50% off magazine subscriptions from Zinio

I thought that this would be of interest to anyone who's an iPad magazine reader. This might be handy, as Zinio are offering 50% off their top 300 magazines. Unfortunately, the offer ends tomorrow, but you've still got today to take a look.

Click here to see what they've got to offer.

Price drop round up

Getting back to normal again after the Christmas period, here's what's still on sale or free:

• Dubstep Jam HD is free
• Dubstep Jam is free
• Sonic Maps is still down to $1.99
• Sample lab is still at $0.99
• SynthX is still down to $4.99 from $9.99
• SunrizerXS is still down to $2.99

So not a huge amount I'm afraid, but maybe something in there that you wanted?

Logique Analogique arrives

As I'm always in search of the strange app, this one really fits the bill. Here's the description:

Create surprising, complex rhythms and distinct lo-fi sounds using the Logique Analogique app! This simulation of an existing circuit board includes an 8-bit counter, a parametrizable, analog implementation of logic functions, and a four-channel, 1-bit sound generation. 

The app is priced at $2.99

JellyBeanBeatBox arrives on the app store

Whilst I've heard that this app is a bit toylike it sounds great.

JellyBeanBeatBox streams what you see into what you hear by converting live video taken on your iPhone into block-rocking sounds. An awesome, creativity-inspiring app from kids to professional DJs and everyone in between.

JellyBeanBeatBox splits your live camera feed into a grid of rows and columns. It then identifies what color is in each cell of the grid and plays a different sound for each color. Different rows make different pitches, while different columns represent the beats of a measure of music. JellyBeanBeatBox was designed for synthesizing music by arranging different flavors of jellybeans. But it can be used with any type of object or even to explore the rhythms in the natural world.

JellyBeanBeatBox comes preloaded with 9 different sound sets (NoiseCore, SpaceCore, SynthPop, House, Dub, BigBeat, Rap, Orchestra, and Rock). You can also create your own sound sets using any of the & 100 preinstalled sounds or use our website to convert your own sounds into JellyBeanBeatBox format.

The app is priced at $0.99.

Hearing Rumours about FL Studio Mobile

Rumblings that it may be getting the Audiobus treatment according to their forum.

Thanks to Sean for this tip off.

iPad Synth Guitar Controller Demo II (with ION All-Star Guitar)

New Features:

• Output switch to control different synth apps (in demo: ThumbJam with JamUp Tube Preamp and effects chained on Audiobus, SampleWiz standalone)
• Touch Y-axis volume control (X-axis velocity and aftertouch)
• Single string playing and strumming across strings
• Octave and transpose control

MIDI Control with Audiobus

MIDI Control is a synthesizer controller app for iOS, with support for Audiobus recording.

Using virtual MIDI, you can control multiple synthesizers at the same time. With dual keyboards that rotate around, two people can play at the same time. Recordings made through Audiobus can be copied and pasted easily into other apps.

MIDI Control update

MIDI Control adds Audiobus!

Teenage Engineering 15% off sale

Just a reminder if you didn't know, but Teenage Engineering currently has a 15% off sale.

Mebleepy by unloopy

Here's what unloopy says about this track: A little test of my Meeblip synth. No effects or tidying up, just a little help from a microkorg.

Echo Pad now supporting all three Audiobus slots

Audiobus Effect slot support! Now Echo Pad supports all 3 slots!

• Effect
• Input
• Output

MoDrum & BassLine - Audiobus

It's great to see both MoDrum and BassLine get the Audiobus treatment.

NodeBeat HD adds Audiobus

NodeBeat HD adds support for Audiobus, which is of course, excellent news, and having spent Friday evening with the Audiobus team, I'm sure that they'll be very happy too.

Auria update has arrived, but it may not be what you're hoping for

Ok, the latest Auria update has arrived and here's what's new:

• New optional plug-ins: ClassicVerb Pro, FabFilter Pro-C, Pro-DS, Pro-G, Pro-L, Saturn, Timeless2, Volcano2
• Various bug fixes - see our forum for more details

But already I'm hearing that there are problems with it.

Comment in if you're experiencing issues.

Small update for the Wablet

The Wablet is a load of fun to play with and it's good to know that it's already got an update, albeit a minor one. Here's what's new:

• New "droplet mesh".
• End point of drawn scan path is marked.

Music iPad App: Sunrizer Filter Tweaking

Video description:

Music Ipad app look at Sunrizer app filter section. One of the nicest sounding synths for ios out there and my second video on the app using just one feature.

I've been meaning to say thank you to these guys ...

And so I'm finally getting around to it. The Mobile Music Advent Calendar was done in collaboration with these excellent mobile music bloggers:

• iOS Musican
• Discchord
• iDesignSound
• iOS Music and You

A big thank you to these guys. If you don't know of them then please take some time to visit their sites.

The steadfast heart Part1 (made with Novation Launchkey)

The steadfast heart Part1 by ryouichi harada.

Make's best Raspberry Pi projects of 2012

There's some really cool ones in here including at least one that I've posted on before, but I knew that a few people would be interested in this.

IKM Bringing something new at CES and NAMM this month?

They've been tweeting about it, but who knows what exactly it'll mean? They're not giving away much with this news item at their web site.

Electric Guitar Solo & Rock Organ w/ Sound Wand MIDI App

Video Description:

Sound Wand MIDI is a new kind of motion-based MIDI controller. FREE until the end of the holiday week: http://club15cc.com/get-sound-wand-midi (and then $9.99). Works with other MIDI apps too!

All the sounds are from Native Instrument's Kontakt 4 Library...

Sample Lab universal on the way!

Now there's something to look forward to. Also, it's still only $0.99.

Still loving my Shruthi-1

Especially with the Lemur template, but I have some more planned experiments coming up, so stay tuned.

MIDI-USB Arduino Shield connected to bs-16i

Video description:

In this example we demonstrate how to connect the USB-MIDI Shield to an iPhone using a Cammera Connector from Dealextreme (like this one). An accelerometer is used for note & pitch change (Thanks to RadikalBytes for the accelerometer). The iPhone synthesizer app is bs-16i by Shun Murabayashi, a great iOS synth with loadable SoundFonts.

OpenPipe Breakout & MIDI-USB Shield

Video description:

OpenPipe Breakout connected to MIDI-USB Shield with Arduino UNO. UPiper iOS app with bagpipes sounds from universal-piper.com.

Open Source Hardware Electronic Bagpipes.
http://www.openpipe.cc

This look like a very interesting development, although I couldn't find the MIDI USB shield on their shop.

A little treasure of a synth ...

Isn't it lovely? It reminds me that a LushOne is on my list of kits to get for myself!

It isn't just me using Pollisynth

Good to see someone else is using this lovely little app!

Arpeggionome Pro Example - Layers in Ableton

Agile Partners Survey, win an iPad Mini

Just a quick reminder about the Agile Partners survery. Click on this link and fill in the survey for a chance to win an iPad Mini.

Remaster adds audiobus support

Remaster, from Audioforge Labs adds support for Audiobus, which is excellent news and makes it currently unique in the Audiobus universe.

BassLine adds Audiobus support

BassLine has also added Audiobus support.

MoDrum Rhythm Composer adds Audiobus

MoDrum Rhythm Composer adds Audiobus support today! Excellent news for one of my favourite drum machines.

Wait list update

A small update to the wait list. I've added Synth 1 and the FiRe 2 update coming on Monday.

Compasso synth arrives

A new synth from the makers of Pollisynth (which I think is great!), so I'm looking forward to this one.

HOW TO USE COMPASSO:
Compasso turns your compass into a synthesizer. You select one of 3 things the compass can affect: (1) Resonance/Cutoff, (2) LFO Rate, (3) Oscillator detuning.
Tipping it also affects the keyboard octave (Left to Right)... and LFO depth (Front to Back). You also have a few settings to change your starting point, as well as some rhythm accompaniment on the back (flick up to find it).

A WORD FROM OUR FOUNDER:
Directions. We take a lot of them in life, I know I have. Ups and downs, backs and forths, tough times and worse times. All the while you sing an inner song, an inner note. Each side of the brain is an oscillator. Sometimes it feels good to detune a little- and sometimes it feels great it really does.
I made compasso because I wanted to hear the inner frequency that would make me sad and lonely (and nostalgic). Maybe I could have fun with my sadness, and maybe it would sound good- at least to me.
I encourage you to go absolutely wild with Compasso. Go absolutely wild with it and when you're alone in a hotel room or when you're waiting for the bus you'll have your own world, man! People may think you've lost it but little do they know that you found it! Have fun with it and thanks for buying it. In the end, Compasso is just a synthesizer that uses direction to make sound, and directions are something that the world has a lot of.

Best,
Thomas Ruby
Founder, Rubyjock Instruments

The app is priced at $0.99.

Synth 1 scheduled for release this Spring

Thanks to Sean for letting me know that Synth 1 is still on the way with a release scheduled for this Spring!

Remembering iDrum(s)

I hadn't used any of these in ages, but remember they were quite good back in the early days of the app store. Sadly, none of them ever progressed past 2010 so they don't have most of the features you'd expect in a modern app. As such they aren't very useful anymore sadly.

FiRe 2.6 arriving Monday

FiRe 2.6 is approved and will be available Monday! Configurable sample rate, email sharing, iPhone 5 support and more! aeng.me/fire2

— AudiofileEngineering (@audiofileeng) January 3, 2013

Great to know that there's an update to my favourite field recording app on the way. Looking forward to seeing what's new.

MidiMe MIDI Controller supporting iPhone 5 now

MidiMe MIDI Controller now supports the iPhone 5 screen. Good to know as I've started to use this more with my Shruthi-1.

Sample Lab is still at $0.99

Sample Lab still down at $0.99 from $6.99 and will be for a week apparently.

Caelestis video by Apps4idevicesMusic

Video Description:

Caelestis is a sample based generative music app that creates unique and very interesting results. It uses bouncing balls that generate notes as they bounce off the walls of the three different shaped rooms. The sound balls can be initiated at any velocity, and the shaped rooms can be rotated at different speeds to create interesting combinations. Each sample can be pitched by semitone increments, and assigned to one of three octave ranges. It is a free app with a $0.99 in-app purchase for importing and exporting samples and recordings. I should note that all file management is accessed through the Audio Copy section, and for referencing tempo, you need to run a drum app in the background. But I have to say that I find this app to be very impressive, with a great range of features, and it's very easy to use. The unique layers of sounds and rhythms really make Caelestis ... A Killer App!
Review by Nick Trass

MIDI Designer: What are Sequential Subcontrols?

A little video from MIDI Designer that shows how sequential subcontrols work (MIDI Designer 1.4.3).

MIDI Designer and the Shruthi-1

Another in my series of little videos looking at controlling a Shruthi-1.

Grain Bastard - MD, Mopho & Samplr Jam 26/12/2012

Grain Bastard - MD, Mopho & Samplr Jam 26/12/2012 from Grain Bastard on Vimeo.

Description:

Hi, I had an Elektron MachineDrum for Xmas so I had a quick jam on Boxing day with it hooked up to my DSI Mopho & the wonderful Samplr app for the iPad. Samplr has no midi options yet (please add midi-sync!!!) so I tried to sync it manually. Even though I matched the tempo (115bpm) on the devices, one of them (I suspect the ipad!!) drifts worse than a knackered old belt-drive turntable, so apologies for sections of questionable 'looseness'... (you might want to skip a couple of minutes in as I get better!! lol) - it's also a bit repetitive because of having to spend so much time with the sync but I had only had the setup for one day, so hopefully future vids will improve :)

Thanks for watching, if you want to contact me there is an email at the end of the vid and if you want to hear more goto :-

soundcloud.com/punisha

London Music Hack Space Performance tomorrow

If you're around the Music Hack Space is having a performances evening tomorrow, the 4th of Jan. Full details here.

Calaestis and Animoog iPad jam by SaveAs

Here's what SaveAs says about this track: Calaestis/Animoog/LoopyHD/Audiobus/Multitrack DAW

Survival Guide for Bands (free eBooks)

Thought that some people would be interested in this. Via Hypebot.

Elochka (SunVox + Pixilang)

Ubuntu Phones are coming, but, so what?

So Ubuntu is coming to mobiles, but what will it mean for mobile music, if indeed it will mean anything at all. Having read some of the stuff at their site it looks like they're after the enterprise market and not the consumer, so perhaps it won't do much at all for mobile music.

What do you think?

Scape + Figure jam#4 (dArk aUthority)

Description:

-Scape app with ipad 1
-Figure app with iPod touch 4g

iOS Musician interview with Sonic Logic Developer

A nice interview over at iOS Musician with the developer of the new controller app Sonic Logic.

KORG monotribes - KOBRA / BakaOscillator

Description:

Composed By BakaOscillator.
Use, KORG monotribe X2 , VOX amPlug (Lead, Bass).

Take a survey from Agile Partners to win an iPad Mini

Click on this link and fill in the survey for a chance to win an iPad Mini thanks to Agile Partners.

Alesis IO Dock Hack: Internal USB hub

Via Discchord.

I posted this yesterday, but here's a brief reminder that I've added a little list of my current favourite iOS apps in the sidebar. Feel free to take a look. My plan is to keep it up to date as my tastes change, and they do change.

Thanks for looking.

Sunvox best music of December 2012

Via the Sunvox blog.

CHEAP, FAT and OPEN, embedded synthesiser talk with Jacob Sikker Remin

This sounds like it could be an amazing talk, but sadly I can't make it at all. If you go, please let me know what you think. It's tonight, sorry for the late announcement.

Via the Hack Space.

Puppet Song - Harpsicle and Teenage Engineering OP-1

Description:

Pink Harpsicle, White OP-1, Grey Couch, Vintage Puppet. Recorded on the OP-1.

SpheroSampler arrives for iPad (but it doesn't seem to be anything to do with Sphero)

Seems to be a simple idea. From the picture it reminds me of The Strange Agency's Donut. Here's the app's description:

SpheroSampler is new-generation music instrument which records and plays audio tracks onto two 3D-spheres.

It is new idea for sound making. Using SpheroSmpler, you will obtain new surprising sounds and loops.

Playing SpheroSampler is resemble dj and violin-player work. You vary speed and do smooth morphing of sounds, for making new unique music!

You can record your sounds via microphone or using build-in synth.
Also, you can export your mixes into wav-files.

The app is free

Wait list now has it's own page

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the wait list post yesterday. I thought I'd try the wait list as a page in it's own right. Let me know what you think. It's here.

Molecule Synth nearly in production

It's coming along, a bit later than expected, but then that's kickstarter projects for you.

FunkBox Drum Machine by Apps4idevicesMusic

A-Virus (Matrix Clubbed to Death Inspiration) - ios Music

Description:

"In this video I used several ios application on iPad such as Audiobus, MultiTrack Daw, Magellan, AniMoog, Samplr and Alchemy Mobile also i use programs on MacBook Ableton Live and Alchemy Massive Synthesizers..."

iPod Shuffle Hacks blog

I was looking around for anything interesting to do with an old iPod Shuffle I liberated and found this blog which appears to be long abandoned, but has a few fun things in it. I thought I'd post it in case anyone was interested.

Also, if you know of any good iPod Shuffle hacks, please let me know.

So What ever happened to the DMA-1?

I posted about the DMA-1 a long time ago (in fact back in April 2011) and I haven't heard much if anything at all about it in ages and ages.

So does anyone know what's happened to them? Their site hasn't seen an update for a few months now.

webPd!

Wow, I hadn't realised that this was around as yet, but it is! I realise that it isn't really mobile related, but I thought at least a few people would be interested in it. You can find it here.

A NanoStudio review at carbonish

Interesting to see a review of a long established app, but good nevertheless.

New Sunvox meta modules

I'm guessing that these are for the desktop version, but if you're a loyal user you might want to take a look.

INGUI VS INGUI JAM 01: Ableton, Lemur

Pd for Android now has low latency support

Good news although not for Nexus 7 owners apparently, but still, it is progress on the Android front. If you're interested in knowing more, click here.

A new wait list for 2013? I think so

So what are we waiting for in 2013? I've got a list of things, but invariably there are apps / updates etc that I don't have on my list but you do, so comment them in and we'll get a new list up by the end of the day.

Molten Drum Machine getting on the bus

Molten Drum Machine is getting the Audiobus treatment! Great news.

Sonoma getting on the bus?

Thanks to Simon for pointing me at this on the Sonoma forums. It'd be great to have StudioTrack and FourTrack on the bus too.

London Music Hack Space evening on Friday

If you're around the Music Hack Space is having a performances evening on Friday the 4th of Jan. Full details here.

PocketBand competition coming soon

If you're a PocketBand user you might want to keep an eye on their forum for details of a new competition coming where you could win a pro account. Details here.

Spotify mobile music playlist

I've posted about this before, but I'm going to keep it alive for a while longer before giving up on it.

Here's the link for the playlist.

Mobile Music Pinterest Boards

If you're interested in mobile music stuff on pinterest, my mobile music board is here. Feel free to take a look

NodeBeat HD also appears to still be free

So grab it while you can.

NodeBeat still free for now

NodeBeat appears to still be free for now, but probably not for too much longer.

Let's talk about Dropbox

I haven't posted once about dropbox this year so far. If you're not using it then it's something you might want to check out as more and more apps are now using it as a default for online storage, and it works quite well in my view.

You can get one by clicking this link, and what's more you'll get an extra 500mb (and so will I)!

MIDI Pattern Sequencer Price

I've posted a few times on this new app 'MIDI Pattern Sequencer'. Well the price has been confirmed by the developer at around $15, which is consistent with other similar apps such as Genome.

Hopefully it'll be here soon!

A couple of hours left for Ampkit deals

There's just a little time left if you wanted to get all of the AmpKit deals, so go take a look inside your copy of AmpKit or visit the app store to get it.



Don't forget, there's AmpKit on the Mac App store too.

Sound Wand MIDI is now free!

Sound Wand MIDI is free. Strangely it arrived yesterday and has now gone free! Grab it now, while you can.

MikroWave 1.2.9.2 on Nexus 7

This has reminded me that I should take another look at this app.

A brief but handy history of music apps from Discchord

You can find it here.

SunVox Without Dread Locks

SunVox 1.7.2 Android Nexus 7 Synthesizer Sequencer Drum Machine (not my Nexus, although maybe I should get SunVox on mine as well).

London Music Hack Space event this Friday, 4th Jan

If you're around the Music Hack Space is having a performances evening. Full details here.

The Octotron is here ...

Via the excellent Matrixsynth.

Jim's Tips & Tricks - Arpeggionome/Magellan Jam

Video Description:

This is a quick jam I put together while experimenting with the new versions of Arpeggionome and Magellan. I used Multitrack DAW to record the audio output for this video, and it was recorded using Audiobus to route the Magellan Output internally.

The song is MUSE's "Take a Bow", and I did a quick cover of the arpeggio synth beginning of the song.

Even though Arpeggionome is currently not audiobus compatible for its own internal synth, it is still able to control Magellan via virtual MIDI control. The video was recorded with a fourth gen iPad and edited with Final Cut Pro X.

Thanks for watching!

Sound Wand MIDI arrives

A new MIDI controller arrives for your iPhone ...

"A very unique and sophisticated virtual musical instrument" - The Next Web - Create music like no one has ever heard before. SW Midi is an organic, sensitive, motion-based MIDI controller and a truly original concept that's easy and intuitive to play. Experience your favourite synth and sample-based instruments in a brand new way that will have you giddy like the first time all over again ;)

WARNING: This app contains no sounds of its own. You'll need a computer with music software (e.g. Garage Band, Logic, Kontakt, Absynth, Alchemy, etc), or other apps which support CoreMidi input (e.g. NLogSynth).

Sound Wand MIDI reads your movements with the built in gyroscope and accelerometer and translates them into musical actions. It lets you pluck invisible strings in the air while controlling additional parameters with your movements via MIDI CC messages. For example, you can...

• Play riffs on a virtual guitar and control the wah pedal at the same time...
• Connect it to a pad synth and link to the filter freq/res. It's like painting sounds in the air...
• Create tranquil wind-chime-like sounds or intense melodic soundscapes with pianos, glockenspeils, dulcimers, xylophones, gamelans
• Connect it to percussion kits for some outrageous beat making

FEATURES

• Musical Scales
• Blues
• Oriental
• Bebop
• Major/Minor
• Pentatonics
• Chromatic
• Spanish Flamenco
• Hawaiian
• Jazz Modes
• Indian Raag
• Arpeggios
• Special scales that for centuries have been used for specific moods and times of day
• Velocity sensitive note control
• High performance, low latency, even through Wi-Fi
• Fully configurable. Set MIDI channel, note ranges, CC values, motion ranges, left/right-handed orientation and more
• EZ Learn for CC configuration, motion setup
• CoreMIDI out lets you control other music apps which support MIDI input

SEE & HEAR IT IN ACTIONhttp://soundwandapp.com/midi

NOTES & SUPPORTSound Wand is high performance application that requires iPhone 4 or newer running iOS 5+. Also, while play is definitely tailored more for handheld devices, it works splendidly on the iPad and iPad Mini!

WINDOWS USERS: You'll also need a (free) copy of rtpMIDI...

The app is priced at :$9.99

Welcome to 2013

A later than normal start to today. Apologies for that, but I'll be getting on with all the regular mobile music news momentarily.

However, as this is the first post of 2013, I'd just like to point out that 2013 is the 8th year in which Palm Sounds has been published. I find that somewhat amazing.