This latest version brings the app to life in a whole new way allowing you so much control over the generative aspects of each cell, the FX networks and the synths themselves.
In some ways it is such a big leap that there's almost too much to take on board. But Intermorphic have done a great job in bringing this level of complexity without forcing a user to actually delve into it unless they want to. Now that's clever.
If you want to use the presets that's fine. If you want to use loops that's fine too. Mixtikl will operate at multiple levels and let you use as much or as little as you want.
At times I've found myself starting from scratch with this app and tweaking everything, and at other times I've just wanted to hit 'random' and see what happens. I like that I have the choice to do either.
Having been a user of Mixtikl on multiple platforms and forany years now I know just how far the journey has taken Intermorphic. But it doesn't stop there. There's even more coming. I can't say what or when as yet, but I can say that it will be good.
I know that people struggle with Mixtikl and at times and it can be a very complex app. All I'd say is that it is worth getting you head into. That's my personal view.
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7 comments:
Its complexity isn't the problem; the nested interface is shit. 4 pages deep to get to the Envelopes? Why bother when there are so many, better, alternatives.
I'm new to electronic music, but I don't really have any problems with the interface, it could possibly do with a few tweeks but I don't think it needs major changes. What are the better alternatives that you mention?
I think an analogy between Mixtikl's interface and 3D software is good: generative music is made of objects with many characteristics: the more elements you can modify, the finer control and best result you can get. At the same time it involves more interface pages (especially on the smaller screens), Interporphic did a great job to me as far as offering a logical and consistent flow to access their object parameters is concerned.
@anon better alternatives such as? i'm sure they're open to have suggestions if you have better ideas.
Even obtuse apps like Sunvox provide a more sane interface to the complexity of sound design on the iOS. Or the intentionally archaic iMS-20... God that sequencer is goofy, but the sound design is elegant and easy to navigate. I would recommend either of these two.
How can you edit envelopes in Mixtikl any easier? They explained here why it works like that a few days back! Have to drill down to the envelope you want...
Many thanks Ashley and @Andrew_Cousins & @Mat.
@anon Some UIs are complex, some are simple, and the approaches taken are governed be many factors. I have used a number of apps where I did not really gel with the UI, but where I could tell the dev went to a lot of effort in the app, and I appreciate that. I think most, if not all devs, sweat blood over their apps, and the people who know that best are the devs themselves.
It is only when you spec (yourself) and build a UI (an app) that you get to really appreciate the complexities you are dealing with and what does / does not work and the tradeoffs you have to make. And that is just the start of the journey! No matter what you do there are always going to be people who will simply not like the way you have done it.
Mixtikl is like any other app in that regard, but it does have special challenges.
The core of Mixtikl is the Content Cell, and each cell is a mini-tardis in its own right. There are 48 of them and they can be sequenced, triggered, looped etc and contain generative content, audio loops, imported loops, MIDI loops etc. Each cell can have the root, rules and pitch offset customised.
The Partikl modular / wavetable synth is completely configurable (generators, modulators and effects), and allows custom sounds on a per line basis. One thing that many not be obvious immediately is that Noatikl generative content that can be used in a content cell can contain multiple voices, and thus the sound for each of those voices need to be able to be customised.
Then of course you can apply FX networks on a per channel, per cell, per track and or per mix basis. Sure, one day we might find time to be able to do bins, but we have not yet....
Then there is the coming bit that some people will love, but others will find brings too much more customisation. We are bringing a Noatikl editor to the party in 3.1, which should be available in around a month as yet another free update. This will allow you to cuetomise pretty well any Noatikl pararmeter for Noatikl content in any cell. It is really for people who understand Noatikl and how it works as it will be more drilldown (and we hope to do a Noatikl app for iDevice, too, maybe after Mixtikl). But, it will then mean you can, if you want, uniquely customise most all rules, parameters, sounds etc of a generative music and/or hybrid audio / cell sequenced mix.
Too many possibilities or complexity? One thing we found when Eno was working with Koan Pro to create "Generative Music 1" was that one aspect of his genius was what he did with often arcane parameters to stamp his identity on the pieces. If those parameters had not been available, a lot of richness and subtlety would have gone.
We are giving people access to a huge degree of customablity and we have made design choices along the way as we knew where we were heading (3.1 is where the multiple strands all come together). Have we got it right? Time will tell. Could we have done it better? Sure, one can always do things better and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we are proud of what we have built and think it does the job!
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