Or to be specific to Samsung devices running Android. I’m also slightly confused as they’ve kept the name as iMPC and not changed it to something more appropriate like aMPC? Anyway, at the very least it it good to see something new for Android users and to see Retronyms branch out into the Android world.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
“We are excited to release our collaboration with Samsung and Akai Professional! iMPC is available now on Samsung Galaxy Apps Store.
With more than 1,200 samples, 50 editable programs, 80 editable sequences and iconic MPC workflow, iMPC is the first app to bring all the functionality of a classic Akai Professional MPC to the Samsung Galaxy Apps Store.
“With the iMPC, users can create and manipulate beats and sequences with amazing precision and creativity,” said Dan Gill, Product Manager for Akai Professional. “It’s simple to use, and has all the flexibility and options anyone could ever want—and then some.” We can’t wait to see what you create.”
You may remember that I posted about Retronyms upcoming app Hook and how it solidifies their universe or even ecosystem? Well today it’s arrived on the app store and you can check it out for yourself.
Hook has arrived, in two versions, one for your iPhone, that one’s free, and one for your iPad, that one’s $12.99 / £9.99.
Here’s what the app store description says:
Hook is a new music performance, mashup, and DJ app for iPhone and iPad. Arrange and trigger loops on a grid and create dynamic, expressive transitions with the Flux Fader — a multitouch “smart crossfader” that allows you to expressively make transitions between any combination of tracks/cells on the fly. The Flux Fader includes a two-axis control with 9 riser synths, glitch and gate effects, tempo-synced filter sweeps, an EQ, beat drop, tape stop, and filter drop. Combining all these to make transitions is the heart of playing live with Hook. Hook includes a full editor complete with auto transient slicing and waveform editing. Tight integration with AudioCopy makes it easy to drop in your own loops and sounds from other apps.
Real creative power can be found in the integrated sampler — record from mic/line, other apps via inter-app audio, and grab hooks from iTunes and Spotify. Change tempo in real time, and keep all your hooks in sync. Hook is a killer mashup tool with a full mixer, tons of tracks, integrated FX bus, per-cell fx, transpose, time stretching, tuning, timing and trigger settings, and more. Imagine the clip launching capabilities of Ableton Live in a futuristic multitouch environment.
You may well be aware that Retronyms are about to announce their next app, Hook, tomorrow. They’ve been talking about it for a few weeks now, and have been posting weekly videos about it, starting with this one:
Which was a nice little intro if a bit lite on the details of the app. They made up for that with their next video:
Which started to show the functionality of the app in a bit more detail, and then progressed to their latest video showing iTunes and Spotify workflow:
All of this gets delivered to us tomorrow along with their hardware product Wej. The 21st will be a big day for the Retronyms, and I’ll be watching.
But as I’ve watched the videos, read the press releases and also played with the app itself something started to dawn on me, and if you’ve already spotted it then please forgive me for being kind of slow on the uptake.
From tomorrow Retronyms will have their own iOS, content, and hardware ecosystem all in place, all integrated and all available. It’s quite impressive in many ways, or at least I think so. Here’s what they will have achieved as of tomorrow:
Content:
It can be easy to forget that Retronyms are responsible for AudioCopy, something that lots of apps use, and that lots of us rely on. But AudioCopy isn’t just a handy utility for moving stuff about, no, it’s a content store too. Whether you use it or not, it’s there and it has a lot of content available from some pretty decent names too.
Tools:
As of tomorrow Retronyms will have Hook on the store, their new mashup / remix tool for iOS. I’ll reserve judgement on that until tomorrow I think. But let’s not forget that they also have Tabletop, their own sort of modular music making environment. Also integrated with AudioCopy.
What remains to be seen is how (or indeed, if) Hook will integrate with Tabletop? I think it might be a missed trick if it didn’t, but let’s see what they do from tomorrow.
Hardware:
Last but not least Retronyms have their Wej hardware. A device which is tightly integrated with Hook and goes on general sale as of tomorrow.
And one (or possibly more) last thing(s) …
Let’s not forget that Retronyms also arrange some pretty cool mobile music meet ups and events and have a few other (possibly slightly unloved) apps in their repertoire, such as Phase84, iMPC Pro, Stryke, and my personal favourite DopplerPad which was original released in 2009! Personally I think DopplerPad would be amazing if it got updated, but I’ve probably said that one time too many.
Tomorrow will be interesting, but I’ll be really keen to see how this whole integrated Retronyms universe develops further. For now, one step at a time.
“JP Talks about the Flux Fader — a multitouch “smart crossfader” that allows you to expressively make transitions between any combination of tracks/cells on the fly.
Hook is available July 21st for iPhone and iPad. Hooks hardware companion, Wej is also available on July 21. http://retronyms.com
Hook is a new music performance, mashup, and DJ app for iPhone and iPad. Arrange and trigger loops on a grid and create dynamic, expressive transitions with the Flux Fader — a multitouch “smart crossfader” that allows you to expressively make transitions between any combination of tracks/cells on the fly. The Flux Fader includes a two-axis control with 9 riser synths, glitch and gate effects, tempo-synced filter sweeps, an EQ, beat drop, tape stop, and filter drop. Combining all these to make transitions is the heart of playing live with Hook. Hook includes a full editor complete with auto transient slicing and waveform editing. Tight integration with AudioCopy makes it easy to drop in your own loops and sounds from other apps.
Real creative power can be found in the integrated sampler — record from mic/line, other apps via inter-app audio, and grab hooks from iTunes and Spotify. Change tempo in real time, and keep all your hooks in sync. Hook is a killer mashup tool with a full mixer, tons of tracks, integrated FX bus, per-cell fx, transpose, time stretching, tuning, timing and trigger settings, and more. Imagine the clip launching capabilities of Ableton Live in a futuristic multitouch environment.”
Then there’s more on the Retronyms site here. I thought I’d mention it as the video didn’t give much away, but there should be another video from them tomorrow with more details hopefully.
So this looks kind of cool. Very little in the way of detail as yet, but an interesting comment that the app integrates with Wej, which also becomes available from the 21st of July.
Video description:
“New App coming from Retronyms! Hook is available July 21st for iPhone and iPad”
PalmSounds 