GyroSynth review

GyroSynth is a musical instrument app from Beep Street that uses the Gyroscope and Accelerometer in your iPhone 4 to create a super silly, fun, addictive and even annoying to others set of sounds as you move your iPhone around in the air. First impression: This is awesome! In case you hadn’t heard, yes the iPhone 4 has a built in Gyroscope and it has been documented. Not many iPhone 4 apps are out there that use this feature yet, or that use it well. GyroSynth is making pretty good headway in that realm.

There isn’t too much more to say about GyroSynth other than wow! I have to say at first I was very skeptical about this app, given its icon is not very exciting looking and even the first help screen that loads up is very un-flashy and plain. But once you start playing the sounds on your iPhone 4 and manipulating the frequency and modulation, you’ll simply be blown away. The app got a lot of attention from people in the room right away and more than 5 different folks came over asking me “what’s the name of that app?” which if you’re the developer, is exactly the kind of response you want.

Using GyroSynth is nicely explained in the welcome screen. Hold it like a mouse pointing forward using your right arm (left arm is supported too) with the screen facing up. Roll your palm right/left to control the volume. Then you can rotate your arm up/down or left/right to manipulate the frequency & modulation. The app gives you setting adjustments for a bunch of items like mode, oscillation, scale, and octaves. Scales available include Theremin, Asian 1, Asian 2, Blues, Chromatic, Majors, and Minors.

The overall sound is very asian/middle easter sounding. Almost like the sound you hear from a snake charmer or classical sitar synthesizer. Right now GyroSynth is free, so grab it if you’ve got an iPhone 4. It can be fun to have around when you’re feeling creative or just want to drive your friends up the wall. Maybe you can even get a bunch of iPhone 4s in one room and make some sort of group compositions.

I’de love to see more work being done on this app. A record feature, a mute feature and more sounds would be great to have in the next release.

AppSafari Rating: 4.5/5

AppSafari review of GyroSynth was written by Joe Seifi on September 2nd, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Fun, Music. Page viewed 6518 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.