Introducing a revolutionary new way to turn your guitar or bass into a fully featured polyphonic synth: Roxsyn, the world's first metamorphic guitar synthesizer. Expressive, fast, and responsive to every nuance, it's a league apart from all other guitar synths to date.
Why treat your guitar as a poor keyboard substitute when it's capable of so much more? Roxsyn's all-original synthesis technology does away with error-prone pitch tracking entirely — no pitch estimation hiccups, no octave glitches, no garbled chords, and no cold, temperamental guitar-to-MIDI layer standing between your playing and the synth.
Instead, Roxsyn's metamorphic sound generation passes through all the personality of your sound: vibrato, slides, bends, dynamics, even extended technique. The result is a polyphonic synthesizer as fast and accurate as it is richly expressive — no special MIDI pickups required, just plug into your favorite Lightning/USB audio interface and start synthing.
Roxsyn's big synth heart is its three metamorphic signal generators that transform your guitar or bass into a powerful synth. Each offers 5 unique waveforms and a 4+ octave range, with stereo panning and routing into either of Roxsyn's dual filter banks. You can even dial your raw guitar directly into the synth engine for even bigger sounds.
Each filter bank has four virtual-analog filter types and a dedicated envelope, sculpting the generators in countless ways. The envelopes are purpose-built for guitar, driven by a fully adjustable automatic trigger generator controlled by your playing dynamics — with finite-duration sustain stages, selectable trigger-off handling, and external MIDI triggering. A dedicated amplitude envelope rounds out the shaping tools.
Instantly transform sustained guitar notes into fast, slow, complex patterns with Roxsyn's powerful yet easy-to-use arp. Choose from 8 stepping algorithms, plus settable note value, swing, and note repeats. Route the arp to any combination of the three voice generators to layer a non-arpeggiated sound with an arp pattern, or send trigger signals into any of Roxsyn's four envelopes and even reset the LFOs — making it a handy rhythmic and trance tool as well.
Roxsyn's user-friendly modulation matrix lets you manipulate parameters — pitch, amplitude, filters, and more — using its two LFOs and mod envelope. Add subtle vibrato, glide simulation, or go full-on berserk. Each LFO offers 9 waveforms and beat syncing, and every matrix row can take any of them as a modulator and a control, plus a couple of external sources.
And if you like your synths on the spicy side, Roxsyn comes with top-notch stereo FX custom developed to evoke extra synthiness: a powerful algorithmic reverb with the sound of countless rooms, phasing, modulating 2-channel delay, and a graphic EQ.
500+ factory presets spanning bass, lead, pad, and arp sounds, with easy creation and sharing of your own. Audio Unit v3 and Ableton Link support. 64-bit native processing at up to 96kHz. Over 160 MIDI-controllable parameters, with MIDI Learn and map save/share. A built-in Tapedeck lets you record, loop, and share your ideas on the go — just some of what makes life and music a little easier with Roxsyn.
| Technology |
|---|
| Revolutionary Metamorphic Guitar/Bass Synthesis Technology |
| Special algorithms transform dry guitar signal into synthesized sounds in real time |
| No error-prone pitch tracking or limiting guitar-to-MIDI |
| Polyphonic |
| Carries over all the nuances of playing: bends, slides, vibrato, and more |
| No special pickup required: just use any iOS compatible USB or Lightning guitar/audio interface |
| Synthesizer |
| Three metamorphic signal generators ("voices") behave similar to synth oscillators |
| Five unique waveforms for each voice |
| 4+ octave frequency shifting ability, using dedicated octave and fine-tune parameters |
| Adjustable stereo panning and volume |
| Ability to output each voice to either or both filter banks |
| Additional instrument-to-synth input for processing instrument signal with synth filters & envelopes |
| Noise generator with pink/white selection and adjustable volume |
| Filters & Envelopes |
| Two independently programmable filter banks |
| Four analog-modelling filter types per bank: Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, and human voice emulating Formant |
| Settable filter preamp drive, frequency, resonance and contour |
| Dedicated envelope in each bank |
| All envelopes are custom designed to work with the characteristics of guitar and bass signals |
| Envelopes can receive or ignore trigger off-messages, helping change the way they operate completely |
| Envelopes feature additional ability to set a fixed duration for the sustain stage |
| Ability to layer or strengthen sounds by routing each voice and instrument-to-synth signal to either or both filter banks |
| Dedicated amplitude ("VCA") envelope for modifying the dynamic characteristics of the sound |
| VCA envelope can receive output from either or both filter banks, or can be bypassed altogether |
| Fully adjustable automatic trigger generator can send on and off messages to the envelopes by following your playing dynamics; it can also reset LFOs when they are in TRIG or SHOT modes |
| Option to use an external control (like a MIDI expression pedal or MIDI switch) to send trigger on and off messages |
| Arpeggiator |
| Powerful, easy-to-use arpeggiator specially designed for guitar players |
| Transform sustained notes into complex patterns, or layer arp ideas with non-arpeggiated playing |
| Use the arp as a rhythmic/trance gate by triggering any or all of the envelopes, and even the LFOs |
| 12 individually configurable arp steps |
| 8 unique arp stepping algorithms |
| Ability to send arp output to any combination of 3 voices, so as to help in layering |
| Arp can send trigger-on messages to any of the 4 envelopes, as well as to the LFOs |
| Settable note value, swing, and note repeats |
| Trigger pattern reset option |
| Modulation |
| Powerful, extensive modulation matrix helps you modify certain synth parameters in real time |
| Two independent LFOs with 9 waveforms, BPM-syncing, adjustable phase |
| 3 LFO operation modes: continuous, trigger-reset, trigger-one-shot |
| Modulation envelope |
| 2 MIDI-learnable modulation controllers (MOD Ctrls 1 & 2) |
| Effects |
| Specially designed stereo FX |
| 8+2 band graphic equalizer with analog-modeling filters |
| Stereo chorus/flanger with BPM-syncing, mode, rate, depth, mix, and stereo spread |
| Stereo phaser with BPM-syncing, rate, depth, and stereo spread |
| Two-channel delay with independent time, feedback, mix, and pan; BPM-syncing, as well as channel-linking for the time control |
| Versatile and powerful algorithmic reverb with continuous roomsize, reverb time, tail dampening, predelay, stereo spread, low cut, and high cut parameters, as well as independent early and late reflection gains |
| Presets, MIDI, Audio Units & Pro Features |
| Over 500 presets covering many different synth sounds: arps, basses, leads, pads, and some weird stuff |
| Easily create, manage and share your presets |
| Universal app: works on iPad and iPhone |
| Audio Unit v3 effects plugin: use as a plugin in your favorite iOS Audio Unit host/DAW to synthesize your guitar |
| Ableton Link |
| Native processing at any standard sample rate up to 96kHz |
| 64-bit resolution for extra processing clarity |
| 160+ MIDI controllable synth/FX parameters |
| Easy-to-use MIDI Learn; parameter-wise configurable MIDI value ranges; ability to save and share MIDI maps, and more |
| MIDI program changes |
| Standalone app: Tapedeck for recording, playing, and looping audio |
| Ability to share recordings; ability to import audio files into Tapedeck |
Roxsyn uses a special synthesis technology that doesn't employ any pitch tracking or guitar-to-MIDI conversion. This makes it more sensitive, more expressive, and faster than MIDI based guitar synths. Simply plug in your instrument to an iOS friendly digital audio or guitar interface, and start jamming. Here are a few friendly guidelines to help you get a good start. For more information, please consult the Roxsyn User Manual.
Use an analog-to-digital audio or guitar interface, such as iRig HD 2 or Apogee Jam. We do not support adapters that connect via the headphone jack. Avoid putting any virtual or physical effects between your instrument and Roxsyn.
If your audio interface has a gain knob, adjust it to get a moderate signal level and avoid digital distortion. You can additionally adjust the input gain using the INPUT level knob in Roxsyn. If Roxsyn is not already on, enable it using the ON button on the upper right corner.
Browse and select factory presets by touching the green PRESET DISPLAY on the upper left of the screen. If necessary, adjust the synth output level using the MASTER gain knob. You can also make and save your own presets — refer to the Roxsyn User Manual for more in-depth info.
The Trigger Generator follows your playing dynamics ("note attack") to trigger Roxsyn envelopes, LFOs, and arp. You may sometimes need to tune its response to best suit your instrument and playing characteristics. Put the SOURCE in the AUTO position, and gradually adjust THRESHOLD and DYNAMICS knobs until the desired envelope response is obtained. For more info and example trigger settings, refer to the Roxsyn User Manual.
