BA-1 - Baby Audio vs FabFilter Twin 3 Usage & Stats
A Synth With A Soul
* Baby Audio's popular BA-1 synthesizer is now available on the App Store
* Use it in standalone mode to instantly play and program lush 80s patches that are dripping with color
* Or use it as an AUv3 Plugin in your favorite host – such as Logic Pro, GarageBand or Cubasis
Whether you're creating synthwave, lo-fi, modern pop or dance, BA-1 will be your new go-to synth due to its authentic sonic character and user-friendly workflow. It ships with 500+ high quality presets and a Re-Gen button for instantly creating new patches on the fly.
About BA-1
The Legacy:
BA-1 is based on a portable 1980s synth with a toylike appearance and a gritty sound. Despite its small size, it left a big mark on music history, while still flying somewhat under the hype radar. The original has been used as a secret weapon for bubbly synth textures by some of Sweden’s most successful pop producers of the past two decades. It was also a staple of 1990s digital dancehall and beloved by the indietronica scene for its raw lo-fi quality. The original hardware has never been properly captured in software form. So for our first ever synth, we started there.
The Sound:
In keeping with our motto ”it’s an evolution, not an emulation”, we modeled the hardware with the greatest possible accuracy, before carefully upgrading it with new and useful features. A second analog-modeled oscillator, FM, polyphony, and more, help to vastly expand the sonic palette of the original. All while keeping its signature sound unspoiled.
Additionally, BA-1 lets you drain the battery, bend the circuits, and use the built-in speaker – for an authentic lo-fi aesthetic that you could normally only get with hardware.
The Effects:
If you know our company, you’ll know that effects are our specialty. So we’ve treated BA-1 with an FX section worthy of its own plugin. The effects chain is inspired by budget 1980s rack hardware and captures the lo-fi charm of the home studio scene of the era. The overdrive is modeled after a guitar pedal, while the delay, reverb and chorus effects are based on cheap, but amazing, digital rack units.
In BA-1, the effects are not an afterthought but an ingrained part of the sonic signature.
The Simplicity:
BA-1 is simple, but surprisingly tweakable. We’ve put great effort into tuning all parameters to be in the perfect sweet spot. This results in a rewarding programming workflow where tweaking BA-1 is a lot of fun and you’ll create new patches on repeat.
And if a simple interface is not fast enough, you can always use the smart ‘Re-Gen’ feature. Hit Re-Gen and BA-1 will automatically create new and musically tuned patches with every click.
We hope you'll enjoy this new Baby Audio release!
- Apple App Store
- Paid
- Music
Store Rank
- -
Since its first release in 2005, FabFilter Twin has been famous for its filter quality and oscillator sound. FabFilter Twin 3 expands and improves on its predecessors in every area, including a complete redesign of the GUI and workflow, more and better oscillators and filters, a radically powered-up modulation system, an all-new FX section, and much more. Sonically versatile, supremely intuitive, and spectacularly ‘analog’, Twin 3 is a dream instrument for creating synth sounds of all kinds, from basses, leads, and pads to plucks, drums, effects, and beyond.
The Twin 3 app lets you play via the on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard connected to your iPad. To use Twin 3 as a plug-in, you need an AUv3-compatible host app like Auria, AUM or Cubasis. Twin 3 will appear in the list of Audio Unit extensions for instrument plug-ins in the host app.
Key features:
- Virtual analog synth featuring four flexible oscillators, four filters, six FX modules, and a vast modulation system with a wealth of flexible source signal generators, drag and drop source/target routing, and no limit to the number of modulation assignments that can be made
- Fully redesigned, greatly simplified interface with easier workflow
- Completely overhauled modulation system with redesigned modulation sources, and floating slot and
FX panels
- All-new FX section, housing Reverb, Delay, Chorus, Phaser, Drive, and Compressor modules
- Arpeggiator with Groove/Legato controls, note order, latch options, and more
- Full-featured preset browser, with tags, favorites, and search and filter functions, and new factory preset
library
- Per Oscillator polyphony mode: each incoming note triggers a different oscillator
- Bell, Shelf, and Notch vintage-style EQ filter shapes
- 6dB/octave filter slope option
- Modulatable filter Cutoff/Peak Offset knobs knobs, for adjusting all filters at once
- High Quality mode — 4x oversampling
- Transient mode turns Envelope Followers into transient detectors
- Curve adjustment handles for EG Attack, Decay, and Release stages
- Slider mode (vertical-only operation) and Range setting (toggles between bipolar and unipolar behavior)
for XY controllers
- Hide all modulation sources except for XY controllers and Sliders at a click
- Native sustain pedal support
- Even better oscillator and filter sound quality, with analog-modelled drift
- Maximum number of voices doubled from 32 to 64
- Lower minimum Envelope Generator Attack, Decay, and Release times
- Maximum number of XY controllers/Sliders increased to six
- Envelope Generator Threshold, XLFO Balance, and Frequency Offset made available as
modulation targets
- Modulation sources can be renamed
- Maximum number of modulation slots increased to 100
- Legato mode for MIDI-triggered XLFO
- Range options added to MIDI Sources: Negative (-1 to 0), Centered (-1 to 1), and Positive (0 to 1)
- Carefully designed and curated factory presets, plus the ability to save your own presets
- Undo/redo and A/B comparison
"FabFilter Twin is one of the best virtual analogues we've heard so far, and at this price point it's well worth the investment!"
— Computer Music
"Once I found FabFilter Twin, I immediately noticed how great it works and how amazing it sounds!"
— George Morel
- Apple App Store
- Paid
- Music
Store Rank
- -
BA-1 - Baby Audio VS. 
FabFilter Twin 3January 1, 2025