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Synergy Studio (iPad)
Synergy Studio is a sequencer that enables music creation by all musical abilities. By simply tapping on the grid interface users can lay down a series of notes and patterns of up to 64 notes to create a musical sequence.
If you are a seasoned musician looking for a tool to help lay down new ideas or need more advanced features then Synergy has the lot, a fully integrated mixer, lots of plug-in effects, complete customization of instruments and patches and extensive automation facilities.
If you want to experiment more, you can add multiple layers to your patterns by selecting different instruments for each layer. As you build up your layers you can create intricate musical patterns. By switching to the fully integrated mixer and effects options you can take your patterns to a professional level.
There are four main instrument categories to choose from: Drums, Analogue Synthesizer, Sample and Pad Synth. Each category contains different types of instruments – for example in the drum kit category you can choose from an array of different kits including Analogue T9, Orchestra, Rock and Techno. Further instrument packs are available in the Synergy’s free sound library or as In-App purchases.
Synergy includes MIDI implementation enabling you to interact with MIDI hardware, such as Synths and Samplers creating a powerful live tool.
Musicians can share projects with other iOS devices. Simply select the WIST function located at the top of the screen to seamlessly connect with other iPad to share tracks and projects with one another.
Exporting your finished songs and patterns from Synergy is just as easy with built in functionality for Dropbox, SoundCloud, Email, Pasteboard or exports directly into other apps such as Meteor Multitrack Recorder.
Although Synergy will run on the iPad 1, to get the full benefit we recommend an iPad 2 or later.
FEATURES:
- Choose your pattern length from 16, 32 and 64 notes.
- 11 Drum Kits, 42 Analogue Synth instruments, 55 Sampler instruments, 21 Pad Synth instruments.
- Further instruments available from free Sound library and in-App purchases.
- Edit existing instruments to create new ones and save them to use again.
- Easily connect and interact with other MIDI controls.
- Fully integrated mixer and effects unit available.
- 3 BAND Parametric EQ on each of the 16 layers to control the tonal content of a layer.
- Automate panning, fading and effects using the mixer.
- Export and share to other iOS devices via Bluetooth, Pasteboard, SoundCloud, DropBox, Email and FTP
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The current discount covers the cost of all the IAPs and saves you a dollar…this app has 3 different deeply editable types of synths, (editable and automatable parameters including filter, lfo, oscillator harmonics etc) including a userloadable keyboard multi sampler, (pasteboard or live sampling). The drums are also user loadable…
Whats happening here is an incredible amount of automation: all synth parameters, all fx parameters, (including threshold for your sidechain ducking) all mixer parameters (including automation for parametric and multi band eq). You can automate tempo changes for goodness sake. And then there’s an amazing arpeggiator. This app made me reinstall Meteor, which I’m now feeding multitrack compositions from Synergy for track editing mixing and adding instrument tracks- A note about Synergy: like Aurora, Synergy isn’t a toy, there is definitely a learning curve. The “latency” issue you may have read about in appstore reviews is a case in point: along with the tenori-on style matrix sequencer you can enter notes or drum hits live with keys or pads, but you have to set the swing and shuffle to zero, or there’s a seeming “latency”. This is a R.T.F.M. type app, meaning that if you do indeed read the f-ing manual, you might find that 4pockets figured out some stuff that you hadn’t.
The program isn’t started on the iPad 2, takes off!
I haven’t tried any other 4pockets apps, but I was still a bit hesitant to drop 20$ on synergy still because of what I’ve heard about their other apps. TBH, I’m glad I eventually bought it. Synergy studio is a fantastic platform for sketching out song ideas. The included instruments/sounds are fantastic, especially the sampler ones, and cover the basics of different musical instruments. I probably wouldn’t hold it as high as Nanostudio for several reasons (nanostudio has been more developed, no annoying IAP). The question “is it worth it?” Is a tough one to answer. For anything in the world of this quality outside of the iPad, this would probably be expensive as hell, making this an excellent price. For iPad apps, it’s pricey and doesn’t have many of the features of other less expensive apps. However the matrix synth thing is very inspiring, and I bought the app not to eclipse my other applications, but to approach music production in a new way. And in this aspect, it succeeds. Hopefully the developer will continue to support Synergy by adding new (free) features.
I’d give it a 9/10
Pros:
Excellent, inspiring workflow
Easy to learn
Good variety and quality of bundled instruments.
A lot of well thought out “shortcuts” so to say that really improve the already good interface.
Cons:
Annoying IAPs for things IMO should have been included free (mainly the compressor and distortion)
It’s high price relative to other iOS apps
No visible beat or measure divisions at each beat/measure, making counting necessary.
No scale function that I’m aware of
It ain’t perfect, but it serves its purpose more than well, and I found it worth the asking price.
what do people think of this app? I havent bought it, I have been disenchanted with 4Pockets apps as I own Meteor, Stompbox and Aurora. I gave up on Aurora very quickly because I hate the sounds and the overall navigation and UI, so I have held off from Synergy.