CreativeApplications.Net reports innovation and catalogues projects, tools and platforms relevant to the intersection of art, media and technology. Read more here.

t f r

Search

Jasuto [iPhone, Sound]

jasuto000

Jasuto is an iPhone music app (and a VST Plugin) that can rightly claim to be the first modular synthesizer on the platform. Jasuto lets you build your own patches or synths similar to how you would in Reaktor or SynthEdit, albiet in a much more simplified environment. Modules are represented on screen as circular objects and connecting them is only a matter of placing them near each other. The orientation of the modules relative to each other matters, since placing a module to the left of another may connect to a different input than placing it to the right. How far apart the modules are determines the volume level. If you’ve ever seen the reacTable, it’s very similar to that. Jasuto comes with simple sequencers, oscillators, filters, effects, and the ability to load samples. Jasuto keeps all the modules fairly simplistic – the goal is to make modular synthesis fun and easy. Each module usually offers only a couple tweakable parameters. For that reason Jasuto falls somewhere between a musical instrument toy and a full music program – it’s too complicated to be a toy (synthesizer novices won’t get it) and it doesn’t have enough options to make a song with.

Loved:

Simple, easy to understand interface
Method of uploading / downloading patches to the application, via built in http server. Very nice!
Motion recording

Didn’t Like:

Method of connecting modules, while easy and lending itself to free experimentation, is actually pretty limiting. It feels like I am fighting against the automatic connections rather than having them working for me. I would rather have direct control of what gets connected to what.

Suggestions:

Since this app is very similar to reacTable, it would be cool to borrow some more of it’s strengths – reacTable lets you rotate modules to modify parameters. Maybe the scale gesture could also do something (make a module louder perhaps?). Also, if this app aims to be true modular toy, then I think the modules need to be of a higher order. For instance, include some more ‘ready made’ synths or analog drum beats that can be dropped on and edited in simple ways, such as changing tempo, pitch, rhythm, etc. The average iPhone user might not know how to build a synthesizer from scratch but he might have fun playing around with patterns, modulation and effects.

Conclusion:

If you are modular synth fanatic, or have been looking to start your own iPhone-only experimental music band, then this might be the application you’ve been searching for. For the rest of us, Jasuto might be fun to load up once in a while to come up with new sound effects. At $4.99, it’s not really that expensive and I doubt many people will regret the purchase.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.1
Cost: $4.99
Developer: Chris Wolfe
itunes

jasuto01jasuto02jasuto03jasuto04

Related Posts with Thumbnails