# Phasemaker — user reviews > 48 indexed App Store user reviews of Phasemaker by Bram Bos, rated 4.30/5 from 33 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/phasemaker/id1161642832/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/phasemaker/id1161642832.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 23 · 4★ 4 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 4 · 1★ 1 ## Newest reviews (12 of 48) ### 3/5 — I was wrong *2026-01-11* This is better than I originally thought. It is still typical of Bram Bos user interfaces. Odd but you can get some beautiful sounds out of this synth. It sounds pretty meh at first but running it through Popsicle and Other Desert Cities brings it to life. Adding a filter makes it far more interesting and it has more polyphony than a digitone without the absurd price tag. Don’t give up if you too are underwhelmed at first. ### 4/5 — A good no-frills fm synth *2024-06-05* A gooad addition to any setup in Auv3 or with a daw...pretty nitpicky synth,for those that like that type of thing lol decent... ### 4/5 — Bom app! *2020-10-07* Como todos os apps desse desenvolvedor, bem legal. ### 4/5 — Great synth, but lacks MPE support *2018-02-14* I like this synth but can’t really use it because my setup is based on MIDI MPE. Please add this support in the future; it would yield a truly awesome synth. ### 2/5 — Only 100 presets? *2018-01-20* Look I’m not looking to create my own sounds. I have real hardware for that. I thought this would have at least 500 sounds but it has 100 average sounds. ### 4/5 — A like the app *2017-11-15* But can you guys add a transpose and split function please that would be awesome Thanks ### 4/5 — Spot on (almost) *2017-08-10* This is exactly the FM synth I was looking for. Beautifully laid out, everything where you'd want it to be. 6 operators with all the buttons and the dials. The touch keyboard response is lightning fast (no lag whatsoever), which is important when playing. The killer feature for me is the AU capability. I was able to bring up Phasemaker inside Garageband as an external instrument, and control everything without having to leave Garageband. It's amazing how close GB has come to a desktop class DAW. It's good to have apps like Phasemaker keep this ecosystem going. Well done. UPDATE: had to knock off a star because the app keeps running a background process chewing up 30% of my battery at all times. There is no way to report this inside the app. ### 4/5 — Schön viel FM, pretty much FM *2017-07-24* On my wishlist: The envelopes should go longer periods, maybe with shown time-parameters. ### 2/5 — Not ready for live performance *2017-06-25* Synth sounds great and has deep midi, but jams up easily with a lot of midi traffic. I hook it up to an arpeggiator and quickly the polyphony goes up to 25+ and it starts spewing loud digital distortion that wont turn off when I press the panic button. Most synths impose their own limits on polyphony, I don't know why this one doesn't. (Edit: phasemaker does limit itself at 32 voices, but should provide control to lower this limit for old devices) I know I could make sure my notes don't have too much release and limit the notes I send, but I don't want to be live tweaking fm params and have this screw up. I really wanted to use this in my live rig but I can't trust it so it will go unused. ### 4/5 — Good, but... *2017-06-01* I was hoping for a few more classic FM sounds. But all is good. I wish that the onscreen keyboard was full width. And that the wasted space in the top half of the screen could take the mod wheel and other controls, to enable this...thanks. ### 4/5 — Ça va mieux *2017-01-26* Depuis la dernière mise à jour. ### 5/5 — An AU FM Synth that is reminiscent of classic synths, but has it's on mojo too *2017-01-14* Audio Units is making life easier for iOS music producers as the line between mobile music production DAW's and pro desktop DAW's is thinning. I like using Audibus & IAA, but the ease of using AU with it's multiple instances is just so cool. And when a synth sounds this good to boot, that's tall cotton brother. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Only one preset? *2023-05-10* The only preset seems to be 80s piano and that’s it. Why not call it that if that’s all it is? ### 1/5 — Crashes on key press *2022-04-14* Anytime I press a key, it crashes. Wish I could use it. Using iPad Air iOS 15. ### 1/5 — Não funciona *2020-01-08* Acabei de comprar esse app o mesmo fecha instantaneamente não funciona não me atendeu 👎🏼 ### 1/5 — Zzzz totally uninspiring *2019-05-28* Lame presets, in a poor viewer, uncatagorised, so you go from a base preset obviously used in a low octave to one designed for a higher octave plus the fact that it's so difficult to press the octave buttons, it almost never detects me touching them, I want to be able to switch octaves without hardly looking not tapping it 10 times while staring at it. And what a waste of space the whole thing is. In the screenshots on the description page it shows the UI full screen however I have the same size phone and the UI is microscopic. Just annoying and boring and not the same as the picture. ### 1/5 — Total waste of $10 *2016-10-22, version 1.0* Wasted $10 on this buggy crap. Hangs every other minute on some chord and nothing I do gets it to stop except shutting the app off entirely. ### 1/5 — Doesn't even start *2016-10-22, version 1.0* Immediately crashes ### 2/5 — Kills battery in Bg *2026-01-07* Noticed my battery was really low a few days in a row. Since installing this app, it's eaten up 15-25% of my batter daily due to being constantly on in the background ### 2/5 — Being Phased Out? *2023-07-25* Underwhelmed, I sit here with an app in front of me that first and foremost does not even fit in the space of a modern iPhone screen. This app is obviously designed for a much older device and apparently needs updating. However, be warned if you do provoke a response from said developer (Bram Bos), he will defensively pronounce the app as perfectly complete in and of itself. Needless to say the app has a whopping 103 FM sound patches to work with that can only be accessed once you have figured out how to work around the bug riddled interface. For example, they wont appear on an iphone 13 pro max until you have selected user bank and then back to factory. But again, not worth reporting to the dev because he will claim that you just want to criticize him and not appreciate his hard work. Some devs just shouldn’t do their own customer support. I digress. ### 2/5 — Not Bram’s Best *2022-08-22, version 1.3.9* This software fm synth got left behind. It’s not even compatible with regular dx7 patches. The included patches are so primitive and thoughtless as it is this is a huge disappointment. I expected better to be honest. ### 2/5 — GUI issues on latest update *2018-12-09* New GUI is way too small on an iPhone SE. Text is too small to read. Now app is practically unusable. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Excellent AU integration *2019-11-11* This synth relies less on presets and more on design, which is really the way things were supposed to work. With such flexibility it’s more enjoyable creating your own patches. This may be the most tweakable, flexible synth I own. ### 5/5 — Nerd alert! *2019-10-01* This synth is so incredibly versatile. I love it. DEFINITELY RECOMMEND. And it’s pretty awesome to be able to tell my friends that I do frequency modulation synthesis. ### 5/5 — Great app, great developer *2018-11-05* Bram Bos should be commended for their early embrace of the Auv3 standard. I have most of their products and would give 5-star reviews of all of them if I had t*he time. It’s nice that they offer standalone modes for their apps, but they really come alive when used as Auv3 plugins. That’s especially true for Phasemaker. All parameters can be automated in Cubasis. Powerful! ### 5/5 — My go to fm synth *2018-09-05* Like FM synths, I own most of the ones available on iOS, but this one is my go to, like all Brad Bos apps it is beautifully designed and implemented. Plenty of depth of you want to design your sounds from scratch, but you can just spam the Mutate button until you get something you like as well! ### 5/5 — even greater with ext. controler! *2018-03-23* For iPad AND iPhone! I miss a good 6op DX E-Piano in the presets... just for sentimental reasons..;) The GUI fits better the iphone size then the ipad mini... ...BUT: i programmed a behringer bcr2000 (almost onepager) preset for the phasemaker and: fun and inspiration explode! via a external controler this is a real weapon for programming fm sounds! i experienced a fast email support too! ahem.... parameter feedback and aftertouch would be great! ### 5/5 — Excellent app, with one major shortcoming *2018-02-24* The app is beautifully designed, and way beyond what you can do with any of its iOS FM peers. However, it must be pointed out that envelope times are way too short, to the point that programming a realistically sounding electric piano sound is next to impossible, as the longest decay time available is insufficient (or am I perhaps missing something?). Hope to see this addressed in a later version. Given the excellence of the rest, it would be churlish to withhold a star from the rating, but I feel the point I’m making is important. Also, support for Ableton Link for LFO and delay sync would be great (I see no mention of that in the manual). ### 5/5 — Active and Responsive Developer, Great Sounds, AUv3 what more could you want! *2017-10-13* I own every product from this developer. I am in support of developers embracing the AUv3 standard, especially when it sounds this good. Lots of consistency and simple, but powerful control options. Lots of constant updates with new features. Highly recommended. ### 5/5 — AU uber alles! *2017-10-05* Top quality app, it works beautifully in all modes. If it saved its state on exit, it would be a 5 star + app. Nic ### 5/5 — Another great one from Bram Bos! *2017-07-19, version 1.3.2* [Update] I'm happily back to dole out the 5th star - 'cause this great app is now universal! Not to mention that you can now easily transfer presets between devices using iMessage, email, airdrop, etc. :) Thanks Bram Bos, you are the best! I love this developer's apps. They are simple, to the point, and effective. They remind me of the Korg Volca line of mini hardware modules. Each does one thing, and does it well. Phasemaker is a really, really well thought out FM synthesizer. FM Synthesis is much more complicated than the subtractive synthesis most of of are used to. It's not easy to learn how to make good patches, but Phasemaker makes it enjoyable. I hate to give it less than 5 stars, but just have to hold back one star out of mild disappointment that there's no iPhone version. One of my favorite things is to noodle away on my phone with Ruismaker and Ruismaker FM. I really hope an iPhone version is in the works! [update 7/18/2017] Brambos does it again. He just released a patch to work around a bug in another developer's host app until they provide their own fix! That's beyond the call of duty! ### 5/5 — Awesome *2017-05-28* So cheap and sounds great. Very intuitive programming interface for FM synthesis, which up until now has been too daunting for me. Now that I have some time with this it is all making sense. I'll be buying whatever this developer puts out. --- *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 2026-08-17.*