Sample it. Generate it. Randomate it. Play it.

A sample-based groovestation for iPhone, iPad and Mac - a sampler, 16-track rhythm sequencer and 16-strip mixer, with a 16-genre Generator and the Randomator. Every sound starts as a sample: record or import it, chop and repitch it, sequence rhythms across 16 tracks, mix with hardware-style controls, and arrange full songs, all in one app.

Yes. Pulsark on iPhone is its own compact, portrait interface - the full product with the same engine and the same projects: Sample kit, Record, Generator, Sequencer, Randomator, Song and Mixer. The phone mixer is upright channel strips scrolled sideways like a console, and the sample editor is the same one, with pinch zoom and two-finger panning. Only the iPad and Mac exclusives stay behind: the Orbit and Euclid sequencer sub-modes, velocity editing, the per-pad modulation controls, the fill randomizer, MIDI learn and the shortcut catalogue. A kit modulated on iPad still sounds the same on the phone - the engine renders it there, the controls simply are not drawn yet. Nothing they hold is lost by opening a project on a phone - the settings travel with it, and a pattern written in Orbit or Euclid plays like any other. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac.

An engine that randomizes real sound and mixer parameters across all 16 tracks - nineteen of them, from pitch, cutoff and decay to velocity, pan, the two aux sends and bit depth - each with a per-channel amount, a lock and a scope. Nothing is lost on the way: every roll is measured from the sound the track had before it was randomized, the amount column runs from that sound to the full variation and back, and the original is stored in the project, so Full reset still restores it after saving and reopening. Built for happy accidents, not chaos. Rhythm is the Generator’s job; the two hand off to each other.

A genre-weighted pattern generator that fills the whole kit at once. Pick one of 16 genres and it writes all 16 tracks with probability maps tuned to that style, at 16 to 64 steps and your chosen density, with velocity accents, ghost notes, micro timing, swing and fills. Rolls, layering, keep resolutions and bar variation are switches of their own, so a long pattern can be given a shape and each track can keep the step resolution you gave it. Locked tracks are left alone, you can write into any pattern or the next empty one, and one tap of undo puts it back.

Yes. Switch the grid from Drum to Chromatic and all sixteen pads play one sample instead of sixteen sounds - the cell decides the pitch. The lowest note sits bottom left and climbs to the right and upward, every cell labelled with its note and shaded from blue to teal as the pitch rises. Set the root, the scale and the octave and nothing under your finger is out of key, and when the source pad is sliced the cells address its slices instead of pitches. Recording works exactly as it does in Drum mode: each cell writes a step at the pitch you played. Set a loop region in the sample and LOOP and HOLD in the pad footer make the note sustain for as long as you hold it - the sustain is a loop inside your own recording, not a synthesizer - with one tap in the editor to find a stable loop and snap it to zero crossings. Every held note is its own voice reading the same sample, so chords work, and glide is there too. It is on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Yes. Standalone, Pulsark opens every MIDI port it finds, so a keyboard or pad controller is connected the moment it appears; as a plug-in the host delivers MIDI instead. Incoming notes play the sixteen pads of the current bank, and how hard you play decides how loud the pad sounds - and what an armed take writes into the step. Pitch bend and aftertouch follow the notes you hold, with a bend range you set; 14-bit CC, RPN and NRPN are understood; and every message type has its own channel setting with channel learn - play a note and the channel is set. Notes in arrive on channel 10 by default, with Omni and any single channel available; individual devices can be switched off, and Bluetooth controllers pair straight from Settings. In a host, MIDI 2.0 high-resolution velocity is kept all the way to the sound. Pads and keys can run on separate channels at once - the keys play the selected pad across pitches, and, standalone, record into the pattern when recording is armed. On iPad and Mac, MIDI learn maps a knob or fader to 34 destinations - cutoff, resonance, the three LFOs’ depth, rate and fade, the filter envelope, the hard gate, the lo-fi controls, sends, faders, pattern select, swing - plus ten transport and edit actions. Endless encoders are understood, each mapping remembers whether its control is absolute or one of three relative encodings, and an absolute knob can pick a parameter up rather than jump it - Ease, the default, and Catch both wait for it. Standalone, transport buttons that send MIDI Machine Control drive play, pause, stop and record arm without being mapped.

Yes. Each of the 16 tracks can send its notes on its own MIDI channel while still playing its own sample, and swing, micro-timing, retrigs and trig conditions ride along, because the notes leave the audio engine itself rather than a separate timer. Standalone, everything goes out through a single "Pulsark" port - notes, clock, transport and song position - with a switch per destination in Settings, and clock starts on the first musical step rather than during the count-in. In a host, MIDI out reaches modern hosts such as Logic Pro, so the sequencer can be recorded as MIDI in the DAW.

Yes. Bounce WAV stems at up to 32-bit / 96 kHz, or export DAWproject 1.0 and MIDI - with the samples - so it opens in Bitwig, Studio One, Cubase and Cubasis. Swing, groove, micro-timing, retrig and trig conditions are baked into the timeline, and a loop you recorded in Pulsark carries its own tempo and bar count into the WAV, so it arrives in the DAW already understood.

Yes. Pulsark ships as a full AUv3 instrument - the complete engine, not a reduced view - so it loads inside GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM, Cubasis, Loopy Pro and Drambo on iPad, and inside Logic Pro, Ableton Live and Reaper on Mac, host-synced with automatable parameters. Look for "VAAG Audio: Pulsark" in your host’s instrument list. It exposes seventeen stereo outputs - the main mix plus one per mixer strip - so any pad can be routed to its own channel in the host and recorded as an isolated stem.

An iPhone or iPad running iOS or iPadOS 18 or later - landscape on iPad, portrait on iPhone. Pulsark is optimised for iPad Pro but runs across the modern iPhone and iPad range. On Mac, the native app needs macOS 15 or later and is in the public beta now.

Yes. Pulsark is a native Mac app, built with Mac Catalyst for macOS 15 or later - the full groovestation, same engine, same projects, in its own resizable window. The AUv3 plug-in works on Mac too: Pulsark loads as an instrument in Logic Pro, Ableton Live and Reaper with the same full UI as the standalone app. Pointer tooltips across the UI and hardware keyboard shortcuts with a built-in reference make it at home with a mouse and keyboard. It ships on the Mac App Store as a universal purchase with the iPhone and iPad app - one purchase covers all three. The Mac version is in the public beta now, and the Mac App Store release arrives at launch.

The public beta is open now on TestFlight, for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Sign up on the front page, then click the confirmation link in the email we send - that takes you straight to the TestFlight invite. Spots are limited and go first come, first served. The beta is free. Final pricing is announced before the public App Store release, and beta testers hear first.