APP REVIEW: ARTURIA'S iSEM

For the best sounding emulations of classic synths

Samuel Lambert

Monday, January 13, 2014 - 13:48

Following on from the recent success of the iMini — a recreation of the legendary Minimoog for the iPad — Arturia have released iSEM, which this time recreates the legendary sound of the Oberheim SEM Synthesiser Expander Module, using their award-winning TAE (True Analog Emulation) technology.

The original Oberheim SEM was born in 1974 as a way to fatten up weaker-sounding synths before it became a sought-after sound in its own right. Oberheim then took the SEM technology and released a succession of synthesisers based around this revolutionary-sounding circuitry, finding favour with artists such as Goldfrapp, Herbie Hancock and John Carpenter to name just a few.

Arturia have taken both the look and sound of the original Oberheim SEM and ported it over to iPad format. The result is nothing short of amazing, with the control surface mirroring the major control sections of the original synth. The sound is authentic and fat. The iSEM also has modern features not found on the original SEM synths, such as support for Core MIDI, WIST, Audiobus and inter-app audio, making iSEM very flexible indeed.

The quality of this software in terms of sound reproduction, authenticity and user friendliness is outstanding and is easily on par with Arturia’s award-winning SEM V plug-in. At £6.99 the iSEM is a no-brainer purchase for iPad owners looking for a professional and seriously fat-sounding analogue synth.