midigarden

Pure Data synthesizer for iOS

midigarden turns your iPhone or iPad into a touch-based synthesizer. Play melodies on a grid, tweak parameters in real-time, and record loops with retrospective capture.

Under the hood, it runs Pure Data patches - the same open-source audio engine used by professional musicians and sound designers worldwide.

See it in Action

How to Play

Controls

Upper right circle: Drag to switch instruments
Right circle: Drag to switch between play/edit/global/sequence modes

Retrospective Looping

When you play notes, they float by on screen
Tap a floating note to capture it into a loop

Sequence Mode

Tap loops to turn them on/off (blue = on)
Drag down on an off loop to delete it

Tips

Use wired headphones. Bluetooth has lag and won't work well.
Performance may vary on older phones or when many notes play at once. Improvements coming soon.

Features

Touch Grid

8x5 grid mapped to musical scales. Play melodies with your fingers, with 8-voice polyphony.

Retrospective Looper

Captures what you just played, even if you weren't recording. Never lose a good take.

Custom Patches

Load your own Pure Data patches via the Files app. The app wraps them with voice allocation automatically.

Live Parameters

Every knob and slider in your patch becomes a touchable control. Drag to adjust in real-time.

Camera Background

Optional live camera feed behind the grid, perfect for screen-recorded performances.

Included Patches

25+ synthesizers and drums included

Ships with synthesizers ready to play. These are early versions - some parameters may not work yet, and pitch mapping varies. More refined patches coming soon.

Core Synths

amber

Four sine oscillators at harmonic ratios (1x, 2.03x, 3.04x, 5.02x). Smooth organ/flute/bell tones that can turn into distorted bass when driven. Clean with long decays for chords, or punchy and saturated. Controls: attack, decay, drive.

simple

Basic subtractive synth. Single oscillator with low-pass filter, envelope, and volume control. Good starting point for learning.

white

Filtered noise synth. Bandpass-filtered white noise with attack/decay envelope. Works well for percussive textures.

xual

Pitch-sweep percussion. Start/end pitch control, sub oscillator, click transient, and distortion. 808-style kick territory.

VK Drums (808-style)

VKBT808K

808-style kick. Sine wave with pitch envelope and click transient.

VKSNR

Snare drum with adjustable tone and snap.

VKHH808

Hi-hat with open/closed variation.

VKCP808

Classic 808 clap with layered noise bursts.

VKCLV

Short, sharp woody clave click.

VKCNG

Tuned membrane percussion (conga).

VKCOW

Metallic cowbell.

VKTM808

808-style tom with pitch sweep.

VKRIM

Rim shot percussion.

VKRID

Ride cymbal.

VKCRH

Crash cymbal.

VKSHK

Shaker percussion.

Yokai Synths (FM)

oni

Aggressive FM bass with growling character.

yurei

Ethereal pad with ghostly modulation.

tengu

Soaring lead with wind-like movement.

kodama

Forest echo with organic resonance.

kitsune

Fox spirit FM with playful harmonics.

hotaru

Firefly synth with flickering modulation.

Physical Modeling

PYPLK

Karplus-Strong plucked string with brightness and decay controls.

PYGTR

Guitar with inharmonic resonators for realistic body.

PYBOW

Bowed string with vibrato for violin-like tones.

Create Your Own

Build patches in vanilla Pure Data on your computer. Your patch receives MIDI note and velocity at the inlet, and outputs audio. The app handles voice allocation and mixing.

Copy patches to the app via Files app or AirDrop. After adding new patches, close and reopen midigarden to load them into the patch selector.

Read the full guide with starter template →

Try Garden Language - text-based patch creation →

Community

Share patches, get help, and connect with other users.

Join midigarden Discord