Phase84 is a next generation phase distortion synthesizer. It fuses gritty digital sounds with traditional analog punch.
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Phase84 is a Tabletop Ready App. Combine Phase84 with drum machines, sequencers, effects, and more inside Tabletop — a free modular music app for iPad.
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Phase84 is an extremely capable synthesizer and features over 110 presets, containing all sorts of basses, leads, pads, bell tones, sweeps, atmospheric sounds, pseudo-realistic tones, and more. While you don't need to know much about synthesizers to get a lot out of Phase84, experienced synth tweakers will be thrilled at the sheer variety of unique sounds that can be produced with this incredibly versatile synth.
So What's Phase84 All About?
Phase84 is what's known as a Phase Distortion synthesizer. This form of waveshaping synthesis has its roots in Casio’s brilliant CZ line of digital synthesizers from the 80s. It is designed to have the warmth of a subtractive (analog) synthesizer, yet be capable of the squelchy tones and sharp attacks of an FM synth. Phase84 in particular can create warm pads, glitchy sounds, dirty basses, filthy sweeps, screaming leads, and anything in-between.
For those familiar with the typical Moog-like (or iMini-like!) synthesis, think of the "shaper" as being synonymous with "brightness" or "filter cutoff”.
Features:
More than 100 presets.
MIDI support.
inter-App Audio support.
Advanced Keyboard section.
Expressive Perform Mode with Groove Gate.
Tabletop Ready App.
Precision Knob mode.
Phat, naturalistic unison feature for super thick pads and sweeps.
Oscillator Section: 9 Params, 2 General-Purpose Oscillators, 1 Formant Oscillator.
Mix Section: 8 Params including Delay Amount and Pulse Width.
Envelope Section: Amplitude and Shaper Envelopes. Fully visualized and interactive ADSR plus special Fade Param.
Delay/Filter Section: Stereo delay with loss modeling and a punchy overdriven analog-style filter.
3 LFOs: More flexible than your average LFO, this has 4 waveforms, optional delay and repeat count, and can go into the audible frequency range.
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Screenshots
User Rating
3.78 out of 5
37 ratings
in United States
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Ratings History
Reviews
Phase84
Yeat another Retronyms update that falls short of good got me al excited for nothing
The demo presets are almost all the same from each other
it is more stable!
But none of the Retronyms apps are any good except for Tabletop IMO and that hasn’t been updated for almost going on a decade
I used to really enjoy using Tabletop bought all the plugins as they came out.
Can’t remember the last time any of them worked together.
It even had or has some Arturia Synths that were awesome and they are completely unfunctional Can’t Believe Arturia used to Colaborate with Retronyms I can definitely why that’s not a thing anymore. If you are serious about music production on iOS look elsewhere don’t waste your time and hard earned money on any of their apps like I did.
Use AudioKit instead
Fixed
Thank you for fixing the app! After 3 years with no updates, I didn’t have much hope it would be fixed, but it is once again loading as an AUv3.
One of the best sounding synths on my iPad
Phase Distortion synths rock for EBM. Phase84 is a bit old but still sounds as good as newer similar synths like Shockwave. I really hope Retronyms updates this soon as I’m scared of updating to the latest iOS.
Background static with iMPC2
I’m trying to load sounds with Phase 84 onto the pads on iMPC2. There is a a lot of background static that comes with the Phase 84 app when I’m sampling from both my MIDI controller and from within the app. Other than that, this app could be great!
Not working since ioS13.
Sounds are heavily cracking and popping. Only recordings prior to ios13 still sound good. Anyone else having this issue?
Weak App
App crashed within 2 minutes while I tried to change semi tones on a iPhone X. Lame, gave it another try and same thing. Not worth the money.
Not for hip hop
The sounds are too harsh for most forms of rap and hip hop. Maybe a lil bit of trap but mostly EDM presets. Most of the sounds are too quiet when not using headphones and all the sounds almost sound the same. Would not recommend. I feel like I wasted $10.
Abandoned ware?
No updates of feature updates (like adding key latching)in three years. I was mistaken thinking that Retronyms was better than that. Write them off as an iOS developer.
One of my favs
It's my go to Synth
nice potential, frustrating bugs
So this can make some great sounds, and phase distortion + fm + filter is extremely powerful yet retro, but the bugs are painful. Can't open in tabletop. Sustain pedal doesn't work.
The user interface is also confusing and kind of a pain to use. Retronyms continues to disappoint - no audiobus?
To whoever said 'presets are uninspiring' I would suggest that you can get some great sounds out of it if you understand the underlying phase distortion + fm + subtractive synthesis engine. It is a nice digital synth that can produce anything from metallic tones to glassy to wooden to warm analog-ish to cold to fuzzy to percussive, but its main feature is channeling Casio's phase distortion synths (though with fewer envelope stages.)
