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Crystal Synth XT (Universal)
Crystal XT is a full featured semi-modular synthesizer, ideally suited to creating lush evolving soundscapes. Crystal VST has long been a popular synthesizer on the desktop. Crystal XT brings that same powerful synthesis engine to the iPad and iPhone.
Crystal XT features MIDI keyboard input via the iPad’s camera adapter or the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer and sharing of sounds with the desktop version of Crystal.
Browse through the included sounds and use the 2 octave keypad to trigger notes to produce evolving, rhythmic, or melodic sounds. Create your own sounds with a single button press using the breed feature. When using an iPad, you can delve into a tweaker’s dream by using the extensive editing features to sculpt sounds to your heart’s content (editing features are only available when used on an iPad).
Crystal features both subtractive synthesis and frequency modulation (FM) synthesis. It offers abundant modulation control with over 90 parameters which may be modulated, multi-stage envelopes with graphical editors, extensive tempo sync of envelopes/lfo rates/delay times, built-in effects for chorus/flanging/comb filtering/echoes, and a band splitter for effects processing by frequency band. Not only that, Crystal has wave sequencing and granular synthesis. The musical applications for Crystal are literally boundless.
With MIDI keyboard input, you can connect a MIDI keyboard to your iPad and play Crystal XT like a hardware synth. Or use the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer and connect your MIDI keyboard to Crystal XT on an iPhone.
Use Virtual MIDI to play Crystal from a midi controller app. Use the Settings app to turn on the CrystalSynthXT Background Audio mode to enable Crystal to play audio when in the background. You can then play Crystal from a midi controller app which supports virtual midi.
To use with Audiobus, use the Settings app to turn on Background Audio for Crystal Synth XT.
With patch sharing you can create sounds on your iPad or iPhone while away from the studio, then transfer them to the desktop Crystal when you get back to the studio to use in recording projects. Or, create banks of sounds on the desktop Crystal, then transfer them to the iPad/iPhone Crystal to use in a live performance for a truly portable rig.
If you don’t need all the features of Crystal XT, try the basic version of Crystal, also available in the app store from Green Oak Software. With the basic version you can browse sounds, play notes, and create new sounds, taking advantage of its powerful semimodular synthesis engine. Crystal XT adds MIDI keyboard input via the iPad’s camera adapter and sharing of patches with the desktop version. Choose the app that is best for you!
Important note for iPhone and iPodTouch users: Crystal XT runs on both the iPad and the iPhone/iPod Touch. Because of the limited screen space on the iPhone however, the editing pages, which contain the edit controls, are not available when running on that device. But on the iPhone you can still browse sounds, play notes from the keypad, create new sounds with the Breed feature, and share sounds with desktop Crystal VST.
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I first became aware of Crystal Synth when I learned of it as a freeware project for Apple and Microsoft XP. It had a vibe not unlike Absynth 2 minus the fancier interface. Still, for a one man design compared to Native Instruments team was a major coup and remains so today.
To find it available on the iOS devices was an amazing spot of luck, even though the XP version (also fully programmable compared to the spare Crystal Synth, which did have limited programming for it’s free price) still had a feature set to be marveled at considering Crystal XP’s bargain $4.99 cost.
Keep in mind what the user gets….a fully realized semi-modular synthesizer with 3 nine point multiple stage oscillators, filters, LFOs, etc. Each point has 14 types of connections, quite a bit of selection in the normally mundane connection of envelope stages where 5 parts is considered generous.
Modulation envelopes are up to 9 points by 15 connectors by 15 types of connectors! Do you need to get so hyper-complex? No. In fact you can keep things relatively simple, but there are small to highly dynamic changes depending on how things are connected. In fact some connections require this intensive attention to detail. There are 6 LFOs along with 12 Mod Matrixes with 17 types of inputs to 82 outputs along with two precision controls.
Effects are relatively simple with reverb and mod based effects, including some EQ and delay section, the *skimpy* section of the synth. On the other hand there 17 types of oscillators x3. So as you look at the numbers you’ll see an embarrassing amount of riches with a massive amount of modulation and time based features.
The sound is clean and bright. To criticize, the sound can sometimes be a bit too bright to my liking. Still, it’s easy enough to EQ whatever is needed, be that reduction in brightness to darker sororities. There is so much pre and post effects based on oscillator properties or their post properties that there is almost any timbre you can enjoy.
My main enjoyment with CrystalSynth is the capability of doing simple but powerful analogish sounds….or beastly never ending soundscapes. You can create one note band-in-a-box orgies of sound that change over time to complex rhythmic beats. Everywhere you go there is choice and opportunity, for what else would semi-modular design mean?
No matter your musical style there is something in Crystal Synth XP’s set of features. While not the simplest synth to learn programming’ there’s even a patch breed feature. You select a mother and father patch and the spawn is an amalgam of both. Not always perfect the first time you can redo the patch-mating again.
Say you have something almost to your satisfaction, you can save it and start the mating with other patches or take over the more complex patch editing functions. There is so much you can create it is amazing.