VISCERA app icon

VISCERA

A dark granular voice instrument for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Record your voice, or any sound, and VISCERA tears it into grains you play with your fingers and the tilt of the phone. It's built for dark, visceral textures: creatures, dread, industrial noise.

Made by Stefan Almqvist, a Stockholm sound designer and composer whose work includes the soundtrack for the game REANIMAL.

VISCERA on the App StoreiPhone, iPad and MacHow to play ↓

What it does

Granular engine

A hand-built 48 kHz granular engine turns any recording into an instrument.

Touch and tilt

Play with several fingers at once; tilting the phone bends the sound.

Latch chords

Turn on hold, play a chord and let go: the sound keeps going.

Six effects

CHAOS, GRIND, FOLD, CRUSH, SUB and DREAD.

Four sound slots

Each with its own settings, plus an editor for trimming, pitch correction and scales, including microtonal ones.

MIDI keyboards

Play it from a USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi MIDI keyboard, MPE included. Every key plays all loaded slots at that note.

Loops and MIDI files

Record your touches, holds, tilt and keys into a loop and play over it, or open a MIDI file and let VISCERA play it.

In your music app

Also an Audio Unit instrument for GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM, Cubasis and Loopy Pro, plus VISCERA FX, an effect that records any instrument or input straight into a slot. Nothing extra to install.

On your Mac

Same purchase on Macs with Apple silicon: play it in Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage, Ableton Live and REAPER.

How to play

  1. Load a sound

    Tap the red mic in the middle to record, tap it again to stop: the take goes into the first empty slot, or replaces the selected one when all four are full. Or tap an empty slot to import an audio file. Up to four sounds, one per slot.

  2. Play the pad

    Touch and hold. Left to right is where in the recording you are; up and down moves whatever that slot's Y lane controls. Use as many fingers as you like.

  3. Tilt the device

    Tilting left and right drives each slot's two TILT lanes.

  4. Every slot is its own instrument

    All loaded slots play together, each through its own settings, so one touch can do something different on every slot.

  5. Open a slot

    Tap a loaded slot to open it. Choose what Y and the two TILT lanes control, set its sound with the sliders, trim, preview and tune it. Gain sets how loud the slot is after its effects: pull it down when a slot slams the limiter. A lane on NOTE shows the recording's root note (with Tune), the scale and the range right under it. “Apply to all four slots” in a lane's list sets every slot at once.

  6. NOTE and PITCH

    NOTE makes each finger play a note of the slot's scale, built on the recording's own note. No clear pitch (or a wrong guess)? Tap Root and choose the note yourself. PITCH bends everything on the slot smoothly, held chords too; try it on a TILT lane.

  7. Hold a chord

    Turn on hold (the lock), play, and let go: the sound keeps going. Pause stops it and brings it back exactly where it was.

  8. Play it from a keyboard

    Plug in a USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard, or connect over Wi-Fi. Every key plays all loaded slots at that note; the slot's own note sits on its root key. Notes play where you last touched the pad. The keys button shows the full MIDI map, MPE included.

  9. Loops and MIDI files

    Tap LOOP at the bottom left of the pad and play. Tap again to close the loop: what you played is recorded as sound, tilt and all, and goes round while you play over it. Your fingers and tilt only change what you play on top, never the loop. Tap to stop it, tap again to play it, and tap × to clear it. Loops can be up to a minute long. Tap MIDI next to LOOP to open a MIDI file (.mid): it plays your loaded sounds. Press and hold LOOP to record a new loop or, for a MIDI file, to pick a Part (one instrument from it; a melody or bass line works best, as VISCERA plays six MIDI notes at once), set its Speed or turn off Loop the file. A MIDI file chosen from a slot goes to LOOP too. SAVE keeps the loop or MIDI file with the config.

  10. Use it in your music app

    VISCERA is also an Audio Unit instrument, installed together with the app, on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Its effect version, VISCERA FX, records any instrument or input in your music app straight into a slot. See “In your music app” and “Record into it: VISCERA FX” below.

In your music app

The VISCERA Audio Unit comes with the app; there's nothing else to install. Open VISCERA once after installing or updating, then add it as an instrument:

GarageBand
New song → swipe to External → Audio Unit Extensions → VISCERA.
Logic Pro for iPad
New track → Software Instrument → tap the instrument → Audio Units (at the bottom of the list) → Æsboe → VISCERA.
AUM
Tap + on a channel → Audio Unit Extensions → Instruments → Æsboe: VISCERA.
Cubasis
Add an instrument track → instrument → AU Instruments → VISCERA.
Loopy Pro
Add an Audio Unit → Instruments → VISCERA.
Mac: 5 music apps
On a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later), get VISCERA from the Mac App Store with the same Apple ID: it's the same purchase. Open it once. VISCERA then works as an instrument in Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage, Ableton Live (11.3 or later) and REAPER.
Logic Pro · GarageBand · MainStage
Add a Software Instrument track → AU Instruments → Æsboe → VISCERA.
Ableton Live
Turn on Audio Units v3 in Settings → Plug-Ins, then Browser → Plug-Ins → Audio Units → Æsboe → VISCERA. For MPE, right-click the device and choose Enable MPE Mode.
REAPER
Insert a virtual instrument → AU → Æsboe: VISCERA.
Not on Mac
Cubase, Pro Tools and Bitwig Studio can't load Audio Units from App Store apps, and VISCERA doesn't run on Intel Macs or Windows.
In the plugin
Tap an empty slot to load a sound, or CONFIGS to open a config you saved in the app with SAVE. Play it from your music app's keyboard, a MIDI keyboard, or the pad. Your project remembers VISCERA's sounds and settings.
Not in the list?
Open VISCERA once, close the music app completely (swipe it away) and open it again. Still missing: restart the device.
Record into it: VISCERA FX

VISCERA FX is the effect version of the plugin, installed together with the app. Put it after any instrument or audio input in your music app and record what comes in straight into a slot, ready to play with MIDI or the pad. It works in music apps that can send MIDI to an effect, such as AUM and Loopy Pro.

  • Add Æsboe: VISCERA FX as an effect after an instrument or audio input, and route MIDI to it. In AUM, insert it on a channel after a synth or the mic input; in Loopy Pro, add it as an effect with MIDI.
  • Tap REC IN at the bottom left of the pad and play. Tap it again to stop. A take can be up to a minute long and stops by itself at one minute.
  • The take goes into the first empty slot, or replaces the selected one when all four are full. Like a take from the mic, it's trimmed and its root note is found, so it's ready to play.
  • THRU, on by default, lets the input play on underneath. Your music app's bypass passes the input straight through.
Controls
Play
Plays the selected slot through at its real speed, with all its effects.
Pause
Pauses held sound and Play; tap again to resume. With hold on, Play and Preview pause the held sound for you.
Record
The red cassette, right of the mic. Records everything you hear to a 24-bit WAV, then opens the share sheet. A copy stays in the Files app, in the VISCERA folder.
Hold
Keeps notes sounding after you lift your fingers.
Clear
Silences everything, stops LOOP (it stays loaded) and resets the sound settings. Trim, tuning, scales, Gain and lane choices stay.
SAVE / OPEN
Saves all four slots (audio and settings) and LOOP as a config; up to 12. In OPEN, swipe left on one to delete it.
MIDI
Connected keyboards, Bluetooth pairing, network MIDI, pitch bend range, MPE and the MIDI map. The dot blinks when MIDI arrives.
Game
A rhythm shooter played with your loaded sound.
What the lanes can control
NOTE
Each finger plays a note of the scale (or glides freely with the scale off).
PITCH
Bends the whole slot smoothly, ±1 octave.
SPEED
Hold a touch and it drifts through the recording; centre is still, the ends go forwards or backwards up to twice the real speed.
SIZE
Grain length, from clicks to long smears.
DENSITY
How many grains per second.
SPRAY
Scatters grains in time and pitch; with a scale, onto nearby notes.
GRIND
Saturation.
FOLD
Wavefolding: bright, metallic overtones.
CRUSH
Lower sample rate and bit depth.
CHAOS
A feedback waveshaper that breaks the sound apart.
SUB
A clean sub-octave under every note, following its pitch: felt more than heard.
DREAD
Pushes CHAOS, SUB and GRIND at once.

Questions

What is VISCERA?

VISCERA is a granular voice synthesizer for iPhone, iPad and Mac made by Æsboe. It turns your voice or any recorded sound into a dark, playable instrument.

Can I play VISCERA from a MIDI keyboard or in my music app?

Yes. Connect a USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi MIDI keyboard; MPE is supported. VISCERA is also an Audio Unit instrument, installed together with the app: on iPhone and iPad it works in GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM, Cubasis and Loopy Pro. On a Mac with Apple silicon, get it from the Mac App Store with the same Apple ID (it's the same purchase) and play it in Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage, Ableton Live 11.3 or later and REAPER. Cubase, Pro Tools and Bitwig Studio can't load it.

How do I record into VISCERA inside a music app?

Add Æsboe: VISCERA FX as an effect after an instrument or audio input, route MIDI to it, and tap REC IN. Tap it again to stop. The take goes into the first empty slot, up to a minute long.

Where can I get VISCERA?

VISCERA is on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac. One purchase covers all three, with no subscription and no in-app purchases.

Who makes VISCERA?

Stefan Almqvist, a sound designer and composer in Stockholm, under the name Æsboe.

Is there a sibling app?

Yes. PNEUMA uses the same engine, tuned for a soft, airy sound.

Privacy policy · Support: viscera@aesboe.com