In all, Z3TA+ is easily up there with the most powerful and fully featured synths we've seen for iPad. There's support for Inter App Audio, AudioBus and MIDI control. The app features Synth, Modulation Matrix/Arpeggiator and Effects pages and comes with more than 500 presets. The iOS version of the synth is effectively a port of Z3TA+ 2, which was released back in 2011, albeit with an interface that's been redesigned to suit the iPad's touchscreen interface.
The desktop version of Cakewalk's wavetable synth Z3TA+ has been around for over a decade now, and has remained popular throughout that time thanks to it powerful oscillator section.
It’s now Audiobus compatible too, making iMini a versatile and classic feeling synth at a great price.īuy from the App Store Prev of 23 Next Prev of 23 NextĬompatibility: iPad (requires iOS 7.0 or later) Cakewalk Z3TA+, £14.99/$19.99 The app works as a standalone synth or can be opened within Retronyms Tabletop workspace to be used as part of a bigger iOS setup. The sounds are far thicker and more authentic sounding than you’d expect from an iPad synth and the interface looks great too. It is, as you would expect from a name like Arturia, an excellent emulation. First up, an emulation of the most famous synth of them all.Īs the name and UI suggests, Arturia’s first step into the world of iOS is an emulation of one of the best-known hardware synths of all time, the Minimoog. Read on to find a selection of, what are in our view, the most powerful, useable and best value synthesisers currently available for the platform. Moreover, many of the virtual instruments included in this round-up pack features that outstrip what we would have expected from VST plugins just a few years ago, and some can even give their desktop contemporaries a run for their money. The current crop of synths on the App Store are infinitely more capable than the first-generation, toy-like iOS music tools we saw when the first iPhones were released. Whilst some synthesis purists will inevitably still sneer at the notion of iOS instruments, they've become a serious business.
Compatibility: iPad (requires iOS 7.0 or later) Arturia iMini, £3.99/$4.99