iPhone App Directory

Thingamagoop's on eBay


The Thingamagoop isn't easy to get hold of in the UK and ordering stuff from the US always means a lottery on import duties, so I was pleased to find these on eBay. Of course, they're not the new Thingamagoop with Arduino control, but perhaps this eBay store will make those available eventually.

CloneSound post on Simplicity

This is a great piece of writing at Clone Sound featuring some excellent apps such as Nanoloop, ProLoop and apps from The Strange Agency. Well worth a read.

Nanoloop update (export tool)


Meant to mention in the last post on Nanoloop that the export tool also got updated at the same time to sort out the noise issues.

Nanoloop at the app store:
nanoloop

OT: Code Organ


Code Organ is a fun little idea. Make your site into music. Sorry for 2 off topic posts today!

Synthesizer Express update


I know that a couple of people who tried this didn't like it when it came out, but it has been updated and now has improved resonance and other bug fixes. I'll be interested to know what you think of the update.

Synthesizer Express at the app store:
Synthesizer express

Can't believe the DS-10 is nearly 2 years old!

All Things DS-10 writes a post on what has changed since the DS-10 came out almost 2 years ago. And if that wasn't enough All Things DS-10 is almost a year old too.

OT: Lego Sequencer



I know this has been posted in lots of place for a day or two and that it is pretty much off topic for Palm Sounds, but I thought it was such a great idea!

Via Make.

SampleToy for iPhone


Sampletoy comes from the excellent Marek Bereza, maker of Thump, a great drum + 2 Synth sequencer app as well (which really deserves a revisit I think).

His latest iPhone app describes itself as follows:

Sampletoy is a radical new musical instrument/plaything; part sampler, part granular synthesiser. Use it to capture sounds through the microphone, then play, loop, pitch and distort them live on the screen.

There are plenty of features under the hood, such as resonant filters, delays and envelope. You can enable "stepped" mode to play your sounds like a traditional keyboard, or keep it in "free" mode for some microtonal madness.

Once you've recorded a sound, use the main area of the screen to play it back at different pitches (up to 5 fingers at a time). You can crop the sound by dragging a selection over the waveform. The crop area is also multitouch and you can adjust the crop while playing the sound too.

The y-axis is pitch of the sound, and the x axis is configurable to control filters or envelope.

You can record your performances on Sampletoy and send them via email within the app as a CD-quality wav file (mono or stereo)

FEATURES
-------
* Create your own instruments out of any sound.
* Email your performances as audio files straight from the app.
* Built-in resonant filters, delay and envelope.
* Auto-saves current recording and state and recalls it again on next launch.
* Stepped mode allows chromatic, major, minor, pentatonic and whole-tone scales to be played.
* Totally multitouch - play up to 5 notes at once.
* 44kHz/16bit - professional quality sound.
* Built-in comprehensive manual.

Sampletoy requires audio input, so works only with the iPhone (built-in mic or headset mic) and iPod Touch 2G (headset mic)


SampleToy at the app store:
Sampletoy

Envelopes in Circuit Synth


Envelopes getting implemented in Circuit Synth.

Circuit Synth at the app store:
Circuit Synth

Arduino featured in Elektor

Sounds like a really interesting article featuring Arduino. More at the Arduino blog.

Mobilfragment C ddki

Mobilfragment C ddki by Mobilfragment

I liked this track. There's more here.

Last chance to vote

Last chance to vote in the poll if you are UK based, even if you don't intend or want to come along to a meet up, it would still be useful to hear from you.

ProDJ is now free


I know very little about this app except that it is from the same people who made BtBx (a very early iPhone sequencer app), and it is free now.

ProDJ at the app store:
ProDJ

Nanoloop update


Nanoloop gets another update. This time a reduction in noise levels in response to a number of comments on the blog.

Nanoloop at the app store:
nanoloop

Band on the iPad


Just checking the MooCowMusic blog I noticed this picture. MooCow have been very quiet for a long time. Back in August there was this post about a new app coming from them, but since then nothing at all which is a real shame.

As MooCow was one of the first music developers for the iPhone it would be sad if they didn't continue putting out new applications. I hope that the new thing does come about, and I'd love to know more about it.

Droneo 1.2 video



Sounds like Droneo 1.2 is getting close a release with some really nice new stuff.

Droneo at the app store:
Droneo

Playing with Pattern Music


Often I find that when I switch on my iPhone and look at the pages of music apps I just can't decide what to use. Sometimes I'll want to do something specific or work on something that's only part completed, and that makes it easy to choose which app to go to, but other times I look through all these apps and think, 'what shall I use now?'.

Yesterday I spent some time again with Pattern Music. I've spoken about this app before, but using it again after a bit of a break made me realise where this app's real strength is. It is in it's compositional flexibility. Whilst lots of apps have piano roll interfaces and good sequencing capabilities pattern music has the added flexibility of being able to mix and match patterns of differing length and set how often the play and when they start within the overall composition. I can't think of another app on the iPhone platform that gives you this much freedom without compromising on interface simplicity.

I think I'm going to have to spend more time in this app and actually finish some of the things I've started with it, as using it again has reminded me of what I can achieve with it.

Pattern Music at the app store:
PatternMusic

Pocket Organ C3B3 update


Pocket Organ C3B3 has had a minor update with some bug fixes and enhanced sounds of KeyClick and rotary wheel effects.

Pocket Organ C3B3 at the app store:
Pocket Organ C3B3

Bookmark and Share

MAKE: Tactile Metronome



This looks like a great kit to make and from the sound of it not too difficult to do.

Gliss Sequencer demo



Gliss at the app store:
gliss

Garageband and Ableton Live Essentials Apps



More apps about desktops.

Garageband and Ableton Essentials apps at the app store:
makemoremusic ltd

GrooveMaker Video



Groovemaker apps at the app store:
IK Multimedia

Thumbjam 1.1 arrived


ThumbJam 1.1 is out. Here's the full list of what's new:
  • Copy/Paste to and from other apps using Sonoma Wire Works AudioCopy/Paste,
  • as well as the generic pasteboard used by BeatMaker, etc.
  • Interface in the app to new download instruments and loops from the ThumbJam server as
  • they become available. The community is encouraged to submit instruments via the forums
  • for possible inclusion.
  • Better on-board creation of new instruments via microphone sampling, or
  • imported samples
  • Performance sidebar with easy access to octave range, key,
  • glide/retrigger, and a new hold (sustain) button
  • Direct access within the app to your iTunes music for playing
  • along (look in Prefs->Volume/iPod for the itunes button), and
  • transport control of that music
New instruments:
  • Two instruments from Dream Theater's keyboardist Jordan Rudess:
  • JR Zendrix and JR Smooth Steel
  • Muted Trumpet
  • Grand Piano to replace the previous piano
  • Updated electric bass
  • added quantize start option for looping
  • master loop level control in mixer for easier reduction of all loops
  • option to use interval names instead of note names on display
  • new legato option for dragging when retriggering
  • new Continuum-like mode option for dragging when gliding
  • ping-pong delay option
  • bug-fixes
ThumbJam at the app store:
ThumbJam

Symphony 2.3


Symphony 2.1 the notation app for the iPhone has arrived already. Here's what's new:

(1) Loop the current measure

(2) New High Quality Instruments:

♪ French Horn
♪ Oboe
♪ Alto Sax
♪ Bassoon
♪ Clarinet
♪ Flute
♪ Tuba
♪ Cello
♪ Violin
♪ Trombone
♪ Cathedral Organ

Symphony at the app store:
Symphony

Split Mode Cave Picture


From Sonorasaurus.

Sonorasaurus at the app store:
Sonorasaurus

Burn Cover



Amazing! Via Matrixsynth.

C3B3 at the app store:
Pocket Organ C3B3
Pocket Guitar at the apps store:
Pocket Organ C3B3

DGOS update

Another very brief update.

iStoryWriter


iStoryWriter is an interesting app for writing. It describes itself as a collaborative application for story telling / writing, but having read the iTunes description I'm not sure exactly what it means by that, or how it achieves it either. There's a lite version too, so I may try that out and see what it is like.

iStoryWriter at the app store:
iStoryWriter

DS-10 + While Driving



Is this safe?

Recorder for iPhone


I guess I had overlooked this app for a long time. Retronyms recorder app has audio copy built in so you can record and send stuff over to fourTrack or Looptastic even.

Not entirely sure how I'd use it, but I'm thinking about it now.

Recorder at the app store:
Recorder

Toro Core update


Toro Core is the little brother to Toro Mini, a great synth app from Instant Binary, and one that I hope will get an update too. Toro Core is basically a cut down version of Toro Mini, which in itself is only £0.59.

Toro Core has had an update today with some new presets, so I'm even more hopeful of a new version of Toro Mini.

Toro Core at the app store:
Instant Binary AB

Tenori-On Orange



Via Matrixsynth.

DS-10 Forum

DS-10 fan? Then check the DS-10 forum co-run by DS-10 Dominator.

Arduino meet in NYC

If you're in NYC and interested in meeting the Arduino team, then check out this post at the Arduino blog and get in touch with them.

Circuit Synth 2 screen shots


Shots of Circuit Synth 2 from twitter. I do like the bookmark approach to saving the patches.



Circuit Synth at the app store:
Circuit Synth

LSDJ Bot



Great stuff. Via Matrixsynth.

Bent MU5


Circuit Bent MU5 on eBay, c/o Matrixsynth.

Interesting Bleep!Box track

Voop by wesmc

I found this interesting to listen to for two reasons. The first is that it is made in Bleep!Box, but the second is that it is quite different from the kind of music I routinely make.

No current smartphones upgradeable to WinMo 7

Brighthand reports on Microsoft's insistence that no current devices will be able to upgrade to Windows Mobile 7.

ArtStudio for the iPhone



A new art app featured on fingerpainted it with some good features:
  • 25 brushes including pencils, brushes, eraser, smudge tool, bucket fill (simple and smart mode), glow, tube, airbrush and many more
  • advanced settings offer 8 different parameters and real-time preview for all brushes
  • simulated brush pressure
  • line smoothing, antialiasing, zooming with filtering
  • 3 drawing modes: free draw with smoothing, free draw without smoothing, lines
  • very comfortable interface; screens can be displayed in simple or advanced mode.
  • quality and performance unmatched by any other app in the app store
  • 5 layers with options: add new / delete / reorder / duplicate / merge / clear / transparency / visibility
  • multi-touch navigation with unlimited zoom
  • advanced color editing with customizable color swatches
  • 6 levels of undo / redo
  • drawing lessons (animals, human, 3d, perspective)
  • filters: blur, sharpen, edge detect, sepia and more…
  • load/save/export to iphone gallery / import from gallery / get from camera / send by e-mail
  • additional “shake menu” with the most frequently used functions
ArtStudio for the iPhone
ArtStudio

Little Scale on Nanoloop


Little-Scale writes about using Nanoloop on the iPhone and includes some examples of music he's made with it.

Nanoloop at the app store:
nanoloop

iSampe Moog Voyager Performance



Via Matrixsynth.

Welcome to March

Just a quick note really. I think there's a lot to look forward to this month. For a start there's the iPad which should arrive late in March, and with it I'm expecting some really interesting uses of the additional screen real estate and also the processor power.

I've heard from a few developers about things they have in the pipeline, and I know that they're going to be good, but as always there will be lots of stuff that I've no idea about, and I'm looking forward to what's coming up.

In terms of iPhone apps of course there's plenty to look forward to there as well, with a new version of ThumbJam, and Amidio's iHolophone for a start.

As always, if you have news or want to get your music or events on Palm Sounds, just email me, or tweet me. Just get in touch and tell me what you're up to.

Thumbjam 1.1 submitted


ThumbJam 1.1 has been submitted to Apple. Hopefully not too long to wait now.

I was playing with this app in a coffee shop yesterday and happily lost an hour of messing around with the cello sound in particular. It is going to be a lot of fun to see how 1.1 can be used with other apps.

ThumbJam at the app store:
ThumbJam

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