IK Multimedia is well-known for its affordable recording gear from audio/MIDI interfaces to microphones and much more. This past summer IK started to give out review copies of its brand software instrument known as Syntronik. The Mac plug-in features one of the widest collections of vintage synth emulations out there at that price point. We had a great time with it on Logic Pros for 9to5Mac in our hands-on review, but now the software suite is available on iOS…
Such a massive collection of virtual instruments coming to Apple’s mobile platform is certainly notable. And with Syntronik we are adding some of the most popular vintage gear to our on-the-go production setups within a single product. You’ll find emulations for everything from the Yamaha SY99, PPG Wave and Roland JX-series to Minimoog, Moog Taurus, and Prophets. Needless to say, this is a very thorough package.
Just as a quick refresher on the technology here, IK has “painstakingly” multi-sampled every single one of the synths available in Syntronik. Along with the company’s proprietary DRIFT technology that reproduces some of the imperfections found in beloved old gear, the company has also included a fantastic modeled filter module. Users are able to use any of the world-class filter emulations on any of the synth options. In other words, you can use the Moog transistor ladder filter with a Roland or DSI instrument. Highlights include the aforementioned Moog transistor ladder, Roland’s IR3109 chip, the Curtis CEM3320 chip and the Oberheim SEM state variable filter. I loved this on the Mac and can’t to get my hands on it inside of GarageBand on iPad.
You’ll also find 37 built-in effects including amps, filters, EQ’s, modulation effects, reverbs and a whole lot more. This is a 4-layer software instrument, meaning you can load up 4 different synth emulations at the same time and blend the sound together to make some pretty epic patches. It is fully compatible with Apple’s AU standard on iOS so it will load right up inside GarageBand, Cubasis and other major mobile DAWs.
But the best part of all of this is that it is free. Sort of. Syntronik for iPhone and iPad is a free download and it comes with 25 sounds from 17 of the 38 total synths. The full version will run you $79.99 as an in-app purchase. That certainly isn’t cheap, but we love seeing mobile plug-in makers offer up beefy “premium” versions or things of that nature so we can try them out first. And in my personal opinion, it is worth every penny.
Be sure to hit up our full review of the desktop version over on 9to5Mac.
Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the instruments you’ll find in Syntronik:
99 – Based on the Yamaha SY99
Blau – Classic sounds of the PPG Wave 2.3
Bully – Iconic bass sounds of the Moog Taurus I, II and 3
DCO-X – Based on the Roland JX-3P, JX-8P and JX-10 classic synths
Galaxy – Iconic sounds of the Alesis Andromeda
Harpy 260 – Classic sounds of the ARP 2600
J-8 – Iconic sounds of the Roland Jupiter 4, 6 and 8
J-60 – Based on the Juno 60, including analog modeled chorus
Minimod – Based on the Minimoog, Modular and Voyager synths
Noir – Based on the Moog Prodigy, Micromoog and Multimoog
OXa – Classic sounds of the Oberheim OB-X and OB-Xa
Polymorph – Based on the Polymoog, Opus 3, Rogue, and Concertmate MG-1
Pro-V – Classic sounds of the Prophet-5 and Prophet-10
SAM – Iconic sounds of the Oberheim SEM synthesizer
String Box – Based on ARP, Elka, Hohner, and Roland string machines
T-03 – Iconic bass sounds of the Roland TB-303
V-80 – Classic sounds of the Yamaha CS-80, GX-1 and CS-01.
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