Scatterbrain is a plugin audio effect (AUv3, Audio Unit), which chops up incoming audio into rhythmical steps and sends these slices out to multiple outputs in your plugin host.
You can sequence how the steps are scattered over the (maximum 4) different outputs, or leave that up to chance.
Scatterbrain records the incoming audio onto a hidden internal tapeloop. Using the buffer effects you can specify the probability of randomly triggering slicer or stutter effects for an extra seasoning of chaos and mayhem.
Note: to use the multi-out effect, this AUv3 plugin requires an AU host which supports multiple outputs. If the host does not support multi-out, only the first channel will work.
Also note that due to the multi-out nature of the plugin there is no meaningful standalone functionality. You will need a plugin host to make use of this plugin.
Mononoke is an unconventional synthesizer, designed to compose evolving soundscapes and musical textures.
Feedback routing
What sets Mononoke apart from other synths is that its voices (4 in each section) can be routed back into each other in multiple ways, creating all sorts of overtones and pulsating resonant frequencies. Sometimes harmonic, sometimes weirdly atonal. Sometimes clear and delicate as icicles, sometimes harsh as metallic blades, sometimes soft as fresh snow. This interaction between voices helps fuse all layers together into a coherent musical landscape.
A tale of two engines
The synthesizer engines (each of the two sections has its own independent engine) have relatively simple controls, which influence a complex system of many invisible, interconnected LFOs. But this is not your bread-and-butter general purpose synthesizer: think of Mononoke as one huge FM synthesizer where each voice is an independently playable operator. Together all operators contribute to a single soundscape.
Expressive pads
Complex soundscapes can be created live, using the 8 performance pads which let you modulate each voice independently in several dimensions. Your interactions with the pads will also be sent out as MPE/MIDI (when loaded as an AU plugin in a compatible host) so you can record and tweak your session. The onscreen pads can be latched individually so some voices can be used as drones, while others as can be added and removed as extra sonic layers. The pads are fully integrated in the Audio Unit plugin.
Connectivity
Mononoke is designed as an AUv3 plugin, with advanced Audio Unit features such as MPE input and output (!), a fully exposed array of AU parameters for automation and all the connectivity and scalability you can expect from modern plugins.
The standalone mode is basic (just meant for jamming and creating presets) and does not offer any connectivity, so if you want to use Mononoke in conjunction with other apps and effects you’ll need to load it into a host, such as Garageband, Audiobus, AUM or Cubasis.
Summary:
– Audio Unit (AUv3) plugin
– 8 voice polyphony, 2 independent engines with 4 voices each
– Compatible with MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) and MIDI
– MIDI Input and Output (only available when used as an Audio Unit plugin)
– Limited standalone mode for jamming (full screen, no connectivity)
– 8 independently tunable performance pads for expressive interaction
– Universal, fully scalable to any screen size, supports fullscreen mode in AU hosts
– Freely tunable voices, or quantized to semitones (with overall finetuning)
– iOS10 (MIDI/MPE output from the plugin requires iOS11) or higher
Also contains Mononoke Pads: an extra AUv3 MIDI controller plugin for playing MPE compatible synths using Mononoke’s pads. Note: this is a separate plugin which will be installed in your MIDI Plugin collection. Mononoke Pads requires iOS 11.
Spring Reverb models the sound and character of popular spring reverbs found in guitar amplifiers, popularized by Surf, Garage and Rockabilly music. Spring takes this a step further by allowing manipulation of physical parameters not normally available in a real spring tank. The results vary from faithful recreations of real springs to distinctive new sounds that push the physical boundaries of reverb. Guitarists love the revered surfer vibe but all creative musicians will find that Spring makes any synthesizer, drum, or vocal stand out in a mix.
This vintage reverb sound originally derived from the reflections of sound waves traveling through springs has been given an overhaul for the 21st century and beyond. Eventide Spring contains two different sized ‘spring tanks’ along with the ability to morph between one and three springs. Easily program The Ribbon to seamlessly transition between any two settings in real-time! The added tube-amp-style tremolo can be routed before or after the spring resulting in an unrivaled ability to craft your own unique reverb sound. Alter the intensity by changing the tremolo depth and adjust the tremolo rate in Hz, or note value when tempo-synced to your project.
Features:
– Artist presets by Matt Lange, Nick Hook, and Nu-Trix.
– Tempo Sync reverb decay to your DAW
– Craft original sounds by changing the number of springs and damping frequency
– Alter overall resonance by selecting the size of the spring tank
– Tube-amp-style tremolo that can be routed pre- or post-reverb
– Create chorus-like effects by altering Modulation Level
– The Ribbon controller allows for dynamic modification of several knobs at once to easily morph between settings
– Programmable Hotswitch provides the ability to jump instantly to an alternate sound at the push of a button
– iOS version works as a standalone app, AudioUnit v3 effect, or Inter-App Audio effect
Continua is a three-oscillator / dual-filter six-voice virtual analog synth, with fully polyphonic modulation sources and built-in custom-designed effects, for everything from complex, evolving chill-out soundscapes to New Wave synth stabs
Full PDF manual available at the Audio Damage website.
• Standalone Version w/ IAA and AUv3
Your Continua purchase comes with a standalone version (with Inter-App Audio) and an AudioUnit V3 for using with an AUv3 host like GarageBand, Cubasis, or AUM.
• Three Flexible Oscillators
Continuously variable morphing waveform, with warp, shape, and skew controls.
• Dual Morphing Filters
Filters can be used in serial or parallel modes, and morph from lowpass through bandpass and highpass to notch in 2-pole and 4-pole configurations.
• Noise Source
Noise source features a “color” control that affects tonal characteristics of the noise.
• ADSR x 2
Continua has two ADSR-style envelope generators, with curve on attack, decay, and release.
• Flexible Envelope Generator (FEG) x 2
The two FEGs are arbitrary function generators, with up to 99 steps, curve and step level control, arbitrary loop points, and host tempo sync.
• Flexible Low-Frequency Oscillator (FLFO) x 4
The four FLFOs utilize four controls (phase, shape, skew, and warp) to access a virtually limitless palette of waveforms, and feature host tempo sync and retrigger.
• Sample And Hold
The S&H mod source can sample noise (random) or any of the other mod sources, at either a user-defined rate or a musical division, and includes built-in smoothing and distance limit (for a “walk” effect).
• Modulation
Every knob in Continua is a mod destination, with a very fast and simple assignment matrix access with a right-click on the knob (double-tap on iOS).
• Tuning Tables And Global Tuning Offset
Re-tune Continua to new intonations and temperaments using the open-source and easy-to-use TUN file format. A global tuning offset (default to A=440) allows you to easily retune the entire synth to match a different A frequency without using a tuning table.
• MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression)
Continua understands both “legacy” MIDI and MPE. Use your Linnstrument, Roli Seaboard, Haken Continuum, Madrona Labs Soundplane, or Sensel Morph (among others) to directly access per-note pressure, pitch bend, and modulation.
• Per-Instance Settings
Continua utilizes a per-instance customization method: set MPE mode, aftertouch smoothing, pitch bend range override, tuning table, and global tuning offset for each instance in your DAW, with an option to save any state as your global starting point.
• Factory Presets
Continua comes with a substantial collection of factory content, including Designer Presets from Red Means Recording, Glitch Machines, Red Sky Lullaby, and SonalSystem.
• Cross-Platform Preset Format
Continua utilizes an XML-based preset manager. Work between multiple systems without troubles, make a preset on your desktop machine and paste it to the iOS version with Handoff, easily share your creations with your friends, or make a preset bundle to sell.
JAX Unisonic is a special Audio Unit, able to produce up to 8 additional voices from any audio input (also polyphonic audio) by multiplying and shifting it in pitch and other parameters. Audio Units require a host application for operation.
The concept of JAX Unisonic is loosely derived from ‘Unison’ which was adopted from the ancient analog synthesizer world, where manufacturers and sound designers intended to fatten the sound by multiplying and stacking available voices together. Also digital synthesizers did adopt this technique to fatten sound sources.
Due to the instability of analog oscillators and components and some wilful detuning, an interesting sonic effect is achieved, giving the produced tones significantly more presence and life. Unison voices are still excessively used in modern music styles today. (In classical music compositions ‘unisono’ basically means a performance, where multiple instruments or voices play the same parts in an ensemble fashion.)
Technical
Now JAX Unisonic can simulate this sonic effect with any audio source by incorporating a bank of independent time domain pitch shifters, that are optimized to detune and spread artificially multiplied voices in panorama. It can be understood as a kind of super chorus generator or an ensemble like effect with variable, realtime controlled intensity and pitch relation. But it is clearly something more.
With JAX Unisonic you can create up to 8 additional voices, that will be passed thru a chain of pitching and positioning, creating massively fattened sounds with any kind of voice input. Additionally you may transpose each voice individually per semitone to max. +/- 1 octave, something that cannot be achieved with usual choruses, unison or ensemble effects and moves the results slightly in the direction of the category “harmonizer” effects. Although the harmonic results can be programmed (automated) freely and are not auto generated in any way, as on some available other harmonizers.
The used pitch shifters in our JAX Unisonic are NOT based on the phase vocoder paradigm (FFT) and do not introduce the static latencies, which are unavoidable by the latter. A time domain pitch shifter in contradiction, uses very small delay buffers, where the latency is dynamically adjusted (dependent on the used pitch shifting amount) and much smaller and nearly latency-free. Such pitch shifters are better situated for live usage therefore. Although, such pitch shifters sound slightly more raw and tend to produce disharmonic overtones with more extreme values.
Usage
JAX Unisonic may be used as a massive unison effect generator or more decently for creating various, more subtile effects for improving sonic qualities of parts in a composition. For instance controlled voice detuning, manual pitch correction, doubling of vocals or solo instruments or just to give some boring voices more interest and static sound some special movement. It is even usable with drums, adding subtile or even massive new frequency components.
iPad Loops is a music app blog dedicated to exposing the best iPad apps for iOS musicians, producers, and Djs. This is not a database of every app. It is, however, one of useful recommendations from someone with many years in music production. I try to update it on a daily basis (ok sometimes every two days) and I do my best to post useful apps only. My name is Jason Donnelly (Dj Puzzle).
You might know me from my royalty free loop packs and sound design. Some of the apps that contain my loops are Retronyms AudioCopy, LP-5, iPRO.DJSAMPLER, Looptastic, and Audio Elements. My work is published by Magix Soundtrack Loops, Sample Logic, Acoustica, Xmix, and many more. Subscribe to our RSS feed below to get updated when new apps are posted.
