Olympia Noise Co. has released Ondes – an expressive musical instrument for iPad, inspired by early electronic instruments, such as the Ondes Martenot and the Theremin.
According to the developer, Ondes emulates the fluid playing style of those classic instruments, with an interface and synthesis engine firmly grounded in the present day.
Features:
- Expressive Playing Surface
- Slide freely between notes, Ondes doesn’t limit you to the keys on a keyboard.
- Adjustable note snapping for ultimate flexibility in playing style and ease of use.
- Vertical movements change volume, adding dynamic possibility to your music.
- More polyphony than you have fingers!
- One and half octave keyboard range moveable from C1 to F#6.
- Guidelines in any major or minor key.
- Unique Synthesis Engine
- Morphing wavetable oscillator with five wavetable sets.
- Wavetable modulation sources include y-axis, sine wave, noise, circle, and ADSR envelope.
- Resonant low pass filter.
- Filter modulation sources include ADSR envelope, sine wave, and y-axis.
- Amplifier section with master volume and ADSR envelope.
- Effects
- Large selection of reverb types with adjustable amount.
- Delay effect adjustable level, feedback, time and filter.
- Beautiful Design
- Visualization of synthesis parameters makes for fun and intuitive editing of parameters.
- Clutter free screen lets you focus on making music.
- Built-in Manual
- Audiobus and interapp audio included. Record directly to Garageband and other audio apps on your iPad.
- Supports Audiobus State-Saving
Ondes is available in the App Store for US $7.99. If you’ve used Ondes, let us know what you think of it!
Makes me want to buy an ipad!
Just bought this – love it! Really expressive and cool sounding. A breeze to program too. Highly recommended!
This is a lovely instrument, but one that will benefit from practicing with, because of the flexible pitching.
Hey I did not know Bebop just got updated!
I’m still an iPad skeptic who sees it as a marketing device more than a baseline musical tool, but this will help change my mind. Its a real sweetheart deal with such polyphony. Its a great way to move outside of just loops or step-sequencing and offer some great human contrast. The Martenot has a unique tone that I like. I have a few frozen samples of it and even as static WAVs, it occupies a nice place in the spectrum. It sits way in front where a Mellotron often sits in the back. Another couple of generations of this and I’ll have to buy one of the darned pads. Oh dear, what a First World problem. 😛
I’d be curious how folks think it compares to some VirSyn synths (addictive, for example) that provide a similar kind of pitch bending capability. Or perhaps Animoog, where I’ve heard some pretty impressive melismatic melody playing.
looks nice. also, seems very similar to Bebot (which is awesome)
Una maravilla este instrumento,sucede igual con Chordion,ambas aplicaciones muy inspiradoras.