King of Digital

What it does

A 64 voice hybrid synth for iPhone and iPad, standalone and AUv3, drawing on digital keyboards of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Each patch layers two sources: a PCM sample from banks arranged like old cartridges, or an oscillator with a 90s mode that adds grit when on and cleans up when off. Level, tuning, fine tune, pan and linked or separate ADSRs sit under both. Around them are three LFOs, a lo-fi crusher, a Pro Reverb that slides between room, chamber, hall and canyon, phaser, chorus, distortion, tremolo, a harmonic filter, delay, a step sequencer and keyboard splits. Over 900 presets ship, including the sounds from AudioKit’s older Digital D1 and its expansion.

In the demo

Jade runs six instances in one project, then goes section by section, splitting the keyboard between layers and putting the sequencer on one side only, before a long play through of the preset banks.

Worth knowing

Around 3 GB of samples are compressed into the download. It is iPhone and iPad only, with no Mac version.