Category: Uncategorized

Clawtar – Adaptive MIDI Controller 1.1 brings AB3 and more besides

Clawtar aims to be an interface that adapts to the player’s hand, which is a bold claim. In version 1.1 there’s some nice new features, including Audiobus. Here’s all of what’s new:

AUDIOBUS 3 SUPPORT

Clawtar is now can be used as an audio and MIDI input in Audiobus.

PIANO KEYBOARD GUIDE

Clawtar now shows a piano keyboard at the bottom of the screen. On this keyboard you can see the currently selected range and the notes you play. You can not play on this keyboard. It is a view-only element. If you like, you can hide this keyboard by going to Settings>Show Piano Keyboard Guide and turning the switch off.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

  • Calibration algorithm optimised. It now works much faster and smoother.
  • Settings menu was remade. It is now shown as a more regular dialog instead of a fullscreen view.
  • Minor UI improvements

Clawtar is on the app store for $3.99:

iSoundBank, a simple and cheap SF2 player

It’s a pretty no nonsense app as far as I can see and cheap too. Plus it’s universal. If SoundFonts are your thing, this will be worth more than a cursory look.

Details … (such as they are)

iSoundBank is a sound bank player for SF2 and DLS format files.

Main Features:

  • Build in a GM sound bank.
  • import and load SF2 and DLS.
  • MIDI In available (From Core MIDI devices or virtual MIDI In)

iSoundBank costs $0.99 on the app store:

Goodbye ReBirth, you will be missed

It’s a shame, but kind of understandable too. Propellerheads have removed ReBirth for iPad from the app store at long last. It was great when it first arrived for iOS back in November 2010. It was certainly easier to use than the iPhone version which is also history now. Hopefully they’ve got some other goodies planned for us.

Electronic Sound Magazine now have their own Lab

Which initially I thought would be really interesting, but having taken a look at the page they’ve put up I’m none the wiser as to what it is that they want to achieve. Having said that, the video’s quite nice.

So you make what you will of it. You can take a look here.

Discchord 3.1, Tim keeps upping the game!

I take my hat off to Tim at Discchord for his work on the site. This is great stuff and excellent work indeed. I’m so glad to see this site go from strength to strength.

Well done Tim!

Rytmik Ultimate Complete comes to the app store

Cinemax brings a new version of Rytmik to the app store. Rytmik Ultimate Complete is there latest app and the third version of Rytmik that’s now available. Here are all the details.

Rytmik Ultimate Complete is a powerful music station (Groovebox) allowing you not only to play with samples and musical instruments but also to mix them together, shape them and create music clips or whole songs for your Friday night set-list.

Key Features

  • More than 1 230 musical instruments
  • Robot and Female voices – over 400 words each.
  • A drawable waveform synth module
  • Advanced effects like the ADSR Envelope, Digital Delay, Noise Shaper, Sample Offset and Loop Definition and more
  • Almost every effect parameter can be modulated via the step sequencer
  • Drag & drop powerful interface
  • Share your songs via Rytmik Cloud and continue on Mac/PC
  • More than 6 000 Songs already shared via Rytmik Cloud
  • Export your music in the WAV format or export to AudioShare
  • Rytmik Ultimate is a powerful pocket music station.

This version includes instruments/samples from Rock Expansion and Voice & Acoustics Expansion.

Thanks to new features, Rytmik Ultimate Complete takes music creation to a whole new level. Rytmik allows you to share your songs with other users through the Rytmik Cloud and can also serve as a music player for songs uploaded on Rytmik Cloud with it. On top of that, users can exchange their songs and cooperate on their composing.

Once your work is complete, you can save it in WAV format to local storage or export to AudioShare.

And that’s not all! Every instrument is now a wavetable synthesizer. With the advanced effect module, you have more power to shape sounds with the ADSR envelope, vibrato, portamento, noise shaper, or digital delay. In addition to that, the drawable waveform synth module allows users to draw and modify their own wave and use it as a sample oscillator – with that you can use Rytmik Ultimate as a sonically unique chiptune synthesizer.

Rytmik Ultimate Complete comes with a sound library of more than 1230 instruments containing the libraries of the previous Rytmik series (Rytmik, Retrobits, Hip-hop King and World Music) and adding a brand new set of samples ranging from deep dubstep kicks and basses to cutting synth leads and special effects.

Rytmik Ultimate Complete with Rytmik Cloud will, of course, include more features and additions to the popular series to enrich your experience with playing with sounds and creating music on the go.

Rytmik Ultimate Complete costs $19.99 on the app store now:

That MMM2017 post has been updated

Just so you’re aware, I’ve updated my post on MMM2017 with some corrections and additions. It’s also got links to the conference site which will be updated with photos and video in due course.

BeatHawk 2 is a massive update, and it’s on sale too

Considering we only just had an update to BeatHawk last month it is a bit of a surprise to find version 2.0 today. And it’s a massive update too. Here’s what’s new:

  • NEW! Now available for iPhone (5 and newer)
  • NEW! Interface optimized for each iPhone device
  • NEW! Now available as an AudioUnit V3 plugin
  • NEW! Piano Roll Editor for writing and editing Note and MIDI CC
  • NEW! Support for Ableton Link
  • NEW! Export as Ableton Live project
  • NEW! Automate parameters with MIDI Learn
  • NEW! Paste audio directly to pads with AudioCopy
  • NEW! Copy/Paste pads with clipboard
  • NEW! Scale selection in Pitch Mode
  • NEW! Loops Markers in Song Mode
  • NEW! Accelerometer Velocity and 3D Touch support
  • UPDATE! Improved readability in UI
  • UPDATE! Improved help section
  • UPDATE! MIDI channel support added to preferences
  • UPDATE! Improved In-App purchase experience
  • UPDATE! AudioCopy updated to v3.2
  • UPDATE! Support for multiple touches on a single pad
  • UPDATE! Pattern change during playback now snaps to bar
  • UPDATE! Mutes now record in Song mode
  • FIX! Added hard fixes per IAA / AUv3 host (Auria, Cubasis)

Coming up soon …

This last weekend I was lucky enough to be at MMM2017 in Berlin. It was a fantastic experience and I have loads to share with you about it including loads of photos and news. But it’s going to take me a couple of days to get it all written up. So check back and I’ll give you all the news from MMM2017 very soon, and by the end of the week at the latest. Promise!

A massive update for Navichord in version 2.5

Version 2.5 of Navichord brings a really big set of new features, minor updates, and fixes too. What’s more Navichord is half price at the moment at $3.99.

Here’s what’s new:

MAJOR

  • New preset format includes all settings (scale, pads, MIDI, Audio, UI)
  • Audiobus state saving
  • Improved Pad Edit – rearrange pads by dragging, easy transpose, delete and chord generation buttons
  • MIDI clock input and output
  • Color themes

MINOR

  • Improved Settings structure and appearance
  • Improved Toolbars structure and appearance
  • Selectable accidentals (sharps, flats, auto)
  • Lock scale to white keys (use onscreen white keys to play any scale)
  • Note names changed to lowercase
  • Added a simple mixer for internal instruments
  • Help section updated – chord shapes are back
  • Ableton Link quantum is changed from 1 bar to the length of the chord sequence
  • Grid hold is changed to latch
  • Added Bluetooth MIDI support

ISSUES SOLVED

  • Fixed Play button not working when loaded into Audiobus with other apps
  • Allowed simultaneous input and output from the same MIDI device
  • Fixed occasional choppiness when changing chords