Synthesizer Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

KORG Monotron analog ribbon synths: Fun pocket-sized music accessories

by Steven Sande (Apr 14th, 2012)

KORG has been manufacturing amazing electronic instruments since 1963, and now it's developed the Monotron line of pocketable analog ribbon synthesizers that can work with your favorite Mac or iOS music-making apps. These pocket wonders are useful for adding a classic electronic touch to your ...

iPads were everywhere at Musikmesse 2011

by Steven Sande (May 17th, 2011)

If there's any one area of life that the iPad has had a huge impact on, it's the creation of music. Writing for The Mac Observer, blogger Jochen Wolters noted that iPads were everywhere at the world's largest trade show for musical instruments and audio recording technology -- Musikmesse ...

Rock the electronic with SynthTronica for iPad

by Brett Terpstra (May 16th, 2011)

SynthTronica is a new synthesizer app for iPad that provides some seriously cool audio modeling features. If you're a musician looking for some new sounds or even a live-performance instrument, this is worth a look. Even for the hobbyist, this US$4.99 app is a great way to explore some musical ...

Akai SynthStation49 full-size iPad dock/keyboard combo

by David Quilty (Jan 14th, 2011)

While it's not the kind of iPhone or iPad dock you would bring with you on your next cross-country plane ride, the Akai SynthStation49 dock offers up something a standard iPad dock doesn't -- a 49-key, velocity-sensitive keyboard controller complete with drum pads and manual pitch control. As ...

Synth fans rejoice: ReBirth for iPad now available

by Steven Sande (Nov 10th, 2010)

I've got to admit that I have a fascination with synthesizers. When I was in engineering school 35 years ago, I soldered together two synth kits and became familiar with the early sequencers and waveform generators. I listened to the early synth music of Larry Fast (Synergy), Yes, Kraftwerk, Tomita, ...

Pianist Pro 1.5 for the iPad adds MIDI Mobilizer support from Line 6

by Matt Tinsley (Sep 13th, 2010)

From MooCowMusic comes the latest iteration of their renowned iPad app, Pianist Pro 1.5 (£5.99). Most notably, Pianist Pro now incorporates the MIDI Mobilizer technology from Line 6, enabling Pianist Pro on your iPad, with the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer adapter (£45) or wirelessly over Wi-Fi, ...

Count The Beats: Akai brings the analog synth to your iPhone, and more

by Matt Tinsley (Sep 2nd, 2010)

If you have a secret love affair with shoulder padded t-shirts (that you wear around the house when no one's looking), and you instinctively roll up your sleeves when you put on your favourite blazer jacket (and don't get why people look at you funny), then here's an app for you. Back in June ...

TUAW's Daily App: Bebot

by Mike Schramm (Jun 8th, 2010)

I'm really happy that I've found an excuse to mention Bebot here in this space -- it might be my favorite app in the entire App Store. We've covered it before here on TUAW -- it's a musical instrument, basically, with the added bonus of having a super cute singing robot as a mascot. And I've never ...

Count The Beats: Playing keys and synth live on a Mac (interview).

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 3rd, 2010)

Over the coming months, the Count The Beats series is going to be taking a closer look at how the Mac (and the accompanying software) fits in with the various components of a typical rock band (drums, bass, electric guitar etc. You get the idea). In this post we're going to take a closer look at ...

Bebot turns your iPhone into the cutest instrument ever

by Mike Schramm (May 15th, 2009)

I don't think I've ever fallen in love with an app as quickly as Bebot. Not only is it a pretty darn powerful synthesizer with an interesting touchscreen interface, but that robot. That robot! He makes you want to play something, anything, with those cute little closed robot eyes and that dashing ...

Bring the Noise.io!

by Giles Turnbull (Aug 11th, 2008)

Noise.io is an interesting-looking synthesizer app for iPhone, due to appear in the App Store in the coming weeks. What's interesting about it is the emphasis on live performance. This is an app designed for use on stage, and comes complete with the advice: "Simply connect the sound output of your ...

A low cost guide to making music with your Mac, part three

by Joshua Ellis (Jul 3rd, 2008)

Here we are with the long-awaited third part of my series on how to make music with your Mac. In the first installment, we looked at audio hardware; in the second installment, we discussed digital audio workstations. Today we're going to look at useful DSP (or digital signal processing) plugins ...