SynthBot Review

If there is anything that the Bret Domino Trio has taught fans, it is the fact that just about anything can make great music. Seriously, these guys use some of the most archaic electronic instruments to remix some of today’s most popular songs. They even use the iPhone as part of their musical instrument repertoire. It will not be surprising to see SynthBot make a guest appearance on their YouTube Channel.

SynthBot is one app that may not make you an internet musical smash hit, but it will allow you to live out your synthesizer fantasies. You are presented a keyboard and various controls. Sliders allow you to control aspects of the synthesizer like wavelengths, feedback, octaves, and frequencies. The adjustments happen with an easy to use slider that provides instant feedback if you are holding down a keyboard key.

Using SynthBot takes but moments to fully grasp. The seven adjustments line the top of the screen. To navigate between them you simply swipe up and down in the black area on the right. Multi-touch makes its grand appearance here, even incorporating all ten of your music composing digits.

SynthBot may provide some greatness when it comes to making sweet electronic tunes, but there are a few gotchas that come bundled with the package. First is the fact that there is no orientation switching. This may seem like a small issue, but it is baffling why this app only opens in one direction. Second is the responsiveness of the keyboard itself. Those of you who can play with Dragonforce like speed will be met with delays, missed notes, and some unresponsiveness as the app tries to keep up. The last downfall is not being able to save setting to a favorites list. You can quickly come up with various sounds you will like, but it will require a pad of paper to jot down all the settings. Having a favorites section would go a long way to increasing the playable value of this retro music app.

If you are looking for an easy way to recreate your favorite 1980s B movie soundtracks, this app will help you do it. Those of you looking for a more feature rich synthesizer will need to look elsewhere, but for $1.99 you get something that is fun to play with and easy to grasp. Sadly, it will not bring back all those horrid soundtracks from the past.