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synthesizer posts

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Audio, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Bebot turns your iPhone into the cutest instrument ever

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on 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 tux and that knowing smile. If you just want to make funny robot noises, that's easy enough, but for the musically inclined, there's a really surprising amount of features under the hood, including analog filters, a delay/looping effect, chorus and overdrive effects, and even an autotune system. Oh, and because of the multitouch screen, you can play up to four waveforms at a time. In the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, this thing can be really impressive.

It's available from a company called Normalware (any app with that robot in it has basically sold me from now on -- there's even a t-shirt of the guy) on the App Store right now for $1.99.

Tags: audio, autotune, bebot, cute, impressive, instrument, iphone, music, musicians, normalware, robot-noises, scales, sound, synthesizer, tshirt

Bring the Noise.io!

by Giles Turnbull (RSS feed) on Aug 11th, 2008

Noise.io screenshot
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 iPhone/iPod touch to the mic/line
input of your mixer, recorder or sound card - and there you are, now you can enrich your tracks or mixes with superb sound effects."

Right now, we shall just have to take the developers' word for that, because the app isn't officially released and all we have to go on are the screenshots and a single preview video that hints at what's to come. For seven bucks, it looks like it might be hard to resist.

Tags: gigs, live performance, LivePerformance, music, noise.io, synth, synthesizer

Filed under: Audio, Multimedia, Tips and tricks

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

by Joshua Ellis (RSS feed) on 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 and software synthesizers to help aid in your music making.

Again, a disclaimer: these are only a small handful of the options open to you. There are thousands of Mac-friendly synths and plugins out there, and you can spend as much time playing with demos and tweaking presets as you can making music. Having said that, these are a few tools I've personally found useful in my quest to become a halfway-decent digital producer.

More after the jump.

Continue reading “A low cost guide to making music with your Mac, part three”

Tags: mastering, music, synth, synthesizer

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