Looking Back and Looking Forward

In the past I've used the 31st of December to do a review of what's happened in the year. However, for 2 reasons I'm doing something a bit different this year.

1. 2009 has been a massive year for mobile music and a review would be enormous
2. It is the end of a decade as well!

So instead I've decided to take a look at how things have changed in mobile music making by going back to 2006 and working forward by reviewing my end of year and expectation posts.

The whole thing is just over 10 pages long and is available as a PDF download here.

If you have time to read it I hope you'll find it interesting to see how things have developed and changed over the last few years.

2010 will see Palm Sounds enter a 5th year which amazes me completely. I'm sure that it'll be at least as amazing and interesting as 2009, and probably far more so.

So, whether you've been reading since 2006 or last week, thanks for your comments, news, emails, tweets and everything else.

Happy new year and all the best.

Palm Sounds.

DopplerPad 2.0 sounding awesome

Check out these tracks made with the upcoming version of DopplerPad, sounds amazing. Now that's something to look forward to in 2010.

Fun With Delay by retronyms

Vocal Effects by retronyms

DopplerPad at the app store:

tags technorati : DopplerPad, Retronyms, iPhone

ProChords for iPhone

ProChords has been suggested to me several times by a number of readers, so I thought I'd try and get it in to 2009 before the end of the day.

I've read quite a bit about this app on the developer's site and it looks very tempting indeed from a songwriting perspective. I may make it my final app store purchase of 2009.

ProChords at the app store:

Last Watchlist of the decade!

Sorry, a bit over the top on the title, but it is nearly the end of 2009, so I think most of the stuff I'm hoping for will now be in 2010.

Stuff I'm hoping for (in early 2010 now):

• Some retro palm goodness from Alex (maker of Sunvox). I am really looking forward to this stuff to put some new life into my old PDAs
• The next Noise IO update, which seems to have been in review for ages now!
• A new (music) app from Yonac?
• A little more info on whatever 'DMD' is from Amidio, although it could be Noise IO 2?
• DopplerPad synth and FX editing
• Hitchcock video export coming soon to all devices
• Beatmaker 2.0! which sounds like it might be real
• A working version of BeatSequencer as the last update still crashes on my 3G

Stuff that's arrived:

• Bleep!Synth from the maker of Bleep!Box?
• FourTrack with snap to bar! Which is excellent!
• Jasuto Pro. Which I didn't expect in 2009, but it is here already!
• Mixtikl has arrived everywhere, including the iPhone and caused some interesting reactions
• Sonorasaurus, has arrived and has been updated too
• Touch DJ, arrived
• FourTrack and DopplerPad integration, and isn't it great
• Auteureist (it has, but you still can't get it, and thanks Apple for billing me for it even though I can't download it!)
• Slice which I love
• RecTools08 has had a good update although no synths or drum machine as yet.

So, is there anything I've missed? What are you looking forward to app wise in 2010? Updates, promised features? Apps on the way?

Got an Arduino for Christmas?

Then here's 10 things to do with it care of Make blog.

Symphony free

Thanks to Nick who has pointed out Symphony a notation app for the iPhone that I hadn't noticed before. The app is currently free, so take the opportunity to download it.

It also seems to have quite a lot of interesting features which I'm going to take a bit more notice of in the new year.

Symphony at the app store:

Layers on sale

Layers is now on sale for only £1.79 which is 40% off the normal price of this app.

Layers at the app store:

ShowTime video camera for 3G

ShowTime is a new video camera app for the 3G iPhone. It claims to have a better frame rate than the other video camera apps for the 3G and also has a zoom feature which seems to be unique on the 3G video apps.

ShowTime at the app store:

Your top 10 music apps on Palm Sounds

Thanks to MikiStrange for reminding me about reader top 10 music apps. If you'd like to see your top 10 iPhone (or other OS) apps on Palm Sounds, email me at:

palm dot sounds at mac dot com

March of the Toys

Lots of nice handheld toys in this video.

Auteureist 1.1

Auteureist 1.1 has arrived with the new thesaurus and also support for tumblr too.

Auteureist at the app store:

iSyn update

I really didn't think I'd see an update to this app. In fact, I've hardly used it in ages, and I'd thought that it wasn't really under active development. However, it seems I'm wrong!

Although the update isn't massive, it is good to see that the app is being updated. Here's what's new:

- Performance improvement.
- Sound management: copy/paste/clear
- Pattern management: copy/paste/clear
- Project management: copy/paste/clear
- Arbitrary loop start and end position.
- Pulse oscillator modulation is working now.

iSyn at the app store:

Mixtikl 2: Tutorial Videos

I know that lots of people have been after Mixtikl V2 tutorials, and they're here at last.





Mixtikl 2 at the app store:

2010 Resolutions?

I mostly steer away from new year's resolutions, but this year I do have a few personal ones, the main one of which is to make more music and get my head into more mobile music and general music tech in a big way.

Do you have any resolutions for 2010, or at least any you want to share?

Electron is now free

Electron, a small grid based sequencer is currently free in the app store.

Check it out here:

Concretedog gets the gift of Gristleism

Nice Christmas present. Concretedog comments on the Gristleism.

FourTrack 3.1

FourTrack has been updated to version 3.1 which now includes:

• Added new Settings Tool with Snap to Bar or Beat.
• Added ability to select track to paste to in AudioPaste.
• Fixed bug where some users were unable to AudioPaste.

This is just what I've been waiting for and is excellent news. I think this update will make FourTrack and DopplerPad even more usable!

FourTrack at the app store:

DopplerPad at the app store:

Shruti-1 update

A brief update from Olivier on the status of Shruti-1:

• enough space in the firmware for more oscillator algorithms and arpeggiator patterns!
• while waiting for the PCBs and some more parts, I will start working soon on an alternative firmware for exactly the same hardware, with simpler oscillators, less modulation options, but... polyphony (a la RS-09 / polymoog). So there will be two flavors of the shruti-1, the "pads/strings/organs" and the "leads/basses/sequences" machines.

All sounds good, the wait continues ...

Circuit Synth update

Circuit synth has had an update shake to clear and 5 preset layouts too. There's more to come though, with the developer working on envelopes, filters, save/restore layouts, more places for modules, more modules, and feedback. Then later something involving MIDI or physical keys.

All sounds very promising indeed.

Circuit Synth at the app store:

Stilo Phone update

CreativeApplications did a thing on this when it came out saying that it was less an app and more a work in progress, so I'm wondering if the update has made it more usable? I like the idea, just don't want to buy something unfinished.

Stilo Phone for iPhone at the app store:

Merlin lives!

Handheld music / game toy from the 70's, restored by Pixelh8.

Retro

Just had to post this, care of CreativeApplications.net.

Poll down Comments UP

I've taken the poll down and replaced it with a new feature for the blog that I hope you'll find useful. The comment and rate panel is there for just leaving general comments or news and rating the blog if you want to. I hope it'll be useful.

ARGON - The Monophonic Virtual Analog Synthesizer

As if there wasn't enough in the way of new apps today, here's another great looking synth called ARGON, Potable Monophonic Virtual Analog Synthesizer. Here's what to expect:

FEATURES

• High-quality 32bit floating point Synth-engine

Three Oscillator
Osc1

• Modulatable Sawtooth waveforms Oscillator
• Modulatable Pulse width Oscillator
• Modulatable Oscillator to Triangle wave from Sine wave
• Modulatable Noise Oscillator
• Formant Oscillator

Osc2,3

• Sawtooth waveform
• Square waveform
• Sine Waveform
• Noise
• FM (Frequency Modulation)
• AM (Amplitude Modulation)
• Oscillator Sync
• Oscillator modulation
• LFO, Envelope exclusive Oscillator
• Modulatable Pitch and Level using LFO, Envelope
• Modulatable FM depth using LFO, Envelope(Only Oscillator 1)

Filter

• Low Pass Filter(24dB/Oct)
• Low Pass Filter(12dB/Oct)
• Mid Pass Filter
• High Pass Filter
• Envelope, LFO exclusive for Filter

Amplifier

• Overdrive (saturator)
• 3 Band EQ
• Panpot
• Envelope, LFO exclusive for AMP

Three Envelope Generator(EG)

• Envelope Generator exclusive for each OSC, Filter, AMP
• ADSR(Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release)

LFO (Low Frequency Oscilator) x 3

• Sawthooth Wave
• Square Wave
• Sine Wave
• Random waveforms by Sample, Hold.
• Tempo-synced Speed.
• KeySync Mode
• LFO Delay Parameter

Delay Effect

• Adjustable L,R Delay (0.1ms - 2000ms)
• TempoSync Mode
• Left and Right Feedback
• Cross-feed-back
• Color Parameter for controlling delay sound
• LFO for modulating delay time
• Modulation effects (Chorus, Flanger)
• Spread Parameter(Modulating phase between left and right channels)

Step Sequencer

• 16 Step Sequencer
• Writable Tone program (8 Pattern in 1 Tone)
• Position-returning KeySync Mode

keyboard

• Three sized scrollable keyboard

Key transpose

• Scale
• Key Holding
• Note Portament
• TempoSync (LFO, Step Sequencer, Delay)
• Preset Saving(512 preset)
• Original 64 factory preset

Sounds good?

Argon at the app store:

Creative Applications on alternatives to Objective C

An interesting article at CreativeApplications on NUI Framework an alternative to Objective C for iPhone development. What's even more interesting is that this is what was used to make Bleep!Box and Bleep!Synth.

Jasuto Pro has arrived

Great news, Jasuto Pro has arrived in the app store today! I'm going to get it straight away.

Jasuto Pro at the app store:

HHH on 5 Film making apps updated

HHH has this post on 5 film making apps that have been updated. In those 5 is Storyboard Composer (formerly Hitchcock), but sadly no sign of the video export as yet!

Bleep!Synth has arrived

BleepSynth, from the makers of Bleep!Box, has arrived in the app store and here's what you can expect from it:

• 3 High quality Voices
• 45+ Parameters
• Flexible Arpeggiator/Sequencer
• FM, Ringmod, Sync, PhaseMod, Distortion
• Global delay FX
• Live performance modes
• 20 different scales
• Parameter automation
• Realtime processing – NO SAMPLES

Bleep!Synth at the app store:

ReelDirector update

ReelDirector has been updated and you can now add your own soundtrack files in the app.

ReelDirector at the app store:

Releases on MP3death

I got contacted by this mp3death about their latest release called Walking About at Night by Jellica. Great gameboy music.

If you've got a release coming up and want it to be featured on Palm Sounds, then just get in touch.

MultiTrack 1.1 has arrived

The new version 1.1 of MultiTrack has arrived. It includes:

Stereo Recording - up to 16 stereo or mono tracks
Metronome - never miss that beat again
Time Signatures - various musical time signatures
Ruler - shows where you are in the song
Snap - snaps the timebar to ruler lines
Punch in/out - automatically starts and stops recording
Auto Input - allows monitoring the track underneath until punch points

MultiTrack at the app store:

Poll coming down tomorrow

I plan to take down the poll for Most Innovative App of 2009 tomorrow. The top 5 results will still be in this post, but the rest will go. So, if you need it for any reason, you've got a day or so until it comes down.

What are you looking forward to in 2010?

It amazes me to think that this is the end of a whole decade. From a mobile music point of view it has been very interesting, and 2009 in particular has seen mobile music really take off. I hope it continues into 2010, but I'm interested to know what you're hoping and wishing for?

All Things DS-10 on DS-10+ US release date

The always excellent All Things DS-10 blog comments on the US release date for the DS-10+.

Thoughts on ThumbJam

I finally got around to trying out this little app, and I have to agree with all of your comments on the previous post, it is amazing. Great sound and control and real potential for live work. I'm really enjoying it a lot!

ThumbJam at the app store: