Retromulator vs WorldWandering

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 actual firmware, 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 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 — original firmware on an emulated Motorola 6809 board driving six CEM3396 voice models, with ROM banks 2 to 9 from the patch EPROM, a MIDI CC for each of the 96 patch parameters and LFO sync to the host tempo or MIDI clock FM SYNTHESIS • Yamaha DX7 — original chip set emulation, based on 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 (GTS3/4/5, GTI3/4/5) and .sid file import (PSID/RSID), full macro playback engine (wavetable, pulsetable, filtertable, speedtable) 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 with the Ym2149Synth voice engine, 3-voice polyphony, switchable AY / YM engine, .ay patch loading, Factory and User banks, 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

WorldWandering stretches a short sound up to ten million times into a slowly drifting resonance. It can also speed a sound up tens of thousands of times into a dizzying pulse. Every action and setting takes effect on the spot, so you can create new sounds while the sound plays. The screen is the sound. A band across the middle shows the material as a waveform or a spectrogram, with a line where it is being read and the range it loops over. Touch the band to move the reading position and the volume with your finger. Pinch to widen or narrow the loop. Turn the device sideways and the material fills the whole screen. Touch above or below the band to send the sound on a journey. Left to right is the reading position; top to bottom runs through six places with very different characters — Drift, Haze, Shimmer, Swarm, Pulse and Tape — with the top and bottom joined into a loop. A crosshair shows where you are aiming, and when you lift your finger the sound travels there over the Transition time while a circle closes in on the spot. Tap three times to stop or start. The sound can also wander the map on its own, and Randomize moves every setting somewhere new. The settings that shape the sound are in the Sound sheet, grouped into three tabs: - Material — five built-in sounds: voices, nature, drum loops, an orchestra and an old vocal recording. With Pro you can import your own sounds from the Files app. - Playback — three ways of playing: Simple (like a tape: slower is lower), Granular (short grains joined and overlapped, with synchronous, asynchronous and WSOLA types) and Spectral (the sound is dissolved into its frequencies and stretched). Playback speed runs continuously from ×0 through ×1 to ×∞, with pitch up to two octaves up or down, the window length and shape, grain length, density and jitter, the loop and a shift that moves it along a little on every round, and a crossfade that hides the join of the loop. - Effects — a ping-pong delay, a reverb and a limiter. Four visualizers follow the sound across the whole screen: Pulsar, Aurora, Ring and Nova. Their colours follow the timbre and their size and brightness follow the loudness. Send the sound to Bluetooth speakers, AirPlay speakers such as HomePod, or a USB audio interface, and control it from Control Center and the Lock Screen. Record exactly what you hear as a 48 kHz / 24-bit WAV file. Leave it running while you work, read or rest. Background Playback keeps it going when you leave the app, Prevent Auto-Lock keeps the picture awake, and the corner buttons can be hidden while still working where they are. A quick guide is built in. WorldWandering is free with a banner ad. Pro, a one-time in-app purchase, removes the ad and unlocks every setting, recording, and your own sounds. The Sound sheet is fully available without Pro, apart from importing your own sounds.