Dev Releases World's First Modular Synthesizer for iPhone - Jasuto

Developer Chris Wolfe has released one of the coolest apps to ever hit the App Store. Jasuto is a modular synthesizer for iPhone and iPod touch, which, although in somewhat of a beta state, makes synth building fun and easy, while adding unpredictability to the process. As the developer reveals, Jasuto is the first truly modular synthesizer for the iPhone.

“I’m releasing this app for $1 initially to generate some noise and to get some early feedback,” Chris says. “There are several main design goals that I wanted to achieve with this,” the developer explains on his website, where he outlines those goals as follows:

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.

According to Wolfe, the application is still under heavy development, but he assures buyers of his app that he will be improving / changing it on a regular basis. As usual, updates can make it a winner if one takes a few moments to provide feedback on the bugs they encounter, or to request new features that Chris can consider implementing. “Feedback will certainly have an influence over the development direction,” the developer promises.

Before you click your way to the iTunes App Store, Chris also wants readers to be aware of what's to come. The developer has posted a quick teaser on some of the stuff that will be in the next release, which includes:

– Sharing of patches online through the built-in GUI;
– iPhone to VST remote control and sync;
– Zoom-able Sequencer and Midi keys;
– Generalized editable Wavetable node, can be used for sound samples or user-defined envelopes;
– Band-limited analog oscillators;
– 16 band FFT node along with band nodes;
– User-configurable ports;
– Better load / save system along with a better dynamic menu system.

Download Jasuto Modular Synthesizer via iTunes ($0.99)