Patchhero is the missing screen for your Sequential OB6 or Sequential Prophet 6 synthesiser.
Patchhero is an iPhone app available now on the App Store. It was released in 2022 and was received enthusiastically by its users. It reached number 55 in Apple’s chart for paid music apps.
It was an opportunity to do a deep-dive into Swift, the multi-paradigm, compiled programming language that powers all of Apple’s devices. Having no prior experience I spent a lot of time on Udemy and StackOverflow. Swift is a rich and expressive language that is strongly typed. Add XCode to the mix and the whole experience was positively luxurious compared to the sprawling ecosystem that is modern JavaScript.
As well as the programming, I did the design, UI, UX, documentation, support, public beta-testing, microsite and marketing. Everything, in other words. It was an exhausting but highly rewarding project.
Patchhero is the missing screen for your Sequential OB6 or Sequential Prophet 6 synthesiser. These contemporary instruments are inspired by vintage counterparts, namely the Oberheim OB series of the 1980s (think Van Halen’s Jump) and the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 of 1978 (think The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me?).
Consistent with this heritage, both instruments have only simple numerical displays. Hidden in the data for the sounds (or patches) are names and categories. The numerical displays are unable to show this information.
Many musicians find descriptive patch names more memorable and inspiring than numbers, and when auditioning sounds it’s helpful to organise them by category. The app allows you to navigate, name, categorise, and filter patches; features that are otherwise unavailable on the instruments themselves.
