Sound with nothing plugged in.

The Mac Synth

The Mac Synth is an output card that plays the General MIDI sounds every Mac has. There's nothing to download and nothing to set up. Find it in the Library under Output, or in Add Output under This Mac.

Every channel has its own sound. Pick one from 128 instruments, sorted into families like Piano, Bass, Strings and Synth Lead. Channel 10 is always drums, with a choice of kit: Standard, Room, Power, Electronic, TR-808, Jazz, Brush, Orchestra and Sound FX.

A Program Change coming in switches a channel's sound, as on any General MIDI synth. The card's own choice is where each channel starts, and where it goes back to when the scene loads again.

Your own Audio Unit instruments

The Audio Unit instruments installed on your Mac show up in the Library under Output, in an AU Instruments section, and in Add Output. Add one and it becomes a card you can cable into, like a synth. Add the same one twice and you get two separate instruments.

The card shows the instrument's name, its preset or volume, the channels it's playing, an on/off switch and Open Plugin Window. The plugin's own window holds its sounds and presets, and its whole state is saved with the project. When the plugin shares its presets, the inspector lists them too, so you can pick one without opening the window.

Plugins run in their own process, outside MIDI Noodle. If one stops, its card says Plugin stopped and Reload brings it back with its last saved settings. If you open a project on a Mac that doesn't have the plugin, the card says Not installed and keeps its settings for when it is.

AU MIDI effects on a cable

Audio Unit MIDI effects, the ones Logic calls MIDI FX, can sit on any cable, like the built-in effects. Pick one from AU MIDI Effects in the Library under Cables, or from Add Effect. Notes go in, through the plugin, and on to wherever the cable leads: a plugin instrument, the Mac Synth, or a hardware synth over DIN.

The plugin follows MIDI Noodle's tempo and transport, so an arpeggiator inside it stays in time with your sequencers, or with the gear MIDI Noodle follows.

Where the sound goes

The Mac Synth and every AU instrument play through one output. By default that's the Mac's own, whatever macOS is set to. To use your audio interface instead, choose it in Settings › Audio › Output.

Latency sets how quickly a note sounds after you play it: Low, Medium or Safe, each with its time in milliseconds. Medium is the default. Lower feels tighter; raise it if several heavy instruments start to crackle.

If the interface you chose is unplugged, the sound moves to the system output and Settings says so. Plug it back in and the sound goes back to it.

Start a Jam, even with no synth

Start a Jam…, in the Patch menu and the Library's Sequencers section, opens a ready groove of drums, bass and chords. Pick a style (Pop, Techno, House or Hip-hop), a key and a progression, and turn the parts on or off.

If there's no synth connected, the groove plays on the Mac Synth, with sounds that suit the style. Keep it, and it's an ordinary patch you can edit.