Pads - Lush Pad Synthesizer

Don’t waste your money.

I bought pads because there were two other apps supposedly going to be included for 7.99. Please don’t steer people one way and cut their frikkin head off when you get them in an alley. “Also included in” my donkey.

Sound cool, not very versatile but it has its moments. Some things there are missing for me at least, are more midi parameters that let you select what midi channel it accepts from incoming controllers and background audio. Not being able to play it in the background is a big letdown.

The good: I love the design, the presets are musically useful, and it's simple to use. AU integration with Garage Band and other AU-aware apps. The noise sourced from a broken Hammond is pretty cool. The bad: very limited functionality; 2 oscillators with 6 unmodifiable waveforms; no compatibility with Audiobus or Tabletop; no ability to save modified presets, AR vs ADSR, no effects beyond chorus. No MIDI assignment modification. For a pad synth, the sound seems a little thin. The ugly: not much is ugly here; it's a visually pleasing UI, though the waveform selector is a little too small for fingers. But I do like the overall look and feel. The verdict: would be a no-brainer and fairly priced at $1.99 or less. At $7.99, it's not a good value, but might fill in some niches in your app library.

Love this AU, it brought magic to the first track I tried it on. YMMV

Does not tune to A440. Will sound terrible with other instruments.