WaveStack for iPad is the same app as on the desktop, with the same table views, editor, Build, import, Morph, Sound tab and Export, adapted for touch. It also includes an AUv3 plugin, so you can play your tables inside GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM and other hosts. The iPad version is coming soon to the App Store.
It needs iPadOS 16 or later. It’s for the iPad only, and works in every orientation.
Layout
In landscape, the layout matches the desktop: the library on the left, the table and frame editor in the middle, and the Edit and Sound tabs on the right.
In portrait, the table and editor fill the top of the screen, and a single panel below them has three tabs: Library, Edit and Sound. Drag the divider to share the height between them.
Settings › Interface size scales everything, touch targets included, from 75% to 150%.
Touch
- Long press acts as a right-click. Hold a finger or Apple Pencil still for about half a second on a frame, the grid, the frame editor or a library file to open its menu.
- 3D view: drag with one finger to turn the table. Pinch to zoom, and drag with two fingers to pan. If turning feels backward, use the invert options in Settings.
- Drawing: the Pencil, Line and Curve tools work with a finger or Apple Pencil.
The on-screen keyboard
Tap the keyboard button in the audition bar to show a two-octave keyboard starting at C of the current octave. Play chords with several fingers, or slide across the keys to play each one you reach. The octave buttons move it up and down.
WaveStack plays even when the ringer switch is set to silent, as a musical instrument should. It mixes with audio from other apps rather than stopping it.
Your files
The library is the On My iPad › WaveStack folder, which you can also browse in the Files app. Tables you save go there. Copy files in with the Files app to see them in the library.
On the iPad you can’t add other folders to the library, and file menus offer Duplicate and Rename (there’s no Show in Finder). WaveStack has no account or cloud sync of its own; use the Files app to move tables to iCloud Drive or elsewhere.
Importing: New › Wavetable file, Sample and Image open the Files picker, so you can choose files from On My iPad, iCloud Drive or a connected drive. The picker shows every file type, because iPadOS would otherwise gray out files it doesn’t recognize, such as Surge .wt files; WaveStack checks each file as it reads it. See Importing.
Exporting
Export works as on the desktop: pick the synth or device the table is for. When you export, the iPad’s share sheet opens, where you can choose Save to Files, AirDrop or another app. Targets that write several files, such as the Piston Honda Mk III’s eight-file set, share them all at once.
If the share sheet can’t open, WaveStack saves the files to On My iPad › WaveStack instead (multi-file exports go in a subfolder named after the table) and tells you where they went.
Linked device folders aren’t available on the iPad, because iPad apps can’t keep a lasting link to an outside folder or SD card. Save to Files instead, and choose the card or folder there.
See Exporting for the targets.
MIDI
MIDI controllers work on the iPad. In the Sound tab’s MIDI input section, choose one input, all of them or none, and use MIDI learn to drive X, Y or Z from a knob or fader. See Sound and playing.
The AUv3 plugin
The iPad app includes WaveStack as an AUv3 instrument. There’s nothing extra to install: once the app is on your iPad, hosts list it as WaveStack by Signal Function Set.
To use it in GarageBand, create a song, choose Audio Unit Extensions as the instrument, then pick WaveStack. Other hosts, such as Logic Pro for iPad, AUM and Cubasis, have their own instrument pickers.
The plugin has the same editor as the desktop plugin: the table, frame editor, New menu, Edit and Sound tabs and Settings, without the library, Save, Export or the audition bar. The host plays the notes.
- Loading tables: the New menu’s file items open the Files picker. You can pick tables from On My iPad › WaveStack. Dragging files onto the plugin isn’t supported.
- Saved with the project: the host saves the table and every setting with its project or preset.
- Parameters and automation: the same parameters as the desktop plugin, listed in the host’s parameter view.
- MIDI and tempo: notes with velocity, the mod wheel, aftertouch and pitch bend; synced LFOs follow the host’s tempo and line up with its song position while it plays.
The AUv3 is part of WaveStack Pro. Without Pro it stays silent and shows a message asking you to unlock Pro in the WaveStack app; you can’t buy from inside the plugin. Once you unlock Pro in the app, the plugin starts playing straight away. If you’ve already bought Pro and the plugin still asks, open the WaveStack app once, or use Restore in its Settings. Projects keep their tables while the plugin is locked.
WaveStack Pro on the iPad
On the iPad, Pro is a one-time in-app purchase that covers every 1.x update on all your iPads. Buy it from Settings › WaveStack Pro › Unlock Pro, or from the Pro prompt when you reach for a Pro feature. On a new iPad, or after reinstalling, use Restore. See WaveStack Pro.
What’s different from the desktop
- One library folder (On My iPad › WaveStack); no Add folder or Show in Finder.
- Export goes through the share sheet; no linked device folders.
- Long press in place of right-click, and the on-screen keyboard.
- An AUv3 plugin in place of the desktop’s CLAP, VST3 and AU plugins.
- Pro is an App Store purchase, with no license key or trial.