Palm Sounds: March 2010

CDM iPad Round up

I'm glad that CDM has made some noise over the iPad launch in 3 days time. The round up of apps is a good collection and there were a couple of surprises. I didn't know about TouchOSC coming to the iPad for instance.

The only down side for the iPad is that I can't get one!

Matrix Music Pad on sale

Matrix Music Pad is on sale for just $1.99.

Matrix Music Pad at the app store:

Tangible Groove Pad on sale

Tangible Groove Pad, one of YUDO's Music Toys series is on sale for just $0.99. Don't know for how long though.

Tangible Groove Pad

Tim's mobile set up

Tim sent me this shot of his mobile set up, and it looks great. Here's what he has to say about his gear and how he uses it:

my work-flow: I create abstract sample and wavetable-based loops/phrases/ and soundscapes with VSTs/ Ipod touch [usually played in Thumbjam which is my favorite right now]/and the DS and send then to my KP-3 to process and sample- then build minimalistic loop-based tracks from the kaoss pad

-HP TX tablet
-Ipod touch [Thumbjam/Jasuto pro/ Dopplerpad/noise.io/Sampletoy]
-Nintendo DS [DS-10/cellDS/ProteinDS]
-Korg KP-3 Kaoss Pad
-Korg Nanokey

I'd love to hear from more people about their mobile set up and how they use their apps. If you'd like to be featured then please get in touch.

Layers for the iPad Screens

Layers on the iPad screenshots

It looks great, but I think that this is an app that will be a lot more on the iPad than it is on the iPhone and Touch.

Layers at the app store:

Make an iPhone Drum App

This post at Matrixsynth shows you how

RJDJ Love Contest Winner!

The winner of RJDJ's Love contest has been announced here. Some good tracks made.

RJDJ apps at the app store:

Nice performance.

Argon 1.2.0 Sound Tutorial - Bell Sound

Argon at the app store:

and then the App Directory appeared!

Well, it has taken a while, but here it is. My first attempt at the app directory. I'm sure that there are lots of missing links and apps that aren't there that you think should be.

Please comment them into this post and I will update and add stuff as soon as I can.

I hope it is useful! Please do give me some feedback on it too.

Face lift

It was about time that Palm Sounds got a bit of a new look, it has looked tired for a while. So here's a spring clean, face lift, whatever. I hope you like it.

Also, the app directory (iPhone only for now) will be up very soon.

SampleToy first thoughts

I spent a bit of time playing around with Sampletoy. It is great fun to play with, and has some excellent features. I do like the delay at the moment, and the envelope is good too. I can see this being a good sampling app for some time to come.

SampleToy at the app store:

Track made with NLog

ambient polar by MyklH

ProRemote Light Edition price drop

This app originally retailed at $39.99 and has dropped to $19.99 for a limited time. Not sure how long for.

ProRemote Light Edition at the app store:

CDM on Shruti-1

Good to see that the big sites have picked up the Shruti-1 story. Matrixsynth, Synthtopia, and now CDM.

HHH on video editing on the iPad

I think that HHH is desperate to get the iPad, and I can understand it. This article is about getting video into the iPad.

Argos GUI builder to be brought to ICMC

You might remember Argos, it is a project creating an opensource GUI builder to make musical interfaces. It is built in openFrameworks. Argos is being brought to the International Computer Music Conference, which is good news.

I'll be keeping an eye on Argos to see how it develops.

Mini Vince Clarke

Just had to post this from Matrixsynth.

Another Nanoloop track from Jason Sposa

More Nanoloop goodness in this track by Jason Sposa. I should really get going with some of the tracks I've been noodling around with in Nanoloop!

If you haven't tried Nanoloop it really is worth a go.

Palm Sounds App Directory update

You may have been wondering about this app directory I've been talking about for a while (you might not). Well, my first attempt at the directory is still on track to be up by the end of the month, that's tomorrow!

Just to get it this far has taken me ages, so please don't be too harsh about the results. I'm sure that there will be lots of apps that aren't in it that should be, and I will address that over time.

At some point tomorrow I'll put the directory up and you can all tell me what you think. Tomorrow there'll just be iPhone apps. I am also working on pages for Android, Palm, Windows Mobile and other operating systems too. In addition I expect to have an iPad directory page working fairly close to the iPad launch, probably a day or so after.

Hopefully this won't be a gigantic let down for all of you, so please be kind when you see it. I'm sure it will evolve over time.

Rare Kaossilator / Mini KP bags at eBay

I haven't seen one of these in ages. There are a couple on sale here. I paid a load more than this for mine, so I think these are a real bargain.

Kaossilator / Mini KP bags at eBay

Wivi Band price drop

Wivi band 15 in 1 has dropped in price to just $0.99 from $4.99. Not for long though.

Wivi Band at the app store:

Looptastic HD for iPad

Yesterday I posted a couple of screenshots of Looptastic HD on the iPad. Synthtopia seem to have got hold of a video of it in action. I can't embed it though. The video is here.

DSi XL Teardown

Make has this teardown of the DSi XL. I have to admit that it is tempting at just under £150!

Toy Instruments book

I saw this book yesterday and knew that I'd have to share it. It has loads of toy instruments that I already knew about, and lots more that I've never heard of or seen. I think I might have to get it at some point.

Argon 1.2.0 Sound Tutorial - Synth Strings

Argon have today also confirmed that they are currently developing a new music app and making an iPad version of Argon. iPad getting more tempting hour by hour!

Argon at the app store:

MIDI Mobilizer Video

Doesn't give a huge amount of new information about this device, but you do see it actually work at about 1:50 into the video, and the price given is £49 or €59 available in April.

Via Matrixsynth.

Run Java apps on Android

It is stuff like this that is making Android continue to look more and more promising. I really must check in at Processing for Android again and see where that's going.

Layers for the iPad new site

Nothing there as yet, but a new site for layers on the iPad.

Sonorasaurus Rex on the iPad

With just a few days to go until the iPad launch lots of developers are coming out with screen shots and details of iPad versions. Here's a shot of Sonorasaurus Rex for the iPad

Synthia for iPhone

I meant to post this yesterday. Synthia is a small but powerful polyphonic synthesizer for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

A bank of cascaded-triple-oscillator frequency modulation (FM) synthesizers provides a broad palette of sounds from percussion to strings with over 170 million variations.

The keyboard can be scrolled across the full 88 keys of a piano from A0 to C8. You can even change the size of the keys to suit the size of your fingers. The keys are touch sensitive - the harder you tap a key the louder the sound.

There are 14 synthesizer controls:

Amplitude attack
Amplitude decay
Register (octave) shift
Portamento (for "sliding" from note to note)
Modulator 1 attack
Modulator 1 decay
Modulator 1 frequency ratio
Modulator 1 modulation index
Modulator 1 and dynamic modulation
Modulator 2 attack
Modulator 2 decay
Modulator 2 frequency ratio
Modulator 2 modulation index
Modulator 2 and dynamic modulation

The FM frequency ratio defines the harmonic frequencies, modulation index controls the number of harmonics, and dynamic modulation defines how the harmonics change in time.

Synthia at the app store: