iPhone App Directory

Mixtikl 3.0 quick intro



Mixtikl - Generative Music Lab, Modular Synth, 12 Track Mixer & Live FX - Intermorphic Ltd.

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11 comments:

Mat said...

Really cool to have this kind of video. More please?

Anonymous said...

egokilla here-

I love Mixtikl-and have been playing with it nonstop since the 3xUP

Please post more videos- this is really the best way to get the application in peoples instrument/device rotation.

Anonymous said...

Again- fantastic video - I advised a mate of mine to load Mixtikl and follow along with this quick start tutorial- and 10minutes later he's sending me tweetmixs.

For any of those that gave up on Mixtikl, 3.0 is a true gem and this 6 minute video tutorial will inspire you immensely with the results.

Pete Cole said...

Many thanks Mat and Anonymous #1 and #2 ...!

We're be creating more videos very soon, we're figuring out the best way to make them. There is a lot of stuff we can drill-down to in Mixtikl, and videos are probably the best way to do this.

If there is anything you'd particularly like covered, please tweet/fb/forum us, and/or mention in Palm Sounds!

Meantime, I'm hard at work on Mixtikl 3.1 ...! ;)

Pete

Tom said...

Pete, why do you choose not to use certain api's made by Apple (ala "Interface Designer") that make the gui easier to use? I mean, when I finger scroll on a list, the list doesn't have any kind of 'bounce' or 'physics' that other apps would have incorporated, which means plonking through a list, rather than gliding- or at least this is what it feels like. Also if I grab the the list on the right hand side and drag, the list scrolls in the opposite direction! Isn't the whole point of following Apple's interface guidelines about getting all app's interfaces to pretty much behave in the same way, thus increasing workflow and production?

I'd love to say Mixtikl 3 is fantastic, but the interface is still as arcane as ever, and I therefore spend less time with Mixtikl than I should do. I apologise for being so blunt.

best,

Tom

Pete Cole said...

Tom,

Thanks for raising the question.

Basically, for us to deploy Mixtikl across all the platforms we support - something demanded by many of our customers, who like to work on both desktop and mobile - we've have to architect the user interface accordingly.

If you're interested in the technicalities, we've had to take the same route followed by most 2d games - draw everything to a 2d drawing surface, and do all the compositing/rendering ourselves (using Apple's APIs to accelerate where possible). Of course, certain things like pop-up menus can use native iOS menus.

Of course, if we were creating an app *just* for iOS, then we'd quite likely use the Apple APIs more closely. There again, maybe we'd be tempted to go the Open GL route - again, this is the way that many games are written after all...

But being a 2 man company, we have to scale our software as much as possible across the many platforms used by our user base. Mixtikl currently deploys to - and is actively used on! - Mac (standalone, VSTi, Audio Unit, Browser Plug-in), Windows (standalone, VSTi, Audio Unit, Browser Plug-in), iOS (iPhone/iPod/iPad).

Not only that, but there are *loads* of screens in Mixtikl - all of which must look/behave as good as possible on all supported platforms and screen resolutions...

We're also getting asked all the time too for an Android version - for which we have already completed the initial port, but which is not yet finished. :)

None of this would be possible if we focused on iOS as the sole target platform...

So, what we focus on doing is continuing to make the overall app as easy as possible to use on all platforms. You'll have seen that we continually release free updates to Mixtikl, and in general the UI keeps on improving from release to release... the latest version includes all sorts of tweaks to make it more responsive on iOS, for example.

I'm confused a bit about the list question BTW, can you please explain a bit more...?

Hoping this explains this some,

Best wishes,

Pete

Anonymous said...

I bought Mixtikl v3 from the App Store recently and it is a fantastically interesting app. Unfortunately, I am having problems using this on my iPad 1G. The audio seems to break up when I try the demo songs as if there is not enough CPU power. i am sorry to say this but this is just unusable which is a shame as it looks and sounds cool.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the GUI is kinda awkward at times, but I've found that if I have the manual open with it, I'm ok (on medication which has wiped out my short term memory. Sucks). Loving this update tho. Really intuitive to open the new features. So much fun! Great work guys, and thanks for answering my stupid emails...

2Potato

Anonymous said...

Pete - are you interested in android alpha testers? I'm down - crashes and all...

(this is a different anon)

Anonymous said...

Personally I think the latest GUI is fine one size (apple widgets) doesn't have to fit all. As he points out, games often use custom interface paradigms (they also have a much higher budget to make them a lot slicker)

Once you understand the logic of the knobs/sliders, it makes sense, it's just different.

Tom said...

Pete, thanks for getting back.

Just out of curiosity, what platform is Mixtikl most successful on? I appreciate that the software has been available on Windows for far longer than Mac or iOS, but what sells the most now?

The 'list' you are asking about, I'm not sure what you are referring to now! I was referring to the scroll bar, and Mixtikl is the only app I know of on iOS where you get the opposite of what action you take! The whole experience feels like Mixtikl's interface should work better with a mouse, and with the iPad being entirely touch driven, that's a shame.

Tom