iSEM Synthesizer

This is one of the first synthesizer apps I got for my iPad. I have been an Oberheim fan for decades, and owned several of their hardware instruments. This is an amazing recreation of the Oberheim Synthesizer Expander Module. The sound is fantastic, the effects and arpeggiator are very useful additions, and the programming of individual voice variations is fantastic. I LOVE THIS APP. Why only 3 stars? Because Arturia support for this app is practically nonexistent. There is no way to contact or request tech support other than to go to the tech support web page and fill out a form, which includes a “serial number” and an “unlock code”, neither of which exist for iOS apps, which means the form can NOT be filled out. I have had a problem with the iSEM AUv3 in AUM, for years. Once it was fixed by offloading the app and reinstalling it. That no longer works. If I were to be able to make contact with Arturia support and get this problem fixed, I would change this review to 5 stars immediately.

Lots of competition and plenty of haters. This one has the “sound” for me. Thick and creamy.

It took me a while to really appreciate this synth. It really cuts through the mix so well. The sounds have such character. Filter is great, and performance controls are very useable. Also very stable in Zenbeats.

Held off due to reviews (you guys are a very tough crowd!) This thing is awesome. Very different from any other synth app I own and I own a lot of them. The sounds are great and I have to say I really appreciate the history lesson and photos within the manual as well (so cool!) Going with 5 stars right out of the gate. May come back to revise. Keep going Arturia! We need someone to compete in this market. Pretty soon, the iPad will come with a big K on the back instead of an Apple. We need more names in this game, what the hell have you guys been doing for the past 5 years? 3 apps? Very strange to me. Let’s boogie!

Great sound. Filter zipper noise and weirdness, not being able to play legato when modulating the filter with aftertouch. When using breath control (cc #02), to modulate the filter, there is no zipper noise and legato works correctly. Without MIDI program change I can’t use it in my live setup.. Please add MIDI program change.

Since the last update, yes...it loads faster....but now it doesn’t recall presets used inside of Daws. Every time I open it , the preset I used doesn’t load... sooooo basically...Arturia makes great hardware and great desktop software.....but fails at IPad app with all their apps. I thought they got this one right but they missed with this one too.

I took a risk on this seeing the bugs and crashes others reported. While I haven’t managed crashes, and the sound remains amazing, it’s still missing some basic stuff and has bugs or at least poor behaviors. The poly/mono setting is inaccessible when used as an audio unit (in standalone the setting lives on the keyboard, which is removed in the audio unit), making experimenting in a host app like AUM or Garageband somewhat limited or cumbersome. The current envelopes can cause clicks and pops in some mono and lead patches. They have no setting to behave like classic analog envelopes do and starting the envelope from the level at the time of keyboard press, instead always starting from zero. This might be the behavior of the original Oberheim Polyphonic synths (I don’t own one so IDK), however the implementation results in some mono sounds (including the factory lead preset Discomfortz) to audibly click and pop when you trill them by holding down a note and repeatedly tapping a neighboring note, or in legato playing. Either being able to change envelope retrig behavior or a bug fix for the current implementation to allow this kind of playing (which is clearly intended by the included patches) without inducing such noise would be great.

My favorite synth plugin. Also, i left a review about a crash and they fixed the app within a week. incredible

My absolute favorite iPad synth, for many years now. Responsive developer, amazing sounds. Useful for techno, rocks EDM, almost anything you can imagine ever using a synth for.

This update 1.5 fixed the problem when loading presets, thanks ! Now im 😃 happy.