CyberGene

As far as I understand the OP basically needs to just quickly switch between 4 audio apps on the iPad, having the plug-in window with the controls visible on the screen. I think if that’s your only use case, a particular workaround would be to totally abandon the idea of using a DAW like Camelot Pro. Instead, use all the audio apps in standalone mode and just make sure you disable background app refresh for each of them. That would make the app stop immediately when switching to the other audio app. Have them all loaded once each, then just double-click the home button to bring the task manager and switch to the other app. Not sure how quick that would be though. But have in mind if you’re not gonna use layering between the apps in Camelot or AUM, yet you want them to be loaded in memory and ready to play, might actually made things worse than just switching between them in standalone like regular apps.

As you know on iOS you have only one app visible on the screen at any moment (yes, they added split screen multitasking, etc but those are rather different things). Since these software instrument apps are meant to be mostly used in standalone mode like the only app running, any further complication such as using them as plugins in a DAW are going to be awkward. You can’t have the DAW as your running app but show the plug-in window on full-screen. It can be shown in a frame and that is supported by AUv3 plugins (but not Inter-App audio plugins which is the older standard). But I’m not sure if that frame can be huge enough to be very usable, it’s already a sacrifice and a stretch to the mobile OS needs.

^ Indeed, you beat me to it 😀

I think the paradigm of opening a window within a window is part of the desktop OS design and not really available in a mobile OS such as iOS. You can’t expect from a mobile DAW (or whatever that host program is) to open the hosted plugins interfaces and switch between them like a breeze. BUT! Actually iOS made it possible for AUv3 plugins to show their interface and controls within the host app 😀 So, yes, Camelot could be made doing what you wanted. What I’m saying is it’s a rather edge case and not something you could expect as “ground zero” from a mobile OS.

Well, people are quite right, it sounds digital and a lot of that 😀 I can make it sound very analog though, through clever programming (filter drive, warm mode, analog feel, tweaked envelope curves, free running OSC, etc) but my point was rather it’s a rather inexpensive digital synth that (most probably?) doesn’t have a very powerful DSP chip yet can sound warm, so it shouldn’t be difficult to create VA engines in digital synths that are closer to vintage synths. But as you noted, VA means VA: an idealized (generic) analog synth behavior. The notion of a Virtual Vintage Analog engine is more of a niche concept. Although in the software plugin world it’s heavily exploited and I even think those plugins that emulate real vintage synths from the past might be more than the generic VA synths.

^ You made a lot of good points, thanks 👍🏻 I have almost found my ideal pair: the CP88 and a Hydrasynth but I thought it would be great if there was a single keyboard that can do both. There’s the Nord Stage but I’m not super convinced by its VA and besides it’s too expensive. Then keyboards like Fantom, Montage/MODX, PC4 would be the answer (although I don’t like complicated interfaces). But the synth sounds in the PC4 are not to my taste judging from the demos, although it has a VA engine. Mind you, I’m exactly after those wobbly and lush synth sounds since my idea is for a small duo with a bassist where the entire soundscape will be coming from me, hence the need for super warm and vintage sound. I had the MODX and sold it, analog synths were not its strength. Vox Continental looks like a lot on paper but its VA is actually just a bunch of non-modifiable patches that I don’t even like. Fantom actually sounds good but I’m afraid of its interface. Seems I may resort to using U-He stuff on a laptop along with the CP88 after all.

With the disclaimer I haven’t owned any of those and only listened to Internet demos, those are the Kurzweil VA, Roland Zen-core, the one in the Vox Continental, Modal Argon off the top of my mind. I’m not sure what exactly the Zen-core encompass but some of those are good like the Jupiter/Juno but not the RD88.

Straight to the point: why are the VA engines in most digital keyboards so silly? They don’t sound like a Moog or a Prophet or a OB, etc. Or in other words they are not Virtual Vintage Analog but rather literally just Virtual Analog: razor-sharp, clean and clear mathematically perfect saw or pulse waves, through an ideal filter and an envelope and a LFO. It’s just so boring and lifeless. Is it because they lack processing power and resources? For instance the U-He Diva and Re-Pro plugins are the real deal but they’re taxing on the CPU. But then a dedicated keyboard DSP chip should be able to emulate vintage analog peculiarities. For instance I can make my Hydrasynth to sound vintage and I don’t believe it has a really powerful CPU. Which makes me think most manufacturers just don’t bother creating proper VA implementations that emulate vintage synths. Might be wrong though.

As a listener I never go to places where there are cover bands playing.

Yes, AUM is the way to load multiple software instruments on your iPad and multiple MIDI controllers and route signals, etc.

According to their website: Not sure what exactly is modeled and what sampled (usually they model the resonance) but it's also possible that they put short samples in it, it's an organ board after all.

I'm pretty happy with all the acoustic and electric pianos in the CP88. Apparently I've missed the first survey, I would've voted for something else, a baby grand is not a bad idea, or maybe another upright piano... What I'd love to have is Solina strings sounds and portamento for the synth leads, as well as filter cutoff control if possible. (the YC has it and I doubt it requires a lot of resources since filtering and portamento have been AWM standard features for ages)

Yeah, I received an email with a link to four different audio demos to order them to my preference 😀 I chose one that was the brightest as the best... What kind of CP is sampled in our CP73/88 then? I thought it was a CP70 or CP80, why will they add a new sample set? Maybe it's for the Motif or some other keyboard? P.S. According to the CP88 manual, there are two CP80 voices, so it's surprising that there will be a third one. Honestly I've never been too impressed with the classic CP80 sound and I find these two in the CP88 good enough. But maybe there are other people who wanted a different type of sound?

Correct me if I'm wrong but the piano in the Mojo is a modeled one. So, it's understandable, modeled pianos are love or hate. I can't stand modeled pianos: Pianoteq, Roland V-Piano and SN modeled, Arturia, Viscount Physis... They all make me sick. It's a well-known phenomenon on piano forums which has been discussed to death and is always one of the best subjects for a heated argument 😀 Sampled pianos are so much better to my ears.

Wow, I didn't know about that guy. Listened to that video in a single breath, so interesting, thanks a lot! I'll be watching that guy a lot. I've been flirting with the idea to experiment with orchestration and movie soundtrack composition (for fun of course) but didn't know where to start. That seems like a pretty good starting point 👍🏻

I've been unable to log in for at least a month, maybe even two. I'd search something on the Internet and would get a result to that forum (I'm registered and have previously posted) but it wouldn't show me the thread unless I'm logged in, however logging in has been broken for me for all that time. And so, I stopped opening links to it and thought it was closed.

Thanks for that advice! It itself is worthy for an entirely new thread IMO. As a huge fan of symphonic/orchestral classical music, I often am amazed at what richness and variety those old masters could achieve with a limited set of instruments in an orchestra by clever combinations between instruments, repetitions across different sections and whatnot, it's certainly not possible to mention all the stuff these grand masters have established for centuries... I'm wondering to what degree these techniques can be translated into modern music.

I love hearing transistor organ sound thrown in for color here and there but I'm not sure I can listen to an entire concert where the keyboardist is using only a transistor organ, except maybe if it was The Doors.

I've found that I usually expect any patch to play like a piano or Rhodes or a warm pad or a synth lead 😀 And when it doesn't, I say "meh". Depends on what type of music you're doing but sometimes I've discovered that if I start noodling with a patch and seeing if the patch can give me hints of what it can do, rather than me forcing it to sound like what it can't, then there's a success. That's been recently, after I started researching music styles such as Electronica, dark wave, alternative, etc.

Just for information, on a piano only the A4 should be measured with a chromatic tuner. All other frequencies will be off due to the inharmonicity of the strings which is why they are tuned aurally or by using a specialized tuner that measures inharmonicity. That being said, A4 should be dead on, so it’s really odd what you describe.

Sorry for the lame title. Reading another thread where Moog One is being mentioned as a synth with a lot of meh presets that needs people to program it from scratch, I remembered about my MODX which was an excellent preset-machine: all presets were wonderful, however to me it was difficult to tweak them in any way due to convoluted concepts and inhumane user interface. So, what keyboard/synth/workstation do you think has the best of both worlds: tons of excellent presets that are ready to play but is also easy and intuitive enough to tweak these presets the way you want without having to obtain a PHD in its sound architecture and UI? 😀

I'm not that enthusiastic about the reface CP. The Rhodes sounds are audibly stretched, especially in the bass region where it is apparent how a single sample is shared by multiple keys. While I can hear this with my CP88 too, it's only for certain patches and is not that audible.

I sold mine for €185 two months ago, damn...

What I heard here is really bland, bordering on annoying and obnoxious, however since I knew nothing about him, I just read the Wikipedia article about him and realized he has composed some soundtracks, including for The Father (with Anthony Hopkins) which was a great movie and I don't remember being annoyed by the soundtrack, actually I don't remember it, maybe it was subtle and unobtrusive, but that's still a success because I would have been annoyed if it was the same music as the one that is linked here.

I was recently at a team building where there were young people from our team who seemed to aggressively impose what music we should listen to. It was basically one and same song to me, the same rhythm, the same ugly way of singing, the same arrangement. To my taste it was not just annoying but obnoxious. I learned later it’s called reggaeton. I really can’t imagine how one can like that thing… But apparently there’s music for everybody 😢