Donut, 2D Looper from the Strange Agency, hits the App Store

They’re baaaaack! The professors of audio decimation over at The Strange Agency have released their latest app, and it’s a doozy. Described as a “2D Looper”, Donut essentially stacks many variations of one loop into one giant super-loop, which is represented on-screen by the titular “donut”. The sound super-loop can in turn be manipulated in many different ways by stretching, moving, pinching and collapsing the donut.

Lucas from The Strange Agency has posted a long and very detailed explanation of the mathematical principles behind Donut over on their blog. Not being a big math whiz (I gave up after Algebra Trig), a lot of this flies over my head, but suffice it to say that a lot of thought went into the theoretical basis for this app. And as usual, half the fun with Donut is just tripping out on the amazing visuals. Watching the shape and motion of your donut shift right along with the sounds you’re manipulating makes for a very immersive experience.

So, how does it sound? Well, I’d say there are a fair amount of similarities to The Strange Agency’s great iPad app, Curtis, in terms of being able to produce glitchy, insect-like textures. After recording a quick sample of myself moaning and whistling, I was able to get all manner of clicky, buzzy, whirring sounds going in seconds – so if you’re looking to completely mangle audio and do some really experimental stuff, you’ll get virtually immediate gratification here. In terms of getting more subtle and melodic sounds, it’ll probably take a bit more practice, but check out the video above for a great example of what’s possible – there are some really beautiful Fennesz-like textures here.

Verdict: Another awesome and powerful app from The Strange Agency that is well worth your $9.99. Kudos to Lucas and co for continuing to deliver some of the most unique audio apps ever imagined.

Epic Synth recreates the Juno 106 on your iPad

As we discussed on the most recent episode of the Touch Sound Podcast, the iPad is rapidly becoming a synth lover’s dream. Over the last few months we’ve seen one great analog styled synth after another, from the Korg iMS-20, to SynthX, and the Sunrizer synth – and now you can add Epic Synth as well!

Epic Synth is a spot-on recreation of the Juno 106 in iOS form – and I say this as a former owner of a 106 – right down to that classic 80′s gray plastic look, and memory patches that don’t get names, only numbers (who needs em). It actually one-ups the 106 by including an arpeggiator with classic Up, Down, and Up/Down modes – a great feature from Roland predecessors like the Jupiter 8 and the Juno 60 that was inexplicably left off the 106.

First time developer JP Martineau has nailed the sound – OK, the bass may not be as huge as a real 106, but the filters are very convincing, and it’s certainly as good or better than TAL’s excellent VST emulation. The suboscillator is awesome and will make this my go-to synth for classic acid bass (try turning off the other waveforms and using only the subosc – awesome sounds).

So, do you really need another synth app? Well, for $4.99, this one was a no-brainer for me. Epic Synth manages to fill a unique void in my iOS synth collection as a vintage polysynth emulation – it definitely sounds more 1987 than 1977, but if you’re a Roland fan, this one should be on your iPad right alongside Sunrizer.

Episode 4 of the Touch Sound Podcast is out!

Episode 4 Touch Sound Podcast by TouchSoundPodcast

In Episode #04 we talk about Spotify in the US, SampleTank, Epic Synth, Addictive Synth, MicroTrack DB for Samsung Bada phones, the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer II, iRig MIDI, the Yamaha i-MX1 and the Fostex AR-4i microphone for the iPhone 4. And if that wasn’t enough for you, we also discuss the camera connection kit on the iPhone with iOS 5, some new apps coming up plus we interview Dan Radin from Alesis who talks to us in depth about Alesis and the iO Dock!

We’ve also got 5 copies of the DM1 drum machine, 2 copies of iBend Pro and 1 copy of Slide Control to give away! Just email us or send us a tweet if you want to win one of those apps!

Don’t forget to also send us feedback, questions or songs you want played on the show. Follow us on twitter @TouchSoundPC or send us an email to info[AT]touchsoundpodcast[DOT]com and if you like our show, don’t forget to rate us and leave us a review in iTunes.

Download or stream the Podcast from SoundCloud here.

Download Episode #04 direct from our site here (right click the link and select save as).

Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes here.

Full show notes with lots of useful links are here!

New Retronyms App – First Audio Demo

Universe In Us by retronyms

Retronyms just posted this audio clip, which is a demo song made with their new app. The app – which was announced on their blog a few days ago – seems to be some type of a DAW/all-in-one-production-studio, similar to NanoStudio.

The new app may (or may not) be called “Tabletop”, and may (or may not) have already been submitted to the App Store.

IK Multimedia teasing new iOS-related hardware

IK Multimedia has posted 4 teaser photos of what appears to be a new iOS-related hardware product to their Facebook page. While it’s a little tough to tell exactly what is going on here, I’m wondering if this could possibly be the dark horse audio interface/Alesis iO Dock competitor that Chris Randall has been hinting about recently. However, it’s unclear whether this product works with the iPad, iPhone/iPod, or both.

Interestingly enough though, the product seems to have a keyboard built in – so it could actually be like an Akai Synthstation 25 combined with an iO Dock, which would make it a great mobile/on-the-go solution. However, this would beg the question of whether or not the product also has Midi inputs and outputs, or whether it would only support Midi via the built-in keyboard.

Knowing IK Multimedia, this product will be very inexpensive, and aimed squarely at the consumer market. It also seems likely the launch of this product will coincide with the launch of a Sampletank app, as recently speculated by Palm Sounds.