I ship two desktop targets from one codebase, and I also made a separate iOS app years earlier, so there are three things in the world called "Wilsonic." This page exists because the difference is the single most common source of confusion I hear about, usually in the form of "the app makes no sound."
The short version
| Makes sound by itself | MTS-ESP source | Sends MIDI | Formats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilsonic | Yes — built-in simple synth | Yes | No | Standalone, AU, VST3 |
| WilsonicController | No — silent by design | Yes | Yes | Standalone, AU, VST3 |
| Wilsonic for iOS | Yes | No | No | Separate App Store app |
Wilsonic
Wilsonic is the one to start with. It is an MTS-ESP source — it broadcasts the global tuning table that your other synths follow — and it has a simple built-in synth so you can hear scales on their own and confirm your other synths are in tune. As a standalone app, clicking the microtonal keyboard makes sound immediately. As a plugin on a MIDI track, the track's MIDI plays the simple synth, and the scale-design parameters are automatable in your DAW.
WilsonicController
WilsonicController is the same scale-design interface, but built as a MIDI effect. It is both an MTS-ESP source and a MIDI source, and it has no synth at all. I built it so you can perform on Erv Wilson's generalized keyboard layouts — the Gral keyboards, the CoPrime grid, the Partch diamonds — and send that performance as MIDI into any instrument, while the tuning table retunes every MTS-ESP synth at the same time. If you opened WilsonicController and heard nothing, nothing is broken; it needs an instrument downstream to make sound.
One important caution: run only one of them at a time. Each wants to be the MTS-ESP master, and I have not yet built graceful hand-off between two masters, so running both at once leads to confusing tuning states. See the status indicator for how to tell who is master.
Wilsonic for iOS
Wilsonic for iOS is an older, separate app for exploring and playing scale designs on a touchscreen. It does not participate in MTS-ESP and is not a plugin. The App Store listing has current device requirements and availability.