Yonac’s Roxsyn is a new iOS synth that you can play using your electric guitar, but it promises to be rather different to ‘guitar-to-MIDI’ instruments that have been released in the past.
There’s no pitch tracking involved here, which Yonac says means no pitch estimation errors, octave glitches or wonky chords. Instead, we’re promised “metamorphic sound generation technology” that retains all the nuance and personality of your guitar playing. Roxsyn responds to vibrato, slides, bends, dynamics and more.
The result, we’re told, is a truly expressive guitar-specific synth that can be played simply by plugging an audio cable into your iOS audio interface of choice.
“Unhappy with cold and temperamental guitar-to-MIDI synths that dominate the market, we developed a completely new approach to guitar synthesis,” says Yonac’s chief engineer Jim Yonac.
“Our all-original technology synthesizes your guitar directly, without the use of MIDI notes. Rescued from being a poor keyboard substitute, your guitar suddenly becomes an integral part of the synth.”
Full specs are below, and you can buy Roxsyn now from the Apple App Store priced at $9.99/£9.99.
Yonac Roxsyn specs
- Three metamorphic signal generators ('voices') behave similar to synth oscillators
- Five unique waveforms for each voice
- Two independently programmable filter banks
- Four analog-modelling filter types per bank: Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, and human voice emulating Formant
- All envelopes are custom designed to work with the characteristics of guitar and bass signals
- Powerful, easy-to-use arpeggiator specially designed for guitar players
- Two independent LFOs with 9 waveforms, BPM-syncing, adjustable phrase
- Specially designed stereo FX
- Over 500 presets covering many different synth sounds: arps, basses, leads, pads
- Universal app: works on iPad and iPhone
- Audio Unit v3 effects plugin: use as a plugin in your favourite iOS Audio Unit host/DAW to synthesize your guitar
