Palm Sounds

Reminder: Kinetica GPS PDA workshop

A quick reminder for the following event

Saturday, June 23rd 2-5pm
AURA: THE STUFF AROUND THE STUFF AROUND YOU - WORKSHOP
Probably the best metaphor for an aura sound world is to imagine walking through an array of invisible audio speakers suspended in space. Each speaker represents a sound node and emits different audio depending on where you, the user, is situated in relation to it. The sounds appear to act like real sounds in the real world. Steve Symons invites you play with his aura software and create your own 3D audio worlds using GPS enabled PDAs

Kinetica are hosting a workshop on 3D audio worlds using PDAs with GPS. I am sure I read about something like this at one of the Mobile Music Workshops.

Sadly it is yet another event I can't attend, but I thought it might interest others.

Audio Modification Talk at Kinetica

I enjoyed the talk last night, it was interesting and explained some of the questions I had about audio modification / circuit bending. I especially enjoyed the presentation / talk by Brian Duffy of Modified Yoy Orchestra fame.

He was very enthusiastic about modification, passionate even, and that's good to hear. It is worth checking out the Modified Toy Orchestra site which has some good video and audio clips.

I guess for me the thing that kept coming to mind was how this applies to mobile music. Lots of the modified toys are very mobile, but they aren't really what I'm after. I love the noises, I love the sounds, but it isn't quite right for me. It is a good place to start. Let's see where it leads.

News from Intermorphic

I've posted on Intermorphic before, but if you didn't know, Intermorphic is Pete and Tim Cole (colartz), creators of miniMIXA, a powerful mobile music mixer for Windows Mobile / XP, Symbian and Linux.

They are developing a range of multimedia tools to help you come up with new ideas, be they musical, lyrical or visual :

noatikl - replacement for the "legendary" Koan Generative Music system
liptikl - powerful lyric ideas generator for songwriters and poets
optikl - colourful light synthesiser for experimentation

Whilst all of these are aimed at desktop systems, let's hope they get some time to do something mobile too.

Audio Modification Talk at Kinetica

I went along to the audio modification talk last night at kinetica. Very interesting indeed. I shall post some more info when I have time.

Pacemaker pictures from Sonar Barcelona

Some cool pictures of the Pacemaker device from Sonar in Barcelona. Looks very nice too, and smaller than I expected...

Interfaces

In many ways the PDA has a limited number of interface possibilities available to it for music, and yet in other ways so much is possible.

Many applications use interfaces that are very similar to laptop / desktop applications, but are re-designed for a significantly smaller screen. Other applications go in a different direction and actually exploit the nature of the PDA in their interface, although this is rare.

One such application is SpinPad from miniMusic. Hopefully SpinPad will become available in the summer of 2007.

Here's what it looks like:

But I think that the PDA or handheld can support many other types of interface as well. The Tenori-ON concept could (I think) be applied to the PDA interface. There's a very good article all about the device itself and background on Create Digital Music which gives lots and lots of information about the device and specs.

But I don't think that the possibilities really end there either. Perhaps I'm too hopeful or too enthusiastic about the subject, but I think there's lots more life left in mobile music.

VITO SoundEditor

VITO SoundEditor was a finalist for the Windows Mobile and Smartphone Best Software Awards 2006.

VITO SoundEditor features basic set of tools for sound editing on PocketPC.
It is small, fast and reliable, running smoothly and operating very large files (over 100mb) in just few seconds! Wherever you are, take this unique tool along to enable sound editing using your handheld PC!
Supports Windows Mobile 5.0.

- supports native non compressed WAVE format;
- basic set of tools (copy, cut, paste);
- works with external storage cards;
- stylish and intuitive user interface;
- proprietary visualisation algorythm provides quick access to large files and fast editing;
- one step Undo/Redo;
- recording new sound file;
- file copying for editing.

dSTAR Sequencer

Another app I stumbled over the other day ...

dSTAR sequencer is a MIDI Music sequencer for the Nintendo DS. It inherits and expands upon functionality from famous x0x style sequencers of the past, and the present including the Elektron Monomachine and the Radikal tehnologies Spectralis. In contrast to these two sequencers, dSTAR is available as free software for your Homebrew Enabled Nintendo DS. For MIDI output it relies on a dserial device (see http://www.natrium42.com) or a wifi connection to a PC using libDSMI (see http://dsmi.tobw.net/).

PocketGear Sale

In case you didn't know PocketGear are having a 20% sale at the moment. Handy for picking up those apps you've been meaning to buy.

iPhone applications list

Ok, we all know that there aren't going to be any real iPhone applications, but there are going to be lots of web apps. Well, now there's a site dedicated to those apps. I'm sure that the list will grow and grow and ....

AudioBay for Pocket PC

I don't know if I'd podcast from my Pocket PC, but if I wanted to I might use this application:

AudioBay is an integrated podcasting solution for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. Using the AudioBay software, users can set up a podcast, record an episode, and upload it to the Web within a matter of minutes. If you've got a Pocket PC and Internet connection, this software.

Main Features:

Simple podcast creation
Generates standard RSS 2.0 feeds
Generates HTML interface
Includes free hosting for 12 months
Includes podcast reader
Location-based podcast search

Requirements:

Mobile Devices: Pocket PC 2002, 2003, or Windows Mobile 5.0
Supported Platforms: Windows 98/XP
Supported Resolutions: All resolutions
RAM: 400 KB

Hands Off 2007: UK Theremin Symposium

Ok, a bit off topic, the link being that AxisPad and Theremini are part of the theremin family.

Mobile Music Workshop 2007 Proceedings

Proceedings are now available online.

20% off palm apps at PalmGear

A quick post to let you know (if you didn't already) that PalmGear have a 20% off sale at the moment which is on until the 26th of June.

More about Griff ...

Having posted on the Griff Network MIDI plugin I realised that I haven't posted on Griff itself. So, for starters here's a good review.

More on Griff soon ...

OT: Writing tools for lyrics

I guess that lots of people use their PDA for writing or documents of some kind or other. Sometimes I use mine for lyrics, and one of the best (if not the best) application for my kind of writing is "tejpWriter". It is really feature rich, easy to use, and best of all open source. Give it a go.

Here are some screen shots to look at:

TX / T5 Mic with a vibrate function

PalmInfocenter posted this story on a new mic module for TX / T5 devices.

Intermorphic

Worth looking at the Intermorphic this is what Tim Cole (one of the chaps behind miniMIXA) is doing now. I'm hoping that he's going to do something clever in the mobile music space. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

we make money not art

More notes from the 2007 Mobile Music Workshop from We make money not art (.com).

MiniMusic MIDI adapter

One of the MIDI interfaces that I've overlooked for a long time is this one from miniMusic. It is simple, small and completely uncomplicated, which are all very good features of an interface.

Soundwaves at Kinetica

Some interesting video of the Soundwaves exhibition at Kinetica Museum. A bit off topic I know, but interesting stuff though.

Axim adapter diagram

I promised to show the adapter diagram for the Axim headphone / mic splitter, so here it is.

NCH Tone Generator

This is a bit of a strange app, for pocket pc and palm, and desktop for that matter. Here's what their site says:

"Tone Generator lets you create audio test tones, sweeps or noise waveforms using your computer or a PDA handheld. The full features list of Tone Generator follows but if you have any doubt about its suitability a quick way to test it is to simply download and install it. You don't need to purchase to download and it only takes a couple of minutes to complete downloading and installation.

Typical Applications

Test tone generation in radio and other studios for the alignment of levels.
Calibration and testing of audio equipment or speakers.
Tuning music instruments as an accurate reference tone.
Demonstration of audio principles to students.
Acoustics testing and equalisation.
Quality control and testing of sound cards.
White noise generator
Audio band signalling.
Hearing tests (under suitable medical supervision).

Features

Sine wave, square wave, triangular waveform, saw tooth waveform, impulse, white noise and pink noise.
Supports frequencies from 1Hz to 22kHz bandwidth (subject to sound card).
Multiple simultaneous tones (1 to 16 tones can be created at the same time) (useful to create harmonics).
Mono or separate stereo operation (ideal to create dual tones or 'beats').
Tone Sweeps (Log or Linear).
Plays tone or saves as wav file."

Request: Kinetica workshop this weekend

IF ANYONE DOES GO TO THIS WORKSHOP I"D LOVE TO KNOW HOW THIS GOES

Saturday, June 16th, 2-5pm
AUDIO MODIFICATION - WORKSHOP: Kinetica Museum
DJ Tendraw & The Gypsies Dog (Gluerooms, Erm on Resonance fm) host a practical workshop on the repurposing, often quite messily, of analogue electronic hardware and children's musical toys to create a palette of otherwise unheard sounds and musicality at Kinetica which is an interesting place to go.

Processing code for phone synth app

Here's a quick link to a blog I found with some sample code for a synth app running on a mobile phone. Nice, something to build on perhaps?

Ubisoft Jam Sessions in UK on 27/7

According to Amazon Jam Sessions will be available from 27/7 this year.

Griff Network MIDI plugin

I was browsing around the Griff forum to see if there was anything of interest, and stumbled upon this thread:

"..... serendipitous timing. I met up with Tim from TAO the other day and he reminded me about the network midi plugin I put together for Griff but never released. I finally tracked it down

run the midiPlug_setup.exe to install the midiplug on your pocketpc.

Run the dmidi_server.exe on your pc - It's pretty basic but should show you the network adapter IP address you're listening on. If you're connected by activesync you'll see at least two adapters: your pc lan adapter and your pc->pocketpc adapter. You can connect over activesync

you'll need to edit the registry key on your pocketpc: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cobwebb\MidiPlug\Settings] and add/edit a STRING: destinationIP to be your PCs ip address eg: 192.168.1.1 - you may be able to edit then use the .reg file attached. Otherwise install PHM Registry editor (free) http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/RegEdit/

The interface is pretty sparse - hover over the knobs and sliders to see what they do. Also the server will output each midi command received.

I was having fun controlling VSTi's through it yesterday.

Please let me know how you go with it. The idea has a lot of potential that we will never realise. Controlling PC DAWS, live use etc.
-----------------------------
Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 5:34 am Post subject:
ok my bluetooth adapter is not seeing my pda so i will use the usb cable to get midi from midiplug to the desktop

ok i have run regedit on the desktop,
i have updated the ip to the lan ip
so i have activesync'ed the pda to the desktop via a usb cable
i run dmidi server and it is outputting midi to native instruments kore
it is listening on the lan ip

my question is .... since dmidi server is outputting to kore does that mean that i should connect a midi cable to the output of kore to a midi in of a computer that will be responding to midi cc value such as volume that is transmitted by midiplug and through kore midi out to something that i want to control with midiplug?

i start griff and add instrument / midplug...
it says that it will send midi to the hkey_current etc etc, but is this talking about the registry ip address value that i updated on my desktop or the ip address value that i am supposed to be updating in the registry editor on my pda (which i cannot figure out how to do)?

so...does this mean that midiplug is trying to send midi to the lan ip, and if so, is it connected via activesync (i edited the registry entry on my desktop, not my pda, how do i edit my pda's registry???, i downloaded the editor but it does not show up in my program files, i did activesync it and it did say that it was installed on my pda after the sync)

so since i have my pda connected via activesync... is the volume slider in midi plug once i move it trying to send volume cc data to kore output (since i said "y" to output it to kore in dmidi server?

so i connected the midi out of kore to the midi in of a roland d2 and listened for a volume change on channel 10 as i was moving the volume and pan knob also...

..nothing...i had set the channel to 10 on midi plug

it seems that kore does not hear dmidi server, and why should it? is dmidi server supposed to be sending to it? or is dmidi server somehow supposed to be able to access the kore midi out withour kore knowing / showing it?

also, how does activesync tell the lan ip that it is connecting the pda to the lan ip?
am i supposed to be editing the ip address of the registry on the desktop at all?

it should be working because midiplug said it would send midi to the registry, but is the problem that i did not insert the registry file in the pda? i think this is the error, but how do i edit the registry of the pda?

where is the registry editor program supposed to be on my pda? it said it successfully downloaded.

i think i know the problem, the phm registry editor download is not showing up in the list of items to be installed on my pda, perhaps because it is not designed for use with my devie? my device is a cingular 8125 with windows mobile 5 (200 mhz cpu).

but i can manually edit the registry on my pda right? how?
please advise, thanks

I don't think that this is a finished conversation, and I'll be keeping an eye on how it develops, but it is a really useful addition to the Griff suite of plugins. I haven't tried it as yet, but I plan to.

According the the guys at Griff, all the instructions for setting it up are in the above.

More soon
PS. The Picture above is of the original Griff MIDI plugin, but I thought it might help.

MeTeoR PC version

A quick post to let you know that the PC version of MeTeoR is available on the 4Pockets site (for registered users).

QOTD: Would you use flash music applets?

There have been a number of flash applets available for PDA use. They have tended on the whole to be more fun than for serious music applications.

Do you think that you'd use more flash apps if they were available?

DJ Watch!

Cool DJ watch, not really Palm Sounds, more wrist sounds!

Music apps built in Processing?

I don't know if anyone's tried using "Processing" to build music apps, but this post on CDM seems to suggest it isn't that difficult to build simple apps? Who knows, maybe I'll give it a go.

More details on Pacemaker DJ device

Lots more information on Pacemaker's forthcoming portable DJ device. Looks tempting I have to say.

IN THE BOX
• Pacemaker®
• Quick start guide
• Stereo amplifier cables
• USB 2.0 cable
• Power charger

SIZE AND WEIGHT
• L/W/H: 164/69.6/22.8 mm.
• Weight: 200 g (approx.)

CAPACITY
• 120 GB hard drive

INPUT AND OUTPUT
• Mini USB
• 2x3.5 mm stereo plug

POWER AND BATTERY
• Exchangeable rechargeable battery; full-charge time: 1,5 h, fast-charge time: about 1 h
• Music playback time: 18 h
• DJ operating time: 5 h
Our patent pending device, Pacemaker®, is the world’s first pocket-size DJ system – a superior portable music player
enabling the playing of two tracks simultaneously, equipped with an extensive range of professional audio manipulation
features allowing for creative mixing between two independent channels. Any mix created can be saved for legal sharing.

DISPLAY
• Dimensions: ø 45 mm
• Resolution: 166 dpi screen resolution (0.153 mm dot pitch)
• TFT display with 262 K colours AUDIO
• Frequency response: 20–20.000 Hz (SNR: 103 dB)
• Audio formats supported: MP3 AAC, WMA (128–320 Kbps), WMA Lossless, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, WAV
DJ FUNCTIONALITY
• Two output channels: headphones and lineout
• Two crossfaders: headphones and lineout
• Pitch control: ± 100%
• Equalizer: for adjusting treble, mid and bass amplitudes.
• Mix saving: continuous caption to hard drive.
• User Input latency: approx. 5 ms
MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
• Mac with USB 2.0 port; Pacemaker® music client installed
• Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later
WINDOWS SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
• PC with USB 2.0 port; Pacemaker® music client installed
• Windows XP Home or Professional or Windows Vista

Reminder: Audio Modification Workshop

Saturday, June 16th, 2-5pm
AUDIO MODIFICATION - WORKSHOP: Kinetica Museum
DJ Tendraw & The Gypsies Dog (Gluerooms, Erm on Resonance fm) host a practical workshop on the repurposing, often quite messily, of analogue electronic hardware and children's musical toys to create a palette of otherwise unheard sounds and musicality at Kinetica which is an interesting place to go.

MeTeoR PDF Manual available

If you want to know more about MeTeoR (the 12 track multi-track for Windows Mobile), there's a PDF manual on the 4Pockets site.

CDM on iPhone

I agree with the comments in this article on CDM.

I'll try and stop talking about it now.

NanoBook-Based Ultra Portable Laptop

On a similar note to the last post, here's another sub-notebook on Brighthand:

"Last week, Via Technologies announced the NanoBook reference design for a small and light laptop computer based on one of its low-power processors. Via won't make this device itself. Instead it is offering the design to other companies to produce. The first to sign up was Packard Bell, who will doubtless release its version in Europe.

More About the Via NanoBook Reference Design

The design Via has come up with is for a laptop that it believes is small enough to compare to a handheld computer. Devices based on it will have a clamshell shape, and be 9 inches wide, 6.7 inches deep, and 1.14 inches thick when closed. (230 mm by 171 mm by 29.4 mm). They will weigh about 1.9 pounds (850 g).

NanoBook models, naturally, will be built around a low voltage 1.2 GHz Via C7-M processor, and be capable of running either Windows XP or Windows Vista Basic. The design includes a 7-inch, 800-by-400-pixel (WVGA) touchscreen, a full-size keyboard, a touchpad, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. In addition, it includes a place for MobilityPLUS Modules. These allow the addition of Bluetooth VoIP phone, GPS, DVB, 3G/CDMA or Clock functionality.

Via has also included an Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 ports, and a 4-in-1 card reader.
A 30 GB or 60 GB hard drive is part of the design.

Via doesn't say what it believes laptops based on the NanoBook design will cost, but it does say it is "targeted at aggressive consumer price points".

The company also says that these devices should offer up to 4.5 hours of battery life."

An interesting development, maybe the long predicted demise of the PDA is really at hand?

Asus Ecc PC

I found this story on Brighthand

According to Brighthand:

It will be 8.9 inches wide, 6.5 inches deep, and 1.4 inches thick (22.5 cm by 165 cm by 35 mm). It will weigh just under 2 pounds (890 g).

Details are somewhat unclear in this area, but it appears that the Eee PC will ship with a proprietary operating system with a basic set of functions, including web browsing, exchanging email, and even video chatting with a built-in VGA camera.

Users will apparently have the option of loading full versions of Windows or Linux operating systems, but these won't be bundled with this device. Asus hasn't revealed what processor this model will use, but as Intel was part of the announcement it's likely it will be one of this company's low-power chips. The Eee PC will have the typical clamshell design for a laptop computer, with a 7-inch display, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a trackpad.

For a low-cost device, it will ship with an impressive collection of connectivity options: 56K modem, Ethernet, 802.11b/g, and Bluetooth. There has even been some mention of cellular-wireless connectivity.

To make it more resistant to breakage, the Eee PC won't have a traditional spinning hard drive. Instead, it will include either a 4 GB or 16 GB solid-state Flash drive.

- Its battery life is expected to be about 3 hours on a single charge.
- Asus plans to start shipping units in August, with the goal of selling 200,000 units in 2007.
- These will sell for $200 and $300; the higher amount will be for the version with a larger capacity Flash drive.

To give you an idea of size, here's an image from the Asus site.

This could be an interesting development alongside UMPCs if it is possible to load an OS that can run music applications. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but for $200 - $300 can you go too far wrong?

Tao Group

Still very sad about the news on Tim Cole's blog. Such a great shame for everyone involved.

You have to wonder what if anything will happen to miniMIXA? I expect that V3 will not see the light of day, which is again a great shame.

Tao Group are no more!

Thanks to an anonymous comment, here is some very sad news from Tim Cole's blog. Here's what he says:

OK folks, it is with a heavy heart that I report this, but as of today, all Tao Group employees have had their employment contracts terminated. I have just got back from a staff meeting with the administrator. This means, too, that Tao Group is no more as a company. I cannot really say what happened, but you will likely be reading about it from other sources.

Why this has happened is mainly around issues to do with the continued funding of Tao. It is a sad day that employees who have worked hard for up to 17 years at Tao now find themselves in this unenviable position, especially seeing as everything was starting to go so well for Tao.

So, what is going to happen to the various Tao intent technologies, and in particular to miniMIXA (of special interest to me and Pete, as we are the developers of this)? I don’t know yet. If and when I can say something, I will.

Please keep a check on Intermorphic Ltd, a company that Pete and I are, as of today, now getting on with in earnest. Intermorphic is developing multimedia tools to aid creative activity. In the first instance these will include generative music engines and lyric generation tools. This may be a niche area, but we are going to have fun doing it!

I wish success to all former Tao employees in finding new employment quickly, and I am sure they will, as they are a hugely bright and talented bunch. It has been an enormous pleasure and honour working with them and Tao these last few years (well, since we sold SSEYO to Tao in 2002), and they built some amazing technology.

That is a real shame, for everyone involved, not least of which the employees at Tao, who are, as Tim says, in a very difficult position.

WWDC ...

So, WWDC keynote is done and I have to say I feel a bit let down. The iPhone is effectively closed except for people who want to write widgets that run in Safari, and no mention of the much rumoured sub-notebook. A shame really. OSX Leopard looks nice, but not the great leap forward I was expecting.

Virtins Pocket Instrument 1.0

I have a bit of a soft spot for this kind of application, and this one in particular as it combines an oscilloscope, a real time spectrum analyzer and a signal generator, all of which can run simultaneously. That (in my opinion) is really quite cool!

This is what PocketGear says about it:

Virtins Pocket Instument is a powerful pocket PC based virtual instrument. It consists of a real time oscilloscope, a real time spectrum analyzer and a signal generator, which can run simultaneously. It features a specially designed data acquisition approach which is able to monitor the input signal continuously without missing any trigger event before a frame of data is collected. It supports sophisticated triggering method including pre-trigger and post-trigger. It features zooming and scrolling function and allocates most of the screen for data display, all of which are essential for you to explore the fine details of the measurement data. It provides a comprehensive range of functions including wave form addition, wave form subtraction, Lissajous Pattern display, Voltmeter, transient signal recording, RMS amplitude spectrum display, relative amplitude spectrum display, phase spectrum display, auto correlation coefficient display, cross correlation coefficient display, function generation, arbitrary waveform generation, white noise and pink noise generation and sweep signal generation, etc.

It is also available direct from the developer Virtins.

Tao Group site still out

And nothing from Tim as yet.

WWDC Today

Maybe it will be a let down, maybe not, whatever there'll be something interesting. I'm hoping for:

- Real 3rd party iPhone apps
- An Apple sub-notebook

MeTeoR talk (4)

Some further feedback has been left on MeTeoR by the anonymous commentator, this looks interesting:

"Hi, it's me (anonymous) again, and I must ad important info about this prog:
When I tried it the other day and found the timing perfect, it was because I had recorded each track one by one (all others muted while recording), with the metronome on..

Today, I tried to "sing" (record) the drumtrack with metronome on, that was OK.
But when I tried to add the bass track with metronome off, the result is just awful!!!

So I'd say this program is a good wave files mixer, but you can't use it as a true multitracks recorder since you can't just add a bassline over a drums track...

There's a "latency" setting, but I think it's an overall latency setting, not track by track setting.
I think the issue would be acceptable if we could manually "play" with this latency, allowing us to adjust each track with each other (or rather with the first or drum track)."

I think it would be really useful if the anonymous commentator could pass this feedback to 4Pockets the developer to see what kind of response you get.

I have to say that so far my experience has been with using this application with vocals and an existing .wav track (not using the metronome), and I had good experiences.

Syntrax is free!

Syntrax is now free! All versions:

PocketPC Versions:
Syntrax Version 1.05 (ARM/XScale)
Syntrax Version 1.05 (Mips)
Syntrax Version 1.05 (SH3)
Symbian UIQ version:
Syntrax Version 1.09 (p800/p900/p910i/a925/a920)
Symbian Series 60 version:
Syntrax Version 1.09 (Nokia NGage,6600,6620,7610, Siemens SX1, and more)
Symbian UIQ 3.0 Version:
Syntrax version 1.09 (SonyEricsson m600, p990, w950)
Full WinXP and Win2000 Desktop version (v1.04)
Syntrax Version 1.04

Well worth checking out if you use any of the devices listed above.

Tao Group site

Still out, no contact from Tim Cole either. I'll keep checking daily to see if there's any update.

WWDC Tomorrow

Here's to some interesting news tomorrow, although I have to say that I'm not holding out too much hope. I'd love to see a new Apple sub-notebook, but I doubt it will be announced.

Still, let's see what does come out.

iPhone specifications...

Care of MacRumors, iPhone specs:

• System requirements
- Mac or PC
- iTunes 7
- Internet access is required, and a broadband connection is recommended
- Mac: Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later
- PC: Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2)
• External Controls
- Volume Up / Down
- Ringer / Silent
- Power / Lock
- Sleep / Wake
- Menu Button
• Dimensions
- 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
• Weight 4.8 ounces / 125 grams
• Input Method - Multi-touch
• Operating System - OS X
• Screen size - 3.5 inches
• Screen resolution - 320 x 480 at 160 ppi
• Storage - 4GB or 8GB
• GSM - Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
• Wireless data
- Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
• Camera - 2.0 megapixels
• Battery
- Lithium
- Up to 5 hours - Talk / Video / Browsing
- Up to 16 hours - Audio playback
(Battery life varies by use)
• Connectors and other input & output
- 30 pin iPod connector
- 3.5mm jack includes audio and mic support
- SIM tray
- Built-in speaker
- Built-in microphone

Interesting that the 3.5mm jack is a 4-pole audio in and out? That could be useful

Tao Group site

Still nothing, so I've contacted Tim Cole to see if there's any news.

Apple Sub-Notebook?

Will we find out anymore, or will they keep it secret. As ever, more may (or may not) become clear after the 11th of June.

iPhone SDK at WWDC?

There has been and continues to be a great deal of speculation about whether Apple will open up the iPhone for 3rd party applications. Some say that an SDK will be available at the WWDC on the 11th of June. Others say that this will only be for widget applications and little else.

Not long to wait to find out.

iPhone coming soon, but?

There has been lots of talk about the iPhone and what it may bring. I am sure it will be an amazing device in many ways, but will it really bring anything for music makers?

I guess that from the 29th of June we'll get to find out.

MeTeoR talk (3)

Some interesting feedback has been left on my first post on MeTeoR by an anonymous commentator:

The axim x50v and x51v both have an audio input and output. Actually, it's the same "hole", but you can buy or make yourself (someone gave all the instructions about how to make it)a cable that divides itself into 2 cables (1 for input, 1 for output).
I tried the demo today and the software is awsome!!
Sometimes the metronome sounds weird when recording, but when listening, with metronome off, everything's perfect!

They go on to say:

Both axims (x50v and x51v) have audio input and output.
Actually, it's the same "hole", so you can buy or make yourself a cable ( someone somewhere gives all instructions needed to make it for cheap)that divides itself into 2 cables (one output,one input).
The input plug can even be guitar-plug sized! so you can record any instrument on it!
I tried the demo today with 6 tracks (only voices without a real mic) and I can say the software is great!!!
The metronome may sometimes sound weird while recording, but when listening with metronome off, everything is just pefect (I'm a drummer so I know the timing was good).

Good feedback I'd say...

Tao Group site still out

According to an anonymous comment, it seems like there Tao group aren't even responding to phone calls! This doesn't feel good at all. Let's hope it isn't really bad news.

Kinetica GPS PDA workshop

Aura: The Stuff Around the Stuff Around You

Kinetica are hosting a workshop on 3D audio worlds using PDAs with GPS. I am sure I read about something like this at one of the Mobile Music Workshops.

Here's what the Kinetica site says about it:

Probably the best metaphor for an aura sound world is to imagine walking through an array of invisible audio speakers suspended in space. Each speaker represents a sound node and emits different audio depending on where you, the user, is situated in relation to it. The sounds appear to act like real sounds in the real world. Steve Symons invites you to play with his aura software and create your own 3D audio worlds using GPS enabled PDAs.

Sadly it is yet another event I can't attend, but I thought it might interest others.

Performance?

People routinely perform with laptops, so could you or would you perform with a PDA, or even a series of PDAs? What would it be like?

Could it be more theatrical, like the kind of thing that the Sancho Plan do?

QOTD: Will mobile music always be fringe?

In the early days of laptop music people didn't think that it would take off, but of course, it did. Will PDA music ever become truly mainstream?

Pacemaker DJ Device on MySpace

The people making the pacemaker device are now on MySpace.

There's due to be more news from them on the 12th of June, and I'll post on it as soon as I know more.

Tao Group site still out

Strange isn't it?

MeTeoR talk (2)

Cody has asked a follow up question on the MeTeoR issue regarding input:

"Would this work on an Axim X5 (the original Axim)?"

The short answer is that I don't know, I will see what I can find out and post again on this issue. I do know for a fact that some devices can take a mic in via their headphone socket. I know that there was a Toshiba PPC that was able to do this.

Audio Modification Workshop at Kinetica

Details of an interesting looking workshop on audio modification at Kinetica which is an interesting place to go.

Palm Foleo, what does it mean?

So, what does the Palm Foleo mean for mobile music on a the Palm OS? I have to say, at this stage, I just don't know, I guess we'll all have to wait for more details to emerge, but here's a blog that might provide some answers albeit from a different perspective.

BPM Counter

Here's a simple little palm app for DJ's...

The BPM counter for Palm OS allows you quickly figure out the BPM (beats per minute) of a song. Simply tap the TAP button (at least twice) and the program will calculate the duration between taps and translate it into beats per minute.

The algorithm takes the average duration between two successive taps for the last ten taps (or less than that if you haven't tapped it ten times yet). This stabilizes the BPM reading but is still subject to user-tap error. So don't depend on this application for strict beat matching purposes (use your ears). It will give you a good idea of the BPM of a song though.

Tap on the CLEAR button to restart the alrogrithm and clear out the values stored for averaging.

tags technorati : Palm, PDA, BPM, BPM Counter

MeTeoR talk ...

Thanks to concretehub for this comment about MeTeoR:

"I noticed at CDM you mentioned you had a cable made up allowing for mic in and phones out... cool. You also mentioned a line input.. does the axim have one of these as standard or is it something you wanted to have/ wishlist? I am impressed by meteor but have no windows moblie device to try this on but I'm intrigued by the possibilities of bouncing stuff between bhajis on my tx as separate instrument tracks and then mixing and overdubbing on something like this!"

Here's a brief reply:

The Axim uses a 4-pole 3.5mm input jack which allows for simultaneous use of mic and phones. The cable adapter was built to take advantage of this. You could put a line in to this with a low volume to take an instrument input. I haven't experimented with this as yet, but I will (when time allows).

I see know you mean about using bhajis and overdubbing. That's what I've been doing for a few weeks now. The other interesting thing is that Bhajis will run on Windows Mobile via StyleTap, and Bhajis Loops was adjusted to recognise that it is running on the StyleTap platform. Using the two together makes for quite a combination.

I plan to post some pictures of the cable that I'm using and the phones / mic, plus a circuit diagram for the adapter if anyone wants that.

tags technorati : Windows Mobile, MeTeoR, Multi-track, Bhajis Loops

Update: Mobile Music Workshop 2007

The proceedings from the mobile music workshop should be available online soon. Check their site, and also their blog.

Thanks for your comments ...

Thanks very much to the people who commented on the happy birthday post. It is much appreciated.

The plan is, as ever, to continue with comments, news, reviews, events, and whatever else I can lay my hands on

Here's to many years of handheld music.

tags technorati : Palm Sounds, t-shirt

Tao Group site still not responding...

Day three of no response from the Tao Group site. I wonder why?

Music Bundle 6.0.1

Music bundle has been updated:

Here's what PalmGear has to say

This bundle includes our popular music applications Almond, DaCapo, and Mozart at a great price. It gives any music student a headstart with the most common needs - learning to read music, music terminology and a metronome. A great gift to anybody who studies an instrument at any level. These programs are used in many schools and a great tool for music education.All applications are also available just by themselves.

Almond is a musical terms database and reader. In addition to most common phrases in music today also standard Italian and German terminology is included. Definitions are easily copied to the clipboard for use in MemoPad and other applications. Almond's database can be included in the global Find application for easy access.

DaCapo keeps the beat for you. In addition to regular metronome functions, like Italian speed names + bpm display, adjustable tuning pitch and visual indicator there are many other features. Accents can be set at different intervals to emulate meters like 3/4 or 7/8. Also measure groupings can be created like a 12 measure blues form. In addition DaCapo features easy access with big buttons, hardkey mapping and great graphic layout. A must-have for practicing on the road. Supports Palm OS 5 and the Tungsten 5-way button.

Mozart is a new game for musicians. In the tradition of Giraffe you are confronted with a steady stream of notes that you have to input correctly. The slight difference is that you'll need to know the name of the note, before you tap the buttons. The difficulty increases until you need to identify several ledger lines above and below the staff. You can choose different clefs and input methods as well as two player levels.

Happy Birthday Palm Sounds, 1 year old!

Yes, Palm Sounds was one year old on the 25th of May. Who would have thought it? Not me anyway.

To celebrate, spread the word about Palm Sounds and post it on your blog, link to us on your site or whatever.

And in order to celebrate, I thought I'd make a t-shirt with the palm sounds logo on it. You might say a bit cheesy, but I don't mind.

Here's to another year of handheld music.

tags technorati : Palm Sounds, t-shirt

Nitrotracker in Computer Music

The latest edition of Computer Music has a good feature on trackers in the latest issue, and one of the applications reviewed was Nitrotracker. Great to see applications like this getting some mainstream exposure.

Milkytracker v0.90.60 RELEASED

MilkyTracker has been updated to v0.90.60 here's what you can expect ...

Whats New:

o New imported (obscure) module formats (mainly for personal satisfaction):
o Another DSM format (Digisound Interface Kit library)
o Another AMF format (DSMI library)
o SFX (SoundFX)

* Basic AIFF loader (Apple Sound Format, only reads uncompressed AIFF but allows for importing CD tracks directly on OS X)
* Four new 8x8 fonts (thanks to idc and Rez)
* Set custom screen resolution
* Scrollbars in the list boxes dynamically show/hide depending on content (saves some space)
* Row preview with Shift+Space
* Song Preview Alt+Space
* Integrated disk browser (click "flip" in the disk operations panel)
* Sample editor got EQ filters now (3 and 10 bands)
* Sample editor got waveform generators for sine, square, triangle and sawtooth
* Solid scopes (ProTracker style, toggle in the config under the misc. tab)
* Pattern replay is a bit more like Ft2 now (switching to different pattern doesn't reset cursor to row 0)
* Clone button to clone the current order
* "Mix paste" in the sample editor: paste in a sample from the clipboard and get it mixed with the current selection/entire sample.
* As usually: more Ft2-compatible replay

Bugs Fixed:

Replay

* A severe volume ramping bug has been fixed
* Instrument auto vibrato ramp wave forms were swapped
* Fixed several issues in the replayer which were causing problems when using EDx and Mx and similiar combinations
Other
* Orders containing pattern number FF vanished from modules saved from Ft2.
* Loading arbitrary files as samples adds the filename to the sample text.
* The y-axis in the sample editor was flipped (negative side was on the top).
* Toggling scopes in the config with the keyboard left the checkbox unaffected.
* Crash: A bug in the IFF reader crashes MilkyTracker when loading some IFF samples.
* Crash: After adding channels and saving as MOD.
* Saving MOD with extended octaves (5 instead of 3) produces results like FT2 now.
* Crash: (on Linux x86_64, strange behavior elsewhere): Caused by illegal 16-bit zero-length samples, as saved by Soundtracker.
* Crash: when loading modules without instruments.
* FREEZE: when zooming way in/loading LOOONG instrument envelopes.
* FREEZE (on Windows Vista): when initializing audio on startup.
* Assigning samples to notes in the instrument editor by clicking and holding (painting) doesn't have effect on C-0.
* Certain hot words in song titles cause incorrect module format detection (improved at least ;)).
* Clear button above sample box didn't work properly.
* Dxx on the last row of a pattern caused a display error when xx is greater than the number of rows on the current pattern.
* Insert silence screwed up 16 bit samples.
* Instrument panning settings defaulted to center on key-release when key-jamming.
* Optimizer functions "Minimize all samples" and "Samples to 8-bit" triggered one another when only one of them were selected.
* Selection block is truncated to current pattern length (you know, after being taller on a taller pattern).
* Several things like applying sample editor filters and using the optimizer reset global volume.
* Other things I can't remember :P

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