I discovered by pure chance the vast ecosystem of iOS synths apps. And I was absolutely blown away. 90+% of the synths of the past century are available for ~5-20€ each. Connect that to a basic KORG MicroKeys Air [extra cheap, but includes Bluetooth]. And you are the next Jean-Michel Jarre.
[Note: and the amount of tutorial videos on YouTube is huge.]
For some synths like Blofeld, you're paying $10-20 for something that used to sell in a box for $300. And it's the exact same synth (100% digital) often with a better UI.
The iPad is a great choice for music - you get the variety of hardware synths with none of the annoying setup (power, midi, audio routing), at a cheaper price, but it still feels more immersive than sitting at a desktop PC and a daw.
Typical how they first let Korg do the talking, when actually, Korg is much slower to innovate. With one line, the article mentions Tasty Chips synthesizers (who are friends of mine), but as far as I know, they were actually the first, just check their Kickstarter campaigns which go back ten years.
Note that using RPi is not all sunshine and roses. There were times that compute modules were extremely hard to get.
Arturia does that, and Korg did as well (making controller keyboards specific for emulating a synth, with the software running on a Mac or PC.
Downsides:
- if the software doesn’t get updated, you’re stuck running an old OS an old Mac that supports it.
- you can’t just turn on the synth and use it, you need to find a cable, connect it to the Mac, launch the software, etc
[Note: and the amount of tutorial videos on YouTube is huge.]
The iPad is a great choice for music - you get the variety of hardware synths with none of the annoying setup (power, midi, audio routing), at a cheaper price, but it still feels more immersive than sitting at a desktop PC and a daw.
Note that using RPi is not all sunshine and roses. There were times that compute modules were extremely hard to get.
Downsides: - if the software doesn’t get updated, you’re stuck running an old OS an old Mac that supports it. - you can’t just turn on the synth and use it, you need to find a cable, connect it to the Mac, launch the software, etc