Caustic 3

Caustic 3

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Original author(s)	Rej Poirier
Developer(s)	Single Cell Software
Initial release	May 2011
Stable release	3.2.2 / December 2025
Written in	C++
Engine
Operating system	Android, Blackberry OS, iOS, MacOS, Windows
Platform	ARM, ARM64, IA-32 (i386)
Available in	English
Type	Digital audio workstation, DAW
License	Proprietary
Website	www.singlecellsoftware.com

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Caustic 3, also known as Caustic, is digital audio software operating in both desktop and mobile devices. Caustic is a proprietary digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and programmed by Single Cell Software. It uses a graphical user interface (GUI) that is modeled on a rack-mount cabinet which can bee freely change styles using skins.

The layout of the rack is freely configurable for synthesizers and effects. The rack sections for mixing, mastering, and song sequencer are fixed. Caustic includes a suite of synthesizers (a.k.a. “machines”), a  drum machine, a modular synth, a vocoder, effects, includes recordable and editable mix automation, supports MIDI (including mapping), FTP server, and, since release 3.1, AudioBus & virtual MIDI (for iOS)

History

Development

The developer, Rej Poirier, has cited his interests in DSP (Digital Signal Processor) programming, music, and experience with Buzz Tracker inspired programming synthesizers and a sequencer with programming starting in December 2009 as a private project. The first publicly available version of Caustic was released in May 2011 on the Android Market (now Google Play) as a free demo, and freemium releases followed. The performance of Caustic is heavily optimized for mobile device performance limitations (processing, memory, screen size and resolution) to ensure the usability and real-time performance required for music creation and playback with minimal hardware requirements (see below). The developer has said the name "Caustic" was named as the synonym for “acid”, the colloquial term for Acid House and Acid Techno genres that were readily composed using the initial Caustic app release.

Caustic version 3.2, February 2017, was the end of development and support for the program. The developer has said that piracy (file sharing of the free key apps), the move by major mobile OSes to drop 32-bit app support, the complexity in porting Caustic to 64-bit, and the current demands on developers for mobile OSes, as the reasons to cease development. Mobile devices and desktops with appropriate hardware, OS versions, emulation, as well as older models and modern entry level tablets that support 32-bit, remain options to use 32-bit versions of Caustic. In December 2025, the developer released a 64-bit Android version for free.

Reception

As an early DAW for the Android platform, Caustic gained a large user base. The Caustic 3 app is listed as having 1M+ downloads from Play Store, and 100K+ purchases of the unlock key app. Caustic was regularly included in "Top" lists for mobile DAWs for Android. It has remained a popular mobile DAW for Android in the years since since the final release.

User Community

With the release of Caustic 2, the Single Cell Software official website was established. The official website was also where the developer blogged, announced new releases and updates, new software, and interacted with users for suggestions, request, feedback. The developer produced documentation and feature update announcements in the form of in-depth video tutorials in addition to user manual and release notes. An official YouTube channel also carried the tutorial and release videos. The developer is also active on other online community forums. The website users' forum enabled users to share songs, sounds, presets, settings, patches, tutorials, and workshops uploaded/hosted on SoundCloud and YouTube. Outside of the official forum, users created their own instructional content. The official Single Cell Software website was taken down February 2024 and it can now be accessed in the archives of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. With the take-down of the Single Cell Software website, the Caustic online community is remains active in forums dedicated to Caustic.

3rd Party Plug-Ins & Tutorials

Software plug-ins (a.k.a. "Add-on" or "Add-in") available for Caustic contained audio samples, settings (for synthesizers), and UI skins. Plug-ins were shared freely, as APK files, and made available to purchase on device stores by 3rd parties - such as, Audiovapor kits of presets, Les Productions Zvon expansion packs, and EIP Studios Ohio. User made tutorials covering a wide range of music styles as well as beginner to advanced topics were created.

The Caustic Family

The Caustic Family was established by artists Ariix and Amity X in April 2017 to collect and highlight other artists songs and presets made with Caustic. From 2019 the Caustic Family operated as a label promoting copyright-free/royalty-free songs (original, remixes, recreations) across revenue generating platforms (Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music). The YouTube channel has been renamed Best Music Beats, where The Caustic Family content is prefixed with "TCF".

Release History

The Caustic release for the Android platform was reported to work under the free open source alternative to Google Android called CyanogenMod. Later mobile releases added support for Apple iOS mobile devices and the Blackberry OS (on Blackberry PlayBook, BlackBerry 10).

Initially used for only development testing and debugging, the Windows based (Win32) version was released, as Caustic release 2.0.2, for download from the Single Cell Software website, which was fully featured, at no cost, but without support. Later desktop releases and updates were released in step with mobile app releases. While no specific Linux version was released, Windows emulators provides users a solution for Linux OSes.

• Caustic (May 2011) - Android ("Caustic Music Rack")
• Caustic 2 (May 2012) - Android, BlackberryOS, Windows (XP/Vista)
• Caustic 2.1 (December 11th, 2012) - Android, BlackberryOS, Windows (XP/Vista)
• Caustic 2.1.2 (January 7th, 2013) - Android, BlackberryOS, Windows (XP/Vista)
• Caustic 3 (December 14th, 2013) - Android, BlackberryOS, iOS, Windows (XP/Vista)
• Caustic 3.1 (May 17th, 2014) - Android, iOS, MacOS, Windows (XP/Vista)
• Caustic 3.2 (February 1st, 2017) - Android, iOS, MacOS, Windows (XP/Vista & 7/8/10)
• Caustic 3.2 (December, 2025) - 64-bit Android APK full-version freeware

Notes: For Linux users, in the event of errors at launch under WINE emulation, it is recommended to install "winetricks vcrun2012" Visual Studio 2012 runtime libraries. When BlackBerry (RIM) devices supported Android, later releases were available from the Google Play Store to use.

Minimum device requirements

A list of the minimum requirement(s) for mobile releases:

• Caustic 1.x.x - CPU: 800MHz ARM v7. Screen resolution: 800x480.
• Caustic 2.x.x - CPU: 800MHz ARM v7. Screen resolution: 800x480.
• Caustic 3.x.x - CPU: 1GHz ARM v7. Screen resolution: 800x480.

A list of the minimum requirement(s) for desktop releases:

• Caustic 2 & 3 - OpenGL 1.1 support. (Tested on 600MHz CPU & Windows XP.)

Functionality

Caustic interface is based on the concept of a configurable rack-mount studio. The layout of the rack is freely configurable for synthesizers and effects. The rack sections for mixing, mastering, and song sequencer are fixed.

Fixed Sections

• Effects: Caustic included 16 effects modules, 21 functions. Any any two 2 effect modules, in any combination, could be added per machine.
• Mixer: Modeled to resemble a real mixer desk, this section includes 3-band equalization, pan, and global delay and reverb effects.
• Master: The master section included with parametric EQ, limiter, and control of the global delay and reverb in the mixer section.
• Song Sequencer: This section is where the patterns from synthesizer modules are sequenced to build the song.

Dynamic Sections

Synthesizer Rack

A selection of syhtnesizers are available to use in the rack. The synthesizer rack section allows for any combination of up to 14 synthesizers.

• Bassline - A bassline synthesizer, a 303-type monosynth.
• BeatBox - A sample based drum machine.
• FMSynth - DX-style 3-operator FM synthesizer.
• KSSynth - Karplus-Strong string modeling synth.
• Modular - Freely configurable and modular synthesizer.
• Organ - Hammond like tonewheel organ with rotary speakerlike tonewheel organ with rotary speaker.
• PadSynth - Harmonic table pad synthesizer.
• PCMSynth - Multi-sample wave synthesizer. Users can supply their own WAV* files, SoundFont files (.sf2) and FL Studio mobile instruments (.instr, .ZIP)
• SawSynth - Supersaw-type polysynth.
• SubSynth - Virtual analog subtractive synthesizer.
• Vocoder - 8-band harmonic vocoder. Users can supply their own WAV* files.
• 8BitSynth - 8-bit equation solver synthesizer.

Note: Caustic modules that include WAV file support can use 8, 16, 24, & 32 bit sample files.

Effects

A selection of effects are available to use in the effects bay. Any two effects can be used for each synthesizer module. These filters operate post-synthesizer output and pre-mixing and mastering sections.

• Auto-Wah
• BitCrusher
• Cabinet Simulator
• Chorus
• Comb Filter
• Compressor
• Delay
• Distortion
• Flanger
• Limiter
• Multi Filter (Low-Pass, High-Pass, Band-Pass, Band Isolate Filter, Low-Shelf and High Shelf)
• Parametric EQ
• Phaser
• Reverb
• Static Flanger
• Vinyl Simulator

Tips and Tricks

Undocumented features, often development aids or usability assists, were included in releases. Not all documented features are applicable or functional in all releases.

Default Rack

By default, Caustic starts every new song with a certain machine selection or blank rack, depending on version. If you find yourself swapping out or adding same machines for every new song, here's the steps that will give you a customized default rack for each new song:

1. Start a new song.
2. Place the machines you want to use as your new default.
3. Save the "song" as "defaultrack" (without quotes of course).

Now, every time you press "New song" it will effectively load that one automatically. You can even store patterns and loaded samples if that saves you time. If you want to change it back to default behavior, just delete or rename the "defaultrack" song.

Filling-in Baselines

To fill every step in a bassline synth with the same note, as a starting point, or just to get a background drone:

1. Select the first step.
2. Long-press the note you want to use to fill the remaining steps.

This only fills the note info and not the modifiers (like octave up/down, etc.) but it saves time when you just want a quick fill. (Note: This may not work with all versions.)

Pop-out spectrum analyzer

In the desktop version, toggle this pop-out using specific key combination. Care must be taken to only toggle the analyzer window using the key combination as directly exiting/closing the pop-out window will also shut down Caustic program and the current project will not be saved. For the US keyboard layout the combination  Ctrl+~ will bring up the pop-out window. (Note that other keyboard language layouts use other key combinations.)

Navigating

On desktop versions the keyboard can be used for scrolling the rack, trigger the module navigator, and change octaves of the keyboard currently on-screen.

• Using the  ↑ & ↓ allows scrolling the rack.
• Pressing  F2 brings up options menu.
• Pressing  F3 brings up modules (machines) navigator window.
• Pressing Esc is to go back.
• Pressing Page Up or Page Down will change the octaves of the machine on the screen.

Developer Codes

On desktop version, pressing ~ (tilde) on the keyboard brings up a command line. This command line allows use of developer codes.

Command	Description
create [machine_current_name]	Add machine type name to the rack in the next available bay on the rack.
remove [remove_current_name]	Remove a machine by name from the rack.
machine_name [machine_current_name] [machine_new_name]	Rename a machine on the rack from it's current name to a new name.
blankrack	Clear all machines from the rack.
save_song [filename]	Save the current rack, patterns, sequences, automation, and settings to a song file.
load_song [filename]	Load a song rack, patterns, sequences, automation, and settings to a song file.
query machine_name	Undocumented.

Note: Default machines names are synthesizer module names: subynth, fmsynth, modular, etc.

Number Pad (a.k.a. “Secret Codes”)

In caustic, bring up the main menu screen. Navigate to the "Help" tab, and click on "About Caustic" button. In the "About Caustic" page, click on "Caustic" 6 times. This brings up a number pad to input the code sequence. Not all codes work in all releases.

Number codes	Feature
76683477	This gives the Caustic full browsing capabilities in the mobile device, past the SDCard root directory in Android. Using the sequence again will disable the capability.
2679	This will restore the demo songs included with Caustic installation.
7393	This sequence enables the C-SFXR in the tool for editing wav samples in some versions before 3.2. This feature is was added in Caustic 3.2 under Settings, Tools, Stand-alone WAV editor, Tools.
78367	This enabled the experimental STEM export feature in some versions before 3.2. This feature was made available in Caustic 3.2 under Settings, Song, Export.
5623xx	This sets the CPU pipeline stall value. The value is set where xx is the value in milliseconds. Changing this value is not recommended. The default value is 17ms. To restore the default value use the sequence 562317.

Notable users

• The award winning filmmaker, Nishit Gajjar, scored his 2013 short movie "Time Elapses" using Caustic. The soundtrack is titled "Moonlight Moods."
• Steve Marshall, formerly of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, used Caustic for his album "Avebury Soundscapes."
• Renown American guitarist Richard Smith.

Other artists

• Broken Alias
• dajoga (a.k.a. DJ Dad Bod)
• Matt Kwid
• Jesse Spillane
• Ultraklystron
• Shrimpy
• Sounds of Nowhere
• R3troBits
• Ariix
• Axel Robert
• BenxxOnDaBeat
• Black Window Tech
• Commodore Boy
• Da.T06 NATURE
• Excel Monkey
• lpower (pterodactyl squad)
• more.urgent.jest
• OTTM (odetothemachine)
• Mr. zaz

Search other artists/albums/EPs/tracks

Commonly used tags associated with songs/tracks can be used to search music sharing websites. Common tags are, but not limited to, "made with caustic", "caustic", "caustic 3".

• SoundCloud: "made with caustic" "caustic 3"
• Bandcamp: "caustic 3" 

Reported artists (alphabetical)

• Dj Ace-T
• DJ AlMick s LAW
• Andile Majaha
• Alley Stumza
• Angoz Beatz
• The Boss Duncan
• Dj Cebo
• Drosty Keys SA
• Dj Kgalalelo SA
• MK
• Nkuza
• Sbuda
• Dj Siya
• Sthukzar
• Wolcott Ndlovu

References

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This article "Caustic 3" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Caustic 3. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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