# ID700 — user reviews > 40 indexed App Store user reviews of ID700 by Jonathan Schatz, rated 4.80/5 from 128 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/id700/id1482698043/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/id700/id1482698043.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 113 · 4★ 7 · 3★ 4 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 3 ## Newest reviews (18 of 40) ### 5/5 — Beautiful *2022-03-20* This is one of the most inspiring and well designed instruments I’ve encountered. The UI is top notch with excellent response and fine control of all the “knobs” and sliders. I can spend blissful hours starting from an unit patch and tweaking envelopes and it scratches all the deep creative itchy spots in my brain. This app is a good reason to buy an iPad. ### 5/5 — Hats… *2022-01-25, version 1.14* …off to Don Buchla and Jonathan Schatz. This thing is simply astounding and the fact that this enormous power can be bought for so little makes me feel somewhat guilty. Be prepared for pure unmitigated sonic joy. Whatever your area of aural interest. ### 5/5 — Not just another me-too synth app... this is a blast! *2021-12-20, version 1.12.1* Update 20/21/21: The best just got better - the addition of a randomisation feature makes developing and tweaking new presets simple. A fantastic app! So-called ‘West Coast’ sound synthesis, forever synonymous with legendary synth designer Don Buchla is associated with the wilder, experimental end of electronic music and soundscaping. Now, one of Buchla’s last-ever designs, of which only 14 real life units were apparently ever made, (a nugget gleaned from the excellent accompanying manual) is available as an app from a dev who worked on some of the real Buchla designs. And it is awesome, unique. Moving away from analog and toward the digital timbres later associated with Synclaviers, Fairlights, and DX style FM, it is hugely deep, but *very* amenable to random knob-stabbing, and it sounds like nothing else. Massively long envelopes mean you can easily create slowly evolving minutes-long soundscapes that might just make you think you’ve got stuck notes... ;) Just watch your levels, as these can also build to damaging levels if left unattended! The very responsive dev has promised to add in a limiter and a way to limit evolution times in a forthcoming update to address these possible downsides, but as-is this is a genuinely exciting and very different synth app that stands head and shoulders above and apart from the crowd of samey analog wannabees. Anyone into soundscaping and experimental composition will love this - but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist just to have fun with it. :) ### 5/5 — Excellent synth! 🥇 *2021-10-11* Love it! Very well thought out synth. Not as complicated as you might think on first glance. Lot’s of options, yes, but they all make sense easily. Lots of sound possibilities. I mostly prefer sounds that can be played on a keyboard, and there’s plenty of possibilities for this. I have most of the top synths, and this one definitely doesn’t duplicate anything and stands out on it’s own. Saw couple of reviews on font size and NanoStudio support. Fonts look good now, and for NanoStudio to see the AUv3, after installing the app I just restarted the iPad and it showed up (All new plugins need this now). No crashes or glitches in standalone or plugin mode after several hours of continuous use. Definitely recommend this synth. Although you might need the Apple Pencil to use the Harmonics, they’re just too tiny for fingers at the moment. In summary, very unique sounding synth that doesn’t match anything else out there. Looks great, works great too. It is a musical instrument that I’m very happy to have in my creative arsenal! I have most top synths, but only some have become my go-to when actually creating music. This one is definitely one of them! Some requests: Please change the knobs to behave like sliders as opposed to the rotation gestures. It just doesn’t work right. Some apps give an option to change between the two but I don’t think anyone would complain if you just change the gesture to fader-style only ;) —-EDIT2— The sliders are all not functioning properly. It seems they *combine* left/right and up/down movement and it’s causing havoc. Left/right makes most sense. Also when you touch them to start moving it takes the value from where you touched it which is undesirable because it prevents adjustment, in other words you essentially start from scratch every time you tap on any slider. The round knobs are fine and working well. The horizontal sliders are all affected though. If it’s a one-shot deal, then if you could make the sliders work, round knobs are few, so not a big deal if they behave differently. Thanks! -Edit3- Great job guys! Everything is perfect now! All functions and knobs are very smooth! Thanks for listening! :) And another suggestion is, please make the Harmonics expandable. It’s the central point of the whole sound engine so it needs good precision and ease of use. I have a 12.9” iPad, and it really needs the use of Pencil to get it right (the width of my finger covers two harmonics fully). **Developer response:** thanks for the feedback! edit 1: version 1.5 was just released which adds an option to configure the rotary knobs to behave more like sliders. edit 2: version 1.11 was just released which adds an option to configure the slider behavior. the default option is to not do perpendicular fine tuning which i believe is what you're asking for. thanks! ### 5/5 — Inspiring instrument! *2021-07-11* A lot of iOS/iPadOS instruments I’ve purchased feel a bit like toys. This one immediately joins the ranks of the few that feel like, and have, the utility of real instruments. Some really fantastic sounds can be achieved and experimentation really pays off. Excellent work on the presets, by the way. They really do a good job of conveying the possibilities of this synth. I agree with some of the other comments about the interface: it would be nice to see even more use made of the touch interface wherever possible, and the smaller text and size of the items in the preset lists can negatively affect read/tapability. I also found some of the rotary knobs to be a little fiddly, but I’m getting the hang of them. Might be nice to be able to double-tap to zero things too. However, none of these things is standing in the way of my enjoying this wonderful instrument. It’s really something already, and it’s just been released! I’ll be looking forward to whatever refinements come over time. In the meantime, I’ll just be busy making music with it. 🍻 Update: This is still a fantastic synth and I’ve been super impressed with how much work the developer has done since its release to improve on the finer details and address concerns people posted in these reviews. I’m always happy to see a new update. Thanks and keep up the good work! ### 5/5 — Just amazing *2021-07-05* So nice to have this classic remade in a form so we who dont have access to major museums can use it. Gosh bless Buchla ### 5/5 — Monster *2021-06-27, version 1.9* Can’t leave this one alone just awesome sound design capabilities. Everything from lush ambience to nasty bass and any crazy sounds you can imagine in between. ### 5/5 — My favorite iOS synth *2021-06-10* Sounds amazing , deep synthesis but surprisingly intuitive to edit . Offers a new dimension of FM that is very inspiring , I hope to be using it for years to come. Thanks for this ! ### 5/5 — A really unique & special synthesiser! 🐇 🕳 *2021-05-05, version 1.4* Don Buchla’s creations are still enshrouded in mystery (even to this day) due to their inherent complexity to tame (compared to vanilla subtractive) and subsequent broad and diverse sonic characteristics (which are unique to his individual approach) and the ID700 brings this beautiful slice of technological history into the year 2021 (and it sounds astounding)! It’s so much fun to explore, and there’s so many possibilities for generating unique sonic textures, colours and forms that evolve, slide and glide that naturally I fell in love with it immediately! I really like the GUI and design too, as it’s very unique, logical and intuitive. If you love synthesis you basically owe it to yourself to dive into this rabbit hole (follow the white rabbit) and learn it’s weirding ways ASAP! ### 5/5 — Exactly what I was looking for! *2021-05-02* Fantastic presets, Scala tuning - I will have so many uses for this Synth! ### 5/5 — The sound of Buchla!! *2021-04-30* What is great about the id700 is that it has the ability to coax out sounds similar to a classic Buchla style synth. Start with a simple wave (tri or sine) and use stuff like fm, am, ring mod, sync, etc. to remove or add harmonics and you get amazingly creative sounds (especially if you modulate envelope times, filters, VCA, etc.). This synth app sounds great without effects. Add a quality reverb or delay to the sound and the possibilities for inspiration are immense. With id700 and Moog’s Model 15 app I feel like you can cover a vast sonic palette of high quality vintage and experimental synth sounds on the iPad that can rival many hardware setups. Kudos to the developer! ### 5/5 — Incredible but has a crash bug *2021-04-20* WOW. For a chance to work with this method of sound design at all is such a treat. Immediately wild and fun. There’s a bug where the app does not launch successfully if plugged in to an audio interface. I’m on an iPad mini 2019. iOS 14.4 **Developer response:** hi - version 1.11 was just released which should resolve this issue. ### 5/5 — OMG... *2021-04-19* Some may think Im crazy but the developer really out did Himself and personally think it surpasses the Model 15 by Moog simply because it’s the next leap of synthesis that was completely looked over. Amazing! 1 request....add a mod wheel within the on screen keyboard or allow us to enable either the vertical or horizontal axis. But no complaints....Hail this developer! Blown away. I’m sure Buchala would have agreed ! ### 5/5 — Best *2021-04-18, version 1.1* Best 7.99 I’ve ever spent. Wow. This is the synth of my dreams. ### 5/5 — What the actual!? *2021-04-18, version 1.1* This thing is mad, in a good way. The option to visually tweak (if that makes sense) the index settings on the fly is particularly hypnotic, and there are some magical sounds to be had from that. ### 5/5 — I’m in heaven! *2021-04-18* Finally, after all these years, an iPad synth that is as interesting, inspiring, and as much fun to program and play as my hardware Buchla 200e setup. The developer has kept it real and was not seduced by all the possible and unnecessary bells and whistles a touchscreen can bring. Every layer of this dream machine is well thought out, allowing the user to go as fast or as deep as they want. I thought my old eyes would have trouble with how dark the coloring is, but after hours of looking at it, I was thankful for how easy it is in the eyes. And the sound quality is excellent! I’m looking forward to putting together any array of midi controllers to make it a playable, physical instrument. Ah, I just thought of an improvement. There is already excellent stereo panning control. The possibility of having four outputs with circular spatialization would be a fitting tribute to Don. (Probably a bit too much to ask for at this point.) ### 5/5 — Excellent value *2021-04-17* Anyone who has bought a lot virtual analog synths knows it is a highly populated field with many familiar sounds . Furthermore, real analog hardware synths are quite affordable now so one doesn’t have to accept a 2nd best substitute. As an avid IPad music explorer I’ve found unique digital synths that don’t try to emulate analog are the best value. FM, Wavetable and Granular are the way to go in the digital realm and are most forward thinking . Fresh , boldly new sounds are possible for the first time with these apps on an iPad. This one rates way up there with Aparillo, Nave, FRMS, Quanta and AddStation to name a few. Perhaps even surpassing them . ### 5/5 — Sound designers dream *2021-04-17* So insanely deep and unique. Love the layout and how quickly it can get wild and weird. Would love a slightly different way of changing algorithms and the master volume because those knobs are super jumpy for me but other than that I am loving it. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Non starter *2021-04-14, version 1.0* Crashes on startup. Every time. ### 1/5 — I haz a sad. :/ *2021-04-12, version 1.0* Crashes on launch, iOS 12.4 iPad mini 4. Any hope of a fix, please? ### 2/5 — MIDI can't select a channel *2026-03-19* Sounds good but no matter what you set it on, it always responds to every MIDI channel, making it kinda useless as part of an ensemble. ### 3/5 — No nano studio support? *2021-04-15, version 1.1* Is this a bug? Looks like restarting fixed the issue. I’ll revisit this review later. ### 3/5 — Interesting App Poor Use of Touch Screen *2021-04-13* This app has excellent sound quality with very exciting programing possibilities. What is unforgivable is the very poor use of touch screen technology. Many of the actions we should be able to do through direct touch and not small virtual controls. There is no apparent way to reconnect modules. You can’t even directly manipulate wave forms. None of these design decisions make sense on a touch screen. There is too much rigorous dedication to skeuomorphism and not enough acknowledgement of the possibilities of touch screen or the iPad in general. Hopefully these concerns will be addressed in future updates, if they are I will adjust my rating. Currently very disappointed by the limitations of this interface. ### 4/5 — Lacks fx, but otherwise seems pretty good *2022-11-03, version 1.18* This synth is actually not all that hard to understand, provided you have eyes and some idea how additive synthesis, frequency modulation and subtractive filtering work. Oh, and amplitude. Don’t forget volume. Basically, there are a load of multi stage envelopes for everything besides the waveforms, so once you understand how they work and how they will effect things, take it from there… Only real sad thing is no traditional fx, but if you need them, you can add them in anyway. That’s what I like about soft synths. ### 4/5 — Very cool Buchla tones *2021-04-16* Great synth. Very deep. Just a couple of quick notes. - when browsing patches it could be easy to miss the up a directory arrow. - also when browsing patches, I found myself using the panic button frequently to stop the long envelopes of the previous patch. - the empty space in the top corners of the ui could be used for on screen mod wheel and pitch bend. That would be handy when not using with a controller. Update: Confirmed crash fix on iOS 13, iPad Air 2. Thanks for the quick fix. **Developer response:** update 1: thanks for the report - version 1.1 was just released which should resolve the crashing problem. please contact us if you're still having issues update 2: version 1.2 now has an auto-panic setting if you don’t want your voices to overlap between presets. ### 5/5 — Professional *2026-06-03* I still use this synth in my music production to this day many years later. One of the most high quality unique synths on the ios platform with beautiful sounds. ### 5/5 — Well isn’t this amazing! *2026-05-24, version 1.31* I found this by accident as I was searching for something that was Buchla. This is amazing and free. I can’t believe the sounds it creates which are other worldly and the whole plug-in itself lends to involvement and to happy experiences. Kudos to the developer. ### 5/5 — Fluid and unique *2024-05-05* Exceptional way to experiment with sound. Nothing else like it ## Most praised reviews (7 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — The best FM synthesizer ever created *2023-07-22* The title says it all. This thing does everything I ever wished my DX7 could do, and with a user interface that makes it as easy as editing an FM synthesizer with this level of functionality could possibly be. I really don’t have anything negative to say here. Been using this app for a few years now and I still feel as though I have barely scratched the surface of what is possible. Thank you for creating this, whoever you are. ### 5/5 — Top synth *2023-06-14* Amazing to learn about sound design even as an amateur like myself and I know the more I continue to learn I’ll be able to go deeper . Beautiful sounds anything from simple and pretty to complex ambient soundscapes . A joy to play . Worth way more than its priced . ### 5/5 — Great! *2023-06-11* This is a really well done recreation of an amazing Buchla synth. It is a great way to explore an extremely rare and unique synth, but it is also a really amazing app in its own right, especially if you like exploring and tweaking sounds: nothing sounds like this. It is not a simple plug-and-play sound maker - its deep and complex - but the many very well done pre-sets let get into the sounds immediately. The manual is clear and thorough as well. ### 5/5 — One of the finest iOS synths ever made *2023-02-26* For experimental patch creation, with usable and excellent results this is number 1 for me. One of the finest iOS synths ever developed. ### 5/5 — Program Change Information 👍 *2022-11-14, version 1.18* This is a really fantastic synth app, I have come to rely on it more and more for it’s unique sounds and textures, but I like to use program change as much as possible to save using too many instances of the same AUv3 synth app, but I struggled to achieve this with ID700, the onboard manual gives no mention of this process. So I tapped on the App Support, selected ID700 and download the ID700 v1.18 Manual into my Adobe Reader, this contains Program Change information not available in the onboard manual. I have listed below some examples of Bank & Prog numbers that I successfully use in Cubasis3. The following Bank/CC32 and Program numbers are used in Cubasis3. ADAGIO (01), Preset “armOne” = Bank#0, CC32#0, Prg Number #1. (Prg #0 is De Fault). Moving forward to - SOUND DESIGN (11), Preset “700 Waves” = Bank#0, CC32#0, Prg #127. The following factory presets (next in line) now use CC32#1: SOUND DESIGN (11), Preset “amp7e&r1n6” = Bank#0, CC32#1, Prg #0, The last factory preset is: Timbre (14) “WSBZ 700” = Bank#0, CC32#1, Prg #94. Hope this information is useful to someone 😉 ### 5/5 — Coolest synth iOS app *2022-09-18* This is my favorite iOS synth app is the most fun one I have to design new sounds. I use it with Moog semi-modular synths and it sounds amazing. ### 5/5 — Not just a great tribute to a forgotten gem a superb instrument in its own right *2022-03-31, version 1.17* Worth investing some time with the manual to understand the concepts but so many modulation possibilities. I’m thinking I’ll spend a long time with this and keep on finding new sounds, love it 👌 Works a treat with a touch screen on iPad too --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-13.*