Continua

Full-featured subtractive synth

Continua is a professional synthesizer for iPad, built around a single idea: everything should move.

Three oscillators with five modes each — Virtual Analog, Additive, Supersaw, Supersquare, and IXA — give you a palette that runs from warm analog warmth to aggressive digital textures to sounds that have no easy name. Stack 64 sine waves. Detune five sawtooths simultaneously. Explore phase modulation borrowed from a synthesizer most people have never heard of. The oscillators are just the beginning.

Continua's filters don't switch between types — they morph between them. Low pass becomes band pass becomes high pass in a continuous sweep, with resonance and two- or four-pole slope selectable at any point. Two filters running in series or parallel, each one a moving target.

Modulation is where Continua earns its name. Nearly every parameter is a destination. Every knob can receive up to five simultaneous modulation sources — envelope generators, flexible multi-point envelopes, four shapeable LFOs, sample and hold, and a random source that gives each voice its own personality. Right-click any knob to connect a source. The routing is as deep as you want it to be.

New in version 1.2: the Genetics panel lets you evolve your patches through an interactive mutation tree. Start with any sound, explore branches of subtle variations, and drill down into whatever catches your ear. The arpeggiator adds eighteen patterns — from standard ascending runs to Brownian motion and probabilistic rests — all synced to your DAW tempo. Four new oscillator modes expand the raw material available from the ground up.

Full MPE support means Continua responds to every dimension of expression from a Linnstrument, Osmose, Roli Seaboard, or any MPE controller. Or play it with a standard keyboard and automate everything else.

Works as an AUv3 plugin in Logic Pro, AUM, Cubasis, Drambo, Garage Band, and any AUv3-compatible host. iPad only.