App Profile: BA-1 - Baby Audio

A Synth With A Soul

* Baby Audio's popular BA-1 synthesizer is now available on the App Store
* Use it in standalone mode to instantly play and program lush 80s patches that are dripping with color
* Or use it as an AUv3 Plugin in your favorite host – such as Logic Pro, GarageBand or Cubasis

Whether you're creating synthwave, lo-fi, modern pop or dance, BA-1 will be your new go-to synth due to its authentic sonic character and user-friendly workflow. It ships with 500+ high quality presets and a Re-Gen button for instantly creating new patches on the fly.

About BA-1

The Legacy:
BA-1 is based on a portable 1980s synth with a toylike appearance and a gritty sound. Despite its small size, it left a big mark on music history, while still flying somewhat under the hype radar. The original has been used as a secret weapon for bubbly synth textures by some of Sweden’s most successful pop producers of the past two decades. It was also a staple of 1990s digital dancehall and beloved by the indietronica scene for its raw lo-fi quality. The original hardware has never been properly captured in software form. So for our first ever synth, we started there.

The Sound:
In keeping with our motto ”it’s an evolution, not an emulation”, we modeled the hardware with the greatest possible accuracy, before carefully upgrading it with new and useful features. A second analog-modeled oscillator, FM, polyphony, and more, help to vastly expand the sonic palette of the original. All while keeping its signature sound unspoiled.
Additionally, BA-1 lets you drain the battery, bend the circuits, and use the built-in speaker – for an authentic lo-fi aesthetic that you could normally only get with hardware.

The Effects:
If you know our company, you’ll know that effects are our specialty. So we’ve treated BA-1 with an FX section worthy of its own plugin. The effects chain is inspired by budget 1980s rack hardware and captures the lo-fi charm of the home studio scene of the era. The overdrive is modeled after a guitar pedal, while the delay, reverb and chorus effects are based on cheap, but amazing, digital rack units.
In BA-1, the effects are not an afterthought but an ingrained part of the sonic signature.

The Simplicity:
BA-1 is simple, but surprisingly tweakable. We’ve put great effort into tuning all parameters to be in the perfect sweet spot. This results in a rewarding programming workflow where tweaking BA-1 is a lot of fun and you’ll create new patches on repeat.
And if a simple interface is not fast enough, you can always use the smart ‘Re-Gen’ feature. Hit Re-Gen and BA-1 will automatically create new and musically tuned patches with every click.

We hope you'll enjoy this new Baby Audio release!