bismark bs-16i

What it does

A sixteen part multitimbral sample player that loads SoundFont SF2 and DLS files as wavetables, with eight library slots for imported banks. Each part takes an instrument, a MIDI receive channel, volume, pan, solo, mute and sends to the built in reverb, chorus and delay, plus portamento, an envelope, a filter with cutoff and Q, and an LFO. Two on-screen keyboards can sit on separate MIDI channels with splits, scenes store a whole layered setup, and a player imports and plays MIDI files through the loaded sounds.

In the demo

Jade imports free SF2 banks, including a keys set and a Sega Master System bank, then stacks four parts on one MIDI channel to build a string section. She plays a game soundtrack MIDI file through it and loads it as an AUv3 in GarageBand, where each instance holds a single instrument.

Worth knowing

Large SoundFonts sit in RAM, so several instances with big banks will push an iPad. In-app purchases raise polyphony from 64 to 128 and add a high resolution engine; Jade works without them for most of the demo.