Jasuto, shown above, is a flexible modular synthesizer for the iPhone that lets you create additive, subtractive, FM/PM/AM and even hard-sync synth patches:
There are several main design goals that I wanted to achieve with this.
The first goal was to make synth building fun and easy all while adding some unpredictability to the process. I’ve come up with some amazing sounds almost by accident in a lot cases that I would have never even thought of doing in a conventional synth.
The 2nd was to blur the line between patch and synth, so creating a synth should be no different (or any more difficult) than creating a patch.
The 3rd was to unify control and audio rate signals allowing everything to be a modulation or be modulated.
And finally I wanted to make sure that it was simple and efficient to add motion to a sound. So every node on the screen can record its own motion. For instance if you wanted to create a simple LFO for a chorus effect just grab the delays time constant click the record button and wiggle away. After you are done recording hit stop and it will auto-magically blend the loop points for you. All motion including the step sequencer are sync-able via triggers, more on this in the “Basics” section.
Jasuto is only $4.99 – less than a lot of songs on iTunes. So, if you’ve got an iPhone, there’s no reason you can’t download this bad boy (App Store link) and give it a spin.
I’m impressed that you can now put a modular synth in your pocket!
Leave a comment with your thoughts about Jasuto……
I bought it and installed it on my 2nd gen iPod touch… the interface and sound of the synth is amazing. There is a lot of depth and complexity to what can be done. Unfortunately the whole thing is let down by a lack of documentation. There is a bit of a learning curve, and the couple of pages at the Jasuto website aren’t much help… This thing must have taken 1000’s of hours to develop. A few hours spent on a couple of tutorials would help get this synth to the audience it deserves…
So much fun for only a buck! I've only fooled around with it for a day but it's the best app i've bought.