Raven Synth vs Retromulator
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Raven Synth
This powerful wavetable synthesizer allows musicians to draw custom waveforms and morph between them. Sculpt evolving textures with a deep effects chain and performance-ready interface for sound design and live playing.
- Dual drawable oscillators with wavetable morphing
- Utility oscillator with sub, ring mod, FM, noise, and harmonics
- Classic ladder filter with 12/24dB slope
- Dual ADSR envelopes for filter and amp
- Dual LFOs with drawable waveforms and modulation slots
- Full effects chain including delay, reverb, chorus, and distortion
- AUv3 instrument and MIDI support
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RAVEN - Wavetable Morphing Synth RAVEN is a deep, expressive wavetable-morphing synthesizer designed for evolving textures and sculpted sound on iOS. Built for musicians, producers, and sound designers, Raven delivers drawable waveforms, real-time morphing, and a full effects chain in a clean, performance-ready interface - whether you're crafting pads, designing sounds, or playing live. Key Features: Dual drawable oscillators with wavetable morphing Utility oscillator (sub, ring mod, FM, noise, harmonics) Classic ladder filter with 12/24dB slope Dual ADSR envelopes (Filter + Amp) Dual LFOs with drawable waveforms, fade-in (up to 20s), and flexible modulation slots 12-band parametric EQ Delay, reverb, chorus, and distortion FX 56 factory presets with QR code sharing Touch-optimized performance controls AUv3 instrument support CoreMIDI & Bluetooth MIDI Designed for iPhone and iPad Raven is intentionally deep - every control shapes the sound. Draw your waveforms. Morph between them. Sculpt everything in between. Designed for exploration. Built for expression.
Retromulator
This app offers authentic low-level emulation of legendary hardware synthesizers, samplers, and keyboards. It brings classic electronic music instruments back to life with their original firmware and behavior, supporting various core emulations for diverse sound creation.
- Multi-core retro hardware emulation
- AUv3 plug-in support
- Authentic low-level emulation of original firmware
- Virtual analog, FM, and chiptune synthesis
- GM/GS sound modules
- Organ and electric piano emulation
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Retromulator is a multi-core retro hardware emulation app and AUv3 plug-in that brings legendary synthesizer, sampler, and keyboard cores back to life through authentic low-level emulation. Each core runs its original firmware, a clean-room controller written from the behaviour of the hardware, a physical model or sample data — delivering the unmistakable character of the hardware that defined electronic music from the early 80s through the 2000s. — EMULATED CORES — VIRTUAL ANALOG SYNTHS • Nordic — virtual analog synth after the Nord Lead 1 by discoDSP, with its own panel, factory banks, Nord Lead SysEx import and its own AUv3 Firmware-level chip emulation, enabled with the 56k cores option (requires M1 iPad or iPhone 15 Pro or newer): • Access Virus A, B and C — Motorola DSP 56300 recreation • Access Virus TI / TI2 / Snow — Motorola DSP 56300 recreation • Clavia Nord Lead 2X — Motorola DSP 56300 recreation • Waldorf microQ — Motorola DSP 56300 recreation • Waldorf Microwave XT — Motorola DSP 56300 recreation • Roland JP-8000 and JP-8080 — JE-8086 core by Giulio Zausa ANALOG SYNTHS • Oberheim Matrix-1000 — clean-room controller, no firmware needed, driving six CEM3396 voice models, with a MIDI CC for each of the 96 patch parameters and LFO sync to the host tempo or MIDI clock • Moog Minimoog Model D — CA-72 circuit model by Idle Foundry, with the original front panel, a Double voice section with Detune, Width and Entropy, three quality modes, 46 factory presets and .fxp / .fxb preset and bank support • OB-Xd 2 — discoDSP's synth after the Oberheim OB-X, OB-Xa and OB-8, with its own panel, 24 factory banks and its own AUv3 FM SYNTHESIS • Yamaha DX7 — clean-room controller, no firmware needed, driving the original EGS and OPS chip models from VDX7 by Charles Chiaccona • Yamaha OPL3 — Nuked OPL3 cycle-accurate FM by Nuke.YKT GM / GS SOUND MODULES • 88emu — Roland SC-88, SC-88VL, SC-88Pro, SC-8850 and SC-55mkII boards, emulation by Giulio Zausa, with GS variation, map and rhythm handling, program and drum kit names read straight from the board ROM, 16-part multitimbral operation, and a Standard MIDI File player with offline rendering to WAV or AAC. CHIPTUNE • Commodore 64 SID 6581/8580 — based on reSID. 3-voice polyphony, 8580 chip model with high-quality RESAMPLE, GoatTracker .sng / .ins bank loading and .sid file import (PSID/RSID), full macro playback engine and live MIDI control of cutoff (CC 74), resonance (CC 71), pulse width (CC 75), vibrato (CC 1) and pitch bend. • Ayumi (AY-3-8910 / YM2149) — the PSG behind the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and MSX. Ayumi emulation by Peter Sovietov, 3-voice polyphony, switchable AY / YM engine, .ay patch loading and 11 live CC controls. ORGAN • Hammond B3 with Leslie speaker — OpenB3, based on the setBfree engine by Michele Perrone. Upper, lower and pedal drawbars, percussion, vibrato and chorus, overdrive, reverb, three Leslie cabinets, keyboard split and .fxp presets ELECTRIC PIANO AND SAMPLER • Wurlitzer 200A — OpenWurli physical modelling by hal0zer0 (Rust ported to C++ by discoDSP) • Akai S1000 — SFZero sample engine by Steve Folta, with Bliss Sampler support and resampling engine by discoDSP (SF2 / SFZ / ZBP / ZBB) — KEY FEATURES — • Native AUv3 plug-in for AUM, Cubasis, GarageBand, Logic Pro and more • Standalone app for iPhone and iPad • Full MIDI control: CC, mod wheel, expression, pitch bend • 8-point sinc interpolation for sample playback • Auto-slice drum mapping and global retuning via MIDI • ROM firmware loading from original hardware • Background audio, iCloud and Files app integration • Optimised interpreter compatible with the iOS App Store sandbox • Boards: hardware-style control panels for 15 cores, with host parameter linking and NRPN input • MIDI out to the host or to a MIDI device, and an Editor Only mode that runs a board without the sound engine or firmware, to edit the original hardware
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Raven Synth at $6.99 against Retromulator's $29.99. Raven Synth also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 63%). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Raven Synth costs $6.99 and Retromulator $29.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Raven Synth against 5.0 for Retromulator. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 4 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Raven Synth's written reviews are positive against 63% of Retromulator's.
Raven Synth ships an update every 4 days, Retromulator every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Raven Synth | Retromulator |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 — better | $29.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 62.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 138 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Steffen Mølgaard Larsen | DiscoDSP LLC |
Customer experience
Raven Synth
Retromulator
In-app purchases
Raven Synth
No in-app purchases
Retromulator
No in-app purchases








