Matthew Caldwell Vagabond is a free, idiosyncratic wavetable synth for iOS with 4 unison oscillators and AUv3 support.
Developer Matthew Caldwell has been delighting us with free FX apps for many years. He recently updated his older iOS FX apps with AUv3 support. For example, the spectral delay plugin Frobulator.
Today is a good day. Matthew Caldwell’s first free Synthesizer for iOS is out now, and it’s called Vagabond Synth.
Matthew Caldwell Vagabond
Vagabond is a new free Synthesizer for iOS. Matthew Caldwell describes Vagabon as an idiosyncratic wavetable Synthesizer. This is probably because the feature set isn’t quite as classic as what you’d expect from many wavetable synths.
It’s a 16-voice polyphonic Synthesizer with four wavetable oscillators. You don’t have access to all four oscillators. They’re all in a permanent unison relationship. You can tweak them with three parameters: shape, detune, and spread. There is also a sub-oscillator.
Then, you have a multimode filter with selectable 12 dB and 24dB slopes and low-pass, high-pass, and band-pass options. You can make your classic filter sweeps with the frequency and resonance knobs.
On the modulation side, it has a tweakable ADSR envelope and an LFO with adjustable rate – very simple. To refine your sounds, it offers echo, space reverb, drive, and an internal signal boost. Sounds can be saved in the app or in your favorite AUv3 host.
As a bonus, Matthew added a MIDI processor plugin called Twelve, a generative music toy that produces 12-bar blues sequences. Good: The Vagabond uses this for demo purposes, but you can also use it with other AUv3 plugins.
First Impression
I downloaded the Vagabond Synth right away, and yes, it’s a wavetable synth with a quirky sound. I expect it will find its fans; others, perhaps, less so. It’s nice, though, that there are more and more free AUv3 Synthesizer plugins available.
Matthew Caldwell Vagabond is now available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) as a free download and runs as a standalone app and an AUv3 plugin.
More information here: Apple App Store
A truly fantastic app!
sounds great – and twelve is weirdly amazing.