iVCS and Z3TA+ are features on the latest episode of Sonic Touch.
Hosts Nick Batt and Gaz Williams check out Apesoft’s iVCS3 – a recreation of the ‘classic and slight bonkers’ Putney VCS3; and also Cakewalk Z3TA+ wavetable synth – an iPad version of their plug-in synth, which has been a mainstay of many EDM and dubstep producers.
If you’ve used iVCS or Z3TA+, leave a comment and let us know what you think!
Both synths are available via the App Store:
via sonicstate
love me some sonic touch ,
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“Quirky” is a VCS3’s middle name, so you should not buy it for traditional solos. I got play with one for a couple of weeks and its a love/hate thing to operate, but its also a mini-BBC Radiophonic in a box. Apesoft has not only retained its high points, but added some impressive functionality to it. The X-Y touchscreen really speaks to the nature of the synth. A Metasonix tube distortion box isn’t something you’d use steadily, but it stomps a lot of the competition with a weird sort of purity all its own. The iVCS3 is in the same class, IMO.
My opinions about the Z3ta+ for iOS were detailed in the comments section of another post. Their above review covered many of the basics and gave a good first impression. They agreed with my conclusions about the interface. They referred to it as a “port”, meaning that they had converted it from their other OS platforms, but didn’t spend much time on designing the interface for real-world use.
Nick and Gaz stopped short of saying the interface should be spread out over more tabbed pages, which was my conclusion. With so many important controls that could be worked in realtime, making them have enough screen space to be fun to use is critical.
I was less bothered than Gaz by the lack of multi-touch controls (you can’t more than one knob at once). I don’t even mind the small typefaces as far as being able to read things. But again, the interface is just too cramped in some sections and it makes editing and live tweaking difficult for some parameters & settings.
Getting rid of the onscreen keyboard isn’t a good solution because it doesn’t really solve the issue for those who edit sounds with the onscreen keyboard. Better to have a couple extra tabs.
It’s a bit of work, and not ideal, but a (massive) custom Lemur template might cure what ails you
I mostly agree with anything you said and I must add that the main show topper for me is the lack of menus for the transposition of each osc. Transposing one octave lower is a real PITA, having to click 9 time on a tiny button, and if per chance (!!!) you click wrong you change another parameter like Mode which will also require many clicks to set it right again (if ya noticed the change, I mean…)
Too bad, this synth could be a real beast
I only want sliding menu for those small selectors. That’s all, other wise it’s damn near of perfection.
Generally I want less pages, and lots of smaller knobs. Perhaps two optional layouts would be a nice way of bowing into both ways simultaneously, without showing ass to other.
Well, the multi touch is also rather big deal for me in synths, but the synth, its vesatility and especially all the while of pushing this good raw sound quality is massive deal for me. A steal actually, considering the price. A start of a new era.
Not an ideal solution but using a stylus sometimes ease that pain (though it won’t help my older eyes..)
That’s a great point (pardon the pun).