OCTANE

What it does

A sample-based rompler with a store of downloadable packs covering 808s, guitars, pianos, atmospheres, chiptune, brass and drum kits. Two sample layers stack with independent envelopes, reverse, arpeggiators and gain. Around them sit a filter, delay, reverb, trance gate, distortion, ring modulator, tremolo, a six-band EQ, dynamics, and a lo-fi page with flutter, crackle and bit crushing.

In the demo

Jade signs in, walks the pack store hearing previews from Halloween, 8-bit, 808 and atmosphere packs, and shows the same license running in GarageBand on her Mac. She layers a piano against strings under two different arpeggiators, then degrades a pad through the lo-fi section.

Worth knowing

It needs an account, buying happens on SoundWare’s site rather than the App Store, all packs run 8 to 10 GB, there are no internal LFOs, and preset changes take a moment to load. Not built for fast sound switching in a live set.