Spiral Chorus AUv3

Spiral Chorus AUv3

Spiral Chorus has been a project long in the making, a culmination of a lifelong passion for iOS audio plugins ignited by my first iPod Touch. The revelation that this device could transform into an instrument with the right apps was profound. As the ecosystem evolved, introducing tools like AUM, Samplr, and Moog Synths/FX, my journey in music technology deepened. My music project, L'Homme Moyen, became a testament to the capabilities of these apps, guiding my career path from a degree in Theoretical Physics to Music Technology.

My professional journey over the past four years has been centered on developing desktop JUCE plugins for various brands and clients, with occasional ventures into porting desktop plugins to iOS. However, my personal projects beckoned me to explore Apple's AUv3 framework, seeking a fresh challenge and perspective away from the cross-platform emphasis of JUCE. Thus, Spiral Chorus was born, initially imagined with a WebKit UI leveraging React Three Fiber and JUCE. Yet, the ambition of incorporating 3D visuals faced a significant hurdle with performance issues on less powerful devices, prompting a pivot to SceneKit. This shift not only resolved performance concerns, achieving 60fps even on older devices but also offered a smoother development experience with SwiftUI previews facilitating live coding of 3D visuals.

The transition to SceneKit was eased by my familiarity with Threejs, allowing me to apply similar concepts in this new context. The development process was further streamlined by the introduction of SwiftUI previews, a welcome departure from the slower compile cycles of JUCE development. The quest for adding post-processing effects in SceneKit led me to discover SCNTechnique, enabling the application of custom Metal shaders for enhanced visuals—a fun challenge that involved translating WebGL/OpenGL shaders into Metal.

On the audio side, I'm developing the Wild Surmise DSP library, integrating C++ and Faust code. This endeavor is not just about leveraging my accumulated DSP knowledge but also about creating a foundation for the "FX Forms" series—a collection of straightforward yet impactful audio effects for iOS.

Spiral Chorus represents the first step in this series, marking a significant milestone in my journey through music technology. With more innovative audio effects on the horizon, I'm excited to continue exploring the possibilities of iOS music production, driven by a passion that has evolved from curiosity to hopefully something useful for the iOS music community.