Polywave for iPhone

A new Synth for the iPhone which looks quite interesting.

Polywave is a polyphonic graphic synthesizer built from the basic elements of subtractive synthesis. At its core, Polywave is has one oscillator, one filter, one envelope, one low frequency oscillator, and a 4 octave touchpad.

Polywave has been designed to be an introductory synthesizer for budding sound sculptor with enough features that even a pro will enjoy creating sounds in a new and unique way.

Polywaves takes the synthesizer into the visual realm by allowing you to draw the waveform of the oscillator, envelope, and LFO. You are literally playing the sound that you have drawn on screen.

By drawing the waveform of the oscillator, you can create very complex waveforms that would take a host of modules and manipulation just by swiping your finger across the screen. In the oscillator screen, you can apply either the envelope or LFO to modulate the pitch of the oscillator over time. Don't let the display fool you, the oscillator waveform has a much higher resolution than what is shown on screen. Polywave tracks every pixel your finger touches while drawing the waveform.

Since you can also draw the envelope and LFO controllers in any shape you want, you can make wild, unheard of sounds by applying these controllers to either the pitch or filter destinations.

To use the envelope, draw the shape of the envelope (goodbye ASDR) and set where you want the sustain to hold. (TIP: by drawing above the middle of the window, the envelope values will be positive, by drawing below, the values will be negative.)

To use the LFO, draw the shape of the waveform and set the speed at which it repeats.

If you need to get that perfect waveform, don't fret, by holding any top button down, a list of available presets will be displayed.

To take it further, 3 filter modes are available, this includes the standard low pass filter, high pass filter, and band pass filter. The filter curve is The filter also allows the routing either the envelope or LFO to modulate the cutoff frequency.


Polywave features at a glance:

• 4 Octave touchpad
• pitch glide
• Polyphonic Graphic Oscillator
• Pitch modulation
• Oscillator Presets - Sine, Triangle, Saw, Square, blank
• Filter
• Filter modulation
• Filter Presets - Low pass, High pass, Band pass
• Graphic Envelope
• Envelope Sustain position
• Envelope Presets - ASDR Positive, EXP Positive, ASDR Negative, EXP Negative, blank
• Graphic LFO
• LFO rate
• LFO Presets - Sine, Ramp Up, Ramp Down, Square, blank