Palm Sounds: March 2013

I have to admit that I didn't know that it was the Concreted0g's birthday today, but as it is I think it's only fitting that I say a few things about this awesome chap.

His music is completely amazing and ranges from jazz to very experimental (and homemade) electronics, and his skills in electronics are awesome! I have three items to prove it. If you've seen the matrix mixers I've posted a few times, they're all from the Concreted0g. So take a look at his blog, follow him on twitter and maybe even buy one of his matrix mixers!

So, happy birthday sir, have a great day and a great weekend.

Tunable - Instrument Tuner

iOS DJ Apps Key Lock Test

Video description:

Quick test of keylock functionality and audio on iOS apps - specifically DJ apps. I used "Touch Me" by Rui da Silva as the test track, as it features kicks, snares, vocals and synths in the section I used.

I played the same section of the track on all the apps in the test, at -16% with Key Lock enabled on a 3rd Generation iPad running the latest version of iOS (6.1.3) and the latest version of all apps involved (as of 25.03.2013).

The apps used were Capo, Traktor DJ, DJ Player (NB: on the audio in the video for this app is in Mono - my mistake...on Soundcloud I re-recorded with the correct in-app setting for stereo output), CrossDJ, djay, Touch The Wave (TTW).

Waldorf Rocket review part 2 - sound demo

How to Use AmpliTube and Audiobus - Connect your audio apps on your iPhone and iPad

8 Piano Apps Tested for iPad, HQ Audio

chordec (video) Apps4idevicesMusic

Audiobus JACK bridge demo

I think this would make more sense with some narration.

Engadget talks to Amos Gaynes

Interesting interview from Engadget with Moog's Amos Gaynes. Well worth a read.

Massive Impact by Galaxyexplorer

Oum by martinneuhold

FL Studio Mobile & HD are on the bus

Plus the HD version supports up to 24 tracks of Audio in from a class compliant interface.

iRig Mic mobile music accessories, recording app - How to record on Android devices - Long Version

Unused BM2 Techno Loop (Demo) by Isolation Phase

Really liked this, although very brief. I hope it gets turned into something substantial.

Futulele update takes it universal and more

Thanks Amidio for a great update! Here's what's new:

iPhone version! Futulele goes universal!
New default sound set: "Studio"
Switch between "Studio" and "Classic" sound sets using a new interface button
Audition chords by tapping in the chord edit menu

Sinusoid update

Just a tiny update adding midi control screen switch on iPad.

TOUCH POINTS with the TC-11

Sound Cells (video) Apps4idevicesMusic

TonalEnergy Tuner (video) Apps4idevicesMusic

Live Guitar 1.4 with Audiobus, JACK, and MIDI

Artiphon Survey to win an Instrument 1

Take the Artiphon survey, and you might be lucky enough to get a free Instrument 1!

TC-11 1.8 is pretty awesome

New Features:

Audiobus support
Variable polyphony up to 11 touches
Touch amplitude visualization
34 unique color sets
Patch name display option in Performance View

Improvements:

New, faster graphics engine
Email and website link in Settings >> About

Bug Fixes:

AudioCopy name fixed
Sequencer keyboard view correctly hides
Importing patch crash fix

NodeBeat is free for now

NodeBeat is free for now. It was on sale for a while for Audiobus and GarageBand, but now it's free. Enjoy.

New Loopseque Mini is completely awesome!

Take a look at what's new.

NEW EFFECTS SET:

Delay (two modes: stereo and ping-pong).
Filter (LP, HP and LFO).
Reverb (change size, wet/dry and dump).
Beat Repeater (reverse mode and manual quantize).
 All FXs can be easily assigned to each of 4 channels, we call it one-button extra fast routing.

MIDI (iOS 6 or higher):

MIDI-out: Clock, Events, CC, Latency.
 MIDI-in: Clock. 
MIDI note for each circle: channel, velocity, root key.
 Attack, Release, Start and Length for each note. 
Chord maker presets.
 Pad for X/Y parameters, slider and trigger buttons.

OTHER FEATURES:

Audiobus support.
Background audio.
New BPM control.
New Tools popover.
Minor GUI improves.
OMAC support.

BUG FIXES:

WIST now works fine like master and slave.
Loopseque Store on iOS 6.

Loopseque Mini is priced at just $0.99.

OP-1 Mug on eBay

And a little bit more fun too

OP-1 mug on eBay

OP-1 iPhone case on eBay

Just a bit of fun you know

OP-1 iPhone case on eBay

MINT.io from Amidio is on the bus

Amidio adds MINT.io to the growing list of Audiobus supporting apps.

Mr Concreted0g is making those mixers again

It's bank holiday sweatshop time for Mr Concreted0g!

meta DJ - DJ. Mix. Beats (video) from Apps4idevicesMusic

Live Guitar now supporting Jack

Live Guitar updates and now works with Jack. Here's what's new:

Added support for Jack audio sharing
Fixed a bug that prevented recording into Auria
Added support for Virtual MIDI input
Switched audio output to always use the main speaker on the iPhone
Assorted minor bug fixes

GlitchBreaks on sale

GlitchBreaks is 40% off with the price down to $2.99.

My developer of the week is ...

So this week my favourite developer is Yonac, for making miniSynth 2, and of course all the other amazing apps that they've made too.

An interview with Doug Wright, Sonoma's CEO on their Android solution

Sonoma have been a big part of the mobile music world for some time now in terms of software and hardware, so it was interesting to see their latest development into the Android world. I was able to put some questions about this to Doug Wright, Sonoma's CEO. Here's what he said ...

What was it that helped you decide to target the Android music market with your new Android solution?

Users have been asking us for Android versions of our products since 2008. We didn't move in that direction due to Android latency issues, and stuck with iOS as exclusively. When GarageBand was released on iOS in 2011, we saw a marked reduction in our recording app sales. Android is a market that doesn't have a recording app competitor with prime time TV ad money. We realized we had the right team of engineers to solve the latency problem and musicians were contacting us with more requests for Android solutions, so we got to work.

What is your view on Android as an OS in comparison to iOS?

Development is harder on Android. The platform is more fragmented. The audio APIs are not usable for our purposes, but we see that as an opportunity to make improvements.

Do you think that the market for music applications on iOS has become saturated, and where do you think it will go next?

GarageBand provides most of features that the majority of users are looking for, and sets users' expectations very high for a low price of $5. That said, even when FourTrack was a top 50 music app at $10, those sales alone could not fund a dedicated development team.

Why did you decide to bring a solution that would underpin other applications for Android rather than bring your own music applications to Android?

See the next question...

Do you plan to bring any music apps to Android using your own solution?

Yep.

Who is your Android solution targeted at? Is it for large scale developers / manufacturers or is it aimed at the mass market including small dev teams?

Sonoma's LLA solution needs to be loaded with the OS. In order to achieve the lowest latency, we need to work with each manufacturer to tune it for optimum performance on each device.

How do you see your Android solution benefiting the music community?

Once Sonoma's LLA is delivered on devices, Sonoma's SDK will make it possible for real-time processing audio apps to run on Android.

What are your views on Android fragmentation?

Since we will know which devices have the LLA, the burden of trying to release an app for every device will be reduced. Trying to view Android as a single platform is unreasonable. It is a collection of platforms that have a common API, but radically different hardware. If 5-10 new devices are equipped with Sonoma's LLA, then the audio industry will have a good development and sales platform.

Do you plan to continue to support and develop your AudioCopy/Paste solution in the iOS world?

Yes.

Will your solution bring something like AudioCopy/Paste to Android?

Probably.

What are your views on Audiobus and do you think it could have a place in Android?

We are investigating adding Audiobus to our iOS apps. Audiobus may have features that make it useful on Android too, but Sonoma's LLA enables multiple simultaneous audio applications to process and share audio.

Are there any other mobile operating systems that you think could challenge the iOS / Android hold on the market, especially for music?

No comment.

So it'll be interesting to see how Sonoma's Android solution gains traction in the Android world. Time will tell and I'll be keeping a close eye on how this develops.

Reminder: Music Hack ship this Saturday

A last reminder on this event. I'm planning on being there so expect a lot of photos to get posted.

You can find all the details here.

Live Guitar Review and Demo for iPad

What we need is some recipes (well I think so anyway)

Lots of apps / services use the concept of recipes these days. The one I'm most fond of is IFTTT, and one of the very cool things you can do in IFTTT is to share recipes of web automations you like. This isn't uncommon now, and it made me wonder if that isn't something we could have in Audiobus?

Since it launched a few months ago people have been sharing how they use it in a variety of different ways, but wouldn#t it be great to be able to share your set up through Audiobus itself? Wouldn't it be awesome to see how many people had used it with 'like' or 'use' counters? In fact, Audiobus could become a little mobile musicians social network in its own right. How about that?

So here's an open question to the Audiobus team. I know you're working on cool stuff for Audiobus day and night, but how about cooking up some recipe goodness in there as well? I for one would be happy for a little IAP (extra bus fare) for sharing/publishing recipes on the bus.

What do you think?

New Tascams looking very nice indeed!

I have no need for these whatsoever, but I always liked the DP008 but never bought one, and these look even better, but what's up with a 6 track?

iPhone Audiobus

iFretless Bass update

A small update, but ...

Unison and octave effects
New Electric Upright bass sound
Fixed click sound associated with tone controls
Changed velocity limit control so that it affects midi output
Fixed patch selector bug

"Not the end" studio session

Call for Arduino Music at Gwendalyn Festival

If you make music using an Arduino in any way you might want to take a look at this post at the Arduino blog, but don't leave it too long as you'll need to get an entry in by the 10th of April.

In case you missed it, Cycling 74 announce Mira for iPad

I thought that this was pretty big news, so in case you missed it, you can find the detail here.

And so we wait ...

PPG WaveMapper in SOS

Loopy HD still on sale

Loopy HD is also still on sale to celebrate GarageBand getting on the bus. Loopy HD is down from $7.99 to $3.99.

Audiobus still on sale

Audiobus is still on sale celebrating GarageBand being on the bus now. Audiobus goes from $9.99 to $4.99.

Tunable for iOS and Android

One more time-Daft punk-Ipad cover

MIDI Designer T-Shirts coming next month

They'll look nice won't they?

Audio Filter supporting JACK

So, the first app to support JACK is in the app store. Here's the details:

Play your ipod library or hook your microphone up to pass through various types of digital audio filters before going to speaker or headphones. This also demonstrates designing digital audio filters by touch. Select from a variety of filters and set cut-off frequency and rolloff or stopband level.
You can use this app to reduce various interferences or noise in the audio to improve your listening experience
For processing the microphone, you'll need headphones or headset to avoid feedback noise

The program allows design of Butterworth, Chebyshev, Elliptic, Remez, Gaussian, and Maxflat subband filter types for low-pass, band-pass or high-pass filtering in addition to other filters such as a 50 Hertz Notch filter

Audio Effects such as resampling, (for iTunes library tracks), L-R, echo, tremelo, reverb, chorus, ringmod, etc

Up to 10-band Graphic Equalizer with number of bands switchable. This equalizer has much better band attenuation than typical 10-band equalizers as 5-th order sub-filters are used.

All filters & effects are free while app is in foreground.
Background processing reverts to straight through audio for free version and filters/effects/equalizer must be re-enabled when app re-enters foreground.
Upgraded version retains audio mode and processing in background. Use In App purchase for upgrade.

Audio mixes with other audio apps:

What's new

Rework of GUI and navigation so app can display views in both Portrait and Landscape modes
Use LONG PRESS Gesture to return to main screen
Bluetooth support discontinued due to playback issues
Add ability to import and play mp3 files from other apps or through iTunes sharing
Add support for combining with other audio apps through Jack IOS connection kit app
Display Artwork for mp3 files
Extra mp3 gain option

Audulus in MT 10th anniversary edition

Good to see Audulus getting some well deserved attention.

Next version of Orphion submitted to the app store

The next version of Orphion has been sent to review and has the new editor in it. Looking forward to that.

Cascadr (video) from Apps4idevicesMusic

Musical Android on ReLoop

It seems that this Android app is becoming more useful. Always good to see an Android app doing that.

Via Musical Android.

Waldorf Rocket review part 1 - features rundown

Cubase iC Pro gets punch in/out

Cubase iC Pro gets fixed. That's good!

Support for Punch In/Out (added to Transport Page.
Solves several user reported problems.

smagic + OP-1

smagic + OP-1 from Chris Davis on Vimeo.

Lucky Frame at IGF

How to record on Android - iRig MIC mobile music accessories and recording app for Android devices

Vio getting on the bus

Audiobus support coming soon! “@krapoz: Having a lot of fun w/ @vio_app - nice sounds, cool UI - would be perfect on the Audiobus FX slot!”
— Vio (@vio_app) March 27, 2013

Tiklbox ... keeping things calm

I've mentioned this before, but I really like Tiklbox (from Intermorphic, makers of Mixtikl). It's a very simple app (on the surface anyway), but a very handy one for creating soothing music for whatever situation you're in.

Loopseque Mini still free

Loopseque Mini is still free in the run up to the next version. Just saying

Polychord with Audiobus coming soon.

Polychord Audiobus integration will hopefully be submitted by the middle of next week.

Dirty Electronics Mute Synth - original A.S.M.O. Hardwire Mod

You're not going to see one of these again, these are very very rare. Here's what the listing says:

This is my first hardwired mod of the Dirty Electronics Mute Synth.
The Mute Synth was originally commissioned by Mute Records for the Mute Short Circuit weekend at the Roundhouse, London in May 2011.
This mod is the precursor to a more extensive mod I later built for Daniel Miller, this version has all the touch panels wired to pots for precise pitch and pulser / sequencer control. The Mute logo is etched into the copper of the Mute synth.
Also added is a single LFO with speed and depth controls which can be switched to modulate either of the 2 oscillators or feedback.
Whilst not as extensive of my later mod it still packs a punch, I've used it in many of my solo live performances and also with the Dirty Electronics Ensemble, I'm selling it to make space for an even more heavily modded version I'm working on, such is progress :)

Read more on the listing and hear some audio too. Click below for the listing:

Mute Synth on eBay

Multi-timbrality IAP coming to Sunrizer

@savannha_smith You mean multi-timbrality? Yes there will be an IAP for this soon.
— BeepStreet (@beepstreet) March 26, 2013

Reflection Music Player from 4Pockets

I can't say that I saw this coming from 4Pockets. Here's the details of their new iPad music player app:

Always Wanted a Great Music Player with Cover Flow on your iPad - Then its time for Reflection. At Special Introductory Price.

Reflection Includes the following great features

Fast and Fluid Cover Flow
Large and Uncluttered Screen
Visualizations Effects Bring the Screen to Life - 11
To choose from or Random Mode
Online Mode to Support Music Match
Ten Band Graphic Equalizer with Onscreen Visualizations
Graphic Equalizer presets including Rock, Pop Etc
Use your iPad Play Lists or Create New Ones in Reflection
Portrait and Landscape Modes
Add/Remove and Shuffle Your Current Play Queue
Search by Artist Name, Album, Genre etc
Alphabetical Indexing and Selectable Sort Order
Shuffle and Random Options for Playlist
Airplay
3 Colour Skins to Choose From
Digital Clock and Alarm Mode - Wake up to your Favourite Tracks

The large and uncluttered layout makes Reflection ideally suited as an addition to your Home HiFi set up or for In-Car Entertainment

Combine Airplay and Mirroring to your Apple TV to stream Reflection to your big screen TV and Surround Sound System for awesome sounds and effects.

Reflection has never been this much fun....

It's currently priced at $0.99

Tunable for iOS and Android arrives

A great new app from the makers of NodeBeat and NodeBeat HD.

Tunable is a new iOS and Android that helps musicians learn to play steadily, in tune, and on beat. Tunable presents a modern display for easily indicating when musicians are playing in tune. As notes are sustained, a central indicator expands, highlighting a steady and in-tune pitch. This unique “pitch history” display illustrates how effectively notes are sustained.

The creator of the app, Seth Sandler, says, “The aim of Tunable is to help musicians clearly visualize how they're playing, so they can learn how to improve. We believe Tunable's unique pitch history display is a step towards that. Tuning isn't just about being in tune for a moment, but being able to sustain pitch over time.”

More than just a tuner, Tunable also includes a tone generator and metronome. The tone generator allows for playing or sustaining individual notes or chords and is effective for instrumentalists learning to match pitch and intonation. The metronome features a large numeric display, flashing on each downbeat as a visual pulse.

The app’s designer, Henry Jay Yu, took inspiration from IDEO's “Nelson” from “The Future of the Book” which boils the interface down to its simplest components. This is evident in the grayscale-centric interface where subtle color is used to convey meaningful visual cues.

Sandler has hoped of releasing such a tool since he began teaching music in the early 2000s. He says, “Before mobile phones, I used to take my laptop to rehearsal and show students the sound waves they were making. They probably thought I was strange, but they seemed to think it was cool being able to visualize their playing, and it ultimately helped them improve.” Sandler believes that Tunable is opening some of his earlier teaching techniques to a larger audience. He concluded by saying, “We have more plans for Tunable and are looking forward to adding additional features to aid musicians.”
With a configurable interface for beginners, intermediate, and advanced musicians, Tunable is a great addition to any musician's toolkit.

Tunable is priced at $0.99.

Cycling 74 announces Mira, their first mobile offering!

Cycling 74 announce their 1st mobile app 'Mira' at the Code Control Festival. Here's what they have to say:

"At the Code Control Festival in Leicester England this past weekend we gave attendees an advance peek at some of our mobile projects. Sam Tarakajian, our principal mobile developer, showed a new iPad app, the Mira controller for Max, that makes it possible, with as close to zero configuration as possible, to make your patch “touchable.” Mira presents a large set of Max user interface elements on the iPad exactly as they appear in your patch. It also provides access to multitouch and accelerometer data. We’ll be revealing more of this powerful addition to the Max universe as we prepare it for release in the app store later this spring."

They've also announced this MiraBox thing too, but I'm not sure I get it really.

Still, it's great to see Cycling 74 entering the mobile world at last. Can't wait to get my hands on Mira!

AmpUT - Cafe de Flore (MikiStrange)

It takes its time, but it's worth it.

More iOS Loops (from otemrellik)

Front Cover of MusicTech 10th Anniversary Special

Interesting that they choose to have this as their front cover right?

SynthTronica (video) from Apps4idevicesMusic

iMPC ADVANCED BEAT MAKING! + TABLETOP App - Review Part B

Apps for music production, music with apps series

A 7 part series on making music with apps which you might find handy. From Apps for music production.

Anything becomes music (2) ?

Dejavu Bike by Luftareforsig

The Amazing Audio Engine now has a wiki

Which is handy if you're interested in using it in your apps. You can find it here.

iPad Musical Tesla Coil Control

Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro update

This is a complex app and it's just got more complex, but I think in a good way. Here's what's new:

MIDI EXPORT - export progressions as MIDI files in any key
PRINT WORKSHEETS - print progressions as worksheets with functional analysis (or chord progression in any key)
SHOW/HIDE UNUSED CHORDS - the map now has the option to filter out all functions not used in the current progression
AUDIO HARMONIC MARKERS - audio tracks now show functional markers on a timeline to analyze and understand the harmonic rhythm in the current piece.
AUDIO ONION SKIN MARKERS - you can now select a section of the audio track you want to view, listen and analyze.
HARMONIC PATHS ON AUDIO TRACKS - harmonic paths are now available on audio tracks (also reflecting the audio onion markers)
NEW AUDIO TRACKS AVAILABLE.
minor bug fixed (user songs were not saving to storage)

Loopseque Mini is free before the new version

Loopseque Mini is currently free whilst waiting for the new version, so if you don't have it grab it now, and if you do, prepare for the new version coming soon.

Nanoloop on Android - First Jam

Via Musical Android.

Beepstreet tweets about JACK

Just diving into #JackAudio API; transport and timebase control,MIDI,setting connections from within apps.!real DAW with hosting is possible
— BeepStreet (@beepstreet) March 26, 2013

So, JACK looks interesting doesn't it ...

OP1&Micro

OP1&Micro from gorsta on Vimeo.

WeJaam (video) Apps4idevicesMusic

New stuff coming to G-Stomper!

According to Musical Android (a great Android blog)

Discchord on eJay for Touch Devices on Kickstarter

It seems that Discchord does not like Kickstarter (I do however), as he posts on eJay for touch devices which apparently has a current Kickstarter campaign.

miniSynth 2 from Yonac is still free

miniSynth 2 from Yonac is still free for now. Not sure for how long. If you haven't grabbed it, then do.

MIDI tools for iPhone arrives

This App makes only sense, when you connect an external MIDI device to the iPhone (e.g. iRig MIDI). "MIDI tools" is made for monitoring incoming MIDI messages (including "system exclusive" and "real time"). Some MIDI messages are visualized with bars. "MIDI tools" is for example useful to calibrate and monitor the MIDI saxophone "Synthophone" from "Softwind Instruments".
There is also a chord and drum player function available, which allows you to easy play chords (accordion layout) or use your iPhone as drum pad. See also the integrated help function.
Please let me know if you need additional features.

mobile EP (Free Download) by Charlie North

Some nice sounds in this EP from Charlie.

Here's what he says about it:

Mobile is a collection of three new tracks recorded using only my iPhone 4S. My original decision to record this material on a smart phone was based more on necessity than novelty. My spare time has become very limited, leaving little time to experiment and explore new ideas.

Luckily mobile phone technology has become much more useable, accessible and powerful. In fact there's more computational power in my current mobile phone than there was in my entire recording studio over 10 years ago.

I started to wonder if it was possible to take advantage of this. I began thinking about the time we spend standing in queues or simply waiting for things to happen. Could I make use of this time? So I bought some music apps and decided to find out.

At first it was a complete disaster. However once I'd figured out how to install my own sample library, record some instruments and get the most out of the apps, everything started to come together.

Since I started upon this venture I've produced a variety of tunes with varying degrees of success. However I feel these three tracks stand out from the rest and deserve a wider audience.

Apps used: Nanostudio, Figure, iKaossilator and AudioShare.
Written, produced, arranged and performed by Charlie North.
Mastered at the Blue Room, United Kingdom.
For more information please visit www.charlienorth.net
This EP is also available to buy from charlienorth.com/album/mobile

Mr. Baseball (video)

Video description:

Samples recorded via Audiobus into Loopy HD using DM1, Orphion, & Magellan. Pasted into Samplr for some jamming and recorded using MultiTrack DAW.

Melodic (video) from Apps4idevicesMusic

Alchemy Pro iPad..Some Add On Preset Sounds

CDM on the JACK / Audiobus debate, you should really read this

It's a well thought through and considered review of both options with some predictions about how things may pan out. Also, if you're not familiar with JACK then it's worth finding out what it does / can do.

Read the article here.

AriVibes going for the bus

Lots of people are asking for AudioBus support. Expect it in the next update!
— AriVibes App (@AriVibes) March 26, 2013

Reactable - See you on the mountain (performance by Víctor Sánchez)

ARPIE - MIDI Arpeggiator kit

It's on Tindie here and it's very tempting indeed!

NinjaJamm on the way, arriving 11.4.13

We're delighted to announce that you can enter the mix with Ninja Jamm - the Ninjatune remix app for iOS - on 11.4.13 at 00.00. #letsdothis
— Ninja Jamm (@NinjaJamm) March 26, 2013

TF Looper Demo - Test Song with the Chipmunk Orchestra

iOS Update - Vol. 35, Arturia iMini and DXi FM Synthesizer Apps Demo

TF Looper - Advanced Functions

CMP Grand Piano app for iPad, iPhone e iPod Touch - MusicApps.com.br

TF Looper - Basic Functions

Lord of the Rings Medley - iPhone Style (Part 1)

Music Hack Ship this Saturday

Are you going? I plan to. You can find all the details here.

SoundZen HD (video) Apps4idevicesMusic

Another good AudioShare update

More good things in AudioShare:

New Record settings for file format: WAV/AIFF/CAF/M4A
New Convert tool: Convert any file to WAV/AIFF/CAF/M4A, mix or extract channels in stereo to mono conversion, downsample, etc.
New Beat-snapping grid in Trim tool: snap region start/end to beats according to given BPM.
Bugfixes and improvements

iPhone App Directory