What’s the Most Complicated Synth

Eschatone

@wim said:
I think I'd have to give that one to Drambo over miRack when it comes to building one's own synths in a modular fashion. The left-to-right signal flow restriction and attempted automatic patching are great for simple stuff, but get really hard to manage in anything complex.

Drambo is almost infinitely deep, which comes with the price of a steep learning curve. but I also think it’s one of the most efficient and logically organized modular playgrounds I’ve ever used. There’s a fairly quick solution to nearly anything you’d ever want to do with audio or modulation— though some solutions might not be immediately obvious. (For example, right to left signal flow can be achieved with feedback send/receive modules in utilities)

It’s complex but not convoluted, imo. App’s like Igor Vasiliev’s Beat Cutter are a whole other story though, it’s a little too abstract and foreign to the way I’m used to thinking about audio and patching. Maybe I’ll crack the code some day but it’s going to take some concerted effort that I doubt will come quite as naturally as Drambo did for me.

Eschatone

@setAI said:

@NeuM said:

@setAI said:
No one has mentioned Aparillo

Aparillo is easy. Everything is visible (for the most part) and dead simple to figure out.

But you have to figure everything out, none of it is standard or familiar. I still don't know what to do with the sequencer thingy. Modulation is bizarre, nearly every parameter is different than other synths.

I felt the same way about Turnado at first — But once I finally figured everything out, Sugar Bytes’ other synths and effects started making a lot more sense to me. They’re now among my favorite iOS plugins, since they offer so many powerful ways to sequence and modulate everything.

Philandering_Bastard

@setAI said:

@NeuM said:

@setAI said:
No one has mentioned Aparillo

Aparillo is easy. Everything is visible (for the most part) and dead simple to figure out.

But you have to figure everything out, none of it is standard or familiar. I still don't know what to do with the sequencer thingy. Modulation is bizarre, nearly every parameter is different than other synths.

There’s a really good tutorial series from Sugar Bytes:

Tarekith

I'm going to vote Drambo here. While the overall patching paradigm is pretty easy to grasp, having to go through that process to make a anything more than a basic synth and then deal with all the scrolling to access it's parameters I find too tedious in use.

Eschatone

@Edward_Alexander said:

@Philandering_Bastard said:

@Spidericemidas said:
PPG Phonem! 🤯🤔

🤣 Phonem, Infinte and WaveGenerator are the unholy trinity of breaking my brain.

What are all these “PPG” synths? I can’t find a single thing on the AppStore.

@Spidericemidas said:
PPG Phonem! 🤯🤔

Just revisited PPG Infinite today — absolutely stunning!! I’ve never tried any other PPG synth, but Infinite is easily the best sounding synth I’ve heard on iPad—so much smoother and more organic sounding than Nave or Synthmaster.

Sadly, I can’t tolerate using it as anything but a rompler because the controls are so fiddly — I just can’t ever get the encoders to move where I want them with any consistency. Maybe one of these days I’ll get a Midi Fighter Twister and map everything, so I can actually program this beast of a synth without pulling my hair out.

Eschatone

@Tarekith said:
I'm going to vote Drambo here. While the overall patching paradigm is pretty easy to grasp, having to go through that process to make a anything more than a basic synth and then deal with all the scrolling to access it's parameters I find too tedious in use.

Templates ftw.

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

@rs2000 said:

@mjm1138 said:
I feel like ID700 isn’t getting its due here 😂 Granted, the UI redesign did help make it more comprehensible.

Yes, and I'd like to add the wonderful SynthScaper and Sunvox apps 😊

If you just use the Sunvox modular synths and fx, and ignore the sequencers, it’s pretty easy. Those sequencers…not as easy to figure out just by noodling.

Gavinski

@setAI said:

@NeuM said:

@setAI said:
No one has mentioned Aparillo

Aparillo is easy. Everything is visible (for the most part) and dead simple to figure out.

But you have to figure everything out, none of it is standard or familiar. I still don't know what to do with the sequencer thingy. Modulation is bizarre, nearly every parameter is different than other synths.

I have a 1-hour super detailed walkthrough on Aparillo here that explains pretty much everything, btw:

NeuM

@Gavinski said:

@setAI said:

@NeuM said:

@setAI said:
No one has mentioned Aparillo

Aparillo is easy. Everything is visible (for the most part) and dead simple to figure out.

But you have to figure everything out, none of it is standard or familiar. I still don't know what to do with the sequencer thingy. Modulation is bizarre, nearly every parameter is different than other synths.

I have a 1-hour super detailed walkthrough on Aparillo here that explains pretty much everything, btw:

I'll have to check that out.

spanaboy505

@Spidericemidas said:
PPG Phonem! 🤯> @Bob said:

@McD said:
It tales very little frustration before I just bail on a synth… I just love a synth with great presets that expose its potential. Those synths also tend to get support from @Spidericemidas and others to increase the value without ever understanding how the synth is actually programmed.

This is so true. I got almost all synths that have @Spidericemidas presets. Tweaking presets has helped me a lot to understand each synths depth and structure “the more easy way”.
I find Woodsynth very interesting, underrated, but too difficult to handle. Very few/short Woodsynth threads and vids.
@Spidericemidas , would you one day consider diving into Woodsynth? 😁

I don't have Woodsynth. The specs make it look very tempting, though! 😁

Please make some VividShaper patches. Which is another synth that’s proven to be difficult for me due to the Lua Language, which I have no understanding of.

Crawlingwind

I love Aparillo, my problem is remembering what all the icons stand for on the orbit page.

NeuM

@Crawlingwind said:
I love Aparillo, my problem is remembering what all the icons stand for on the orbit page.

The symbols are completely meaningless to me also, I guess they don’t even really matter as long as you don’t mind playing with the UI until you find the sound you’re looking for.

dendy

For me it's Synthmaster 2, mostly because UI (for me) is absolute mess. It hurts my brain to try work with it. Also second place after Synthmaster 2 is Tera Pro .. it's just extremely counterintuitive UI for me .. i always install them, and a fter a while i give up and delete them again ..

spanaboy505

@dendy said:
For me it's Synthmaster 2, mostly because UI (for me) is absolute mess. It hurts my brain to try work with it. Also second place after Synthmaster 2 is Tera Pro .. it's just extremely counterintuitive UI for me .. i always install them, and a fter a while i give up and delete them again ..

I’m good with SM1. Still haven’t tried SM2. I would figure there similar

dreamcartel

Woodsynth is rich, bram and Beepstreet are awesome but ice gear probably makes the best iOS synths ?

jerps

It bothers me immensely that I just can’t get used to Tera Pro. I also agree on Drambo, I can tell it’s extremely powerful, but having spent many, many hours using VCV Rack and MiRack it’s just too inflexible for me. I enjoy being able to modulate waves and then run the same waves to multiple oscillators/effects/what have you. It may be possible to route between tracks but I haven’t seen it yet.

Moog’s Model 15 is a cool recreation of a classic synth but uses obsolete terminology & interfaces that make it hard to follow. Finally BeatMaker 3… I just can’t wrap my head around the relationship between banks & tracks. Breaks my brain.

philowerx

miRack currently has 859 different modules. While I find it fairly intuitive and deep, those 859 modules from around 50 different coders/manufacturers counts for something on the complication scale.

Telstar5

What’s the simplest synth? Korg gadgets? Fab Filter twin 3?

jwmmakerofmusic

@Telstar5 said:
What’s the simplest synth? Korg gadgets? Fab Filter twin 3?

The Gadget AUv3s, BA-1, and Troublemaker I'd wager.

distantstar

miRack or Drambo (which isn’t just a synth, at all).

mojozart

@distantstar said:
miRack or Drambo (which isn’t just a synth, at all).

Yes, nevermind that neither is intrinsically a synth.

Clearly the most complicated synth would be miRack hosted in Drambo, no?

But my vote goes to Virtual ANS 3

https://apps.apple.com/app/virtual-ans-3/id1465860248

wim

@Telstar5 said:
What’s the simplest synth? Korg gadgets? Fab Filter twin 3?

Bebot

distantstar

@mojozart said:

@distantstar said:
miRack or Drambo (which isn’t just a synth, at all).

Yes, nevermind that neither is intrinsically a synth.

Clearly the most complicated synth would be miRack hosted in Drambo, no?

But my vote goes to Virtual ANS 3

https://apps.apple.com/app/virtual-ans-3/id1465860248

Fair. Oh, and as for apparent complexity, at least at first blush, have to give a nod to some of apesoft’s synths.

FriedTapeworm

It’s interesting to see Drambo being considered by many to be so complicated. My experience has been quite different. I never understood synthesis until using Drambo, nor could I dial in the sound I wanted until I learned to do so in Drambo. Every other synth was random knobs to me before using Drambo.

To me, Drambo is the simplest synth, because what I do with it grows in cooperation with my understanding of what it is capable of. There’s nothing more simple than learning the capabilities of one module at a time.

Fear2Stop

@FriedTapeworm said:
It’s interesting to see Drambo being considered by many to be so complicated. My experience has been quite different. I never understood synthesis until using Drambo, nor could I dial in the sound I wanted until I learned to do so in Drambo. Every other synth was random knobs to me before using Drambo.

To me, Drambo is the simplest synth, because what I do with it grows in cooperation with my understanding of what it is capable of. There’s nothing more simple than learning the capabilities of one module at a time.

Oddly enough, that’s the EXACT same feeling I have about Tera Pro!

VividSynths

@spanaboy505 said:

>

Please make some VividShaper patches. Which is another synth that’s proven to be difficult for me due to the Lua Language, which I have no understanding of.

I have some good VividShaper news! I just released version 1.2 of VividShaper. It has a new feature that allows it to update the factory patches from within the plugin itself (instead of having to wait for new version on App Store). I intend to release new patches on Fridays ("Patch Friday"). The upcoming theme for Patch Friday (next Friday) will be ten new lead sounds.

u0421793

I’d class iWAVESTATION as an unnecessarily complicated synth – it’s understandable once you get into it but it is presented in a way that perhaps likes to keep it seeming complex

When I was young and immature I’d relish the idea of complexity in synths, on the assumption that a more complex synth can do things a simpler synth can’t do – but now I’m fairly repelled by the idea of unmediated complexity and tend to view it as either an unfinished product or a failed design that got released nevertheless and the nerds didn’t notice it was bad (well, there’s all of modular in that category for me)

I’m constantly looking for simple, elegant and powerful (yes I know, I own an OpSix… a potential contradiction, although I now know it inside out, but yes it isn’t simple and there’s areas where it could be more elegant) – there’s some simple but powerful and elegantly presented synths out there and that’s where the value is for me

u0421793

Oh – ID700 - complicated

u0421793

I’d also partially push Shockwave into the complicated pile, it probably isn’t truly complicated although there’s a phenomenal amount of extra stuff in there that isn’t actually ‘synth’ – but I was using it the other day and felt sort of closer to home with it, although there’s still a lot unexplained, but in the end I left it alone because it all “started to sound the same” if it’s possible for a synthesizer to “sound the same”, so maybe there’s a Shockwave sound that I’d tuned into in the end

sigma79

First ( only ) Drambo synth made were a wavetable and split voices to differenent tracks ( for less scrolling ) but needs a controller and tracks set to same midi channel ( and midi always ) You gain dual sequencers per track. You would have to load a wavetable synth au per track to get the same.

Were going to forget about the wavetable build because I wernt getting many synths to control via launchpad custom modes ( if using the launchpad to switch synths ) Which you need if tracks are midi always

but now realised for live. It will be better to use screen to switch synths so theres now excess launchpad custom modes.

Which means. I can still use the launchpad and also the screen to switch tracks, which is more complicated than just using screen or launchapad

but worth keeping because its probably ( if I had to guess ) the best wavetable synth on ios ( mainly because of unlimited modulation. Own made waves but maybe also the dual sequencers per voice

and may make Drambo analogue synths yet ( A voice per track )

Tbh I made the wavetable synth a while back and didnt use ipad since.

Claiming its the best wavetable synth though ?