Palm Sounds: July 2009

Brian Whitman on GP2X Wiz as Atari ST

Nice post from Brian Whitman on the GP2X Wiz as an Atari ST. Hope he gets the MIDI going.

Not much news on Olivier's project

Not much to say on the secret project:

I'm making progress and learning a lot of cool stuff.

We all wait patiently (or not) as the case may be.

Sound Scope Space

Some good news for Sound Scope Space owners and a good reason to get it if you haven't already:

Per your request, default waves are coming soon to Sound Scope Space. The holy trinity of Sine, Square, and Saw are included, along with a memory bank to allow you to toggle between a default wave and one you’ve made. For added thrills, the wave morphs into shape, with morph speed being determined by the master (ie arpeggiator) tempo.

Sixteen bits still sound too smooth? Missing your SID chip? Two LO-FI bit reduction modes are coming as well!

Sound Scope Space at the app store:

Mixtikl 1.5 on the way

In reply to my post on the lack of Windows mobile and Palm OS (old) apps, Pete Cole comments:

Mixtikl 1.5 will be out soon - including Windows Mobile support as per usual. So that is something to look forward to. :)

Great to hear this and real glad that Intermorphic are still in the Windows Mobile game.

That I had more non iPhone / iPod Touch news to write about. The sad thing is that there is hardly anything non iPhone and handheld music related to talk about. It is a big shame really it is, but there you have it.

Of course, there are bits and pieces, and if anyone gets news then please let me know and I'll certainly pick up the stories.

RJDJ Moving to in app purchase and much more ...

RJDJ post on their new in app purchase model. In my opinion this is brilliant news. On top of that they hint at new tools for musicians and producers coming soon. Read about it all here.

So, who's going to make some scenes too?

RJDJ apps at the app store:

DopplerPad integrating with FourTrack in 1.1

The Retronyms say that they're working on version 1.1 which will include the integration with FourTrack. Version 1.01 is a bug fix in with Apple now.

DopplerPad at the app store:

Layers, art on the go for the iPhone

For a while I've been looking for something like Layers which could be as good as NinerPaint for the Palm, and I'm hoping that Layers will really do the job. What I'm especially impressed with is the mac desktop app that allows you to create quicktime movies from you exported iPhone art.

I think I'm going to give this a go and see how I get on with it.

Layers at the app store:

What a crock!

Having written about two Basic apps for Palm OS (Garnet) today I noticed this. But sadly, you're not going to see it anytime soon as Apple in their infinite wisdom have decided that it is a 'platform'!!!

I can't see how that can be true, but there you have it. Sad isn't it.

iziBasic 7 released

Aldweb has released iziBasic 7.0 at long last. I only found out as I opened the site by accident! A quick look at the manual shows a bunch of new stuff including IR and http functionality. Nice.

So now I just have to wait to see if I get my copy via email sometime soon.

Anyone help Nimlet?

Nimlet has posted this comment on RecTools08:

hi this goes out to jalcide mainly but anyone can help!

I've rectools08 and the alesis protrack.

I can record audio in but i cannot monitor it or here the click track etc. I've tried plugging headphones into the iphone socket and the protrack socket.

any help would be amazing!

Thanks!

Anyone help out? I don't have a protrack so can't advise.

Whisper free

Whisper is now free at the app store if you're interested in trying it out.

Whisper at the app store:

ZoozBeat Pro is here

I hadn't noticed that this app had come out (rants about lack of decent categories on app store) and I've been waiting for it for ages. Amonst other things this app allows you to work in multi-player mode. I have no idea how it will work but I think I might have to give it a go.

Zoozbeat Pro at the app store:

Yonac: Steel Guitar

Yonac do it again and announce the release of Steel Guitar. Steel Guitar utilizes several features to empower the guitarist including::

Slide guitar emulator with "pedal" bending and multiple instruments
4 instruments:
Lap Steel (6-String)
Eight-String
Nashville (10-String with E9 tuning)
Texas (10-String with C6 tuning)
4 different tones per instrument:

Clean
Tweed
Tolex
Brit

Easy fretboard scrolling
Built-in common tunings and/or pedal-hookups for each instrument
Volume/pitch bend pedals hooked up with 4 axes of the iPhone/iPod Touch Accelerometer
Adjustable fret width, pickup height and string spacing
Chorus/Vibrato effect
Compatible for iPod play along

Here's what Yonac have to say about the app:

CEO and Steel head designer James Yonac remarks:

"The Guitar has always been my first love...after working on a good deal of musical apps, [one] gets to know
the iPhone interface inside and out. For some time, we have been working on emulating an instrument that
would fit the iPhone interface like the proverbial glove. One of my personal favorites is the pedal steel. The
most interesting thing about [the iPhone] is how well it is suited to emulate something like a lap or a pedal
steel. You control the actual instrument with a so-called 'bar', with which you slide from fret to fret, and use
your dominant hand to pluck, and pretty much take it from there. It's much easier than attempting to play a
conventional guitar on such a small screen, and in my opinion, much more musical. This carried over very well
to the iPhone platform, and I think we hit the spot with how we implemented the emulation. This also sets Steel
Guitar apart from most of the guitar apps out there: it's something unique in this arena of instrumentation, and
not something you're going to see many likes of."

Another great app from Yonac, and a direction that I wasn't expecting from them. I think I'll have to give it a try.

Yonac Steel Guitar at the app store:

FastBasic for Palm OS

I stumbled over this at 1src. I've not heard of this version of basic for the palm before, but it looks quite good.

I've only started the app for a minute or two, but I did find play wave and play MIDI commands which are very interesting indeed.

Could the Zii give the iTouch and iPhone a real run?

The Apple Blog has this post on the Zii Egg, which has some really impressive hardware features, especially when you compare it to the iPhone.

Whilst I think it is probably a good thing for there to be some competition I wonder whether developers will have the appetite for a new device where there is currently no definitive OS as the Zii can run Android and Zii Plaszma, both of which are open source, but I know nothing about Plaszma at all.

It'll be interesting to see if the hardware goes anywhere, and if it can gain some ground. Lots of good hardware projects don't get off the ground because of market entry problems and I hope that this doesn't suffer in the same way.

New Yonac site

Yonac software have a brand new web site, plus they've set up on Facebook and started a blog too. As if that wasn't enough they've also released a new app called Steel Guitar, more of that later.

Yonac at the app store:

Amidio "Future is now" video

I posted a link to this track on SoundCloud the other day, but the video gives you more.

Amidio at the app store:

Apple looking at new ways to categorise and search apps

Having just been twittering on the issues with the app store I read this on AppleInsider. I hope that they do something sensible which works for developers and consumers alike.

Zio visualiser

Zio - iPhone App teaser #2 from Glenn Marshall on Vimeo.

I've posted on this before, but here's an update via Synthtopia.

Antix request for content

Antix are looking for more content for their platform. Sounds like this could be a whole new platform for music. Am I right? Maybe.

Interested to know if developers will take up the call.

First impressions of Sunvox 1,4

I've had a bit of time to check out the latest version of Sunvox. I'm impressed. The first thing I tried was the new theremin function. I really liked this function and I can see how it will work on the iPhone, so it makes a lot of sense to put it in now. The new menus give you much better access to tracking functions quickly.

If you've played with the latest version then let me know what you think of the new features.

Amidio offering publishing services

I noticed that the all new Amidio site has a page about publishing with Amidio.

The basic principle is, you write the code, send it Amidion and they'll tell you what level of commission they'll split with you.

Interesting idea, I wonder if people will go for it?