About Caustic 3

Under the Hood: Machines, DSP Routing, and Multi-Platform Performance

What Made Caustic Unique

Mobile-First DSP in a Virtual Rack

Caustic 3 was built from the ground up as a real-time mobile digital audio workstation. Modeled after physical rack-mount hardware, its core focus was ultra-low latency, smooth touchscreen tweaking, and lightweight audio processing—all while running identically across mobile devices and desktop computers.

At the heart of every project file is a virtual 14-slot rack. You can stack, order, and link any combination of its 12 internal synths, samplers, and physical modeling engines. Despite its low system overhead, the engine handles real-time synthesis, complex automation curves, and multi-channel mixing without missing a beat.

The Synth & Sampler Machines

The Machines

Subsynth

Subsynth (Virtual Analog Subtractive): The go-to workhorse for subtractive leads, fat basses, and custom pads. Features dual oscillators with 9 waveforms (including user-drawn single-cycle wavetables), FM/AM/Phase Modulation, Unison detuning, a multi-mode resonant filter, dual LFOs, and up to 8-voice polyphony.

PCMSynth

PCMSynth (Multi-Sample Wave Synthesizer): A multi-sample engine capable of mapping raw audio across up to 85 keyboard zones. Includes full pitch, loop, and tuning controls alongside a full subtractive tail with filters, envelopes, and LFO modulation.

BassLine

BassLine (303-Style Monophonic): A dedicated acid bass generator modeled after the Roland TB-303. Features a single Saw or Square oscillator, glide/slide times, accent boosts, a snappy resonant low-pass filter, and a built-in overdrive/fuzz unit.

BeatBox

BeatBox (8-Channel Drum Machine): An 8-slot sample drum machine. Each channel gives you direct control over sample selection, pitch, panning, decay, and transient punch.

PadSynth

PadSynth (Harmonic Table Pad Synth): An additive synthesizer designed for rich, evolving textures and ambient pads. Uses dual harmonic editors, ensemble width controls, and dedicated envelopes.

8BitSynth

8BitSynth (Bytebeat & Chiptune Engine): A retro chiptune synth that evaluates math equations in real time to produce raw, glitched waveforms, square-wave arps, and lo-fi noise.

Modular

Modular (Open-Architecture Modular Patchbay): A fully customizable 16-bay rack letting you build custom synths from scratch using oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs, crossfaders, sample-and-hold modules, and oscilloscopes.

Organ

Organ (Hammond-Style Tonewheel): A classic tonewheel organ emulation complete with 9 drawbars, key-click percussion, scanner vibrato/chorus, and a rotary Leslie speaker circuit.

Vocoder

Vocoder (8-Band Formant Modulator): An 8-band vocoder that shapes an internal synth carrier (or audio routed from another machine) using external voice or sample inputs. Includes formant shifting and high-frequency pass-through.

FMSynth

FMSynth (3-Operator FM Synth): A 3-operator frequency modulation synth featuring custom operator routing algorithms, exponential/linear envelopes, feedback controls, and tempo-synced LFO mapping.

KSSynth

KSSynth (Karplus-Strong String Modeler): A physical modeling synth that emulates plucked strings by feeding noise bursts into tap delay lines. Controls include damping, pickup position, and string tension

SawSynth

SawSynth (Supersaw Lead Engine): A multi-oscillator lead and pad synth designed for massive, wide supersaw sounds with adjustable detune spread and stereo width.

Effects & Mixing

Signal Path & Master Effects

Insert Rack: Every single rack slot features a dedicated 2-slot insert effects chain running serially into the mixer. Two master insert slots sit on the main output bus.

20 Effect Modules: Includes Overdrive/Fuzz, BitCrusher, Hard-Knee Compressor, Flanger, Chorus, Phaser, Auto-Wah, Parametric EQ, Brick-Wall Limiter, Vinyl Simulator, Amp Cabinet Simulator, Delay, Reverb, Multi-Filter, Octaver, Vibrato, Tremolo, and AutoPan.

14-Channel Mixer: Features dedicated channel faders, mutes/solos, stereo panning, width expansion, 3-band EQ, and post-fader sends to the master Delay and Reverb units.

Master Section: A final output channel equipped with a 3-band semi-parametric EQ, look-ahead peak limiter, master volume, and dual stereo VU meters.

Sequencing & Automation

Patterns, Timeline & Recording

Pattern Banks: Each instrument contains 4 banks (A–D, 1–16) offering up to 64 patterns per machine. Supports 1, 2, 4, or 8-measure loops with adjustable swing.

Song Timeline: Patterns arrange neatly onto a main timeline grid, with full Piano Roll editing and live note recording support.

Parameter Automation: Virtually every knob, switch, and fader can be automated. Draw curves manually or record tweaks live with built-in smoothing tools.

Files & Sample Support

File Management & Formats

Raw Audio Support: Works with uncompressed PCM WAV files in 8, 16, 24, or 32-bit float depths at any sample rate.
Format Imports: Natively unrolls SoundFont 2 (.sf2) files, unpacks FL Mobile instrument packs (.instr), and reads .causticpack archive bundles.
The .caustic Project File: A fully self-contained binary file that packs all machine states, patterns, automation, and wrapped WAV samples together so your projects never break from missing files.

MIDI & Platform Support

Hardware Integration & Compatibility

USB MIDI Host: Plug-and-play USB MIDI keyboard/pad support via OTG cables on Android (3.2+) and iOS, mapped channel-by-channel across slots 1–14.
Mobile Releases: Android (64-bit builds with modern storage support) and iOS for iPhone/iPad.
Desktop Releases: Windows EXE and portable standalone ZIP versions (Windows 7/8/10 alongside legacy XP/Vista builds) and macOS DMG builds.
Linux (WINE): Runs smoothly under Linux via WINE. Requires installing runtime libraries via winetricks vcrun2012 or vcrun2013 to fix configuration bugs, with low latency achievable by adding S SOUND_DRIVER ASIO to the config file.

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