PPG WaveGenerator Now Available

Wolfgang Palm’s PPG WaveGenerator – a new wavetable synth for the iPad – is now available.

PPG WaveGenerator is the latest development from the inventor of wavetable synthesis, Wolfgang Palm. Palm describes it as a “next generation synthesizer, building on the heritage of the PPG Wave keyboards.”

PPG WaveGenerator lets you create your own waves and wavetables, offers 3 oscillators, a virtual analog 24 dB lowpass filter, 13 envelopes, 4 LFOs, an arpeggiator, delay & reverb, extensive modulation options, custom keyboards and more.

PPG WaveGenerator is available now for $19.99.

Check it out and let us know what you think of it!

Here are the details……

Key Features:

  • Creation of your own waves and wavetables.
  • Playful sound creation simply by drawing or picking harmonics
  • 3D page, visualization of the wavetables, transformation from photos into wavetables.
  • 256 waves assembled within a wave grid
  • 3 Audio Oscillators
  • 3 Noise generators, for audio and modulations
  • Classic 24 dB Lowpass Filter, combined with an overdrive simulation.
  • Dual amplifier, for versatile control of 2 audio signals as well as panning.
  • 13 Envelopes, for independent control of pitch, waveform, filter and noise gain and panning
  • 4 LFOs
  • Arpeggiator
  • Delay/Reverb effect
  • Audio engine with 2 synthesis modes, and variable wave blending quality.
  • Directly accessible context help inside the app
  • Use a camera, to shoot a picture and then transform it into a sound!
  • Using state of the art technologies, but still the versatile and efficient synthesis system.
  • Build your own keyboard, with the keys you prefer for your music.

Here’s Wolfgang Palm’s intro to PPG WaveGenerator:

PPG WaveGenerator Intro:

PPG WaveGenerator

The PPG WaveGenerator comes with a multitude of wavetables. The sound material contains sounds from the original PPG wave models, as well as many new sounds.

This app enables the user to create his own wavetables in a ‘playful’ way and to hear the result immediately. Also you can construct the waves precisely, by adding harmonics. Another options is to transform a picture into a wavetable. You can load photos from your album or even shoot a picture with the camera.

The waves are collected in a grid of 256 fields, to which the 3 oscillators of the synthesizer have arbitrary and independent access.

In a 3D display you get a visual impression on how the sound evolves. You can turn around the 3D object and zoom in and out,

The Parameters of the synthesizer are divided into modules, which allows easy, yet powerful editing.

It contains 3 oscillators with independent control of pitch and waveform. Each oscillator has its own glide, which gives a very dynamic sound.

With a sophisticated routing system, the diverse modulation sources can be connected to all important control points.

The keyboard is configurable totally freely, so you can setup all well-known musical scales, but also all imaginable custom scales that best fit into your music.

PPG WaveGenerator benefits all advantages of the iPad, like X/Y control after the key on event, or two finder gestures for spectrum control. After a key is hit, the tone may be modified and modulated in various ways, just by moving your finger.

A comfortable browser lets you sort the sound programs; you can categorize and rate them. Also complete custom sound banks may be created.

All significant parameters are controllable via MIDI.

There is a built in context specific help for all pages and modules.

via Zapparelli, who says “PS still don’t get UK slang, so I don’t post often.”

60 thoughts on “PPG WaveGenerator Now Available”

  2. It looks quite ambitious and complex. Certainly interesting. But I’ll pass it because of the high price and somehow all I hear in this videos sound to me like Animoog, which I got already of course, who doesn’t.

    1. What do you mean high price??????? Tell me when did you last get a for LESS then $20? Guess you still live in the past where you could go to the cinema for a couple of cents…

      I cannot understand people wanting to fork out the $$$ for an ipad and then get cheap when a brilliant app is released that costs ONLY $20

      1. well, honestly, your point about “you bought freaky expensive ipad” isn’t correct too 🙁

        all of you bought some freaking PC or even more freaking laptop..

    2. I too would like to hear some more interesting non-Animoog-like sounds from it before I plop down my $20. It looks neat and it has nice specs and I guess Mr. Palm is some kind of hero to a lot of people, but I’m probably not going to buy it unless it makes some really interesting and new sounds.

      Toss some youtube URLs at me, I’d love to be shown I’m wrong.

    3. If $19.99 seems like too much, watch your local big box retailers for discounts on iTunes cards. Walmart and even 7-Eleven often offer $25 iTunes cards for $20 — a 20% discount. That brings the cost down to $16 (it also brings down the price of the incredible Lemur control surface to $40).

    4. Animoog and ppg wavegenerator are very similar. Consider animoog for the lazy and wavegenerator for the venturous programmer. animoog has preset wavetables, while wavegenerator doesnt. as for the price, animoog is more expensive (and if you consider wave expansions a lot more so).

  5. lol. Since friday I was checking tne appstore @12am looking for this. Last night you should of saw my face when it was there! I was up too just tweaking away. I want to fully understand this beast so I can get the best out of it so this will be the first iPad app I actually read the manual on. Going to dig into the ARP later on today.
    The sound is incredible and is a true Monster. Way different beast than Animoog with No limits. Get it!

  6. Stayed up till 4 too! Are we all the same?
    It sounds incredible. It is worth the $20 and is on par with animoog in my opinion. Although i prefer the animoog ui a bit and enjoy it’s visuals, ppg sounds just as good and is capable of some very different more organic sounds it seems. Full and rich. And updates are coming!
    Thank you wolfgang!

  7. wow, i see some shitty Animoog fanatics who gave minuses to all who say that WaveGenerator sounds different..

    Well..clear your ears, lol.

    p.s.
    And btw, stop bitching about $20

    Animoog is $30, Korg’s things are $20 and $30..

  10. Looks deep and with interesting features. I don’t have the expertise to master this synth and will depend on well made presets, but the sound is really good and when that arp started playing I just hit the buy button 🙂

    Animoog is really good too, but I think this one is much deeper.

  11. I like it much more than the Moog app (which is very nice). On the Wavegenerator FaceBook page I asked Wolfgang about bringing Plex back as an IPad app and he said he had already thought of that.
    Good times for iPad owners indeed. Looking for ward to getting further in to this one.

  12. I messed with it for a while last nigth and it is a totally dofferent beast than Animoog. I am looking forward to getting really deep into this one.

  13. Love the synth, but I have hanging notes when playing via a midi controller, as though it’s losing note-off messages. Has anybody else noticed this? Unfortunately there’s no way to email support on Wolfgang’s site and I don’t want to put this in a negative review.

  14. wolfgang is lurking around on the ppg wavegenerator facebook page, so you could probably post something there and get some response . . . or alert them that they might have a bug. so far they’ve been responsive to feedback, from what i can tell.

    i see this as pretty different than the animoog as well. animoog is nice, but seems like it has fewer variables.

    imho, there’s no best in here, just lots of nice tools and colors you can carry around in a very small package.

  15. I like the synth, but it’s pretty buggy on my Ipad 1. Especially the 3D page. It crashes 9 out of 10 times when i go to the 3D page.

    1. I haven’t had a single problem on my ipad1 yet. I did do a power cycle after downloading though. Or whatever it’s called when you hold down the home and power btn.
      Only thing i can’t do is up the sample rate which was expected.

  16. I think I’ll pass for now. I can see the possibilities, but I’d much rather learn how to squeeze more out of the Animoog, Addictive and Sunrizer that are already in my iPad.

    Ultimately, you know, I’m a pop guy and it’s all about the songs, I’m not sure how this app would serve my songs better than the Animoog.

    1. pop guy? your joking…..

      PPG Wave was used by David Bowie, Eat-Static, Electronic Dream Planet, The Fixx, Trevor Horn, Jean Michel Jarre, Art of Noise, Rush, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Robert Palmer, Psychadelic Furs, Talk Talk, The Cars, Ultravox, Steve Winwood, Rush, Stevie Nicks, Thomas Dolby, Pet Shop Boys, Mike and the Mechanics, and Stevie Wonder.

      are you REALLY “pop guy”?

      2. 1) You forgot Alphaville. And your list of artists looks suspiciously like the one on vintagesynth.com.

        2) Oh, so now you have to use a PPG in order to be a pop artist. Riiiiiight. I’ll have to listen to “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” better, it must be REALLY buried in the mix.

        3) I grew up idolizing Trevor Horn (Yes, Frankie, Propaganda, Art Of Noise, you name it) and Ultravox and wanting a PPG sooo bad but… You know what? I have a lot of stuff already, and some of it I can’t even use. I’ve had Logic Pro 9 for about nine months now, and I’ve yet to create a single patch on the Sculpture synthesizer. It’s a fantastic tool but I have no clue how to use it. I haven’t made a single patch on Sunrizer either, other than adjusting release times and cutoff frequencies and such. I’d rather learn how to really dig into the gear I already have, than just buy new stuff just because it’s great. I’m sure, without a doubt, this app is great. But I’d rather restrict myself to what I have now.

        4) And ultimately, how much gear did McCartney use to write “Blackbird”? Is this app going to make such a difference in my music that I absolutely must have it? Will my audience respond to great melodies, clever lyrics and honesty, or do they need the evolving wavetable pad?

        Just my opinion, hope no one’s getting offended by it.

  17. Wow! I love this app, when I first saw the price I thought that it’s a little expensive but then I thought about the days of spending 75 times that amount on a hardware instrument like I did on my Microwave XT, and I begin to realize what a bargain this is. Let alone it was made by a living legend.
    Honestly, it sounds awesome! And it’s worth every penny. It has a unique character, tone, and a sound of its own, a PPG Wave sound! The graphics are great, and the layout is very thoughtful.
    I always loved the sound of wavetable, and do own the original microwave, and the XT, and I am telling this one sounds JUST like the original PPG Wave. You want my advice buy it now, you will not regret it.

  18. Hi Guys
    This is Russ, I look after Wolfgang’s marketing.

    Thanks for the amazing feedback and YES Wolfgang is very active on the Facebook page reading feedback and in many cases responding to it. I’ve never known a man like him, he is already working on fixes and updates and additions based on feedback, we aim to have the first updates next Monday.

    Sticky notes are a sign of the CPU getting too hot, reduce the sound quality setting, this should cure that on earlier iPads.

    1. Hey russ, i’m not on facebook but would love to be able to thank wolfgang and team for the work.
      I tried to send an email for feedback from the ppg site using the email button but it does not show an address when clicked. Will that be fixed?
      One thing so far.. I have had to go through all of the presets and reduce the vol to 50, as some are much too high. I am fine with that, but it then auto changes the author name to my sig. I would have liked to keep the orig. author names.
      Anyone know if thisncan be done?

        1. Thanks for the feedback – part of the reason we don’t have an email for people to send to Wolfgang is that he has his head in dev all the time – we have a new release early next week to add new features and fix bugs.

          With the Facebook page it means a number of us can jump on quick.

          However we are trying to think of a troll free way of giving people the chance to feedback in a meaningful way.

          Thanks

  21. Hands down my favorite synth on iOS. I think Animoog just got trumped in my book. Very flexible and unlike Animoog this one gets you to think well beyond subtractive synthesis. The wave shape system is much more flexible and transparent compared to the Animoog timbres system. 3 oscillators make it like having 3 Animoog timbes simultaneously. Its well worth 20. Using the audio from the oscilators or the noise as modulation sources is something definitely worth noting. I only get to do that type of stuff on my Evolver. My point in posting is that this synth deserves your attention an your money. I’m at work so I apologized for the rushed comments which may or may not be connected to each other.

    1. The funny thing is that you can make Timbres for Animoog with PPG. lol

      PPG Wave Generator and Magellen gets my vote for the most advanced iOS synths of 2012. I’m not taking nothing away from any other synth that came out this year because I use them all, but those 2 set new bars IMO.

    2. Thanks for detailing the synth side in a bit more detail! I’ve been burn by a few “best iOS” synth ever recommendations, where they are decent enough sounding, but aren’t very deep at all with nothing to really sink your teeth into.

      Looking forward to running the PPG into my poly evolver for some filter and delay action!

  22. WOW! Great stuff!! It looks (and sounds) like it’s time to hand over some hard cash money and get me a ‘Pad!
    Especially as i recently lost my long serving and much loved Ipod Touch 🙁

    What are peoples experiences with the higher spec IPad Vs the (cheaper) lower spec models?

    I mean, i’ll primarily be using it for synths/controllers and such, so i can’t see that i’ll be needing 64Gb or 3G, but maybe there’s things i haven’t anticipated..
    I imagine i’ll be needing an I/O Dock, so cash saved on an IPad will come in handy there.

    Any thoughts would be much appreciated guys! Thanks

    1. A 32gb Wifi iPad 2 or 3 will do you just fine. 16gb is too small and when you start running low on space it will slow your iPad down. The iPad 2 is lighter and thinner than the iPad 3 and runs just as good. The iPad 1’s 256mb ram holds it back, so I would stay away from those.

        1. An iPad will not slow down when it gets low on space. All that will happen is that you won’t be able to put more stuff on it.

          For my use, a 32GB WiFi model works great. I don’t put music or videos on my iPad, so that 32GB is just for apps. (and mostly music apps)

  23. People will complain about anything nowadays.

    You mean I can pay $20 and have a mini PPG wavetable synth on my iPad? Even if we argue that one has to take the cost of the iPad itself into account, it’s a bargain.

    Back in the day… well, what am I talking about? This sort of portable synthesis technology wasn’t even in anyone’s mind back in the day. And if it were, it would’ve cost thousands… tens of ’em… probably even hundreds of ’em.

  24. Despite a few bugs, pretty amazing. $20 well spent.

    Feature request (I’m not on Facebook. Hopefully someone here is reading): better keyboard. preset scales, adjustable key range, and ability to scroll through multiple octaves, a’la Animoog and Addictive Synth.

    Hate to have to mention those, but they offer perfect examples of great in-app keyboards.

    1. You don’t get to actually own these virtual synths, they are leased from Apple. This is why they need to be cheap. Even computer virtual synths can be owned, and hardware is very much yours, are superior of sound quality and last for a long time. It’s worth thinking about.

      2. there’s not much to think about really. I enjoy my iOS synths on the road as much as I enjoy my hardware synths at home.

        I know my way around a synth, so I get equally great results from both.

  25. T think this one is ‘beast’ ios synth so far… different and more complex than the animoog as well.
    True gift for ios artists!

  28. Spent a long time with this last night – as others have said, it’s very different to Animoog and sounds brilliant. Well worth the money. I really wasn’t as excited as some others seemed to have been after the first few demos; I couldn’t hear anything there that made this seem like a must-have app. One night’s tinkering has proved me totally wrong.

    My cat hates it though: especially one of the presets. I forget which one, but it drove him totally insane – it was hilarious.

  29. Brilliant synth, lots of programming power.
    Being able to create and morph through your own wave tables at this price is amazing.
    Yup, some of it is a little cumbersome, like saving patches, and it needs record and audio paste.
    But a great synth!

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