Since releasing their first proper paid music production App six years ago, AudioKit have carved out their own niche as the wildcard of iOS music production developers.
From quirky, boutique drum machines, to retro themed synths/romplers and even standalone (and free) effects, AudioKit have taken a crack at pretty much every type of iOS music production app imaginable.
Their latest release sees lead developer Matthew Fecher come full circle, with a remake of their previously mentioned inaugural app; Digital D1.
While considered by many to be one of the best sounding iOS synth apps to this day, Digital D1 is unfortunately held back by unstable AUv3 integration, making incorporating it into your iOS DAW of choice an unfortunately hit and miss affair.
Enter King of Digital, a truly astounding synth app that not only serves as a worthy successor to Digital D1, but also the culmination of Matthew Fecher’s work over the last year or so.
The Biggest App Ever?
So determined was AudioKit developer Matthew Fecher to deliver a proper remake of Digital D1 to users, he painstakingly imported all 300 original presets. Not only that, he also added hundreds more, resulting in King of Digital releasing with over 900 preset sounds in total.
In Matthew’s own words:
“The new sounds are pretty epic. And the old ones are like a time machine through the past six years of iOS Music, with legendary presets from Brice Beasley, DMT Cymatics, Moby Pixel, Red Sky Lullaby, Jakob Haq, Electronisounds (Dean Daughters), Sound of Izrael, rs2000, Mitch the AudioDabbler, Brian Funk, and more.”
Get a taste of the sounds on offer with Doug from the SoundTestRoom as he puts King of Digital through its paces in the video below.
Fully Featured
If you’re familiar with any of AudioKit’s recent synth releases (VHS Synth, Saga Synth, King of FM, SNES Synth) you’ll feel right at home here.
King of Digital’s UI is split over five tabs, where you’ll find effects, multiple oscillators, LFO controls and a robust sequencer.
Other features include:
- 64-voice Hybrid Digital Poly Synthesis.
- Full 3 Gigabyte of original samples recorded from analog & fm synths over 30+ years old.
- Space-saving “KING” Compression –
All sounds and expansions are 450mb total! - AUv3 Plug-in for your favorite iOS DAW or Host
- Dual Independent per-Layer Filters (choice of LowPass, HighPass, and BandPass)
- Dual layers per voice. Keyboard splits.
- Fun Step Sequencer
- 3 LFOs. LFOs can modify other LFOs
- Per-voice harmonic key tracked Envelope filters
- Gorgeous 64-voice, Beautiful iPad Synth
- Each voice is composed of Two layers. Each layer has:
+ Option of PCM Synthesis or Virtual Analog
+ Per-voice Harmonic Envelope Filters
+ Dedicated Sample-set and Note-range
+ Dedicated ADSR amp envelope
+ Dedicated Stereo Filter (Low/High/Band-Pass)
+ Dedicated Level and Pan controls
+ MIDI velocity scaling controls - Three (3) independent LFOs
+ LFO routings include: Filter cutoff, Resonance, Pan, Layer Mix, Detune, Distortion, Chorus Depth, Flanger Depth, and more
+ LFO has selectable sine/square/ramp up/ramp down, rate and depth controls
+ LFOs can modify other LFOs - Ableton Link
- App uses less than 500mb of disk space!
- Optionally Tempo-sync’d effect knobs and LFOs
- Layers are combined with a “layer mix” control (can be linked to mod wheel)
- Stereo PCM with velocity layers, using near-lossless compression
- Selectable play modes: polyphonic, mono and mono+legato
- Adjustable pitch-glide rate for mono+legato
King of Synth Apps?
You can use King of Digital in standalone mode or hook it up to your DAW of choice as an AUV3 plugin. In GarageBand that means navigating to the External section of the instrument selection screen and choosing Audio Unit Extensions.
This is yet another App built on AudioKit’s new, more stable AUV3 code, which can only be a good thing. I certainly didn’t run into any issues or glitches while testing.
Audiokit have once again nailed that balance of accessibility and ease of use for iOS synth newcomers, while giving advanced users the tools to really dig into the sound design process.
And dig in you should. This is an astoundingly great sounding and intuitive synth app that will keep you busy for hours.
King of Digital is available on the iOS App Store for iPad and iPhone here. It’s currently at an intro price of $3.99/£3.99. DISCLAIMER: I beta tested and reviewed a pre-release version of King of Digital. I bought the full App on release day with my own money.
