Audulus 4, the open-ended modular music app for macOS and iOS, is available now and just got a wonderful free add-on – a Buchla-inspired “A4 Ridiculously Complex Waveform Generator.” Check out round-trip Mac-to-mobile patching with a truly modern UI.
Audulus is an unsung gem for Apple platforms – gorgeous, fluid, with multiple voices and full modulation of any parameter which ironically is something the skeuomorphic desktop apps generally can’t do. You can live-patch without pops, and all your patches live on iCloud so you can pick up patching between desktop and mobile – a win right there.
After a hiatus from major updates for a few years, this month it’s roared back to life with powerful new features in Audulus 4:
And holy crap:
– Full multitouch on iPadOS: Turn on performance mode and interact with multiple controls at once. Create multitouch performance surfaces.
– Custom UI for math expressions.
– Knob colors and icons.
– New UI nodes like sliders and X-Y pads.
– Modules can now be recursively exposed. Build front-panels out of other front panels.
– Improved search experience in the module browser.
– MIDI output via a MIDI Send node.
– You can pinch to zoom while dragging a connection or moving a module.
– AUv3 versions on both iPadOS and macOS.
– Canvas Node: Build custom user interfaces using the Lua programming language.
– GLSL Shader node: Make advanced shadertoy-style graphics.
Uh – what?
Wait, shaders, too?
Well, that explains what they’ve been up to. “Audulus 4 represents a massive step forward for Audulus, which required a tremendous re-working of the code,” Audulus developer Taylor Holliday says in a statement. “The user interface is now more pro while still being immediate and approachable.”
If you just want to play around with it, there’s also now a free version with the ability to run community-generated patches:
It’s then US$19.99 thereafter, but that buys you both desktop and mobile versions in a single license – nice!
Of course, those of us modular lovers just can’t get enough. And that seems to be the way the creator feels. This is a labor of love by someone named stschoen on the very active Audulus forum. (It’s a free download there.) They appear to be wearing a Stetson hat, too – power flex. And they were inspired by the excellent Software version of the excellent Buchla 259e which was inspired byt he original Buchla 259, so like I said – the more, the merrier.
We’re talking the heart of West Coast synthesis here – the “complex” oscillator is basically a single multifunctional oscillator with gobs of modulation to make beautifully messy waveforms with lots of harmonic complexity to please the ears.
And it’s a loose version, not an exact recreation – one that feels at home in the Audulus environment, with its own personality.
This was inspired by Softube Modular’s virtual recreation of the Buchla 259e Twisted Waveform Generator. The original 259e hardware was a digital version of the all analog Buchla 259 Complex Waveform Generator and was wavetable based. Since Audulus doesn’t lend itself well to wavetable synthesis I decided to take a blended approach. This is not an attempt to clone either Buchla unit, but a complex oscillator in the same general style.
A4 Ridiculously Complex Waveform Generator
You know what else this needs? How about a Low Pass Gate to complete the West Coast vibe? Solved:
Polyphony? Yes.
You can copy-and paste these into Audiobus, too – nice:
There’s a ton of tutorials on their YouTube channel and plenty more where that came from in the forum.
Previously – Ashley Elsdon for CDM:
More on the app:
And the forum: