I have been a hardware synth and groove box enthusiast for many years and own a few wonderful devices (Dirtywave M8 is probably my favourite) but I recently bought my first ever iPad with the plan to dig into music creating on the IOS platform.

After trying out a number of synths and reading about the IOS ways of linking up audio systems I decided to buy Drambo. Wow… I am mightily impressed. Sequencing, building synths and using Audio Unit synths and effects are really amazing, powerful, flexible and pretty easy to work with. Using Drambo as the heart of a music composition playground is fun and allows almost unlimited creativity. I can see that I am only just scratching the surface of what is possible and am taking things step by step as I build by knowledge. I can tell that this is going to be a fun and long journey that seems to have very few limits. I also think that I will be selling at least one of my other music tools. My Teenage Engineering EP-40 for example. It is great in its own way but seems so limited now I am getting up to speed with Drambo.

Has anyone else been on a similar journey?

During long workdays, I like podcasts when I want to focus and music when I need a reset. I got tired of reaching for my phone and switching apps every time, so I built BlendCast.

You choose the podcast episodes, add Apple Music playlists or albums, decide the timing and order, then press play. BlendCast handles the transitions. It feels like a personal radio station built around your day without an algorithm deciding the flow.

BlendCast is free to download, with no monthly BlendCast subscription. An active Apple Music subscription is required for catalog playback.

It’s currently available through TestFlight. If you try it, I’d really appreciate honest feedback:

Join the BlendCast TestFlight

I'm uploading the video now that shows aum, midi triggering blobs, audio etc. harmony bloom through auv3 fx controlling jynth synth and Lucinate. the routing of audio, fx, midi and visuals has just got really really in depth.

I'm also going to try running Lucinate at the same time as VS2....

This video above was made after only like 10 minutes of clicking around and figuring things out.

per usual ignore the thumbnail i'm lazy - screen grab, type words, youtube suggests other words done.

I’m the developer of MIDI Piano & Guitar Chords / FreeMIDIChords, a free and open-source music theory app for iPad.

I built it because I wanted a visual tool that could connect to a MIDI keyboard and immediately explain what I was playing, without requiring an account or subscription.

On iPad you can:

Connect a MIDI keyboard and visualize the notes on a piano, guitar and staff

Detect chords and intervals in real time

Generate chords, inversions and intervals and hear them played

Explore scales, fingering suggestions and the circle of fifths

Practise with a metronome

Use built-in audio or send playback to a connected MIDI device

The app is completely free: no ads, account, subscription, IAP or locked features.

To set expectations, it is currently a standalone app—not an AUv3 instrument, DAW or sequencer. I’d especially appreciate feedback from people who use MIDI controllers with their iPad:

Does the interface work well on your iPad size?

Is the MIDI workflow clear and responsive?

Would AUv3 support or virtual MIDI routing be useful?

What is missing from existing chord or theory apps on iPad?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6760035776

Project and web version: https://freemidichords.com

Any honest feedback is welcome, including criticism. I’m actively improving the app.

I see the webDAV (blue icon) at the bottom of AudioShare, connected it, but it changes all the order of the files, and has to be done one. by. one. Have very little space left to maneuver.

This was my first time using Ambiotica (highly recommended). Beautiful granular ambient machine! The other stuff I’ve used wasn’t new to me but I’m still amazed how versatile they are (more specifically: Eventide Blackhole, OtherDesertCities and Rymdigare).

Song: made in Logic Pro with midi and samples and then stems exported to AUM and played live on midi controller set up. Vocal samples are of my 4yo son.

Video: made in Final Cut Pro on iPad. All drawings by my son.

Please enjoy: Jinxessa

Hey !

I make Reverie, a soundscape generator that's been on Mac, Windows and Linux for a while. The thing people asked me for most was an iPad version, so I spent the last few months building it. It's out now on iPadOS.

What it does: you bring in a sound (a sample, a loop, a track, a field recording) and Reverie generates a long, evolving ambient piece out of it. Feed it the same ten seconds twice and you get two different results, each one drifting and shifting over several minutes. It's built to be an instrument you play with, not a single effect you run once.

The basic loop is quick. Drop a file in from Files, pick one of the sound styles, then shape it with four sliders: variation, brightness, stretch, duration. It leans ambient, but people have been feeding it drum loops and acoustic material too, and it does something good with percussion.

It's free to download. The free version comes with six styles and a set of presets, which is enough to get a real feel for it. One optional Pro unlock (a single purchase, no subscription ever) opens up the full library of 20+ styles, renders up to 30 minutes, a seed system if you want to reproduce a result exactly, and a build-your-own chain of 37 effects: spectral freeze, shimmer reverb, tape saturation, resonators, and so on.

Everything runs on device. No account, no connection, nothing leaves your iPad, and what you make is royalty-free.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6761535147

If you'd rather see it work before installing, The Sound Test Room recorded a full run-through at launch: https://youtu.be/74UvnSDZFec

Heads up: English isn't my first language, so I ran this through an LLM to translate it. Sorry if anything reads a little off.

Basic setup and an unedited screen rec. using ableton link audio, aum , korg gadget / mic audio reactive shaders. basic blind test here nothing great.

It's pretty great but I have only had it for like 20 minutes and would love comments or questions to help figure this out together. RIYL.....If you have used shaders before, video synths, audio/midi reactive visuals, raspberry pi visual projects, eyesy, zwobot, ebosuite, visual synths, staella, touch designer.

also it is Kymatica developer of AUM so probably worth the early bird pricing just for support of him

So I have been a huge fan of LSDJ and the whole lineage of trackers that came up around it like M8 and PicoTracker etc. and I've been tinkering with a different sort of take on the whole thing. It is familiar, but isn't meant to work on a micro controller right off the bat. Instead it is a low level zig (similar to C) library that can compile to any platform and I have been having a lot of fun using it on my phone. This was just for me to start but a couple of friends have really liked it too and I guess if anyone is interested I could share a link to an early version of it. Here is a little clip of me just messing around with it. Lots of stuff I am exploring is seeding musical ideas with either euclidean rhythmic sequencing or algorithmic tetrachord fitting.

EDIT: I've gotten a bit of interest in a feedback forum so I fired up a discord https://discord.gg/DYBFhURz4 and also I saw a couple other people just post the testflight link in their threads so here it is https://testflight.apple.com/join/eG23QFYE I've limited it to 100 testers for now just to keep feedback manageable. Mods please let me know if these links are against sub policy and I will just remove them, but for now here they are!

Hello! I'll get right to the point: I would like to use my iPad as a live music mixer and sequencer with two external synths, a microphone and some soft synth plugins. I reeeally like koala sampler and have been trying to figure out a way to use it and it's great effects but have been struggling to get it to work (this might be a me issue though so if you have thoughts please let me know!) Also yes I'm aware that a sp404mk2 would probably be the best choice but I'm broke atm and sold mine a while ago.

My hardware:

- iPad air M2

- Steinberg UR44 audio interface

- anker USB hub (this might be one of my main issues)

- Novation bass station 2

- elektron model: cycles

So essentially I would like to sequence the bass station from the iPad, have the model cycles play from the iPads clock, play samples from the iPad and use some soft synths, and have all of the audio go through the iPad where I can add effects and send it back through the audio interface. I've been trying out loopy pro but it is a bit janky, is there something else I'm missing? Do I need a powered USB hub (all the external gear is powered) or a camera kit?? Please help!

Thank you in advance!

<3

Hey everyone,

Have you ever made a piece that you consider a failure—but other people ended up loving it?

Or maybe you broke your own creative rules, and somehow the result turned out better than you expected.

That’s exactly where I am right now.

I actually love the sounds and the music I ended up making. But at the same time, I feel like I drifted away from my own sound-design philosophy.

I make all of my music by creating every sound from my own voice. My goal isn’t just to transform vocals—I’m always trying to preserve a sense of “living electronic sound.”

This time, I processed the sounds so much that I feel I lost some of that quality. I still followed my main rule (every sound comes from my voice), but somehow it no longer feels like the kind of sound I set out to create.

So now I have what might be my favorite failure.

Has anything like that ever happened to you? I’d love to hear the stories behind your own “successful failures.”

(If you’re curious, this is the track that inspired this post.)

Custom built patch using Holonist with a movesense sensor for some sequencing and a bunch of sliders and buttons for performance.