The iOS Guitar Synth Thread

I've been talking up the effectiveness of iOS Jam Origin MIDI Guitar with AUv3 plugins lately. Vet your virtual instruments and this is a relatively cheap, extremely playable solution IMO. But having never gigged this setup, I never had to get as far as programming MIDI control to switch between sounds in a hurry. Well, I did so over the weekend, and came to the terrible realization that JO is incredibly slow loading presets. (It's got to load all of its own settings, and whatever virtual instruments and effects you've used in the preset, and any samples those instruments use, and so on. A lot of work for a little A14 chip or whatever.)

I started doing all kinds of mental gymnastics trying to get this load time down - use different voices on the same plugin (always a compromise), use one instrument as a plugin and drive another via Virtual MIDI (works, but no consistent way to control mix), etc. - and nothing was working. I did a random Google search ("iOS Jam Origin preset change too slow" or something) and an app called Camelot Pro came up.


There's never enough information on the App Store to tell what an app actually does. And per modern decree everything online is a 45 minute video that probably contains the information you need but also 40+ minutes of completely superfluous babble. So I decided to just roll the dice ($20).

Anyway, the app is incredible. First impression: it's a little bit overcomplicated (I wound up watching about half of that 45 minute video LOL) and the UI could be a little more consistent. But the complexity is largely in service of its flexibility. All I wanted was the ability to load multiple instruments simultaneously, and switch between them without a gap. This app does this and tons more. It lets you build out Setlists of Songs... each of which has multiple Scenes (for song parts)... each of which has multiple Layers... each of which can have its own signal path of instruments and effects. Then there's functionality to control all of that with a timeline or MIDI control. The best part for me is that it handles loading all of the component software (e.g. Jam Origin and all the instruments in your song) as soon as you load it. Launch one app and you're ready to play. Amazing!

This is not easy to get through, but it covers the functionality pretty well:

 
I ran into one little issue with Camelot Pro the other night and emailed the developer. He sent a workaround with clear instructions and a screen cap within 24 hours, and everything is working perfectly now. So, on top of everything else: excellent customer service.(y)
 
Started messing around with backing tracks in Camelot last night. I just snip the first couple of bars of a cover (in Ableton Live), duplicate ~4 minutes worth, and email the exported MP3 to my iPad. Now when I pull up a Camelot song (by selecting a QC preset), all of the song parts load with corresponding synths and effects layered in - and I also get a timeline with a play button that brings in drums or other accompaniment for that song. Dream rig! :guiness

(It would be nice if I could save iPad storage by configuring these simple backing tracks as loops, but the feature is really aimed at automating scene selection, so backing tracks need to be full length.)
 
I've been using my iPad with my Linnstrument that I bought a few months ago. Logic has been my DAW of choice since it was released and so far I've been able to do everything I want to do with it. Mostly in just loading up a soft-synth, arming the track and just using Logic to monitor the instrument. The recently bought a Wireless WIDI Master adapter in order to use Wireless MIDI over bluetooth (BLE) and that's been a great combination with the iPad.

I've been trying every synth plug-in on iOS that I can think of, but the one that's impressed me the most is Tera Pro. It works very well with MPE and it's hugely flexible while sounding great.
 
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This one!
 
I see Poison 202 has AUv3 support, so I’m in! It doesn’t look like Tera Pro does, unfortunately.
 
This one!

Hiya, @JiveTurkey. Quick question: I just installed Poison-202, and despite there being a General Setting for "Polyphony, voices" which defaults to 20, I can only get this synth to play monophonic lines. Is that all it's capable of? Vintage or otherwise, I don't really have much use for a synth I can't play chords on...

Nevermind, I just found the answer. Messing around with Portamento/ Legato settings, I hit the "Solo" button (which happens to be turned on in every preset) and noticed that turning it off enables polyphony. Excellent!
 
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Hiya, @JiveTurkey. Quick question: I just installed Poison-202, and despite there being a General Setting for "Polyphony, voices" which defaults to 20, I can only get this synth to play monophonic lines. Is that all it's capable of? Vintage or otherwise, I don't really have much use for a synth I can't play chords on...

Nevermind, I just found the answer. Messing around with Portamento/ Legato settings, I hit the "Solo" button (which happens to be turned on in every preset) and noticed that turning it off enables polyphony. Excellent!
Good catch! I only plunk around on it when I get out my Ipad once every 2 years :bag :roflso it has been a bit. Very rich sounding synth for the $ spent.
 
UPDATE: Changed the the thread title, since this is where I'll probably talk to myself about anything iOS music-related. One thread ought to suffice for the level of TGP interest, collectively. :D

I don't get the impression that many TGFers are using iPads for music, but I think this is a valuable topic of discussion.

Most immediately, I happened on a new (to me? newish?) iOS app/ plugin this weekend that I think is an incredible value: SoundFont Pro. I think we all know what SoundFonts are by now; it's a standard rompler kind of affair. As is often the case with apps like this, it's free with in-app purchases for additional samples. But the samples are extensive, they're almost all of very high quality, and - whereas iSymphonic will hit you up for $30 for a few pianos or whatever, and easily cost hundreds for a useful library, SoundFont Pro is cheap. It has monthly, annual, and "for life" pricing tiers. For some reason "life" costs the same as annual right now... at all of $30. So I put on my best "is this a trick question?" face, and punted.

So here's the thing: AUv3's will run as plugins inside Jam Origin MIDI Guitar. They don't all do so effectively - some present more latency than others, some have weird dynamics that affect tracking, some have UI's that don't scale very well in the MIDI Guitar window. SoundFont Pro is excellent in all of these regards. I installed everything and now this one plugin is pretty much one stop shopping for me. iSymphonic was too expensive and not flexible enough. SampleTank was overcomplicated and IK never released an AU version. (Routing Jam Origin to virtual MIDI and worrying about which app was going to crash first was always a PITA.)

So seriously, Jam Origin + SoundFont Pro + all the samples. ~$60, thank me later. :D @JiveTurkey, "Half Blown Sax" is probably the best sax I've ever played on a guitar. Just sayin'. ;)


And that's just to get the ball rolling. Please comment if you have any favorite AUv3 plugins you'd recommend for Jam Origin or other iOS apps.

Right when I found out about Jam Origin (from you I think) was when I was a few weeks into learning to play keys and I had bought myself a decent 61 key Yamaha to learn on. I could see doing the Jam Origin thing still though for things like synth solos. I am far from being able to do that on a true keyboard ATM.
 
Right when I found out about Jam Origin (from you I think) was when I was a few weeks into learning to play keys and I had bought myself a decent 61 key Yamaha to learn on. I could see doing the Jam Origin thing still though for things like synth solos. I am far from being able to do that on a true keyboard ATM.
Yeah, it’s always wise to make a distinction between things that can be done well with a guitar and things that are better served with a real keyboard.
 
I keep meaning to ask about this, and this thread seems like as good a place as any. I'm mostly interested in reproducing specific vintage keys (like Minimoog and Mellotron). What's my best option? This is mostly for live playing.
 
Just starting on this journey. Picked up one of these used. Still waiting on its arrival.

Artiphon Instrument 1
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Also grabbed a used one of these, but I'm not much of a piano player. Currently I'm using it on my Windows laptop with various VSTs. Current favorite is the Korg Wavestate native.

MPK Mini Plus

1694456742260.png
 
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