SID Synth Downloads & RevenueSID Synth · App Store

SID Synth is a synthesizer built on the SID sound chip: both the 6581 and the 8580, modeled cycle by cycle. Play it on its own on iPhone and iPad, or as an AUv3 plug-in in your music apps.

NOT SAMPLES
Nothing you hear is a recording. Every sound is a patch, carefully rebuilt the way game composers programmed their instruments, and played live on the modeled chip: waveform switches, pulse-width sweeps, arpeggios and filter moves, step by step. So each note behaves the way the chip does: it responds to your playing, to the controls, and to the chip version you choose.

THE CHIP
• Three oscillators with triangle, saw, pulse and noise, ring modulation, hard sync and the analog filter
• Both versions, and they really differ. The 6581: a darker, gritty filter with a soft resonance. The 8580: clean and deep, with a strong, piercing resonance. Switch with one key
• Combined waveforms as each chip makes them: full on the 8580, some all but silent on the 6581

SOUNDS
• 62 ready sounds in folders: basses, leads, arpeggios, keys and bells, pads and brass, raw waveforms
• A drum kit and a game-effects kit on pads: lasers, coins, explosions, power-ups
• Six controls over every sound: tone, resonance, pulse-width movement, vibrato, attack and release. Plus one-voice chords, arpeggio speed and glide
• Tap a sound's name to hear it before you play
• Save your own sounds as user presets

PLAYING
• Mono, Poly (four chips, one per note) or Chip (three notes on one chip, sharing its filter, as on the original hardware)
• On-screen piano keys with octave buttons, pads for the kits
• MIDI keyboards over USB or Bluetooth, with pitch bend, mod wheel and sustain pedal
• A computer keyboard plays too: two rows of letters are piano keys, as in a tracker

IN YOUR MUSIC APPS
• AUv3 instrument for Logic Pro, GarageBand and other AUv3 hosts, in any window size, from a phone strip to full screen
• Every control is a host parameter, ready for automation
• Your sound is saved with the host's project
• User presets are shared between the app and the plug-in
• MIDI 2.0, and MIDI 1.0 from any host or keyboard

THE LOOK
A text-mode screen from the DOS days: framed panels, a function-key bar, block-character sliders.
Five themes: green and amber screens, DOS blue, Retro 16-color and a classic 8-bit blue.

PRIVACY
No account, no ads, no tracking. SID Synth collects no data.

SID Synth is an independent product, not affiliated with the makers of the original chips.