iPhone App Directory

Abadja Rhythm for Palm




Abadja Rhythm for Palm is a flash application that has been designed to run in the flash player for palm devices. I have to start off by saying that I have a soft spot for these kinds of applications for several reason, not least of which is that I spent some time a few years ago making similar apps (although I have to say not nearly so well designed). Perhaps one day I'll dig them out and see if they've got life in them.

Anyway, back to Abadja Rhythm for Palm. Of the flash based applets I've seen so far this is by far the most complex and complete. It is a rhythm applet that uses several different percussion sounds that you can overlay together. It has a series of screens which explain the instruments used in the applet, and also gives some background to the music and culture of the region. This feature being a really nice touch indeed.

When you get to the main screen you have six percussion instruments that you can bring in or out of the mix. These combine to give you Abadja Rhythm.

Overall it is a nice applet that is an excellent example of what can be done using flash. Thanks to Hayden of Sonify.org for letting me review it.

Just to end here's a little video showing how it all works.



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Mobile Music Workshop

Ages ago I posted on the Mobile Music Workshop in 2006 in Brighton. This year's workshop is in Amsterdam, and I am hoping to go along.

I am also planning to submit a paper on Mobile Music Technology. To do this I need to carry out some research into what people use and how. If you are able to fill in a questionnaire please do. The questionnaire is available as a word document and you can download it by clicking here.

Details on the Amsterdam event:

INTRODUCTION
Combining music and mobile technology promises exciting future developments in a rapidly emerging field. Devices such as mobile phones, Walkmans and iPods have already brought music to the ever-changing social and geographic locations of their users and reshaped their experience of the urban landscape. With new properties such as ad hoc networking, Internet connection, and context-awareness, mobile music technology offers countless new artistic, commercial and socio-cultural opportunities for music creation, listening and sharing. How can we push forward the already successful combination of music and mobile technology? What new forms of interaction with music lie ahead, as locative media and music use merge into new forms of everyday experiences?

This series of annual workshops began to explore and establish the emerging field of mobile music technology in 2004. This fourth edition of the Mobile Music Workshop in 2007 offers a unique opportunity to participate in the development of mobile music and hands-on experience of cutting-edge technology.

This year’s workshop is hosted by STEIM and Waag Society in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and partners with the Futuresonic Festival in Manchester, England, taking place later the same week. The programme of the workshop will consist of keynote presentations from invited speakers, peer-reviewed paper presentations, poster sessions, in-depth discussions about the crucial issues of mobile music technology, demos of state-of-the-art projects, break-out sessions and live events. Registered participants will take part in hands-on sessions conducted by leaders in the field. In addition to traditional presentation sessions, the programme includes events open to a general audience, facilitating the presentation of artworks and technological breakthroughs to a wider public.

The Mobile Music Workshop sets the stage for a collaboration that brings together leading institutions in both experimental electronic music and mobile media. STEIM (the studio for electro-instrumental music) is a centre for electronic music production well known in the performing arts. STEIM promotes the idea that Touch is crucial in communicating with electronic and digital arts technologies, a vision that over the years has given birth to physical, sensor-based musical instruments. Waag Society is a research and development institute in the fields of networked art, education and creative industries. Waag develops platforms for artists to reach society through networked collaboration, media streaming, and locative media.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about the previous and up-coming workshops, please consult:

http://www.mobilemusicworkshop.org/

Sonify dot org

I have been spending some time looking around the Sonify site for a while. Whilst I usually avoid industry sites this one is actually really useful. There's a whole host of useful information there on all sorts of different subjects from remixer apps for mobile phones to developer java guidelines.

There are also a number of very useful tutorials ranging from Java to Flash audio and more.

Sonify is a useful news source as well, and has a decent RSS feed.

Sonify.org describes itself as a community resource where Developers can unite with the common goals of adding interactive audio to the Web, Wireless and Digital Devices as well as advancing the development of the underlying interactive audio technologies. Sonify.org is also devoted to helping web, wireless and application developers add interactive audio to their projects.

Sonify.org works to educate the consumer and buying marketplace about the value of interactive audio to any web or application development effort - equal in importance to graphics or back end functionality, and Sonify.org is a community - a place for interactive audio developers to meet, share ideas & experiences, learn new skills, get exposure to potential employers and hopefully have some fun.

If you haven't visited it yet, give it a look now.

TASCAM's MP-GT1



Here's an interesting idea for an MP3 player from Tascam. An MP3 that thinks it is a guitar player's multi-track. Cool idea, although I'm not entirely sure if I'd use it.

I guess it would be useful for learning guitar, although it seems to me that there would be better devices for that kind of thing? The Zoom series of multi-tracks always struck me as being very guitarist friendly although they didn't have the option of slowing down / cancelling out which this device does.

There doesn't seem to be an expansion memory slots, which is odd as the capacity is only 240 songs.

Overall I think the concept is a good one, but I'm not sure that the song capacity is high enough. I could be wrong though.

Here's the information from the Tascam site:

TASCAM's MP-GT1 is the first MP3 player designed for musicians. Based on the award-winning CD-GT1mkII, this fun mobile guitar trainer includes enough memory to store up to 240 songs. Guitar parts can be slowed down, looped and even eliminated to help you learn new riffs. Play back MP3s using Variable Speed Audition, which slows down the speed without changing the pitch, and sections can be seamlessly looped while practicing tricky passages. Songs can even be pitched up or down to match the tuning of your guitar, so you don't have to re-tune for every song.

The guitar input lets you rock along with thick overdrive and multi-effects, including a guitar canceller so you can play along with your favorite bands. A tuner, metronome, and rechargeable battery are also built-in. All of this is packed into an MP3 player smaller than a stomp box, so stuff it in your backpack, gig bag or back pocket and hit the road.
The MP-GT1 uses a high-speed USB connection to load up MP3s and charge the built-in battery (an optional power supply is also available). Zip through your MP3 collection using a data wheel, dedicated buttons and a graphical LCD display. A rechargeable 9-hour lithium ion battery is built into the unit, and an optional power supply is also available.

Put 240 songs in your gig bag with the MP-GT1, the first MP3 player for musicians.


- 240-song memory capacity (based on average 4-minute MP3 encoded at 128kbps)
- Variable Speed Audition changes the speed of the MP3 playback without changing the pitch
- Pitch control in 1% steps so you don't have to re-tune
- Seamless looping for practicing tricky passages
- High-impedance 1/4" guitar input
- Guitar multi-effects include overdrive, distortion, delay, flange, reverb and more
- Guitar Cancel effect eliminates the guitar part from the recorded song so you can play along
- Built-in tuner, oscillator and metronome
- 1/8" Headphone output
- Built-in rechargeable battery with 9-hour reserve
- 128x64 graphic LCD display
- USB jack
- Auto Power Off and Hold function

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TuneStudio Details from Belkin

Belkin details of the TuneStudio start to emerge. No information on the rumour about Ableton Live Lite being bundled with it. Never mind, plenty of time for that to come about.

TuneStudio for iPod 5th generation (video) - $179.99

- Records directly to iPod in 16-bit, 44kHz quality
- Streams audio through built-in USB interface to and from a PC or Mac® computer
- Each channel is equipped with 3-band EQ, pan and level controls
- Phantom-power-enabled XLR inputs provide up to 60 dB of microphone gain
- High-quality stereo compressor with makeup gain enhances audio dynamics and keeps audio levels within recording limits of the iPod
- Features one-knob compression control
- LEDs indicate master audio level, power status, peak indication, compressor activity, and recording status

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MiniMusic in Education



Here's a great article about the use of palm music software in education, and some nice pictures including one of Chad!

I've used minimusic applications with my children for a while now. They've always found them lots of fun, and have learnt a lot from using them, which I suppose is the main point.

I hope that projects like this take off in more places. I know that in the UK pilot studies in the use of PDAs in schools have proved very successful.

Let's hope more people use minimusic in education.

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TuneStudio Videos





I found this on YouTube. It doesn't give much more than the stills of the TuneStudio.

No more as yet on a European release date or pricing.

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minMixa ported to Palm OS

An anonymous post on Palm Sounds says that miniMixa is to get a port over to Palm OS. This would be brilliant news if it could be confirmed...

any comments from Tao Group?

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Pocket DJ




A little demo of the Pocket DJ flash app. This is one of four similar flash apps that run in the palm flash player. I got the flash player to work on my T3 eventually and so here's a video of this little application.

I think it is fair to say that the app isn't go to change the music world, but it is diverting enough to play with occasionally.

I hope to publish more videos over the next few weeks, and most if not all will be made using a Treo 650 camera.

XY Control Surface coming for miniMixa

I do like XY controls. This one might be bluetooth enabled allowing real interaction. Sounds like a wonderful idea! Here's what the colartz blog says about it:

"3GSM gets ever closer (next week now), and I am planning to show a new addition to miniMIXA - an XY control surface in the beta FXM Editor module. This allows you XY control of e.g. a high quality low pass filter on an audio loop or a modular (or even MIDI!) synth line - huge fun for a live mix. The FX chain (including the filter) can also include e.g. a stereo delay or reverb, so the whole sound is rather spectacular, and really cool to play with.

Not only is this something that I am going to show at the Tao buses (where Tao is showing its GamePlayer), but I also hope to do a small live demo at the Tao party - mobile music mixing, with audience participation, over bluetooth. Not being a “live performer” I am hoping the technology all works on the night"

I do hope there's some video of this demo, it will be excellent to watch.