That didn’t take long at all. pisound has reached 81% of its target funding on its first day. If you haven’t already checked it out on Indiegogo then here’s the link. I think it’s a very fitting end to Pi day.
Category: Recording
Remember what I was saying about the Raspberry Pi, well now there’s this …
The Audioinjector Octo surround sound card for the Raspberry Pi, on Kickstarter right now.
I posted just the other day about the musical possibilities of the Raspberry Pi. Now there’s this, a 6 in and 8 out sound card for the Pi. This is pretty big stuff. Pretty amazing actually. Here’s the detail:
“We bring to you the audio card (for the Raspberry Pi) which seemed impossible, but now it is done! Push your projects further into un-trodden territory – further then others have gone before.
Whilst this gadget works with the Raspberry Pi, it represents an innovation in the realm of embedded systems. The innovation is at a hardware level, in audio signalling, giving us the ability to retrofit these systems with more then their typically quoted two channels of audio in and out.
This sound card features crystal clear 8 channel output audio, with 6 channels of input audio. Unlike other multichannel solutions, this surround hat only uses the GPIO I2S bus for audio. It doesn’t use USB nor does it use HDMI.
The sound card is designed to be customisable. You can design your own break out to suit your needs. The break out headers will have a KiCad project available to aid your designs.
Our previous kickstarter success was delivered on time, working and with support. Support this campaign which builds on the same foundation.”
Example applications
- Professional audio recording (with 6 balanced inputs)
- Multichannel output for your projects.
- Car audio front/back fading.
- Active crossovers, up to 8 way, or 2 speakers each 4 way.
- SDR, processing many channels at the same time.
- Surround sound output for your media centre.
- Projects we didn’t imagine you would implement !
So it’s really worth taking a look at the Kickstarter page to see what’s what. I’m fairly sure I’m going to be a backer on this one.
One thing I’m not clear on is how this works with Tracktion’s new WaveForm multitrack software for Raspberry Pi. I’d be interested to understand how that works.
ReSlice arrives from VirSyn
The next thing from VirSyn is a very cool looking audio slicing machine that’s universal and comes with loads of features. Here’s what VirSyn have to say about it …
Slice your audio samples with ReSlice and create flexible musical atoms which can be triggered by MIDI notes or the touch of your fingers.
The polyrhythm Arpeggiator redefines the art of creating new loops from the extracted slices.
Record live or import audio from clipboard or AudioShare to break it up into its rhythmic components.
Apply the intelligent slice parameter and Arpeggio randomizer for instant creation of the unheard.
Features:
Audio Slicer
- Automatic break up of sample/drum loop into up to 32 slices
- Edit slice positions.
- Edit level, pan, pitch and envelope for each slice
- Import audio from clipboard or AudioShare
- Record audio for instant slicing and reusing in realtime
Effect section
- Seven studio standard effects concurrently usable:
- Oversampled distortion with four different algorithms for antialiased sound.
- Lowpass / Highpass / Bandpass parametric equalizer
- 8 pole analog Phaser
- Flanger
- Four line chorus
- Stereo/Ping-Pong delay with glitch free delay time change.
- Hi end reverberation unit.
Four part Polyrhythm Arpeggiator
- Uses programmable sequences with up to 32 steps.
- Trigger slices using 4 arpeggio parts with different settings
- Unique randomizer generates Arpeggios with 100% usability.
- Factory arpeggios included, unlimited user arpeggios possible.
Global
- AUv3 AudioUnit
- Inter App Audio
- Audiobus 2 support with state saving.
- Play slices live with the onscreen keyboard.
- Can use CoreMIDI compatible MIDI Keyboard.
- Audio recorder with share function.
- Share user presets.
- Support for virtual MIDI input connections.
- Multichannel MIDI Learn for external MIDI controllers.
- MIDI Tempo sync. Start/Stop Arpeggio.
- Ableton Link compatible.
ReSlice is on the app store for $9.99 which is introductory price:
Audio Evolution Mobile Studio arrives on iOS
After being very sucessful on Android Audio Evolution Mobile comes to iOS with an impressive range of features.
Record your ideas on the go or create entire music productions from scratch, we’ll leave it up to you! This app is a portable multitrack audio and MIDI recording studio featuring virtual instruments, editing with unlimited undo/redo, mixing, real-time effects, automation and much more!
Note that this is our initial release and we’d appreciate any feedback or bug reports! We are highly responsive to customer feedback.
Features:
- Multitrack audio recording / playback
- MIDI sequencing with piano roll editor
- Drum pattern editor
- Inter-app audio effects and instruments
- AudioBus support (including AudioBus remote)
- Audio Unit v3 instruments and effects displayed directly in the app
- Non-linear editing with move, trim, split, cut/copy/paste, remove, cross-fade, etc. with full undo/redo
- Virtual instruments (comes with free instruments and more instrument packs to download with in-app purchase)
- Wide range of downloadable loops available (free and paid)
- Clip volume and fade points
- Loop playback
- Automation of mixer and effect parameters
- Mix-down to WAV, AIFF and ALAC
- Metronome
- Punch in/out
- Zoom down to the sample
- Each track has controls for volume, panning, mute, solo, arm, 3-band EQ with mid-sweep, 3 insert effects, 2 effect sends and output bus selection
- Unlimited number of tracks (more than 3 requires the PRO in-app purchase)
- Unlimited number of groups (requires the PRO in-app purchase)
- Real-time effects including: chorus, compressor, delay, dual delay, reverse delay, reverb, flanger, noise gate and many more!
- Offline effects: fade in/out, normalize, reverse, pitch shift, time stretching
- Several grid options for aligning your samples (with tempo and time signature settings)
- Projects are interchangeable with our Android version
- Export to other DAW’s by rendering all tracks to separate audio files (stems)
- Media server to access your files easily from a desktop computer
In short: a complete portable multitrack music studio that will replace your fourtrack recorder or tape machine!
The following in-app purchases are available to expand your studio:
- FX pack 1 (distortion, overdrive, speaker sim, wah wah, phaser)
- FX pack 2 (10-, 15-, 30-band graphic EQ)
- ToneBoosters effect pack 1 (Barricade, DeEsser, Gate, Reverb)
- ToneBoosters EQ with frequency analyzer
- ToneBoosters Compressor
- Autotune with two-voice harmonizer
- Soundfont instrument packs
- Loop packs from Function Loops
Audio Evolution Mobile Studio is free on the app store (with IAPs):
Trackd brings us Songs of the Centenary
I’ve mentioned Trackd before, so if you don’t know what it is then take a look at this post. In short Trackd is a collaborative 8 track studio in your iPhone. There’s a great history behind the people from Trackd.
In 1968, British brothers Norman and Barry Sheffield opened Trident Studios at St. Anne’s Court, Soho. The studio was always at the pinnacle of recording tech and very soon attracted the big-hitting stars of the time. You know, artists like The Beatles, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Queen & Elton John to drop but a few names.
What the original studio stood for and achieved inspired us to do something that matters to music. Trackd was born at SXSW a couple of years ago in a fateful meeting over a taco, and we carry the heart and soul of the original studio with us into today’s musical universe.
Trackd is just over a year old now, and has started to do some really interesting things, for instance their ‘Songs of the Centenary’ project, which you can read about here, and download the stems here. Engaging projects like this can help to bring new ideas together and get people using accessible technologies like Trackd to realise their own artistic vision.
I first found out about Trackd at one of the Music Tech Pitch events that I help to run. Trackd really stood out for me as an app and an idea that could bring musicians together and help people to collaborate and communicate around musical ideas. That view hasn’t changed at all.
So if you don’t know Trackd I’d encourage you to take a look and see what it can do, and who it can help you talk to. The app is free on the app store with IAPs.
Sonoma Wire Works FourTrack version 7.2 arrives
FourTracks is one of the first multi-track apps to have hit iOS (before it was called iOS too) and is still a personal favourite of mine. It’s great to see it still get updated. Here’s everything new in 7.2:
- Updated for iOS 10 (fixes broken MIDI communication with GuitarJack Stage in iOS 10)
- Sessions can now be individually imported using iTunes File Sharing
- Added ability to play audio through iPhone receiver
- Fixed issues with File Import, email importing and Dropbox
- Fixed issues with input monitoring
Fixed bug where system volume was reset to 2 clicks on startup with an external interface connected - Fixed bug where MasterFX compressor reset button toggled threshold between min and max slider value
- Fixed bug where saving a TaylorEQ preset didn’t re-enable song tools and exit buttons
- Songs have been moved from the Sessions folder to the top-level Documents folder
- Misc UI improvements and updates
- GuitarTone improvements:
Fixed bugs prohibiting saving of edited presets and impeding navigation - Improved navigation and behavior with unowned presets loaded (“More Gear Required”)
- Fixed delay and filter bugs in tape delay FX pedals
- GuitarTone improvements:
SoundOff: Audio Notepad and Custom Soundboard arrived
With so many apps focussed on generating sound in a huge variety of manners it’s nice to see an app arrive which is solely focussed on recording sound, and very nicely done too.
SoundOff allows you to quickly make and organize recordings. You can add custom titles and photos, and reorder the board however you like.
Potential uses:
- voice memos
- idea scratchpad
- field recordings
- custom sound effects
- gaming and streaming
- basic sampling
- and much more
Tap and hold the record button to start recording. Then hold the speaker button to play back. As simple as it gets!
SoundOff is free on the app store:
n-Track Studio 8 arrives with amazing new features and a very different model for iOS music making
It’s been a big day today, firstly seeing the arrival of Cubasis 2 (plus the LE version), and now with n-Track Studio 8 arriving too.
This is a big and very significant shift for n-Track is a lot of ways.
- Firstly, this is a big update with a lot of new functionality in it so it’s well worth reading all of the detail below.
- Secondly, n-Track 8 is now an AU host, which makes it one of only a few in that category
- Finally, and this is really different, n-Track 8 is free, but is using a subscription model for pricing. This is a real shift for mobile music and needs a little thinking about.
So what do we think about subscription models?
Well firstly I’d like to point out that this isn’t something entirely new. In actual fact when Sunvox first arrived on Palm OS is used a subscription model. Not many people will remember that at all (I’m looking at you Jo), but it worked like that for a while. Secondly, this kind of model is actually starting to gain ground in the desktop world, with Splice launching their ‘rent-to-own’ model recently.
Personally I think it’s a model that’s worth exploring. If you’ve got a project that demands the pro features in n-Track 8 you could use those for a month or two then scale back. If anything it’s probably more flexible than paying up front for an app where you’re not going to use all of the features, or indeed buying an IAP only to find that it doesn’t really suit you.
It’ll be interesting to see how this is accepted by the wider community, but I’m positive about it, and if anything, I’d like to see a few more apps go down this route. For now, take a look a the new app’s description, grab it (it’s free and universal) and tell me what you think of the model.
n-Track Studio 8, all the detail you could want!
n-Track Studio 8 turns your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into a complete recording studio. Record and playback a virtually unlimited number of audio and MIDI tracks, mix them during playback and add effects. Edit your song and share it with your friends, or join the Songtree community and jam with other artists.
HOW IT WORKS:
Record a base track with the built-in mic or an external sound card, add other audio tracks or create a melody using the internal keyboard or the built-in virtual instruments.
Import a groove or create it using the step sequencer, use the mixer to adjust levels, pan, apply equalization and add effects, save or share the recording directly from your device to your friends
MAIN FEATURES:
- Stereo and mono audio tracks
- Virtually unlimited number of tracks (max 11 tracks without in-app purchases)
- Group and Aux channels
- MIDI tracks with builtin synth featuring 128 General MIDI instrument sounds
- Pianoroll MIDI editor
- Step Sequencer
- On-screen MIDI keyboard
- EQ with 2D and 3D Spectrum analyzer + chromatic tuner*
- Import existing tracks from your iTunes library
- Reverb, Echo, Chorus+Flanger, Tremolo, Pitch Shift, Phaser, – Tube-Amp and Compression effects can be added to any track and master channel*
- Automate track volumes and pan using volume and pan envelopes
- Supports the new AudioUnit plug-in standard: open 3rd party effects and instruments inside the app, without switching to another app*
- Audiobus input and output: you can send audio from other apps to n-Track, play your favorite instrument app and record the output inside n-Track alongside the device mic/line input. Each Audiobus app can be recorded to a separate track*
- Interapp audio: receive audio from instrument apps, use other apps as effects or host n-Track inside another app*
- Share your recordings on Facebook
- Collaborate to create music with other musicians with the integrated Songtree online music making community
- Quick one touch drums and bass grooves tracks
- Built-in metronome
ADVANCED FEATURES:
- 64 bit double precision floating point audio engine*
- Internal audio routing
- Support for multichannel external audio devices on the iPad: record 4 or more tracks simultaneously from pro-audio devices such as the RME Babyface, Fireface, Focusrite Scarlett etc.
- Support for multiple audio output when using compatible USB devices*
- Record 16, 24 or 32 bits audio files*
- Set sampling frequency up to 192 kHz (frequencies above 48 kHz require an external audio device)
- Sync with other apps or external devices using MIDI clock and MTC sync, master & slave*
- Choose microphone on multi-mic devices and set microphone polar pattern (e.g. cardiod, omnidirectional)
- Allows monitoring and processing live audio input with near-zero latency
- AudioCopy 2.0 allows transferring audio files between compatible apps
- Support for DropBox and SoundCloud
SUBSCRIPTION INFO*
Some features require one of the two available in-app subscriptions levels:
Standard edition:
- Length: 1 month
- Price: $0.99 for 1 month
- What you get:
- Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks (Free edition is limited to 8 audio tracks, 1 MIDI track and 2 step-sequencer tracks)
- Unlocks all the available effects (Free edition has Reverb, Compression, Echo and Chorus)
- Unlimited number of effects per channel (Free editon has up to 2)
Pro edition:
- Length: 1 month
- Price: $1.99 for 1 month
- What you get:
- 64 bit audio engine
- Export in 32 and 64 bit uncompressed (wav) format (the Free and Standard edition are limited to 16 or 24 bit wav)
- 3D frequency spectrum view
Get n-Track Studio 8 on the app store now:
On the subject of field recording, this caught my eye too
It’s only fair to say that this is fairly narrow in terms of its range of interest, and that it does intersect with my interests on two counts, firstly around field recordings and found sounds, and secondly because I visited Porto a couple of years ago and really liked it there.
Anyway, here are the details of the app, it’s free on the app store so you might want to take a look.
“PORTOphone is a music application that enables the use of of Porto sounds in a musical way, making a combination of illustrations of our iconic locations with sounds recorded on site. In addition to the ambient sounds, the PORTOphone also allows you to hear a set of peculiar and typical expressions recorded in the oldest areas of the city. With this tool we can create our own soundscape from the sounds of the city of Porto.”
PORTOphone app on the app store (free):
If field recording or sound walks are your thing, you might take a look at this
I didn’t know about this app until I heard about it from The Wire. I’d been using Recho on and off but never really felt happy with it so I thought I’d give FoundSounds 2 a look to see if it works for me any better.
I thought there would probably be a few people who were interested in taking a look, so here’s the app’s details:
“FoundSounds is a unique new mobile app blurring the line between a social network and a collaborative art project. The premise is simple: if you find a sound you like, record it and share it with the world. Recordings are geotagged, and you can browse them by scrolling through a timeline or exploring a map. You can also construct sound collages that create intriguing sonic geographies. If enough sounds have been recorded in your area, consider taking a sound walk, which allows you to listen to recordings made near you. Walking past a concert venue would allow you to hear previous performances from that location, while passing by a new building would trigger the sounds of its construction. The vision of FoundSounds is to create a space where people can listen to sounds they might not normally hear.
Please note that continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.”
FoundSounds is free on the app store:
PalmSounds 