Tera Synth for Android

A finest example of truly versatile MASSIVE synth that’s intuitively designed not to feel like it’s overwhelming or all over the place! It’s a semi-modular synth, meaning there are fixed number of modules that you can hook up in any way. Once you start experimenting with it, the range of sounds is very wide, and the sound quality is great even without fx applied (the only way to test a synth is with fx Off). As far as semi-modular synths go, Tera is one of the most straightforward ones I’ve ever seen. It’s got a sliding UI that you basically slide from left to right to get to various units. But this is done nicely (not like in Reason iOS), and there’s accelerated scrolling so you can quickly get from one side to the other. Now when I say it’s easy to use, I mean making it do exactly what you want to do quickly. There are a LOT of variation/complexity in what can be done in terms of chaining, filter types, sound sources... can’t even list them all. I can list modulation, you get 4 LFOs, 4 ADSRs, 4 MENV (this is like envelope but you can daw path and more stuff, really cool!) With so much going on, the app runs very efficiently, which is very important on iOS because latest iPads have very limited resources when compared with even much older laptops. Overview - UI is simple/quick to use. Each of those knobs you see, controls amount of whatever it says, the slider underneath controls modulation intensity of this item (up - normal, down opposite), and the box underneath is a modulation source (LFO, env, etc..) Some can have more than one of these. If you scroll to the very right, you’ll see Amplifier, this is where you start. You see 2 input sources with a blend knob on it. For example you can put Filter-1 here. Then scroll to Filter-1 section, which also has an Input box, and you can put OSC-1 there that’s it - you got sound. Or you could put another filter there, a mixer, or something else, but this is basically how you chain things. UI might appear a bit boring looking, like a schematic, but controls are all well placed so it’s super quick to use, and that’s a whole lot more important than flashy colors with limited sound capabilities. There are 2 screens, Synth and Modulation, that control the synth directly (there are also Arp and FX screens). When you tap on modulation box in the Synth screen you get a popup of the thing (LFO, ENV, etc) so you can adjust it directly without going into MOD screen (though you get even more options through MOD) Presets - are alphabetically ordered so you don’t need to mess around with silly slots that have to be rearranged by hand. You have 8 categories (folders) and all are accessible to put your own presets there. There’s one dedicated user folder too, but you can’t create your own folders. Instead of using the user folder I just put stuff into existing ones like Leads, Bass, etc, just a tip for you though - make sure to name all your presets starting with “!” so that alphabetically they’ll show up first. I use the User folder for work-in-progress presets, and finished ones into categories. You can export/backup individual presets, but not the whole folders. Hopefully developer could implement this function as I’ve made a bunch of really crazy presets already, would be nice to back them up all at once. In summary- Absolutely must have musical instrument. Produces Wide range of *usable* melodic content, and you can also make it scream and make noise and all kinds of weird evolving sounds, heavy bass, and percussive sounds too. Personally, I tend to use it most for more melodic leads. Can’t believe I only just got it! Instantly became part of my top favs group along with LayR, SynthMaster One, Zeeon, Factory and Kauldron. (All of which I highly and equally recommend) Two requests for the developers: A small shortcut-tab on the Synth screen to quickly jump to [OSC 1], [Filter 1], etc would make the workflow even quicker. Oh, and mass-export the presets for backup purposes. My Mobile is 512gb, so I prefer backing things up selectively, and with so many cool presets I’ve made so far, it would be very hard to back them all up one by one.

After making several recordings, discovered they do NOT appear in the iTunes file sharing window. They can NOT be pasted into other applications, do not export into Audioshare or Audio paste, cannot be shared via Airdrop (says “failed”) cannot be saved in Dropbox (says “error”), and cannot be mailed (crashes the program). Basically, any recordings made within the app are unusable.

I’ve just spent a few minutes creating my first patch and, already, I’m in awe of the balance between depth and simplicity in this modular synth. The ease with which one may modulate nearly everything with almost anything is breathtaking, and the waveform options are great. Of course, the mind can’t help but wonder what would happen if all the effects parameters were modulatable, but with 3 oscillators, 4 LFOs, 4 insane envelopes, and a sequencer, I feel confident that I’ll have plenty to explore. Next, I’ll have to test how in runs in AUM and AB3.

Cool synth. But it won’t update to version 1.6? Also the midi learn crashes.

I was excited to see the AU3 support added, but I haven’t been able to get it to work using AUM on iOS11. In the update description you list iOS10 required. Does this mean exactly iOS10 or “at minimum” iOS10. I don’t want to downgrade.