Propellerhead Figure Now Available For iOS, Features ‘The Sound Of Reason’

Propellerhead Figure – the company’s new mobile music making app for iOS – is now available.

While a lot of Synthtopia readers would like to see Propellerhead Reason brought to iOS, Propellerhead’s new app is an entry-level app, based on the Reason sound engine.

“If you are new to music making, getting started making great sounding tracks has never been this easy — and sounded so great,” says Propellerhead. “If you are a seasoned musician – music creation has never been this fun!”

Figure Highlights:

  • Bass & lead parts use Reason’s Thor synthesizer
  • Drums powered by Reason’s Kong drum machine
  • Play in different keys & modes. Set once or change on the fly.
  • Increase the Shuffle to loosen up your beats
  • Turn up Pump to add ‘a club sound’ to your tracks
  • Adjust levels using Propellerhead’s mixer

Here’s the official intro video for Propellerhead Figure:

Propellerhead Figure is available now for $.99. If you give Figure a try, let us know what you think of it.

Note: works on iPhone 4 or higher, not recommended for iPhone 3GS

57 thoughts on “Propellerhead Figure Now Available For iOS, Features ‘The Sound Of Reason’”

  1. This is great!
    Its simply the best toilet companion and IOS user could ever ask for. (tried and tested!!)
    For this price i even have change left for some toilet paper and candles, in case of a blackout.
    a GREAT AND FUN little APP!

    1. update: no ipad version, the iphone one scales up quite fine.

      nice one propellerhead, now here’s what you should put on your TODO list:
      – save patterns
      – chain patterns into song / save song
      – somehow expandable kits (what about importing presets from reason? i guess this is the logical next step, otherwise it’s not clear why you would stress that this is based on malstrom and kong…)
      – more than 4 sounds on drum kits
      – FX (even just on master)

      That’d be enough to make this tiny little bastard a quite powerful tool. I’m impressed with the UI and the sound quality, but right now the 2 bars limit is truly a limit.

      All in all I think Propellerhead got this right. It’s obviously a divertissement in iOS-land but I think it’s an interesting take. The resemblance with the Korg Kaossilator is obvious, yet they kinda took that approach to another level.

  4. I have been interested on Korg Kaossilator for a long time, but the lack of synth editing keeps me from touching these idea pads. For me the synths = individuality.

    Is the price introductionary? Do you think they are continuing its developement, perhaps for opening up their engines, or at the very least adding one more track for pad sounds?

  5. Brilliant. Well defined interface, loads of fun to use, great sounds. Will be hooking my phone up to the mixer to capture some of these for use in logic ASAP.

  7. I really can’t think of any working app that actually does something, that wouldn’t be “worth” 0,79€. If you don’t want it, don’t get it but I can’t understand how people can say that a piece of well made software isn’t worth the price of a mars bar.

  8. it is worth the 79 cts but not much more when i compare it with the multitude of music apps already available. maybe you are right, maybe i am spoiled but that is how i feel about it right now.

    1. Ok, couldn’t resist gettin Propellerhead synth for 0,75€ and I got 0,75€ worth of fun from first session, and the first pattern was already something I’d really like to save and move to my other projects, but whats with no the saving? I hope an update comes really soon, like tomorrow! Its still pretty unfinnished, as theres not even a way to record chord- or pattern changes in the “song mode”, which makes me believe that this is only a start. But changing pattern key is lot of fun already, and it even changes tonality like an arranger would; even if they put nothing else but midi support in it, this will instantly become worth more than its price as a jam pal!

      Presets are all there is, and although the quality is at least good enough for me, there was only two or three sounds per category that interested me, but thats ok, thats all I need to make an album. I’d really like one more track! 2 tracks + drums is not enough, and I really hope they would open the door to synth engine room some day.

  9. sounds great and handles too. however would it really be so difficult to have more tracks and song mode? this is bit of a tease. surely something bigger is in the works.
    btw how do i save the fekin song?

  10. It is a brilliant sketchpad/toy/thing to get inspired by. The interface is quite brilliant and a very, very good example of a tough interface. At $.99, you can’t pass it up.

    I do want to see some sort of data exchange with reason though:
    • create and download patterns from Reason
    • download Kong kits and Thor patches from Reason
    • upload songs/sequences to Reason.

    I would also love to see a the ability to create and save multiple patterns and then string them together into a song. Perhaps, with the $4.99 iPad version, we will get these things – if we get an iPad version.

  11. I think it’s ridiculous to ask for lots of features with an app like this, but still, I just want to export the pattern as wav, this can’t be too much?
    How are you supposed to use that? Create pattern and discard?

  13. I wonder if everyone here would have been as pleased if this app was made by unknown developer… 😉
    Btw; played with it for about 30 minutes and after exhausting all of it’s possibilitities, I have removed it promptly from my iPad.

  14. Interesting how well it scales up on an iPad 2. All the graphics and text are being rendered using geometry. I’m not sure there’s a single bitmap in this whole app.

    Also, I’d really like some kind of save/export feature.

    2. Interestingly it’s all vectors except the fonts. On iPad 3 the fints are blurry…
      It’s the opposite with every other app.

  16. If u follow the thread about this app on idesignsound you will see that my enthusiasm for this app generated some fighting and positive responses from propellerhead themselves

    Yes, more will be added including export/ record, and due to the whining, props have stated they wanna hear suggestions

    Nonetheless, methinks it’s great and look forward to its already pledged continued development

    1. I may be wrong, but I don’t think they really promised anything for the future- just said it’s the first version and they have lots of ideas of how to add to it…

  18. Questions

    1- are the presets good? If so, no tweaking is needed

    2- are grooves possible to be made? If so, you have loops that can be used in tracks

    3- if you have other apps that you like better, you should use those and let the peeps that are happy with figure enjoy themselves and wait for props to update the app. Nethertheless, the app store reviews tell of happy buyers and that is what the developers were aiming for

  19. Propellerhead should just go all the way and make Reason and this and incorporate and morph it all into a new-level of interactive musical game. If the experience were immersive and rewarding enough, it could be a game changer.

  20. Worth the .99$…..but that’s all

    This should have been introduced with iPhone 3s and it would have been “revolutionary”
    Now coming so late , when apps like sunrizer,animoog,grain science are showing how to trounce and tame that processor or nano studio,beatmaster are redifining workflows , this seems very lacking and toyish

    Hoping we see some good and essential updates soon……and after that we some innovative features

  21. What part of the app will be in continuous development don’t people understand?

    Their main aim is to facilitate creativity for those with less experience but they will add pro features as they go along..

  22. I got a question for the iOS synth experts.
    Suppose you record Figure into a DAW, is there any way to sync it to the DAW timecode?
    I think I could have quite some fun with this app, but how can I record it with Ableton Live, if there is no sync?

    1. Set BPM in live and the figure app as the same

      Plug iOS device into desktop and record 2 or 4 bars into sound forge, trim to size needed and use wav as loop

    2. You can do it old school… match tempos manually, hit record, and play! 🙂 And don’t forget that you can always cut a chunk/loop and use your daws time-shifting tool to snap it to a specific tempo.

  27. This is a fun app. Real bummer that it doesn’t rotate to landscape mode on an iPad though! Makes it unusable in an Alesis IO dock, or pretty much any other docking device. (ok, technically it’s not “unusable”, just sideways)

      1. It rotates, but not without issue- it just shows the performance area filling up the whole screen till you rotate it back.

  28. Great tool. IMO I dont understand why people complain about price or how to use it.
    If you know how to handle this it will inspire you and you will have a lot of fun.
    Definitely top 5 best toilet companion 🙂 ,
    Looking forward to the updates like Save , Export , Background Audio would be great /loading own sounds, midi in out , having more then 3 instruments .Imagine you can make a whole DAW out of it where you can load your own vst plug ins into it that would be great. I love the future.

  30. At first I noticed the same lack on pattern combinations and export song, but after some on-the-fly testing I can tell this is great specially the scale steps and range of pitch, combining this features with the erase mode section and the tweaking pad, you can easily put your song to evolve, more than fun !!!! Here you can listen my very first impro with figure: http://soundcloud.com/antiguoautomata/aam-improvising-w-figure-app

  31. I liked Figure when I watched the demo and I like it even more now that I have had a chance to play with it. Of course it’s limited by the hardware it runs on but I am pleased that the Props are diversifying in this way. Reason is both defined and restricted by the rack metaphor. In contrast, Figure breaks new ground in creating a fresh touch UI. It’s not just that I like Figure but also the future opportunities for synergy between this and Reason that really makes me excited. Very nicely done!

  32. It sounds great and it’s fun to make instant two-bar repetitive grooves that you can vary over time– they must have consulted Deadmau5 😉

    Honestly, it’s a great start and I’m looking forward to future development.

    1. @bodo, let’s try to keep synthtopia a little clean shall we? I am relieved that in general the comments section is far more mature than other blogs of this nature. However, I am pleased to tell you that if you have a desire to vomit in public that there is another blog that would embrace your mindsets- idesignsound. You can say what you like there and get applauded for it, in fact you might get a medal for dissing this app!
      Methinks that some people just cannot handle positivity and especially those who actually accept things for what they are, and as such have to just say anything to get a reaction. Synthtopia seems to be doing a better job of facilitating discussions about apps than the iOS blogs themselves, keep up the good work synth head.

      1. Let’s keep synthtopia clean and not make misleading comments about other sites- I’ve been hanging out at idesignsound for quite a while, and your categorization is off base.

  34. One more suggestion; I’d like to see the notes I’m playing in theX-Y pad….hmmm, perhaps two slightly different hues could distinguish the now invisible notes. I could also use portamento.

    But please, make use of that Song Mode by implementing midi, this could become a missing link between Karma and Arrangers. Jamming with it is like million dollars, but changin the chords in the heat of the moment is difficult(on iPhone…iPad could be a lot easier).

  35. I have an iPhone 4S and use it mostly for phone calls only. I have iPad 4G and my usage of it differs dramatically. First of all, I’m utilising it as part of my home studio i.e using it as Sound Nodule and Control surface for Reason 6, Cubase 6.5 and Ableton 8.3.
    Most of apps that I have purchased comply with that, but Figure does not.
    Let me summarise what Figure is not:
    1. You can not save your patterns
    2. You are limited to only 2 bars of “music”
    3. You are limited to only 3 tracks/instruments
    4. No import/export to Reason
    5. No chaining of patterns into songs
    6. No Copy/Paste
    7. No MIDI
    Well, to be honest, it has nothing to get your creative juices flowing 🙁
    Maybe version 2 will address these issues, but for now it is just yet another $1 app…

      1. Well you’re not an ass who expects the entire world every time a large company opens their butt cheeks. Sadly, this thread is full of upset dweebs who do. I think Figure is great. It’s a dollar, for crying out loud 😀

  36. You need to think of the iPad as an incredibly versatile instrument, instead of a mobile studio; it NEEDS to work w/ other equipment. Figure is an instrument. If you PLAY it, you can work out a 12-minute, evolving piece of music. and this instrument cost you 99¢ American. Want to record it? Run it into a multi-track recording device, then go to town. Everyone expects a “complete” music app to be flush with multitrack recording, export features, etc.

    Simply put, it DOESN’T work that way. Expectations from the technology run so high, that they squash the type of determination that BREEDS creativity. When the Beatles recorded something like “Tomorrow Never Knows”, they were running tape reels down the studio halls with drumsticks as spindles, just to achieve a loop effect they were looking for. Now, if you can’t turn a little knob to arrive at a certain effect, you just move on to a different piece of software.

    No one is going to create the next startling and unprecidented piece of genius with that work ethic. No. You need to combine things, lectronic, organic and mechanical to get there.

    Check this guy out:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScaeFTbo1u0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

  37. I think plans for syncing, longer patterns, exporting etc are in the works. It takes time. This is more or less a tasting and a way to get in on the action early for a buck. I would rather play with this and manually record out now than pay $5, $10 or $20 later. Getting used to the limits of it now will pay off when it gets its upgrades later. Patience is a virtue.

  38. one week in and i am addicted to figure on my iphone, but it chews up batteries on so fast… is a little korg kaossilator this fun&engaging? i haven’t played with one, as this is my intro to fooling around making beats. any advice on similar software/hardware (less than $200usd) would be appreciated.

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