Caustic - music studio

[portablefree]

[Moderator note: this is the primary Caustic music studio thread. View database entry]

----

Caustic 3.1.0 by Single Cell Software

Really very nice music studio, kind of a mini Reason or FL Studio :
- rack of synths + FX,
- pattern + song sequencer,
- import/export WAV + MIDI, etc.

Official site with portable download : http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/caustic

-=-=-=-=-=- Official presentation extracts -=-=-=-=-=-



Caustic 3 is a music creation tool inspired by rack-mount synthesizers / samplers rigs.
Everything is real-time and optimized for mobile devices.

Create your rack by adding up to 14 machines from a choice of:
* Subsynth - Virtual analog subtractive synthesizer
* PCMSynth - Multi-sample wave synthesizer
* BassLine - 303-like monosynth
* BeatBox - 8-channel sampling drum machine
* PadSynth - Harmonic table pad synthesizer
* 8BitSynth - 8bit equation solver synthesizer
* Modular - Fully configurable and routable synthesizer
* Organ - Hammond-like tonewheel organ with rotary speaker
* Vocoder - 8-band harmonic vocoder
* FMSynth - DX-style 3-operator fm synthesizer
* KSSynth - Karplus-Strong string modeling synth

The app also includes:
* Effects rack supporting 2 effects per machine. (16 effect types)
* Mixer desk with global Delay/Reverb effects
* Master section with parametric EQ and limiter
* Song sequencer

Supports automation on most controls and includes powerful editors for modifying recorded automation curves.

All files are stored on the user-accessible storage, and users can supply their own WAV files for use in the PCMSynth, BeatBox, and Vocoder.
Supports all uncompressed WAV files (8-16-24-32bit, any sampling rate).
The PCMSynth can also load SoundFont files (.sf2) and FL Studio mobile instruments (.instr, .ZIP)
Class-compliant USB MIDI controllers can be connected via USB OTG cable on devices running at least Android 3.2 and supporting USB host mode.

See the in-app help section for tutorial videos and full online manual.

[...]

Windows stand-alone ZIP ​[27 Mb] (for use on public computers or when you can't install programs, can be run directly from a USB drive once unzipped)

-=-=-=-=-=- /End of official presentation/ -=-=-=-=-=-

Developed for Android, with a brief BlackBerry PlayBook incursion (that's where I got to know of it), then a free version for Windows, then for iOS, and now free for Mac and Windows portable / no-install.

The dev. is an impressive "machine" so to speak, having perfected a music studio app among the bests of the bests, by himself, and on the OS that everybody dismissed for music making!

Not tested for stealth by myself, but demo and easter-egg work perfectly on my Windows 8.1 tablet hybrid (Samsung XE500T, Atom Clover Trail, touch + keyboard).

Works really well with keyboard and mouse, and quite well with touch screen (can't really play musical keyboard in real-time, but might be possible if I play a bit more with the settings).

Really nice, just not sure how to thoroughly test for stealth by myself?

Maybe some will enjoy, as there's not so many portable music making soft. This one is:
- nice to look at,
- quite simple and intuitive (better than trackers),
- quite low-resource (works on standard Android phone, so any PC is OK),
- quite open (import, export, read, play formats),

And the dev. is incredible, with a nice community around: have a look if you're even remotely musician!

[I am Baas]

Desktop versions. Free, full version, but no support.

Tested v3.1.0 portable

Settings: \Caustic_3.1.0_standalone\Caustic_3\documents

Dl @ http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/downl ... dalone.zip

[portablefree]

Desktop versions. Free, full version, but no support.

Tested v3.1.0 portable

Settings: \Caustic_3.1.0_standalone\Caustic_3\documents

Dl @ http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/downl ... dalone.zip

Many many thanks for testing portability / stealth! And so fast, wow!

Yes, didn't specify the "no support" as it was clear from the 1st Windows version long ago, sorry!
In fact, the real app is the Android one, then ported to PlayBook, then to iOS: all these are paying apps (not much, but not free).

So, when the dev. gave us the Windows version, he clearly stated:
- that he "trusted us",
- that this was just his own version that he used for YouTube tutorials (really nice and very well done, by the way, even if you don't use his soft.),
- and that he didn't want to spend dev. time to support it as he clearly targeted portable devices.

And then he finally gave us, anyway, the portable version that was requested/asked for! So it's more a case of "don't harass me if there's a glitch on Windows, it's 'as is' and free. I'll look into it, but no promises", kind of (In my words, not a real citation).

Just wanted to clarify, as it might appear "bad", when in fact, it's a real gift from a lone brilliant dev. But, you're right, no support guarantied... by a real human being passionate about his software and the users: in my book, much much better than any official support by any large company I've had the chance to deal with...

Thanks for the prompt test, really appreciated

Q: Should we/you/I submit it for the DB? I've accumulated all I could find in the last years as "portable music making", maybe, I should clean / test in WIn. 8 and complete posts in this category? There's not so much info on the "portable studio" theme, but there are some real gems. Recently for exemple, LMMS Portable (Portable Apps version) became official, haven't tested it yet, but beta was promising! Maybe I should port this part in another part of the forums?

[Checker]

I've added Caustic to the database.
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2692 ... please vote

[DarkShadow]

Thank you for adding !
I have the Android version, too - so cool !

[Checker]

@ DarkShadow: Wow, quick voting, thanks

[portablefree]

Updated to v. 3.2 (Jan., 31, 2017)
- Download from website works (http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/caustic)
- Same conditions: free with no official support (main apps are for Android and iOS)
- New synth, support for stereo samples, support more meters (3/4, etc.), improved wav editor, more export options, etc.
- See 6 last new videos tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/CausticApp/videos

PS: sorry if considered as double post with the comments, I haven't found in FAQ how to signal an update to get it to "stick" in the DB
Thanks in advance if some mod-guru can do something about it / educate me
Have a nice day everybody, hopefully making music!

[webfork]

PS: sorry if considered as double post with the comments, I haven't found in FAQ how to signal an update to get it to "stick" in the DB

We'll see updates in either place. I like to leave entry comments to notes about the program (either good or bad) but we appreciate update notices any way we can get them.