In the same camp as Tom :/ - I understand that a powerful application like this can't possibly work at its best on a 3G. Assessing the competition, however, NanoStudio works quite well on my 3G.
It seems they have largely taken the NS model (and look) and tweaked it. Most of this additional functionality will be with existing NS users over the next few months, and for no additional cost. Also no audio tracks.. for me this was the sole reason I would have made the purchase. Underwhelmed.
I don't think $20 (£12) is much to pay for a new app. About the price of a CD!
"iExterminate!" took ages to code and update, there were two of us who wrote it (50/50 split in any profits), and we are also raising money for charity (which I'll probably end up giving all the money to anyway), yet we still haven't made enough to buy ONE iPad from all sales since last July, when the app was released.
Before that I was a signed artist to a fairly well know independent London-based label. I couldn't pay the bills from that either. The LP's sold fairly well, especially in the USA and Japan, but what was really gutting was a friend who wasn't really thinking straight, and said "yeah Tom- I liked your LP a lot, actually I'm downloading on Hotline (a stone age version of torrent) right now".
Great. :(
Yes I'm a bit miffed that BM2 won't work with an iPhone 3G (a phone is 'a much of a muchness' isn't it really?), but I'll just wait a bit more, until I've saved enough for an iPad, and use my iPhone for Nanostudio. Antimon has already proved how incredible NanoStudio is/ can be.
The best of the two apps? Well there is no denying that BM2 looks really good, but Nanostudio still supports older hardware. So this leads me to conclude that Nanostudio still has the upper edge over BM2. :)
The sequencer works very much like NanoStudio's but there are only so many way to make something like that work.
Although NS has support for Core MIDI, Synth Station, Midi Mobilizer, etc., this is just v1.0 of BM2. Same goes for audio tracks. NS doesn't have those yet either!
This is a really nice app. I can't believe there are people complaining about the price. It's only $5 more than NS, and it has features like time stretch, pitch shift, and unlimited tracks and whatnot.
To the people asking about keyboard polyphony, BM2 supports up to 32 voices.
Hey guys the upgrade Is FREE. Just use your same account which owns BM1. I can confirm there is no charge because my account would not have been able to cover the price otherwise;-) Cheers
Yeah, douglas, you are wrong. Thankfully it only took ten minutes to transfer funds from one account to the other and back again. Enjoy your purchase, I'd be hard pressed to call that a "mistake"...
Tom - that's really sad. This is why I have respect for developers who put their livelihoods on the line, even if I don't like the actual app or find their customer support lacking sometimes.
If users only knew how much blood, sweat, and tears goes into creating even a so-so app, I think we'd see a a lot less complaints about 5$, 10$ pricing...
I'm gonna be bold and say beat maker is ideal and maybe built more for sample based hip hop. To me the beat pad and slicing are killer features. This so far is the closest I've seen to an mpc on iPad for £12. The keyboard sounds are ok but I'll put my own sounds on and pasteboard is cool. I love the sequencer/editor even if it copies off nano studio i feel they can compliment each other.
My only question is how do I import a track from iPod libary to chop up? If it works how it should then it's money well spent.
I'm surprised it isn't formatted for the iPad out of the gate. Apple announced over 12 million iPads sold, and we are on the doorstep of iPad 2.
Pre-iPad, the general attitude toward iOS for serious music production was, "Meh." When iPad hit, musicians and producers all over the globe recognized it as a legitimate tool.
I could understand why Intua might omit iPhone 3G. Some of the features requested may not work on that hardware. Developers have to draw a line somewhere about the hardware / OS they will reach back to support. Still difficult to understand considering the volume of 3G's in use.
At $20, an application of this quality is a steal. However, I'd rather not have to view it in 2X on my iPad.
I'm definitely waiting. Lack of proper iPad support as well as CoreMIDI are not worth my time right now. Specially just now that NS got core midi support! I'm very happy the developer decided to implement CoreMIDI despite not being a native iPad app. :)
I'm also very upset at Intua since they decided to rip off NS sequencer instead of actually being creative to come up with something new and hopefully better. If they decided to carbon copy it, they should have gotten in touch with Blip and paid them royalties or something. This is not kosher, no matter how people are rationalizing it as being ok.
I'd be grinding my teeth if I was Blip Interactive.. the sequencer window is virtual plagiarism. Lack of Sonoma Copy/Paste means no bouncing between NS and BM2 either.
Once I got it installed on my iPad last night, I couldn't put it down for a few hours. I think it's a truly great app, a worth successor to BM1 and a legitimate competitor to Nanostudio for a certain segment of the population. Here are some thoughts:
1. I love being able to "build my studio," as they say. Some tracks call for several "MPC's," while others require a mix of keyboards and MPC's or a different setup. This is better than Nanostudio's fixed setup of four synths and one beatbox - but at the price of locking out many users of older devices due to the required power for this flexibility. This leads to...
2. Power consumption/system requirement. Nanostudio runs well even on my "ancient" 2G Ipod Touch. BM2 apparently won't run on anything older than the most cutting edge hardware, like my iPad. Clearly Nano is focused on being accessible to as many people as possible, while BM2 is focused on pushing the hardware as far as it can go. Each is admirable in its own way, but they're different approaches.
3. BM2 and Nano are really two sides of the same coin, rather than direct competitors: BM is for people who work predominantly with samples, and Nano is for people who are more into synthesizers and building their own sounds from scratch. There's ultimately a ton of overlap between the two programs, but that's the ideological difference between the two. Nano's keyboard sampler is still better, with some of the insane modulation options and more complex features, but BM2's drum machine has definitely outpaced Nano's. These strengths reflect each program's respective focus.
4. As I said before, BM2's sequencer is blatantly, shamefully ripped off of Nano's. I honestly think there's room for legal action. I've used piano roll sequencers since the Apple ][ and the similarities here are NOT inherent in all piano rolls - this is absolutely shameless, blatant copying down to the subtle details, fonts, graphic design, features, etc. If I were Blip Interactive, I'd be nailing Intua with a cease and desist and would be talking a settlement plus royalties IMMEDIATELY - I mean, this is seriously fucked up, especially since they're clearly the two most direct competitors in the iOS music scene. That said, it's a great sequencer...because Nanostudio's already was.
5. The sample lab and chop shop are totally awesome - I've dreamed of doing this stuff with my fingers since the days of ReCycle, and here it is. It's amazingly easy to import an entire song directly from your library, chop out a few sections you want, add them to your sample library, then re-load them into the chop shop and dice them up further, automatically creating presets and banks. Absolutely brilliant. In about 5 minutes last night I was able to go from ipod mp3 to several banks of chopped loops and beats. NICE - unbeatable workflow, even on a desktop with a mouse.
That said, having to use the FTP to load samples is a huge pain in the ass; why can't it just be drag-and-drop like every other iOS program now is? Also, many of my samples just wouldn't load - I tried wav's, aiff's, and even some mp3's and got a generic error message. The only way I've been able to load my own sounds is by importing them as mp3's from iPod. Weird.
6. I really like the visual design way more than BM1 - it's a great looking and great feeling program to use. But no native iPad support on launch is indefensible at this point! The iPad's been out for a year, people keep claiming that the iPad 2 is due to drop any day now, and we're still getting flagship programs like BM2 that I have to run in ugly pixel doubling mode! WTF, guys? Hasn't apple sold like 14 billion ipads in the past year? Why has the entire iOS community taken so freaking long to catch up? Nano's still not iPad native, but I understand that that's just one dude working in a bedroom somewhere. Ugh!
Anyway, those are some thoughts. BM2 is phenomenal and has definitely raised the bar for iOS apps...even if they had to do a little bit of blatant theft to get there.
Oh come on Dick! Don't be so silly!! Do you not think that everybody is ripping everybody else off anyway? What about most products on the market? Product design is all about copying, but it's also about improving. That applies to absolutely everything. Even the Apple Mac and the iPhone began life somewhere else beforehand.
If anything, this is a plus, because it makes both sequencers easier to use side by side. There is nothing worse than having to learn a new operating system all over again.
I think now we wait to see what Blip come out with next (or anyone for that matter. It could even be us! ;) )
Well, there's copying and then there's COPYING. If Apple had taken the Blackberry, completely cloned the hardware and OS and simply slapped an Apple logo over the RIM logo, it would be a big problem. All piano roll sequencers are ultimately similar - Cubase, Logic, Ableton, Reason, etc. etc. ad infinitum. It's a given that they're going to be similar. The BM2 sequencer is quite literally lifted directly out of Nanostudio. That isn't right.
We all breathe the same air, so really, what is the problem? We're forgetting the most important thing here, making music. Who cares who burned or ripped who? Shit happens, then you die. Get over it, and make some fecking music!!
Would you say the same about that guy who's got his app duplicated on the Mac app store last week (Lugaru)?
Yes, a wheel is a wheel, but the sequencers here looks way too similar."
Johnny, dude, look I can tell you're a youngster! lol! People rip people off. It's the way the world goes round. You innovate by bettering another's design. I know this because I have a frigging upper second class honours science degree and years of industrial experience in it!
10 years ago, my wife remixed the fecking Aphex Twin, and didn't get paid a penny for it (well she did, a grand, but the rest of the money went to Richard!). Okay, not that relevant, but it kind of illustrates the point? And yes, my car wheels aren't made of polygons, they're round!
I really doubt that Mr Blip is that concerned. He probably loves the fact that it's bothering all of you so much- I know I'd love that attention too. But I bet what Mr Blip is doing now (and many others too) is planning a new strategy, and thus planning NS2.
PS, I fart, you fart, we all fart for.... How many iFart apps in the Appstore now? How many rip-offs since the first one? If you're going to produce something original, you must expect to get ripped off. Unless of course you patent it- but patenting is a very precarious practice, and is very difficult to prove and fund (unless of course you are Apple). So you may as well just forget it, and make some music.
Not good enough to get first class honours, hey Tom? And if you had done your phd you would've found that you have to come up with something original to continue further in science. Honours is basically another year of undergrad, but you're doing some gopher work for an academic...
I think you're trying to refer to the comment about standing on the shoulders of others (Newton). And that refers to not "bettering" but "furthering". Which is an incredible distinction. Further, Lawrence Bragg won the Nobel for physics at 25. So, does johnnyg0's age matter at all? This has been a pretty personal attack, but, well, you started it man...
And I'm entirely comfortable with the size of penis so I'm keeping my qualifications to myself (and posting as anon for that very same reason)...
"Johnny, dude, look I can tell you're a youngster! lol!"
You believe so?... then there must be a lot of other things you believe that are wrong as well. I'm 34. Do you also believe that trying to insult me will make your argument look better?
"People rip people off. It's the way the world goes round."
So we should never credit the people we borrow from?
"You innovate by bettering another's design."
Absolutely, but you can still credit the original authors.
"I know this because I have a frigging upper second class honours science degree and years of industrial experience in it!"
You tell me girl! For an older adult, you do make good use of the word "frigging".. it really puts weight into your argument.
"10 years ago, my wife remixed the fecking Aphex Twin, and didn't get paid a penny for it (well she did, a grand, but the rest of the money went to Richard!). Okay, not that relevant."
So you gave credit to the author you remixed, that's quite the opposite of ripping off someone. And its totally relevant you said that, because you were advocating the opposite earlier.
That said, BM2's sequencer looking like NS is not a big deal. Now lets make music.
33 comments:
I'd tell you, if it worked on my 3G. :(
why there is no upgrade option from bm1 admits bm2? which provides bm2 what nano studio has not already?
In the same camp as Tom :/ - I understand that a powerful application like this can't possibly work at its best on a 3G. Assessing the competition, however, NanoStudio works quite well on my 3G.
It seems they have largely taken the NS model (and look) and tweaked it. Most of this additional functionality will be with existing NS users over the next few months, and for no additional cost.
Also no audio tracks.. for me this was the sole reason I would have made the purchase. Underwhelmed.
Does anyone here know how the polyphony compares to NS?
I don't think $20 (£12) is much to pay for a new app. About the price of a CD!
"iExterminate!" took ages to code and update, there were two of us who wrote it (50/50 split in any profits), and we are also raising money for charity (which I'll probably end up giving all the money to anyway), yet we still haven't made enough to buy ONE iPad from all sales since last July, when the app was released.
Before that I was a signed artist to a fairly well know independent London-based label. I couldn't pay the bills from that either. The LP's sold fairly well, especially in the USA and Japan, but what was really gutting was a friend who wasn't really thinking straight, and said "yeah Tom- I liked your LP a lot, actually I'm downloading on Hotline (a stone age version of torrent) right now".
Great. :(
Yes I'm a bit miffed that BM2 won't work with an iPhone 3G (a phone is 'a much of a muchness' isn't it really?), but I'll just wait a bit more, until I've saved enough for an iPad, and use my iPhone for Nanostudio. Antimon has already proved how incredible NanoStudio is/ can be.
The best of the two apps? Well there is no denying that BM2 looks really good, but Nanostudio still supports older hardware. So this leads me to conclude that Nanostudio still has the upper edge over BM2. :)
It borrows a lot from Nanostudio in terms of the sequencer.
The beatslicing feature is great, but being able to timestretch loops is the real killer feature.
The sequencer works very much like NanoStudio's but there are only so many way to make something like that work.
Although NS has support for Core MIDI, Synth Station, Midi Mobilizer, etc., this is just v1.0 of BM2. Same goes for audio tracks. NS doesn't have those yet either!
This is a really nice app. I can't believe there are people complaining about the price. It's only $5 more than NS, and it has features like time stretch, pitch shift, and unlimited tracks and whatnot.
To the people asking about keyboard polyphony, BM2 supports up to 32 voices.
Hey guys the upgrade Is FREE. Just use your same account which owns BM1. I can confirm there is no charge because my account would not have been able to cover the price otherwise;-)
Cheers
Douglas you nincompoop
Yeah, douglas, you are wrong. Thankfully it only took ten minutes to transfer funds from one account to the other and back again. Enjoy your purchase, I'd be hard pressed to call that a "mistake"...
It's not free. It's $20 whether you own BM1 or not.
Average wage = approx £6/hour?
£12 = 2 hours work.
I'd say that is CHEAP!
So it doesn't work on a 3G. Does that mean it doesn't work on my ipod touch 3GS?
From the screenshots, even the sliders look like nanostudio. Anyway, I'll probably plunk down the 20 bucks to try it if it runs on my ipod touch 3GS.
Tom - that's really sad. This is why I have respect for developers who put their livelihoods on the line, even if I don't like the actual app or find their customer support lacking sometimes.
If users only knew how much blood, sweat, and tears goes into creating even a so-so app, I think we'd see a a lot less complaints about 5$, 10$ pricing...
i didn't see any line 6 midi mobilizer or USB support... :-(
I'm gonna be bold and say beat maker is ideal and maybe built more for sample based hip hop. To me the beat pad and slicing are killer features. This so far is the closest I've seen to an mpc on iPad for £12. The keyboard sounds are ok but I'll put my own sounds on and pasteboard is cool. I love the sequencer/editor even if it copies off nano studio i feel they can compliment each other.
My only question is how do I import a track from iPod libary to chop up? If it works how it should then it's money well spent.
I'm surprised it isn't formatted for the iPad out of the gate. Apple announced over 12 million iPads sold, and we are on the doorstep of iPad 2.
Pre-iPad, the general attitude toward iOS for serious music production was, "Meh." When iPad hit, musicians and producers all over the globe recognized it as a legitimate tool.
I could understand why Intua might omit iPhone 3G. Some of the features requested may not work on that hardware. Developers have to draw a line somewhere about the hardware / OS they will reach back to support. Still difficult to understand considering the volume of 3G's in use.
At $20, an application of this quality is a steal. However, I'd rather not have to view it in 2X on my iPad.
I'll wait.
I'm definitely waiting. Lack of proper iPad support as well as CoreMIDI are not worth my time right now. Specially just now that NS got core midi support! I'm very happy the developer decided to implement CoreMIDI despite not being a native iPad app. :)
I'm also very upset at Intua since they decided to rip off NS sequencer instead of actually being creative to come up with something new and hopefully better. If they decided to carbon copy it, they should have gotten in touch with Blip and paid them royalties or something. This is not kosher, no matter how people are rationalizing it as being ok.
I'd be grinding my teeth if I was Blip Interactive.. the sequencer window is virtual plagiarism.
Lack of Sonoma Copy/Paste means no bouncing between NS and BM2 either.
On my ipad 4.2 all the keyboard samples vanished. So I had to reload the app.
Then the app crashed after loading a mic sample on a drum pad.
On my iPhone 4, the scroll settings for the keyboard freeze constantly. I can't get anything done.
Once I got it installed on my iPad last night, I couldn't put it down for a few hours. I think it's a truly great app, a worth successor to BM1 and a legitimate competitor to Nanostudio for a certain segment of the population. Here are some thoughts:
1. I love being able to "build my studio," as they say. Some tracks call for several "MPC's," while others require a mix of keyboards and MPC's or a different setup. This is better than Nanostudio's fixed setup of four synths and one beatbox - but at the price of locking out many users of older devices due to the required power for this flexibility. This leads to...
2. Power consumption/system requirement. Nanostudio runs well even on my "ancient" 2G Ipod Touch. BM2 apparently won't run on anything older than the most cutting edge hardware, like my iPad. Clearly Nano is focused on being accessible to as many people as possible, while BM2 is focused on pushing the hardware as far as it can go. Each is admirable in its own way, but they're different approaches.
3. BM2 and Nano are really two sides of the same coin, rather than direct competitors: BM is for people who work predominantly with samples, and Nano is for people who are more into synthesizers and building their own sounds from scratch. There's ultimately a ton of overlap between the two programs, but that's the ideological difference between the two. Nano's keyboard sampler is still better, with some of the insane modulation options and more complex features, but BM2's drum machine has definitely outpaced Nano's. These strengths reflect each program's respective focus.
4. As I said before, BM2's sequencer is blatantly, shamefully ripped off of Nano's. I honestly think there's room for legal action. I've used piano roll sequencers since the Apple ][ and the similarities here are NOT inherent in all piano rolls - this is absolutely shameless, blatant copying down to the subtle details, fonts, graphic design, features, etc. If I were Blip Interactive, I'd be nailing Intua with a cease and desist and would be talking a settlement plus royalties IMMEDIATELY - I mean, this is seriously fucked up, especially since they're clearly the two most direct competitors in the iOS music scene. That said, it's a great sequencer...because Nanostudio's already was.
5. The sample lab and chop shop are totally awesome - I've dreamed of doing this stuff with my fingers since the days of ReCycle, and here it is. It's amazingly easy to import an entire song directly from your library, chop out a few sections you want, add them to your sample library, then re-load them into the chop shop and dice them up further, automatically creating presets and banks. Absolutely brilliant. In about 5 minutes last night I was able to go from ipod mp3 to several banks of chopped loops and beats. NICE - unbeatable workflow, even on a desktop with a mouse.
That said, having to use the FTP to load samples is a huge pain in the ass; why can't it just be drag-and-drop like every other iOS program now is? Also, many of my samples just wouldn't load - I tried wav's, aiff's, and even some mp3's and got a generic error message. The only way I've been able to load my own sounds is by importing them as mp3's from iPod. Weird.
6. I really like the visual design way more than BM1 - it's a great looking and great feeling program to use. But no native iPad support on launch is indefensible at this point! The iPad's been out for a year, people keep claiming that the iPad 2 is due to drop any day now, and we're still getting flagship programs like BM2 that I have to run in ugly pixel doubling mode! WTF, guys? Hasn't apple sold like 14 billion ipads in the past year? Why has the entire iOS community taken so freaking long to catch up? Nano's still not iPad native, but I understand that that's just one dude working in a bedroom somewhere. Ugh!
Anyway, those are some thoughts. BM2 is phenomenal and has definitely raised the bar for iOS apps...even if they had to do a little bit of blatant theft to get there.
Oh come on Dick! Don't be so silly!! Do you not think that everybody is ripping everybody else off anyway? What about most products on the market? Product design is all about copying, but it's also about improving. That applies to absolutely everything. Even the Apple Mac and the iPhone began life somewhere else beforehand.
If anything, this is a plus, because it makes both sequencers easier to use side by side. There is nothing worse than having to learn a new operating system all over again.
I think now we wait to see what Blip come out with next (or anyone for that matter. It could even be us! ;) )
Tom
Well, there's copying and then there's COPYING. If Apple had taken the Blackberry, completely cloned the hardware and OS and simply slapped an Apple logo over the RIM logo, it would be a big problem. All piano roll sequencers are ultimately similar - Cubase, Logic, Ableton, Reason, etc. etc. ad infinitum. It's a given that they're going to be similar. The BM2 sequencer is quite literally lifted directly out of Nanostudio. That isn't right.
Good developers copy, great developers steal.
Or maybe not so great.
We all breathe the same air, so really, what is the problem? We're forgetting the most important thing here, making music. Who cares who burned or ripped who? Shit happens, then you die. Get over it, and make some fecking music!!
@Tom
"Who cares who burned or ripped who?"
The people who are getting burned and ripped?
Would you say the same about that guy who's got his app duplicated on the Mac app store last week (Lugaru)?
Yes, a wheel is a wheel, but the sequencers here looks way too similar.
@Anonymous
"Good developers copy, great developers steal."
Its even more funny because Steve Jobs stole this quote from Picasso, but really isn't that Zynga's way of doing business? :D
"
"Who cares who burned or ripped who?"
The people who are getting burned and ripped?
Would you say the same about that guy who's got his app duplicated on the Mac app store last week (Lugaru)?
Yes, a wheel is a wheel, but the sequencers here looks way too similar."
Johnny, dude, look I can tell you're a youngster! lol! People rip people off. It's the way the world goes round. You innovate by bettering another's design. I know this because I have a frigging upper second class honours science degree and years of industrial experience in it!
10 years ago, my wife remixed the fecking Aphex Twin, and didn't get paid a penny for it (well she did, a grand, but the rest of the money went to Richard!). Okay, not that relevant, but it kind of illustrates the point? And yes, my car wheels aren't made of polygons, they're round!
I really doubt that Mr Blip is that concerned. He probably loves the fact that it's bothering all of you so much- I know I'd love that attention too. But I bet what Mr Blip is doing now (and many others too) is planning a new strategy, and thus planning NS2.
PS, I fart, you fart, we all fart for.... How many iFart apps in the Appstore now? How many rip-offs since the first one? If you're going to produce something original, you must expect to get ripped off. Unless of course you patent it- but patenting is a very precarious practice, and is very difficult to prove and fund (unless of course you are Apple). So you may as well just forget it, and make some music.
Peace.
Not good enough to get first class honours, hey Tom? And if you had done your phd you would've found that you have to come up with something original to continue further in science. Honours is basically another year of undergrad, but you're doing some gopher work for an academic...
I think you're trying to refer to the comment about standing on the shoulders of others (Newton). And that refers to not "bettering" but "furthering". Which is an incredible distinction. Further, Lawrence Bragg won the Nobel for physics at 25. So, does johnnyg0's age matter at all? This has been a pretty personal attack, but, well, you started it man...
And I'm entirely comfortable with the size of penis so I'm keeping my qualifications to myself (and posting as anon for that very same reason)...
@Tomkippa
"Johnny, dude, look I can tell you're a youngster! lol!"
You believe so?... then there must be a lot of other things you believe that are wrong as well. I'm 34. Do you also believe that trying to insult me will make your argument look better?
"People rip people off. It's the way the world goes round."
So we should never credit the people we borrow from?
"You innovate by bettering another's design."
Absolutely, but you can still credit the original authors.
"I know this because I have a frigging upper second class honours science degree and years of industrial experience in it!"
You tell me girl! For an older adult, you do make good use of the word "frigging".. it really puts weight into your argument.
"10 years ago, my wife remixed the fecking Aphex Twin, and didn't get paid a penny for it (well she did, a grand, but the rest of the money went to Richard!). Okay, not that relevant."
So you gave credit to the author you remixed, that's quite the opposite of ripping off someone. And its totally relevant you said that, because you were advocating the opposite earlier.
That said, BM2's sequencer looking like NS is not a big deal. Now lets make music.
now now children!
I lol'd at you lot just then. But I suppose I did drop out of my degree.. Twice :D
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