers. What type of effect do you have in mind? Might be good to try to narrow it down.

I pretty sure he is looking for a compressor. 🤣

😆 the end of 2022 became the Evolution of “Gamechangier” Compressors

McD

In a DAW you can configure Drambo as an FX or MIDI FX app. When you do it cannot load AUv3s but all those internal modules are available for audio or midi processing but a 3rd instance can be loaded into an instrument slot. It cal also work as a standalone DAW.

Koala and Loopy Pro also can be implemented in all 3 DAW functionality slots or as a standalone DAW. I expected Spectrum to appear in all 3 lists but I only see it in the instrument position.

There might be more of these “functionality bundle” apps.

Scaler 2 comes up in 3 slots too.

NeuM

There are lots of "strange" effects plugins, but which ones do you actually USE? I tend to use a very small cadre of effects over and over. Toneboosters, Caelum Audio, Fred Anton Corvest, BLEASS, IK Multimedia sell all of the ones I keep going back to time and again.

CracklePot

@NeuM said:
There are lots of "strange" effects plugins, but which ones do you actually USE? I tend to use a very small cadre of effects over and over. Toneboosters, Caelum Audio, Fred Anton Corvest, BLEASS, IK Multimedia sell all of the ones I keep going back to time and again.

Those are all strange too, depending on who is driving.

kgreggbruce

SpaceFields

NeuM

@CracklePot said:

@NeuM said:
There are lots of "strange" effects plugins, but which ones do you actually USE? I tend to use a very small cadre of effects over and over. Toneboosters, Caelum Audio, Fred Anton Corvest, BLEASS, IK Multimedia sell all of the ones I keep going back to time and again.

Those are all strange too, depending on who is driving.

But what are the "strangest" effects you use over and over?

Telefunky

That‘s clearly Apesoft‘s Sparkle
(but it‘s challenging to control if you want to stay in at least somewhat „musical terrain“)

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

Nobody has mentioned Fieldscaper yet! This thread inspired me: GeoTenor into Magic Delay, then into Rymdigare on the right side and Fieldscaper on the left

Bhimpalasi for GeoSWAM tenor sax and Moog Model 15 synth by Brother Thomas and the Eternal Cosmic Truth Orchestra

belldu

I like Rymdigare and LunarLander

jwmmakerofmusic

Rymdigare. That thing is made up of strange voodoo magic of some sort, lol. It's great for playing around with live Ambient jams in AUM for sure.

Icoustik

Turnado! Wealth of weirdness

Gavinski

Rymdigare, Spacefieds, Flux Pro. Simple but can do a lot - Bleass Motion FX. Looperator is very deep with a much nicer, for me, UI, than earlier sugar bytes apps like Turnado. You could spend a long time just using FRMS to process synth sounds, samples etc, with a lot of control and an excellent mod matrix as well as mpe compatibility.

Gavinski

Fieldscaper for sure though it is one I never really took the time to learn. If it was auv3 and if the manual was clearer, I would have

royor

Silo - Granulator + Reverb

Silo combines granular synthesis, audio spatialization, and reverb into a powerful, essential tool for sound designers and musicians everywhere. Silo combines microscopic granulation with macroscopic reverb tails to extract new realms from your existing sounds.

Silo's first section, the granulator, breaks the incoming signal to tiny little bits (called "grains") before reconstructing it with massive amounts of control. You can change the speed and pitch of the signal independently and in real-time!

These grains are then sent to Silo's unique spatializer, which throws the grains all over the stereo field. The spatializer contains a number of motion algorithms to add trajectory to your grains, such as the orbital "Moons", the shooting "Meteors", or the squirmy "Biological". After using this spatializer, you'll never want to use a traditional auto-panner ever again.

Finally, the signal washes through one of Silo's many reverb algorithms, from small, resonant spaces to enormous, booming voids. From "Bokeh" to "Nebula", each mode can be tweaked to frame your sound perfectly.

SpaceFields

Loop-based mangler effect for creating slowly changing rhythmic sound structures in a deep reverb space from any external signal. Great for experimenting and designing ambient and noise backgrounds with rhythmic elements

OtherDesertCities

There are many strange and wonderful things lurking inside. With six algorithms, each with its own unique personality, and extensive modulation capabilities, Other Desert Cities can fill multiple niches, from basic stereo dual delays to never-before-heard granular pitch-shifting chaos.

Algorithms
Desert Shores Stereo Delay. This is a standard dual delay, with basic EQ, saturation, crossfeed, and spread.

Mecca Reverse Delay. A normal dual delay, except the repeats play backwards.

Cactus Dual-Delta Delay. This is more like a pair of tape delays in use, with individual speed controls and pitch quantizing.

Thermal Mullti-Tap Delay. A dual multi-tap, with spread, crossfeed, and basic EQ.

Mirage Multi-Head Delay. Imagine if you had a tape delay, but the head was like the rotating head in a VCR. Experimental, strange, and wonderful.

Sky Valley Granular Delay. A pitch-shifting granular delay, with control over grain size and scatter, and with EQ.Algorithms.

Slush

You can get a loooong way with just a delay like Dubstation 2. Probably the most boring answer. Most interesting is simply what you do with it.

Gavinski

@royor said:
Silo - Granulator + Reverb

Silo combines granular synthesis, audio spatialization, and reverb into a powerful, essential tool for sound designers and musicians everywhere. Silo combines microscopic granulation with macroscopic reverb tails to extract new realms from your existing sounds.

Silo's first section, the granulator, breaks the incoming signal to tiny little bits (called "grains") before reconstructing it with massive amounts of control. You can change the speed and pitch of the signal independently and in real-time!

These grains are then sent to Silo's unique spatializer, which throws the grains all over the stereo field. The spatializer contains a number of motion algorithms to add trajectory to your grains, such as the orbital "Moons", the shooting "Meteors", or the squirmy "Biological". After using this spatializer, you'll never want to use a traditional auto-panner ever again.

Finally, the signal washes through one of Silo's many reverb algorithms, from small, resonant spaces to enormous, booming voids. From "Bokeh" to "Nebula", each mode can be tweaked to frame your sound perfectly.

SpaceFields

Loop-based mangler effect for creating slowly changing rhythmic sound structures in a deep reverb space from any external signal. Great for experimenting and designing ambient and noise backgrounds with rhythmic elements

OtherDesertCities

There are many strange and wonderful things lurking inside. With six algorithms, each with its own unique personality, and extensive modulation capabilities, Other Desert Cities can fill multiple niches, from basic stereo dual delays to never-before-heard granular pitch-shifting chaos.

Algorithms
Desert Shores Stereo Delay. This is a standard dual delay, with basic EQ, saturation, crossfeed, and spread.

Mecca Reverse Delay. A normal dual delay, except the repeats play backwards.

Cactus Dual-Delta Delay. This is more like a pair of tape delays in use, with individual speed controls and pitch quantizing.

Thermal Mullti-Tap Delay. A dual multi-tap, with spread, crossfeed, and basic EQ.

Mirage Multi-Head Delay. Imagine if you had a tape delay, but the head was like the rotating head in a VCR. Experimental, strange, and wonderful.

Sky Valley Granular Delay. A pitch-shifting granular delay, with control over grain size and scatter, and with EQ.Algorithms.

A reluctant +1 for Other Desert Cities. So many interesting possibilities

wired2moon

@Gavinski said:
A reluctant +1 for Other Desert Cities. So many interesting possibilities

Why reluctant?

andowrites

@royor said:
Silo - Granulator + Reverb

Silo combines granular synthesis, audio spatialization, and reverb into a powerful, essential tool for sound designers and musicians everywhere. Silo combines microscopic granulation with macroscopic reverb tails to extract new realms from your existing sounds.

Silo's first section, the granulator, breaks the incoming signal to tiny little bits (called "grains") before reconstructing it with massive amounts of control. You can change the speed and pitch of the signal independently and in real-time!

These grains are then sent to Silo's unique spatializer, which throws the grains all over the stereo field. The spatializer contains a number of motion algorithms to add trajectory to your grains, such as the orbital "Moons", the shooting "Meteors", or the squirmy "Biological". After using this spatializer, you'll never want to use a traditional auto-panner ever again.

Finally, the signal washes through one of Silo's many reverb algorithms, from small, resonant spaces to enormous, booming voids. From "Bokeh" to "Nebula", each mode can be tweaked to frame your sound perfectly.

SpaceFields

Loop-based mangler effect for creating slowly changing rhythmic sound structures in a deep reverb space from any external signal. Great for experimenting and designing ambient and noise backgrounds with rhythmic elements

OtherDesertCities

There are many strange and wonderful things lurking inside. With six algorithms, each with its own unique personality, and extensive modulation capabilities, Other Desert Cities can fill multiple niches, from basic stereo dual delays to never-before-heard granular pitch-shifting chaos.

Algorithms
Desert Shores Stereo Delay. This is a standard dual delay, with basic EQ, saturation, crossfeed, and spread.

Mecca Reverse Delay. A normal dual delay, except the repeats play backwards.

Cactus Dual-Delta Delay. This is more like a pair of tape delays in use, with individual speed controls and pitch quantizing.

Thermal Mullti-Tap Delay. A dual multi-tap, with spread, crossfeed, and basic EQ.

Mirage Multi-Head Delay. Imagine if you had a tape delay, but the head was like the rotating head in a VCR. Experimental, strange, and wonderful.

Sky Valley Granular Delay. A pitch-shifting granular delay, with control over grain size and scatter, and with EQ.Algorithms.

Other Desert Cities is a favourite. But I wish it was available on iOS as well as iPadOS.

wired2moon

Cheers all. Of those mentioned I already have a few;

Spacefields & Bleass Granulizer - bought recently but not delved into either yet
Fieldscaper
Turnado
Velvet Machine
(Love em all)

Interesting to see so much love for Rymdigare - was under the impression the same results could be achieved using couple of other apps, no?

Some fascinating suggestions so far, will defo follow up on them

Would anyone consider Gauss or any of the icegear FX apps (esp Kajita - intrigues me) interesting category?

wired2moon

@Slush said:
You can get a loooong way with just a delay like Dubstation 2. Probably the most boring answer. Most interesting is simply what you do with it.

Very true and it’s fair to point this out

wired2moon

@michael_m said:
Everybody’s opinion on what is interesting is going to differ, so I think you’ll get a lot of different answers. What type of effect do you have in mind? Might be good to try to narrow it down.

Nope, carte blanche my friend - absolutely anything goes

Gavinski

@wired2moon said:

@Gavinski said:
A reluctant +1 for Other Desert Cities. So many interesting possibilities

Why reluctant?

Because audio damage apps often tend to be buggy and they are slow, very slow, to get round to fixing them, and have shown some lack of respect towards ios as a platform in tweets etc

kgreggbruce

@wired2moon said:
Cheers all.

Would anyone consider Gauss

Yes, any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Gavinski

@wired2moon said:
Cheers all. Of those mentioned I already have a few;

Spacefields & Bleass Granulizer - bought recently but not delved into either yet
Fieldscaper
Turnado
Velvet Machine
(Love em all)

Interesting to see so much love for Rymdigare - was under the impression the same results could be achieved using couple of other apps, no?

Some fascinating suggestions so far, will defo follow up on them

Would anyone consider Gauss or any of the icegear FX apps (esp Kajita - intrigues me) interesting category?

Definitely - Gauss is very powerful when you add in the sequencer, loop decay etc. I also love ice gear stuff though, as others have pointed out, their filters are sometimes not the best