I like to do six impossible things before breakfast. You?

This is either the first death knell for the traditional desktop DAW, or an ill-fated attempt to squeeze a desktop DAW onto a tablet. Or, more likely, it’s somewhere in between.

Auria isn’t the first multitrack production studio for a mobile platform, but without question, it’s the first to look and function in the way you’d expect only a computer Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to work. The track count is the first banner feature, but perhaps what will turn heads most is actually the support for conventional plug-ins.

Updated: You know, I’m writing about this thing based on their description, but it’s worth adding that the track counts (with these kinds of plug-ins), multi-track recording, and even plug-ins were previously believed to be impossible by many developers. That makes this an … interesting announcement. Happily, we’ve just gotten updates from the developer explaining those questions — see below.

Just a few of the bullets that might cause more than a little surprise:

• 48 mono/stereo, 24-bit/44.1kHz tracks, with recording for up to 24 tracks (you’ll obviously need a USB audio interface that can do that – see notes below)
• 64-bit, double precision mix architecture (something even Pro Tools only just acquired)
• Full delay compensation
• “Vintage-inspired” channel strips, with a desktop-like UI and VU/RMS switching
• Plug-in support (Out of the gate, PSPaudioware, Overloud, Fab Filter and Drumagog all work. You need to do custom wrapping of plug-ins for this host; standard plug-ins won’t work. The format is based on VST, but it’s not VST in the traditional sense in that they have to be custom-wrapped for sale through the app. See developer notes below.)
• Dropbox, SoundCloud, AAF, MP3 export
• Advanced channel strips, EQ, expansion/compression and dynamic controls ready to go
• Convolution reverb. (Really.)
• AAF import/export, making one definite application using this as a satellite for your desktop DAW (more on that notion below)

Update: I should say, and this is vitally important, the software isn’t shipping yet. No one has seen it in action. And that means all of this is hypothetical until we see whether this works at all. But see some notes from the developers that answers some skepticism. (This wasn’t just skepticism coming from me or end users – I heard from a number of puzzled developers who work on iOS apps!)

As impressive as all of this is technically, I’m not sure there’s a strong case for why you’d need such a thing on an iPad, other than “because you can.” But that raises the question of how you might actually use it. One obvious application for me is having a portable multitrack recording rig on which you can instantly add effects. It’s easy to imagine taking this to a concert gig, recording multiple tracks, then mastering a live show on the back of a tour bus. Then again, there’s nothing really stopping you from doing the same with a computer.

The main thing for me is to get hands on with this and see how this desktop-style UI adapts to an iPad – whether it feels newly mobile and touchable and usable on the go, or whether it feels like someone crammed your desktop DAW onto a different device. It’ll also be intriguing to see how plug-in counts work in practice on mobile hardware. And you do have to consider, cool as the plug-in support it, that you may miss some desktop plug-ins.

I’m eager to see someone review it, but that for me comes back to the question – how will you use it? And what is the real advantage of doing what you’ve done on a computer with an iPad?

My bet remains this: I still think the whole beauty of mobile devices is, for most, as a satellite, a complement to your desktop setup. And you have to consider how affordable something like a MacBook Air is – complete with Thunderbolt, something I don’t expect (as Intel tech) on an iPad any time soon. But that makes a touchable tablet as an inexpensive tool to orbit your studio really appealing, and I see some features here that could make this work in just this way.

(In fairness, I’d ask the same question of any new DAW entry – even on desktop.)

http://auriaapp.com/Products/auria

I believe Synthtopia gets the nod for this:
Auria Brings 48-Track Recording & VST Support To iPad – Are You Ready For The iPad To Replace Your Studio?

Wait, your whole studio? I think you still want monitors and mics and things, right? (Sorry, had to point that out…)

Not due until this spring, so we have some time to work out how to review it.

And yes, the most important question here is, is this actually possible or impossible?

Developer Responds

Rim from Wavemachine Labs answers questions I – and many developers – had about the app. I’m going to promote these from comments, as they’re important, and will add more as we hear it. (And yes, it’s actually quite good news to hear that they do have this working.)

CDM: How do you get 24-track audio recording on an iPad?
Rim: iOS5 supports USB Class 2 devices. We’ve got Auria recording with 18 input interfaces (the largest available right now). We’ve tested over 20 audio interfaces from various manufacturers and will be posting a list of compatible devices on or site when we released the app.

Although there are no 24-input USB interfaces out there, I’m ready for them in the code, and there’s enough resources to handle them.

Q.: How can you have “plug-ins” in an app on iOS, given Apple’s rules?
Apple won’t allow users to add anything to an app, like a plug-in for example. All add-ons to an iOS app must be statically linked into the app when it’s released. Auria supports real VST plug-ins which have been linked into the app. Users can then purchase these through the in-app store. If you’re a developer and would like info on how to port your plug-ins to iOS, drop me a line (rim at drumagog). Auria supports the official VST SDK (2.4), and we also have a custom JUCE library available for developers.

Q.: How much can you really do with an iPad versus a computer? Many of us would have imagined that doing this much was impossible.

I’ve spent the better part of a year of making 48 tracks and plug-ins happen It does work, even on the current hardware. If you’re going to be at NAMM. please stop by and see it work… You can have a 48-track project (with perhaps half of these tracks stereo), and have 24 tracks of channelstrips open, an instance of Drumagog on one track, and use about 70% of the CPU/ 50% of the disk resources. There’s also a track freeze function. We used assembler for lost of the heavy lifting and a lot of experience (I designed a very early touch screen based DAW in the late 80s).

The MPC name and MPC legend are as big as ever. But the current products? Not so much. Let’s face it: Akai could use a bit of a renaissance. Users these days put just as much stock in the MPC as a concept, and the MPC hardware still attracts users, but other products are stealing Akai’s thunder (Ableton Live, Native Instruments Maschine), and the human faces beloved by users aren’t at Akai (from the hacked JJOS firmware to Roger Linn off working on the Dave Smith-released Tempest). And while it doesn’t have the same mass appeal, hardware from other makers – the Tempest or the Machinedrum and Octatrack – have more street cred these days. That isn’t to say Akai isn’t doing well, but ironically, most of the Akai users I run into these days are using the APC with Ableton, or a treasured MPC from some years back.

This week, we get a glimpse of Akai’s strategy for changing that. The surprise: all three products are controllers for software, not the all-in-one, integrated hardware that made the MPC famous.

To many, it may be more the sad end of an era than the beginning of a new one. With plenty of software tools on the market, Akai was in the eyes of a loyal user base the go-to name for integrated hardware. But we’ll see if the MPC can win over those same folks with greater flexibility, as an apparent concession to the reduced development cost and expanded capabilities of relying on a computer for horsepower.

The MPC Renaissance is a larger controller with integrated audio and MIDI interface. It has a “Vintage Mode” said to emulate the sound “character” of the MPC3000, MPC60, and other units. And it comes with a fold-up LED screen and backlit pads. But the actual sound generation relies on the computer; it’s an interactive controller. We’ve, of course, seen this notion before, in Native Instruments’ Maschine. Whether that direct comparison is ultimately fair or not, the popularity of Maschine and the fact that it came first will make such comparisons inevitable. The major difference in Akai’s approach is that this is a big controller, complete with vintage-style palm rests and loads of I/O. It’s a Cadillac Escalade to NI’s Volkswagen Jetta. And with that extra space, you get more controls, like a stunning 4×4 array of encoders with LEDs, as popularized on Akai’s APC.

And the hardware looks far more elaborate than what we’ve tended to see, even from Akai. It’s the first controller that seems like it’d look at home next to an original MPC.

I like that the controller won’t be mistaken for anything but an MPC. The big question is, is Akai any good at making software? The first screenshot isn’t exactly pulse-quickening, though it does have plug-in support out of the gate. I wouldn’t judge on a preview, but I’ll say this: I think the software will make or break this product, and that’s what I’ll be asking about when I visit Akai at NAMM in Anaheim.

The other two products are teased now and coming soon:
MPC Studio is a “slimline” controller. (Well, almost anything would be more slimline than the massive, wide-load Renaissance, so we’ll see what that means.)

MPC Fly is a controller for iPad 2. If you can get over the name and the latest leap on the iPad bandwagon, consider this – there’s some seriously major consumer appeal here, and of the three, the Fly is the one where Akai is first to market. That makes a big difference. I can see why they kept it for last, even if it may be the least appealing to MPC loyalists.

I’ll reserve judgment on any of this, as I have no idea who worked on these products at Akai, or what the quality will be. My concern is that the appeal of the MPC is really integrated hardware, and mixing the computer into the equation is something other products already do reasonably well – ironically, including Akai’s own APC coupled with Ableton. It seems a huge test for Akai going into this generation of music production.

Now, I’m willing to accept the possibility that this will be a flexible, functional approach. But first, I’ll just wait through what I imagine will be a hailstorm of angry MPC purists. After that settles down, we’ll finally see if Akai is, as they’re putting it, “changing the game” – or if they’re in the same league. What determines that may be just how much the game has changed already. (And from the Ableton side, it’ll be a big test of the partnership with Akai for integrating hardware and software.)

Video below, with some artists onboard already – AraabMUZIK, Sean C, and LV.

Product specs and full info will be available week after next, coinciding with the massive NAMM trade show in California. We’ll be there with Akai.

Early spec highlights – basically, think MPC-style sound samples and features, and lots of audio I/O, as the two things missing from most rivals:

MPC Note Repeat, MPC Swing and MPC transport controls
MPC software for Mac or PC with 64-track sequencing capability
Two XLR-1/4” combo inputs and dedicated turntable input
Four-channel USB 2.0 audio interface and two-port US B 2.0 hub built in
Up to eight pad banks
Two MIDI inputs and four MIDI outputs
Stereo 1/4” out, stereo assignable mix 1/4” out & S/PDIF I/O
MPC SOFTWARE
64-track sequencing capability
6GB+ sound library, including all of the sounds of the classic MPC3000
Instant mapping and real-time adjustment of VST plug-ins
Record each track as an MPC drum program, Keygroup program or VST plug-in
Runs standalone and as VST, AU or RTAS plug-in
Supports WAV, MP3, AIFF, REX and SND
Supports samples and sequences from any MPC ever made
Mac and PC-compatible

http://www.akaiprompc.com/
http://www.akaiprompc.com/mpcrenaissance.php

2011 has seen sweeping changes in technology and music, alongside the loss of titans Max Mathews and Tsutomu Katoh, two pioneers of our world. Some of these stories passed quietly; some with great fanfare. Here, we reveal those stories that attracted the greatest number of Internet eyeballs, a metric not necessarily of importance but certainly of what reached the widest audience on this site. And there are definite trends: a hunger for mobile, both the explosive growth of iOS and tablets, but also a resurgent interest in MIDI (not to give away the end) and a desire by owners of devices powered by Apple’s rival Android to find tools themselves. Traditional tools, too, make a strong showing – people still care about DAWs, about production. And affordable, do-everything tools fare well.

Hidden from this list are many other stories significant to me, though remembering just which occurred between January the first of last year and now strains my brain. (CDM is external memory.) If you recall a story that was significant to you on this site – or even one we missed – let us know.

In the meantime, here’s what the eyes of the Internet watched – ranked by page views in our analytics tool:

30.

The Handheld Studio Evolves: Beatmaker 2 Developers Explain their iPhone Workflow

29.

Touchable Music: At Last, Lemur’s Interactive Touch Controls Make it to iPad (Videos)

28.

Music Patchwork: Ableton Makes Max for Live Cheaper, Showcases Creations by Henke, Hawtin, More

27.

Spectral Layers Audio Editor Focuses on Editing Sound Visually, a la Photoshop

26.

Mixing and Audio Interface, in the $450 MOTU Audio Express

25.

Euclidean Rhythms in Ableton MIDI Clips for Polyrhythmic Good Times; Microtonal Operator

24.

Tsutomu Katoh, Korg Founder and Chairman, Has Passed Away

23.

Rumors Mounting for Imminent Logic Pro X, a la Final Cut Pro X; No-Brainer Speculation

Yup, those no-brainer predictions were … no-brainer predictions. Spoiler alert: Logic 9 and Updated MainStage on App Store, at Cut-Rate Prices

22.

Mobile Korg Fun: Monotribe Adds Patterns and Sync, Wavedrum Mini is On-the-go Drum; Impressions

21.

FL Studio Mobile, Now Available on iPhone, iPad; Sampling, Android Support to Come

20.

Modeling Analog in a Digital Age: A Conversation with Universal Audio’s Chief Scientist; Gallery

19.

Playing the City: An Eindhoven Pianola Makes Urban Landscape into Music

18.

Expanding Touch and MIDI, Mobile iOS Control Gets More Mature in New and Updated Apps; Round-Up

17.

Akai Turns an iPad Into a Full-Sized Music Keyboard: Akai SynthStation49

16.

FL Studio “Fruity Loops” 10 Adds 64-bit Savvy, Smarter Editing, New Pitch, Time, and Harmony Add-ons

15.

Apple Gets Into iPad Music with $5 GarageBand

14.

Cubase 6: Amidst Familiar Leapfrog Features, A New Approach to Note-by-note Expression Editing

13.

KORG monotron DUO, monotron DELAY Bring Fun Back, via Mono/Poly, MS Circuits and Pocket Size

12.

Tempest, Roger Linn + Dave Smith Analog Drum Machine, is Official

11.

Virtual DJ Controllers: New Hardware for Serato, Traktor from Pioneer, Numark

10.

Useful Music Tools for Your Android Phone, and a New Sketchpad Joins Groovebox

9.

Making Music with Free and Open Source Software: Top Picks from Red Hat, Dave Phillips

8.

Learn Mastering Technique in Free Videos: Limiting, M/S, Dubstep Bass

7.

Reason 6 Combines Record Features, Adds Effects; New Bundles and First Props Hardware Interface

6.

First Look at Roland Jupiter-80, Images, and Reflections on the Jupiter Legacy

5.

Native Instruments’ Razor Synth: Dubstep to Ambience, Free Tutorial and Loops

4.

Android Adds USB Host + Audio, Open Hardware ADK with Arduino; Good News for Mobile Music

3.

A Flute Made on a 3D Printer, and the Possibilities to Come

2.

A Few Good TouchOSC Layouts, from Waldorf to Traktor to Ableton, and a Brief Rant

1.

How to Use MIDI to Make an iPad More Musically Connected, Productive: Video, Resources

I’m not sure how everyone who owns an iPad uses it for music, but I find myself strangely drawn, more than anything else, to analog step sequencers. With MIDI connections – via a special interface or a standard USB MIDI interface connected via adapter to the tablet – you can even drive hardware. For me, the app of choice has been Little MIDI Machine. Developer Chris Randall has a new application in the analog-style sequencing category, though, called Phaedra.

If you haven’t grabbed it already, you have until the New Year to get it for US$4.99 before the price jumps to ten bucks. And you get an impressive array of features:

• Multiple buses, with 32 steps max each
• Programmable note, velocity, gate time, and two MIDI CC outs for each step
• Send or receive MIDI Clock for sync
• Use MIDI hardware (via Core MIDI), other apps (using “background MIDI” or OMAC), or your computer (networking via a MIDI Network Session

Phaedra for iPad [iTunes Store Link; you'll need iOS 5.0]

I wanted to know more about the creation of Phaedra. Developer and musician Chris Randall, known for his work with boutique plug-in maker Audio Damage, released this under a new moniker, Naughty Panther, which does iOS and MIDI development. Chris has been known to mix old and new, as with his musical use of the Apple II. Here, he gives us some insight into how he went through the design process on this new tool.

CDM: How do you sketch out the UI on a project like this? Paper and pencil?

Chris: Normally I just make notes in a little Field Notes notebook as I think about them — I carry one everywhere — then once I have a clear mental image of what I want to make, I just bust it straight out in Photoshop (or, for skeuomorphic interfaces like this one, a combination of Photoshop for the panel and 3D Studio Max for the knobs and buttons).

What inspiration did you consider as far as hardware?

Adam sent me the page for the Moon Modular 568 “Sequential Trigger Source” and quipped that it would make a fun iPad app, and I kind of ran with it. (Their site is a frame-a-thon, but ’tis here: http://www.lunar-experience.com/home.html) As you can see, the UI for Phaedra closely follows the Moon Modular design. The functionality diverges quite a bit, though. Once I had the initial look, I just started adding features I personally thought would be nice in a step sequencer. Then the beta testers had some more input. And now that it is out, I’m getting a ton of great feature requests from the users. The next update will have some cool tricks in it, provided I can figure out how to code them.

What hardware would you recommend for connecting MIDI?

The best MIDI I/O situation for Phaedra is an Alesis iO Dock. Hands down. I have tested it with a half dozen MIDI interfaces via the [Apple] Camera Connection Kit [for connecting driverless USB MIDI interfaces], and they all work fine except that $5 cheap one that people buy from Amazon, which unsurprisingly, has problems. Phaedra also automatically creates a virtual port and connects to all virtual endpoints running on the iPad, so it can drive NLog Pro, Animoog, whatever. And it also is [Apple MIDI] Network Session aware, so it can just work over wi-fi.

I’m going to add OSC output as an option in the next update, I think. I’m still thinking about how to implement that, but it seems like it would be handy, and then Phaedra’s abilities would be greatly increased.

I’m also adding trigger outputs via the audio ports, so you can use Phaedra to clock an external modular sequencer like Makenoise René, or a pre-MIDI drum machine. I’m giving it 48-ppq clock for Korg drum machines, 24-ppq clock for most every other drum machine, and arbitrary rates from 16-ppq on up to 1-ppq for driving modular sequencers and your Monotribe. This should be handy, and will be sample-accurate in line with the MIDI clock output.

See also Chris’ blog entry on the app at Analog Industries:
Some Cool Shit

Have an uncommon yule with tools and music from the Commons.

That’s the pitch (so to speak) of the Ultimate Christmas Songbook, an iPad app built with 50 Christmas songs and a fully free and open source notation engine. Making use of public domain songs, the number of songs available continues to grow as the community contributes tunes. (Those contributors got the app for free.)

As notation proliferates on tablets, the app also suggests that “commercial” doesn’t have to mean “closed.” The scores themselves are available in open, cross-platform formats (MIDI, MusicXML, MuseScore, and PDF). But by generating revenues, the app can support further development – something that’s often been missing in open source music software projects.

And if you’re looking for a way to help family and friends play music, and they have iPads, the score reading features are quite reasonable. You get lovely display of scores, audio playback, tempo change, transpose, and the all-important font resize with reflow so you don’t have to squint.

The app is on iOS now, but other platforms are planned; an Android version is already in testing. And we hear lots more is coming from MuseScore, too, hot on the heals of a release that earned half a million downloads:
A Christmas update from MuseScore

More resources:
Open source code for mscore at SourceForge
Contributed scores to download
Ultimate Christmas Songbook, US$1.99 at iTunes
http://musescore.com/, software and community, including the desktop software for Mac, Windows, and Linux

For reference, here’s a look at how the desktop software works:

Consumption, or creation?

When it comes to notation and musical scores, the iPad (and tablets, generally) has fallen on the side of reading rather than writing, display rather than creation.

Notion for iPad, a mobile version of the desktop notation software, looks poised to change all of that. See video, above, for an overview of the features. Highlights:

• Entry, editing, and playback for notation and guitar tab
• Built-in samples, including keys, guitar and bass, and the London Symphony Orchestra as recorded at Abbey Road Studios
• Enter notes by tapping a keyboard or 24-fret fretboard, or select and drag and drop
• Mixer and effects
• Orchestra and guitar articulations and marks
• Text/lyrics support
• Import MIDI, MusicXML, GuitarPro, and export to PDF, MusicXML, and MIDI
• Look for guitar tab, MIDI, and MusicXML right inside the app – this could be a huge feature

There are also in-app purchases of instruments and effects and so on.

It’s a big deal, I think, and a huge release. Even if you use software other than Notion on desktop, I can see this as – at last – a way for people comfortable with notation to sketch ideas and enter MIDI and scores from a music stand. I look forward to testing it. (Anyone know of any other candidates in this category? Since Sibelius focused on score reading, Notion seems to be the first major release of this kind for a tablet.)

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

http://www.notionmusic.com/products/notionipad.html

By the way, what’s up with the lines at the end of the video?

You Honor Tradition!
You Defy Genre!
You The Create Future! [sic]

You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What would you do without freedom? Will you fight?

They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!

(Sorry, I may have broken into the speech from Braveheart there. It could be the London Symphony Orchestra music. Alba gu bra!)

Truly generative musical scores in games have been few and far between, and “music games” has traditionally meant arcade-style rhythm games in which you repeat phrases or whole songs as accurately as possible. Pugs Luv Beats breaks those molds. Part of a vanguard of new gaming creations that generate dynamic music on the fly, it marries grid-based sequencing and resource-gathering gaming, as music making and gameplay blur together. The interactively-produced music could itself become a new way of delivering a musical signature with sound packs.

And beneath it all lurks a free and open source library, libpd – the embeddable version of tried-and-true free graphical music environment Pure Data. (That library is now on GitHub, and vastly updated, by the way, and we’re expecting a book soon from the library’s principle author Peter Brinkmann.)

Oh, yeah, and don’t forget about some seriously addictive gameplay and adorable pugs. I’m suddenly not concerned about the 15 hours Europe-to-North-America travel I’m doing tomorrow.

Here’s what the gameplay looks like, since it’s much easier to see:

Pugs Luv Beats was just approved on the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPad.

Co-creator Yann Seznec (The Amazing Rolo) is a terrific musician; I just caught up with him in Edinburgh and Berlin and watched him play a homebrewed pig gut instrument with Matthew Herbert for the performance piece “One Pig,” on tour at Berghain. Working with Pd allowed Yann to focus on those musical impulses and not just engineering, and to let him try things he otherwise would never have imagined on a mobile title. So I asked Yann to walk us through how the project was built. He responded with an exhaustively-detailed examination of the evolution of this title, right down to the Pd patches. (Click through for high-res versions.) If your New Year’s Resolution is doing something with patching, you might want to hang onto these answers. Here’s Yann:

The origins of Pugs Luv Beats date back about two years. After making [musical iPhone game] Mujik, Jon (Jonathan Brodsky, aka jonbro) and I were trying to think of other approaches to music mobile app design, and we started thinking more and more about games. Music games, as a whole, are an oddly passive and traditionalist experience – you play along with a premade track, and you are judged on your accuracy and flair (which is strangely reminiscent of music conservatory mindset…). Obviously there are exceptions (RjDj’s Dimensions, Elektroplankton, etc.), but there you go.

Particularly interesting to me was the idea that game mechanics are often very similar to compositional techniques. So for example, when Sonic runs at a normal speed he collects rings at one rate. However when he powers up and goes super fast, he collects rings at a much higher rate. This could be compared to introducing a melody and then speeding it up – and when there are two players, doing this with two melodies. Instant fugue!

We started looking at how we could make a music game where the music and the game elements were fully intertwined and augmented by each other. So Jon prototyped a space shooter drum machine. It was awesome.

To make a (very very very long and boring) story short, our idea and prototype landed us some funding from Channel 4 and Creative Scotland to work on games that focus on musical creativity and composition.

For various reasons, we decided to put aside the space shooter drum machine for a while, and start from scratch. After going through several full prototyping iterations we eventually settled on a core game mechanic that turned out to be in many ways similar to a Tenori-on [Yamaha grid instrument]/Boiingg-style [monome hardware patch] music generation system – in our final prototype, you controlled a series of little dots that moved around the screen, creating loops. This is super fun from a musical perspective because it’s easy and rewarding within a few seconds, and when you have several loops going it can gain some pretty serious rhythmic and melodic depth.

The key from there for us was turning this into a game. We had been using free Internet graphics packs up until then (we hadn’t hired our artist Sean yet) which featured a ladybug, so we had been referring to the main characters as ‘bugs’. During some discussion one of us accidentally said ‘pugs’, and the game idea was born. We constructed a story about pugs and their love for beets (like the vegetables) which create beats (ha!), and how their love turned into greed and got out of control, destroying their world. The game, therefore, is about helping the pugs rebuild their lost civilization by guiding them to create beats. You grow your galaxy by collecting beats, which you do most efficiently when you dress your pugs up in costumes. What’s not to like?

To get to the part that I imagine CDM readers are most interested in, the app development was done by Jon using openFrameworks, [lightweight language] Lua, our own game engine called Blud, and the audio is all done in Pure Data using libpd (through ofxPd). In hindsight we started using libpd really late in the game, just at the very end of the prototyping stage, which was rather silly. Our adoption of libpd basically made our dev cycle about a million times more efficient. My background is as a musician and sound designer, and I have very little coding knowledge. I do, however, have lots of knowledge of Max/MSP, so picking up Pure Data was pretty easy. This allowed Jon to completely pass off all the audio processing (not to mention aesthetic sound design choices) to me, saving him loads of time, giving me direct control over the sound, and letting me test and prototype different approaches to audio within an environment that I knew would be recreated in the game. Also, as Jon mentioned to me recently, by using PD we are able to take advantage of 20 years of audio DSP research and development. Pretty amazing.

How it all works:

The entire audio engine is contained within this patch. Pardon the messiness.

The simplest part of the patch is the “sounds” section, which is used to playback simple sound effects, for the most part linked with interface actions in the game. I did this by creating a very simple patch which plays a sound when it receives a bang. Which sound it plays is dictated by the argument (in this case, the sound of discovering a new capsule). The process for adding a new sound, then, is as simple as adding the sound file to the /assets/sounds/ folder, and making a new instance of “sounds.pd” and naming it the same as the new sound. Jon, in the project code, created a list called “sounds” which is sent into Pure Data. When that list contains “capsule”, a bang is sent into that subpatch, and the sound is played.

A more complex version of what could be done with this type of data is seen in the voice of Mr Puggles, who helps you learn how to play the game. Mr Puggles pops on and off the screen to guide you through the first few worlds, and when he does he send Pure Data a “puggleShow” and “puggleHide” signal. I wanted to give Puggles a funny synthesizer voice that was different every time – dead simple in PD. To do that, I take the puggleShow bang and use it to trigger five more bangs, spaced out over a second. Each of these bangs triggers a random number which is translated into a MIDI note. This note controls the pitch of two oscillators (a sine and a sawtooth), one of which is slightly modified to make them slightly different pitches. These are played through a short volume envelope and a filter which is also controlled by a random number generator. Result? Hilarious beeping boopy Mr Puggles voice, all coming from one bang.

Every time a player buys or selects a planet, a short list is sent to Pure Data comprised of the planet BPM and a random number seed. The BPM is used to calculate delay times and such, and the random number seed is used to create a sort of musical identity for the planet. This is done by choosing a “beat library” and a musical mode.

The mode is created by building a lookup table that chooses the notes from a chromatic scale that would be used in a particular mode. For example, a major scale (ionian mode) uses notes 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 12. Each melodic sound library I used is comprised of a full chromatic octave, and the notes that are played on any given planet are controlled by this table. This ensures not only that all of the different sound libraries being played on a planet will be in the same key, but also that a planet will have a strong melodic identity.

The sound libraries in the game are all controlled by the pugs on the planets. As they run around, each time they land they will trigger a sound. The type of sound is dependent on what terrain they are on – thus, if they run through the snow they play a toy piano, if they run through lava a distorted guitar, etc. There are two states of playing the sound, one if the player deliberately tells the pug to go to that tile, and the second if the pug is traveling over that tile to get somewhere else. It’s super easy to do that kind of thing in Pd; just set up two different ‘play sound’ envelopes, maybe a little extra delay or reverb, and you’re done!

The final piece of the puzzle for making the pugs running around into music is to make each tile be a different note. The terrain of each planet is created by making a sort of height map, where different heights correspond with different terrain types (grass, water, snow, etc). This also means that each tile has a unique number between 0 and 1. When the player buys or selects a planet, a giant random number table is generated in Pure Data which creates a number between 1 and 13 for each possible value between 0 and 1. That value is what is used to pick the note of the mode. This somewhat convoluted approach again lets us make sure that each planet will have a unique, but fully reproducible, musical character.

The actual playing of the sounds is probably the messiest part of the patch structure. Purists look away now.

I wanted to make sure this part of the patch was as flexible as possible, so I ended up using the soundfiler and tabread~ objects, rather than tabplay~, which is great in practice though does look rather uncouth. Additionally, I had some limitations imposed upon the structure of the patch – namely, I had to keep the number of tables down as much as possible, to save on memory. So each sound bank has two voice polyphony – there are many sound banks, and the beats and sound effects aren’t counted in this, so that limitation is not really heard in the final product at all. It did mean I had to work out a decent voice allocation system though!

I think my memory issues were probably my only problem with using PD in this project – though only indirectly. As I mentioned, they were hardly a problem artistically, however it took me a while to get used to the idea that not everything I patched on a computer would work on an iPhone. Similarly, I had to be very careful about things like relative volumes. In a generative music game like Pugs Luv Beats, the player could quite easily send 15 pugs running around making sound, which mounts up pretty quickly. It means that all of the patches and sound need to be designed to withstand lots of triggering without distorting. None of these things are problems, really, all they require is regular testing on devices and simulators – something that every mobile developer is already used to.

That’s the Pure Data audio engine in a nutshell. The end result is a flexible and powerful audio engine that sounds really great and is fully integrated into Pugs Luv Beats. The game is a great combination of music, silliness, and strategy – there’s a bit of something in there for everyone. You can definitely just play with the game to make beats, or you can try and collect all of the costumes, or you can try and make the most efficient planet ever. You can also explore the galaxies being made by your Game Center friends, to hear what they’re up to.

The background story:

And, just for fun, a silly promo featuring real pugs. Anyone traumatized by the sight of Pd patches, these should relax you.

More information at the developer site:
http://luckyframe.co.uk/pugsluvbeats/game.html

Since today is Beethoven’s 241st birthday, it seems only appropriate to inject a little conventional notation into today’s coverage. And what better way to do that than with an iPad app that promises some musician-friendly reading features.

We’ve already looked a couple of times at Avid’s Sibelius-powered Scorch iPad reader, which features nice output and score integration, and recently added PDF support.

Scorecerer has some unique features – aside from, augh, a somewhat unpronounceable name. It goes further in page turn control, MIDI integration, and DAW integration (through MIDI program changes). A desktop version aids in scanned score management.

And it has two potentially killer features: one is the ability to manage converting your conventional notation to PDF, and the other is – at last – proper markup.

Run-down of features:

• Markup: highlight or add handwritten notes (why every app doesn’t include this, standard, I have no idea – it’s a deal-breaker without it.) See the video for more.
• Meet your MIDI page turner: Load songs, change pages, from any MIDI instrument – or send page turns from a DAW’s sequence playback (via a program change message) for automated page turns.
• Total page layout control: Arrange pages in an arbitrary sequence, so, for instance, repeats and DS al Coda sections simply repeat in front of you instead of requiring you to go back.
• Desktop PDF conversion: Scan images or import PDFs, straighten out crooked scans, remove borders, create lead sheets, all in a batch-conversion desktop management tool.
• Desktop Pro software: Add on this US$39.95 desktop companion, and you additionally get to publish scanned or imported music as a set of images, PDF, Kindle DX, or MusicPad Pro. (The free iPad edition only exports to the iPad.) You can also batch convert a stack of music – like an entire fake book – by splitting it into PDFs.

The emphasis on scanning and importing PDFs is a concession to the likely reality of iPad notation users. Simply put, you’re probably not going to use an iPad for notation unless you can make it useful with all the scores you’ve already got. Now, some of this batch processing I imagine could make publishers very nervous about piracy. But I still imagine that – as we saw with the combination of digital downloads and ripped CDs, only with yet-more-expansive collections – we’ll see a bit of each. (Selling scores online I still think will be a big market for publishers.)

But I just keep coming back to this: you have to have markup. And I look forward to watching tablet apps in general work to provide features that make them more usable to musicians.

More on the app:
http://www.deskew.com/

There’s a free, “Lite” version that you can try out first.

The full version is US$9.95.

Scorcerer @ iTunes App Store

There are times when something happens that reminds you why you make the sacrifices to do what you do. A real highlight of 2011 for me was Gwydion ap Dafydd appearing with the MeeBlip, our open source synthesizer, baked into a cookbook.

I knew Gwydion had gotten creative in making a housing for his MeeBlip kit, and I knew that it was a book. But then, he opened it up to reveal the MeeBlip’s controls popping out of a cookbook page, with I/O ports conveniently located on the side, and even the ability to remove the panel to get at the board. And then… the pig’s eye lit red to indicate MIDI messages and power, and I was floored.

Synth in a Book [Konkreet Labs, also here in Berlin]

I can share some good news from the MeeBlip project: we’re now shipping a US$39.95 MeeBlip micro kit, an ultra-compact variation of the MeeBlip. It’s in stock in Canada, in transit within 48 hours. I’m especially excited, because the MeeBlip micro is designed to allow MeeBlip users to surprise us. With pins for analog and digital input, you could connect any arbitrary number of controls in any layout. You could have one giant filter knob if you wanted, or turn it into a wearable project in a purse. Or you could just make a nice, little housing and control it via MIDI. (We now provide full MIDI control of all of the controls.) And we’re excited that it’s forty bucks, because it makes a kit highly accessible to hobbyists. A fully-assembled version will be available soon.

Meet the MeeBlip micro: Small, Hackable Project Synth, Shipping Now, $39.95

http://meeblip.noisepages.com/get-one/

We can’t wait to see what you do with it. We think the simplicity of the MeeBlip’s design, its low cost, and its straightforward MIDI operation could mean people will turn the micro into things we can’t yet imagine. (At least, that’s why we designed it that way!)

In 2012, we’ll again be offering MeeBlips in quantity that come with cases, and affordable MeeBlips (and now MeeBlip micros) that you can get pre-assembled, so the need to solder something together won’t keep your synth on a shelf. Now, with MIDI input in place, we’re ready to get back to MeeBlipping and playability. James Grahame has worked feverishly on the engineering of the current MeeBlip generation, and I look forward to us getting to share the work he did, and how he did it. He’s also been working on how to make the thing easier to manufacture and ship, so we’re ready to share that, too!

It’s also been fascinating to watch people use MIDI – and even iPads – to control the MeeBlip.

Gwydion’s MeeBlipBook (MeeBook?) made another surprise appearance (it sure as heck surprised me) in a teaser video for Lemur on the iPad. In case you missed it:

I had been playing the MeeBlip, when my keyboard or laptop weren’t handy, with the excellent Little MIDI Machine for iPad. I’m looking forward to playing with some other non-computer MIDI solutions, too, not just the iPad.

I’ve seen at least one Lemur template in the works, too; will link to those – and perhaps Pd patches and such – when they’re ready.

In the meantime, the fact that the MeeBlip is out in the world doing things and making sounds, and that we’re at last shipping them again, means I actually have a reason to be festive this holiday season. And, MeeBlip, what are you doing, New Year’s, New Year’s Eve?

meeblip.com

Back before the iPad (perhaps deservedly) hogged the spotlight, there were interactive tables. And one of the selling points of these new interfaces was collaborative play. Unlike the solo experience of using a computer, you’d gather around a display surface – just as you would a dining room table – and share the device. You’d play together.

The iPad is much smaller, but in a way, that lends a certain charm, cramming hands around its little surface. (Anyone play Hungry, Hungry Hippos?)

Tapping fingers on that shared surface, you have an experience that, while perhaps less finely-tuned than using the iPad one-on-one, you actually get to have with other human beings

And so that reason alone gives Rockmate special mention. I hear mainstream journalists ask questions like “is this the way people will play music in the future?” That’s, of course, roughly as intelligent as someone looking at Pong and saying, “well, I guess that about does it for Wimbledon, huh?” But it’s the awkwardness of playing a virtual band that makes this look like fun, like something families and friends might use. It could also be fun to play after a little too much NAMM. And the developers have lavished functionality on it (see specs below). They’ve also got an intro price of $1, or about one quarter per person. Have at it. I think it looks like brilliant fun.

It’s a set of sampled instrument for four players on a single device, with:

Realtime looper
Smart metronome
Mixer with level and pan controls
Realtime Fx (distortion, multiFX, powerchord)
Chords progression customizable
Create your own chords
Save your styles (Chords progression, FX, Drum, keyboard style…)
Export: .wav or .aac
Sharing: iTunes sharing folder and Email.
Airplay

The chord feature brings back fond memories of home organs for me. From the developers of the excellent DM1 drum machine.

On iTunes:

Rockmate @ iTunes Music Store

Official site: http://www.fingerlab.net/website/Fingerlab/Rockmate.html