Kalimba: Pocket Synth

What it does

A kalimba instrument played from configurable touch strips rather than a keyboard. Three pluck engines run together, a sampled kalimba, a physically inspired E-Kalimba and a wavetable voice, each with presets and tone controls, plus sustain layers that turn the same tones into pads. Keys, scales and strip count from five to seventeen are adjustable, four LFOs are drawn directly onto the strips, and strum, arp, repeat and a looper sit along the bottom. It runs standalone, as an AUv3 instrument, and as an AUv3 MIDI processor.

In the demo

Jade drives Emperor PolySynth and a piano from the MIDI version while playing the instrument itself, then takes it apart engine by engine. She works the performance buttons by swiping, sets looper lengths and overdubs, and draws LFOs onto the strips with a finger.

Worth knowing

It needs iOS 26 or later, and the free download holds back the keys, layouts, scales, AUv3 and MIDI out until the in-app purchase. Jade also hits a snag where some performance settings do not take effect on camera.