Was 2023 the biggest year for iOS music making EVER?
It certainly felt like it, with big name plugin manufacturers releasing some of their greatest hits on the platform, first time developers dropping some amazing new apps and even Apple finally giving serious musicians and producers a reason to create on an iPad.
Creating best of lists like this gets harder and harder every year and trying to whittle down all of the amazing apps I enjoyed this year to just 10 has been almost impossible. Having said that, here are what I think are the Best iOS Music Production Apps of 2023!
As always if there’s anything you think i’ve missed or any of my picks you don’t agree with, sound off in the comments below!
The Best iOS Music Production Apps of 2023
Saga Synth
“A collaboration with producer Brian Funk, who brought in sounds from his excellent (and previously Ableton Live only) 16 Bit preset pack, Saga Synth absolutely nails that 16 bit retro sound. Not only that, it hits 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.”
King of FM
“Yes there are other free synth and instrument Apps on iOS, but King of FM is something altogether different. This is a full fat, fully featured app that is on par AT LEAST with many premium synth apps.
It’s accessible, sounds incredible and comes packed with enough sounds and editing features to keep even the most synth savvy sound designers happy for hours.”
Super VHS
“Super VHS combines six different effects together including tape saturation, pitch drift, sample-rate reduction, grainy reverb, static noise and drive to produce some of the best sounding modulation-y sounds around. An absolute must have for anyone who want to add a little nostalgic flavor to their sounds, I LOVE this thing.”
BA-1 Synthesizer
“There are no shortage of synth apps on iOS (especially this year), but BA-1 stands out from the crowd with some unique sound design possibilities while being accessible enough for newcomers to not feel overwhelmed. It’s hard to believe this is Baby Audio’s First ever instrument – I can’t wait to see what they come up with in 2024.”
Voices
“Apps aimed at vocal production are few and far between on iOS for some reason, So when BLEASS released Voices this year it was a revelation. Of course, BLEASS being BLEASS, this isn’t a straightforward pitch correction or formant shifting type of affair. Instead, Voices is dedicated to pitching, transforming, doubling and harmonizing vocals and other monophonic sources.”
Mariana
“Mariana is a dual-layer bass synthesizer, allowing you to mix together two completely different synthesizer sounds. And the sounds here are top tier. “While Moog describe Mariana as a Bass synthesizer (and it does do all of the low end stuff exceptionally well), it’s also capable of some truly beautiful ambient pad sounds too as well as pretty much everything in between.
Moog don’t really miss when it comes to Synth apps and Mariana is no exception.”
Phase Monkey
“Phase monkey is one of the very few phase distortion synths on iOS, providing users with eight phase distortion waveforms, multiple envelopes and loads more. Nothing else on the App Store really sounds like this and as if that wasn’t enough, both of Sketch Audio’s Apps are Universal purchases on Apple platforms: meaning once you’ve purchased them, you can download and use them on Apple Silicon Macs too.”
SUBscription Synth
“For International Joke day 2023 Caelum Audio intended to release another lighthearted app but instead gave us one of the most unique synths ever created. The secret sauce here is Subscription synth’s text-to-synthesis engine. It’s mental and brilliant and well worth having a fiddle with.”
Mela 4
“Mela 4 from Nikolowzi Meladze is quite possibly the most flexible App on the App store. It’s modular, so you can do things like build a custom monophonic synthesizer to jam with in standalone mode, or load it as an effects app in your DAW of choice. Flexibility aside, Mela 4 also just sounds really bloody good.”
Logic Pro for iPad
“Not a straight up port of the macOS version (and all the better for it), Logic Pro for iPad was instead built from the ground up around touch. The amount of features Apple have crammed into this App while keeping it intuitive, accessible and usable on screens as small as 8.3” is nothing short of incredible.”
