4Waves Synth, New AUv3 Virtual Analog Synthesizer For iOS

January 2, 2021 Synth Anatomy iOS, News, Software 0

4Waves Synth is a beginner- and CPU friendly virtual analog Synthesizer from Pablo Lopez with two oscillators and filters for iOS (AUv3).

The first article for 2021. Happy New Year everyone. The year starts with a new Synthesizer for iOS, the platform that I gave less focus on in 2020. Sorry for this, hope to find more time for iOS in 2021.

4Waves Synth is a new AUv3 virtual analog Synthesizer only for iPad from Pablo Lopez.

4Waves Synth

It is very straightforward and has a very classic engine with two oscillators + subs, two filters, two envelopes, and a multi-effect processor. The latter includes an additional filter, tremolo, chorus, phaser, flanger, delay, and effect. Each effect has different parameters with which you can adjust the timbre of it. Further modulation options such as an LFO, S&H, or a random generator are completely missing.

The layout is very much designed to learn the individual areas of synthesis. 4Waves Synth is less suited to building complex sounds. It has too few features for this and is too limited in its sound. Perfect for designing classic, bread and butter basses, leads, and pads. Exactly the sounds you have to master at the beginning before you descend into the very deep waters of synthesis.

Then it’s compatible with MIDI learn, Bluetooth LE MIDI, and ships with 100 factory presets. According to the developer, it is very CPU friendly. 4Waves Synth is both a standalone app and an AUv3 plugin. This means you can use several instances of it on a track or in a layered patch.

Doug from The Sound Test Room YouTube channel released a sound demo of it. Be careful, this is still the old GUI. The new 1.1 update features an improved color scheme.