Combine the soothing, zen-like properties of a koi pond with a spacial music synthesizer, then add visual input and aural feedback and you get SynthPond, a digital sound app for iPhone and iPod touch that is both cerebral and relaxing.
Playing with SynthPond begins with simple touch-and-listen exploration. You place nodes on the pond, select their attributes, and drag them around to different locations. Each change you make will be reflected in the sound produced by the app. After a minute or two, a simple music composition becomes a kaleidoscope of sound as nodes ripple, bouncing off each other to create an ambient symphony swimming in your head. And be sure to have your headphones on for this fun and rewarding experience.
The Sound Field, Nodes and Controls
SynthPond takes its inspiration from a pond, where ripples radiate across the surface, gently touching other objects in the pond to produce sounds. You create music by using the touchscreen to place and drag notes across the sound field, or virtual pond. The spacial relationship between the notes has a direct impact on the music that is produced, and we use the term “music” in the most esoteric of senses. You can change the sound by editing attributes of nodes, or by simply dragging them to a different location on the pond.
There are two kinds of nodes in SynthPond; effectors and reactors. Effector nodes are circular in shape, and produce waves that radiate out from the center of the node. When a wave touches hard-edged nodes, or reactor nodes, it causes them to produce a sound in reaction to the effector node. The tone of each node can be changed by simply tapping and holding the touchscreen to access the node’s sub-menu. The sub-menu contains 12 notes to choose from, all within a scale of 3 octaves. You can also change the node’s type from this menu, which changes its behavior on the pond.
There are also different sound modes to choose from. Two dimensional sound outputs the same sound to both left and right channels equally. Three dimensional sound mode splits the sound in stereo mode to each channel, and you can move the center of the spacial sound by dragging the center of the pond around the screen for different balances. Four dimensional sound mode moves the sound from left to right, and visa verse, as sound waves pass across the center of the pond. You really need to use head phone to experience the effect of these audio modes. SynthPod also offers granular control over beats per minute, pitch, the speed and life of waves, and other advanced options.
Things get really interesting when you switch reactor nodes to orbital nodes. This type of node will orbit an effector node, and since it’s moving around the pond, it will produced different types of sounds as it passes by other effector nodes. Orbits are based on the BPM of the node, and you can pause orbits if you wish to edit the node. You can even edit the colors a node’s waves will produce to create a visual representation of your synthesized music.
Our Take on SynthPond
We realize that this all sounds a bit geeky when we try to explain SynthPond in words, but once you start playing with it you’ll get it. We find the interface to be very intuitive and actually quite simple, although some people find it confusing. This confusion probably comes from the spacial metaphor used by SynthPond, which is alien to most people. However, if you can embrace the pond metaphor, notes causing ripples on its surface to create sound waves that cause reactions upon other objects, then you’ll be right at home using this app. Anyone can master the controls in under a minute which makes this app ideal for all ages. Even kids will love it.
SynthPond is one of our favorite iPhone music apps, mostly because it doesn’t require a lot of musicianship to create good music. We love the Ocarina iPhone app, but like a real instrument, it does take some practice to get good at it (of course, talent always helps). On the other hand, SynthPond is more approachable so anyone can create interesting music pretty darn quickly.
SynthPond is inspired by the work of interactive media artist, Toshio Iwai. It is currently in version 2 which includes many enhancements from its earlier version. The app’s creator, Zach Gage, has done an excellent job of taking feedback from users to improve SynthPond, and from the list of future features, it looks like Zach will make this incredible iPhone app even better still.
It would be awesome if SynthPond like the Ocarina, also offered some social features like the ability to share compositions with the community. It might also be fun to have a collaboration feature where you could create SynthPond music with others by taking turns placing nodes. For now, we’re happy to be able to save our creations so that we can play them back later, or edit them further.
SynthPond is available now in the App Store for $1.99, and there is also a free lite version you can download which does not have all the advanced options found in the full version. It’s almost unfair to try the free version since you won’t be able to have all the great controls to try out. At only two bucks, it’s better to just go ahead and get the full version.
SynthPond offers a fun and creative way to explore music and sounds through its unique visual and spacial input, which makes this iPhone app a real winner in our eyes, and ears.
- SynthPond
– $1.99 [app store]
- SynthPond Lite – Free [app store]
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