my TOP 5 Synthesizer Apps 2019 for iOS | haQ attaQ

Here are my Top 5 favourite Synthesizer Apps from 2019! And one of my top picks will probably surprise recurrent haQ attaQ viewers. Maybe I missed a few, but to me it seems like there were way less new synth apps released compared in 2019 to previous years. But hey, Im not complaining because I had an easier time doing my selection for this list. Check it out!
#Synthesizer #Top5 #MusicApps
▼ APP LINKS ▼
FACTORY ► apps.apple.com/app/factory-mo...
VIRTUAL ANS 3 ► apps.apple.com/app/virtual-an...
MIRACK ► apps.apple.com/app/mirack/id1...
LAGRANGE ► apps.apple.com/app/lagrange-s...
SHOCKWAVE ► apps.apple.com/app/shockwave-...
PURE ACID ► apps.apple.com/app/pure-acid/...
▼ CONNECT WITH ME ▼
PATREON ► / jakobhaq
PAYPAL DONATE ► www.paypal.me/jakobhaq
INSTAGRAM ► / jakob_haq
TWITTER ► / jakob_haq
FACEBOOK ► / haqattaq
DISCORD ► / discord
DEVIANTART ► jakobhaq.deviantart.com/
▼ VIDEO LINKS ▼
LAGRANGE REVIEW ► • Lagrange Synthesizer |...
SHOCKWAVE REVIEW ► • Shockwave Synthesizer ...
PURE ACID REVIEW ► • Pure Acid | Groovebox ...
JIM FROM MOOG AND JAKOB HAQ ► • Can MOOG convince me t...
▼ARTICLE LINKS ▼
APPLE DEV UPDATE FROM 32 to 64 BIT ► developer.apple.com/documenta...
APPLE REMOVING 32 BIT APPS ► www.warmplace.ru/soft/ans/cha...
VIRTUAL ANS CHANGELOG ► gbksoft.com/blog/ios-11-how-t...
▼ iOS MUSIC KZbinRS ▼
THESOUNDTESTROOM ► / thesoundtestroom
ELECTRONISOUNDS ► / @electronisoundsaudio
THEAUDIODABBLER ► / @theaudiodabbler
BRANDONRICO SIMPSON ► / brandonrico1
NU-TRIX THE SYNTH GUY ► / @nu-trix
HENNY THA BIZNESS ► / @hennythabizness
THEGARAGEBANDGUIDE ► / thegaragebandguide
DAVEYPOO ► / @daveypoommm
BEAT MAKER IS THE SQUAD ► / @beatmakeristhesquad
REDSKYLULLABY ► / redskylullaby
PETE JOHNS ► / @petejohnsmusic
DJ PUZZLE IPADLOOPS ► / ipadloops
▼ IOS MUSICIAN RESOURCE SITES ▼
Want even more information on how to create music with your iOS device?
►discchord.com
►www.matrixsynth.com/search/la...
►www.palmsounds.net
►www.synthanatomy.com/
►forum.audiob.us
►apptronica.us
►iosmusicandyou.com/
►apps4idevices.com
►smitematter.com

[@walrtbstudios5430]

Great to have you back Jakob, and “yes!” to the Factory special. I don’t use that synth enough- possibly because I don’t know my way around all of it. Great that Lagrange made the top 5 too...

[@strangersun7721]

Another top notch video, Jakob. You are one of the hardest working video editors in the KZbin syth scene. I appreciate all the care you put into your productions.

[@JakobHaq]

Thank you so much! ❤️

[@MatthewJohnCrittenden]

Quality content as ever my man. You have a comforting presence, good luck with the other projects.

[@TheGaragebandGuide]

Glad you're back Jakob and with a great video too! Shockwave gets my vote - it's incredible!

[@JakobHaq]

Thanks man! Yeah I’ve been stuck over here working on the same video for over a month. It’s finished but I have to wait for the “Ok” so that I can publish it. In the meantime I’ll be trying to get back to my weekly posting schedule. 👊🏼

[@loranpittman]

All excellent choices! Fantastic video Jacob!

[@lilybeejones]

I haven't been into synths long, but the second I heard Lagrange my jaw dropped. Something about those sounds clicked. Excellent job on those patches man!

[@myst4hire1]

Doggone Jakob! I said I wasn’t going to buy anymore games or music apps after the holidays, but this top five video is persuading me to go back on my word. Great video! 👍🏾

[@CarterTheConnector]

You’re back! Missed you!I wonder if we'll see the Top5 FX soon！

[@V4D2]

thanks for this man, LaGrande and shockwave look really solid, and fun ;)

[@jonbirchartist]

Ah, you’re back! Missed you. 😊

[@JakobHaq]

Don’t worry I’m never really “gone”. 😉 I’ve been working on the same video for over a month, during the holidays to. It’s finished but I have to wait for the “Ok” so that I can publish it. In the meantime I’ll be trying to get back to my weekly posting schedule. 👊🏼

[@alanwilton6806]

You’ve been gone too long, I’m glad to see you’re back.

[@JakobHaq]

Sorry 😅 I’ve been working on a video project for a month now and it’s finally done. Now I just have to wait until I get the “Ok” to publish it. In the meantime I’ll get back to my more normal weekly posting schedule, starting with my usual “start of the year videos”. One top list done, working on the next one and then it’ll be the “What we need in 2020” vid. So stay tuned! 😊

[@Dogboy73]

Excellent list. A lot of amazing Apps I’d never even or kind of skipped over. Time to get back on the iOS thing again 😉

[@emil-9432]

Factory is really good! There's a lot of different sounds you can get out of it. They made even the matrix fun to use, great overall UI.

[@periurban]

I completely missed Factory. Good one!

[@howardanderson3061]

Schokwave sounds amazing, I bought it of course. I love your presets, Fantastic....

[@davetrombetti4240]

Missed you, Jacob. Happy to see a new haQ attaQ.

[@JakobHaq]

Sorry 😅 been working on a video project for a month now and it’s finally done. Now I just have to wait until I get the “Ok” to publish it. In the meantime I’ll get back to my more normal weekly posting schedule, starting with my usual “start of the year videos”. One top list done, working on the next one and then it’ll be the “What we need in 2020” vid. So stay tuned! 😊

[@davetrombetti4240]

Jakob Haq By the way, I spelled your name correctly but Siri messed it up. I just wanted to make that clear! LOL!

[@nathanbryers]

MiRack is tha business. It’s my go to for effect plugins - top mentions - ratchet, Sangster, plateau, the smashmaster distortions, and some Nysthi bucla emulations. It’s auv3 - so some of these go everywhere I go 😆 never mind the wires - just use a single module as an insert to begin with 🥰

[@JamieMallender]

Great video Jakob. I don’t have any of those Apps! Definitely some for the list there. I really enjoyed the video where you went and learned some Modular Synthesis very much. It still seems like weird science to me - so maybe that’s the one I should get. :)

[@JakobHaq]

I’ve actually used big Modular synthesizers both (hardware and virtual systems) a lot in the past. Like I said in the video, I basically got tired of doing the wiring. My patience ran out for that type of workflow. But thanks to Jim from MOOG, I was able to reacquire my interest for those types of synths again. I’m still not completely comfortable with this workflow. But when I sit down just to make evolving drones ... it becomes like ... almost like meditation. I do recommend trying it out! It takes a bit of time to get started. Also, it can be confusing when one have access to over 500 modules right from the get go, but give it time and it can be extremely rewarding in the end.

[@JamieMallender]

Jakob Haq It’s my birthday in a week - I’ve asked for App Store credit. I’m making a list - that may just be on it

[@sascha10489]

Look for the MiRack videos on KZbin there are "a lot"🤪of beginner friendly tutorials from great KZbinr. And if you open them side by side it’s easy to follow and to copy the steps for the beginning😎

[@JakobHaq]

Happy birthday in advance and I hope you get miRack as a gift! 😉

[@Nomo_Popo]

Dude, a preset designer always gives the modwheel love!

[@AccurateBeats]

Wow! That’s a lot of great stuff in one video! I might very well check some of these synths out. :)

[@JakobHaq]

Accurate Beats Bro! ❤️

[@Akashic09]

Hey, I’m trying not to spend money over here! 🤨🤣😩 These all look amazing. Nice roundup.

[@TranscendingVibrations]

I knew Shockwave was going to be #1.....You designed some great presets!

[@JakobHaq]

Thank you so much! Yeah I’m really happy that it Shockwave became a success. 😊

[@_iostrakon2935]

Great list!

[@berokm]

IT IS EXACTLY MY LIST TO BUY SOON (EXCEPT PRUE ACID) 🤘🏻

[@MiriAstro]

“Bad Man Ting” is a smash!

[@frankramrath8433]

Yes to: Pure Acid and MiRack. The other ones are some of the Apps "I" recogniced but don't have the feeling to need them. I have enought complex Synths like Zeeon, D1and the Korg / Gadget synths. ;-)

[@bitegoatie]

All good picks, as usual - though some of the UI and MIDI bugs in Shockwave have put me off of it until Kai updates it. The keyboard app has some of the same sorts of issues, but Shockwave is much worse on that front. Though I am very fond of how it sounds and the modulation method - if it was easier to work with, I would be happy to do more with it. For me, the miRack started badly - with bugs and changes that hit me hard. It has grown beautifully since then, however. It is almost too much - almost, but not. Factory, once Nadine from Sugar Bytes put BPM control into the standalone version almost immediately on my request, has been all sorts of fun. They put out consistently good stuff - its apps are both creative and professional. And the support is first-rate, which is not the norm among even small-scale developers. Anyway, happy new year. You remind me today I should be better about hooking up controllers to IOS. I tend not to do it, even when I could do it. Dealing with the MIDI in some apps in onerous, but really, I have just lost the habit. It's nice to have hardware controllers, though. Thanks for the positive reinforcement.

[@domdib]

Bought Shockwave to get hold of some Haqqy goodness :-)

[@Gazzlewazzle]

A couple of those synths are in my ‘to get’ list. Pretty decent list. It’s definitely a bad man ting.

[@crispandskimmerleotarddjteam]

Thanks!

[@naoidfpaiourej3299]

18:18 - Such a logical way to set modulation sources. Btw I just bought a couple of the synths based on this round up :)

[@jimshannononsounds]

Add a catchy Chorus in there and Bad man ting could be another "All star," who knows? Seriously though if there was a bang for your buck category it would be miRack. Great video

[@JustinDT123]

MiRack! I've been waiting for you to talk about that one. I keep almost buying it...

[@sascha10489]

Justin Justin hey man...it’s soooo deep....if you need some information about it, maybe check out the KZbin channel from ElectronicSounds Audio. He did very nice beginner friendly tutorials and also a little walkthrough.

[@MatthewJohnCrittenden]

Smash that buy button and don’t look back, it’s a marvel IMO. Try VCV Rack on PC if you can, it’s free.

[@JustinDT123]

@@sascha10489 Oh awesome, I'll go check those out. I think I do want it...

[@JustinDT123]

@@MatthewJohnCrittenden I think I'm going to have to.... looks sooo fun.

[@gtrgeorge348]

The section on Virtual ANS3 is very interesting; it’s pretty obvious that you know a LOT about this thing; I would like to see you do an in-depth vid about it.

[@JakobHaq]

Now that it’s re-published, I might just do that because it has an interesting origin.

[@periurban]

I still have VirtualANS, and it still works fine in Audiobus.

[@stevengofstein]

FINALLY!!!!!! just kidding, love ya brother

[@JakobHaq]

stevengofstein 💋❤️

[@carbonatesonmars31]

I did not know it was possible to layer in VirtualANS! that opens up a whole new world of sonic possibilities.

[@MarkeithJohnson]

KORG Electribe Wave was hot! Available as a AU3 and available as a KORG Gadget! That definitely made it one of my favorites of 2019. The sounds are top notch also!

[@MarkeithJohnson]

Maybe it falls under the Groovebox category like Pure Acid?

[@JakobHaq]

No, but it falls under Lists for 2018 as it was released that year. 😉 It has been updated several times since then. I think the latest update was in November in 2019 and it upgraded the Electribe Wave with AUv3.

[@SONGSTICKS]

Hi Jacob, Just got myself a Korg microkey air 37 Bluetooth keyboard which won't work via Bluetooth to my ipad ios13. I'm told I need to update the firmware on it before the bluetooth will work but can't do it on my old win7 pc. Can it be done via the ipad (wired in of course) ? Thanks Gary ps: I treated myself to the Blackhole Reverb app which is awesome and I notice your name in the presets... Nice job my friend !

[@Bantam80]

There is a version of Sugarbytes Factory available for Windows and macOS too.

[@pn2543]

very cool. I am amazed people spend thousands on eurorack stuff when the Ipad can do so much.

[@dafingaz]

5 great apps!

[@IgnisCygnus147]

Actually loopop has a review of the faderfox 64 knob midi controller, I love mirack and I have been searching, prolly gonna get the midifighter twister

[@JakobHaq]

Haven’t watched his video on that one. But I did watch the one on the Faderfox EC4. I definitely want one of those. The ability to label controls is so very helpful. . I actually have a very big DIY controller at home that I’ve been using for a patch but it’s to big and takes up too much space on my desk. It’s this one > kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYTZoWqGjZh4ZsU

[@r618y]

Virtual ANS 2.3b ( so *not* 3 ) is running pretty happily on my latest iPadOS. I can also see v 3 as separate purchase on the store (which I don't have). So I'm not sure why they decided to release new separate version, but 64-bit transition was *not* it / possibly I was 'lucky' enough and it was just beta as the version indicates ? who knows ';) /

[@xamxamxamxa]

Thank’s a lot:) why most of them cannot be tuned on 432Mhz?:(

[@surgunmusic]

synthmaster one is a serious wavetable synth for ios, what do you think about it?

[@dalejason]

Nice one 👍

[@williamolsen20]

Why would miRack surprise me it is an amazing iOs app, and it has to be the most flexible synth app today.

[@r2worksee]

Is Shockwave stable now? The app reviews seemed to suggest otherwise

[@jackcimino8822]

As someone pointed out, Factory is actually a port of the desktop version. There are other Sugar Bytes apps that are ports of their desktop counterparts including Unique and Aparillo.

[@JakobHaq]

Yup! I think all the iOS apps from Sugar Bytes have desktop versions.

[@Mac.rodose]

I’d forgotten about Jakob!

[@VictorSteiner]

So does MiRack support ES-8 to use its LFOs in a real rack?

[@MrNani1983]

What all apps do I need to make the music heard at 10 : 58 ? can you tell please.

[@dvdny]

Re: ' no controller has enough knobs...' (10:00) - that's why the ancient behringer BCx2000 series have tripled in resale value.

[@JakobHaq]

Yeah I remember those. I considered buying both models but I ended up building my own instead >>> kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYTZoWqGjZh4ZsU

[@787UrbanApparel]

.... Hi Jacob : Is the glitch on IOS 13 fix already ? , i use my IPAD has an instrument ... you made a video about the box appearing when trying to key on the screen . Thanks

[@JakobHaq]

Yes, Apple addressed that glitch in the update that 8 days or so after I posted that warning. You must have missed it but I did another update stating that they fixed it. Instagram link instagram.com/p/B2z51LIIHSH/?igshid=66a3hjxmvx5q

[@LiLi-or2gm]

Virtual ANS3 reminds me of MetaSynth. Aphex Twin used Metasynth to embed a picture of himself in one of his tracks.

[@JakobHaq]

Nice recognition. It’s because MetaSynth is emulating the old Russian Photoelectric ANS Synthesizer (from 1958) just like Virtual ANS does.

[@LiLi-or2gm]

Jakob Haq Ah ha! Nice pedigree 😎 I got the app- really looking forward to getting my fingers on it!

[@gregorio_luque]

You should call that something like DubTrap! Maybe its the future new born style.

[@Monkeyshaman]

🙋‍♂️I want enough love for the saucillator that the name is fungible for the creator but not so much that future work on it will make it cost prohibitive to use.

[@portwain]

The original ANS synth was actually used for early research in voice synthesis in Russia.

[@phuturemusic]

was it?

[@JakobHaq]

The Russian ANS has a very deep and nice origin history. For instance Andrei Tarkovsky used the ANS to make the score for the movie ‘Solaris’.

[@phuturemusic]

Say, Jacob - how do you feel about portable acoustics?

[@JakobHaq]

I’m not sure what it is you’re referring to. I tried googling it but I’m not sure I’m finding the right stuff since I get various results. Do you have a link?

[@phuturemusic]

❤️

[@sascha10489]

I agree with the complete list😂

[@JakobHaq]

Wait, did you get all of them? 😂

[@sascha10489]

Yes😳🤪 I’m addicted to iOS synth...not only because of making music, but as I can afford it I want to support the developers in this area. I think they give us great apps for a very good value and so they deserve it🖤

[@JakobHaq]

😂👍🏼

[@paradiddle16]

I hope Sugar bytes brings the drum computer to IOS :)

[@user-sx2iw2hq3l]

Hello. Tell me please what I need to sync any of these synts to my hardware equipment? Thank you

[@JakobHaq]

It depends on your hardware equipment. What type of stuff are you trying to sync? Are we talking USB midi stuff or DIN5 MIDI stuff?

[@user-sx2iw2hq3l]

@@JakobHaq Well, for example, I have Roland Jd-xi, Elektron Digitakt, which I would like to synchronize with these Synths. Yes, and tell me, do all the synthesizers work only on IOS and ipad?

[@user-sx2iw2hq3l]

@@JakobHaq Tell me both options on midi and usb please. Thank you

[@meinemudda3095]

Are you stocked about low hiss (youtubechannel) homemade sp1200 sampler app Also avaible on linux

[@phuturemusic]

want 1

[@meinemudda3095]

@@phuturemusic yup

[@MrOuija-rr8kq]

Yeah shockwave was the best

[@ceesfiny]

That must have been a lot of work. Thanks!

[@mattg1094]

do all work with AUM?

[@JakobHaq]

Yes, they all support AUv3.

[@sumchi3690]

Mirack is Au3

[@davidarderius5316]

You can add synth one now

[@JakobHaq]

This is a Top list for 2019. AudioKit pro Synth One came out in 2018 and is featured in the the list for that year.

[@TheSpoonwood]

Virtual Ans = MetaSynth?

[@JakobHaq]

Nope, Virtual ANS is not emulating MetaSynth. However both MetaSynth and Virtual ANS is emulating the original Russian ANS Synthesizer from 1958.

[@Stadtkind32]

virtual A.N.S

[@marcioguitar2008]

Apps for Android please!!!

[@anandsunku]

May be your checklist should contain iPhone too

[@jan-martinulvag1953]

Ok. Noen som vil kjøpe Korg Z 1 ? Seams to me that many people just refuse to realise how advansed and great these apps are. They refuse to let go of hardware and old synths . They refuse to look into ios synths cos they are afraid of finding the truth

[@frankramrath8433]

You say: - "I get the impression that many people simply refuse to see how recommendable and great these apps are. " I agree with you that they are great apps. However, the limited screen size is also often the problem. I hope that there will be some better controllers. You say: - "They refuse to let go of hardware and old synths. " Yes, and as long as Apple is insecure about its behavior with the Appstore and the (100%) availability. And if quality is caused by lack of developer resources and/or marketing (too early release of faulty SW) and bad quality management (also regarding iOS). You say: - "They refuse to deal with Ios synths, because they're afraid to find the truth." I don't think so. Rather a lack of knowledge about the possibilities and the effort of investment in necessary hardware for the iPAd (sound card/dock/controller). And bad marketing (advertising), ... Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[@PhilanderingBastard]

Love ios apps, particularly the more inscrutable ones like Apesoft, Igor Vasiliev madness and grandpa Palm. That being said, you’ll have to pry my Z1 from my cold, clammy hands 🤪