The novelty of the iPhone or [your favorite device here] may fade. But part of what matters in mobile design is thinking about how to create interfaces and uses that can scale to the size of your palm. That can mean embracing radical simplicity, and reducing an interactive, digital musical object down to its essential noise-making functions. In acoustic instrument design, that means economizing sound production in a form. In the digital world, it means finding the interactive role you’d want to bring with you onstage, in the length roughly equivalent your fingertips to your wrist.

I’m a few weeks overdue actually writing about it, but one design I really admire is Star6, developed by Jason Forrest and Agile Partners. There are no awkward, gimmicky emulations of hardware interfaces here; it’s clear this was an interface that was illustrated in two-dimensions. It has funky nerdster chic color combos, with neon pink atop wood grain. It demonstrates that, in the space of a grid, you can fit triangles. It makes use of computer wifi capability to easily load samples without mucking around with over-designed clients – or record right on the iPhone. And it’s – surprisingly – one of the few apps to make heavy use of the accelerometer, which means rather than looking like you’re trying to text message someone, you can move it around. There’s a “grain” mode so that you can randomize sounds and not have everything synced all the time. I also enjoy the “reset” button. These are all design decisions that could make sense in more commercial software – and our own home-brewed Max/Pd patches and such, too.

Apparently Agile Partners were also influenced by the brightly-colored, handheld fun of the Buddha Machine, too; see their interview with the creator.

Star6
A lovely lineup of free samples, including the Buddha Machine

It’s not a perfect app (no mobile app really can be – that’s the fun of it), and it doesn’t do everything, but I find Star6’s personality rather irresistible. The real test of all of this is whether you can use it in real music-making. And, while my inbox is full of cheezy bands trying to ride the iPhone wave, I love the offbeat Star6 music launch party from Berlin, as documented in the video below. It ranges from Jason’s own work to Warp Records artist Jackson and ex-Chicks on Speed Kiki Moorse. And there’s a crazy iPhone + banjo + accordion cover of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl.” There are even some genuinely experimental sounds – not the sort of thing you’d expect at a launch event, sadly. (I wish we could have more of that.)

An Evening With Star6 – Berlin (Compilation) from Star6 on Vimeo.

More on the artists, and some of Star6 creator Jason Forrest’s own unique work:

Jason’s own artistic aesthetic, as seen in this video for “War Photographer,” does have this quirky efficiency to it, the sense of cut-out animation (in both visuals and music, I’d argue), and saturated, rich, retro colors.

The eclectic Berlin launch.

Jackson (Warp, FR)
Kiki Moorse (ex-Chicks On Speed,DE)
Song Band (US)
Jason Forrest (CRD, US)
Guido Mobius (Karaoke Kalk, DE)
Ben Butler & Mousepad (SCT/DE)
DJ’s: Finkobot & Marius Reisser

Jacki Terrasse / Joseph (@ Maria)
An Der Schilling Brücke
10243 Berlin

For more on the artists:
myspace.com/moorse
myspace.com/jacksonand
myspace.com/benbutlerandmousepad
myspace.com/guidomoebius
myspace.com/jason_forrest
myspace.com/songbandmyspace
myspace.com/finckobot
myspace.com/mariusreisser

Video shot by Martin Sulzer
Photos by Marco Macrobi

Complete sets:
Ben Butler and Mousepad
Guido Mobius
Kiki Moorse
Jason Forrest

I’ve had the weekend to begin working with Sonic Charge Synplant, a wonderful new synth creation from Magnus Lidström. Lidström is a Propellerhead veteran best known for creating Reason’s Malström synth. But while Lidström has made a name in sound, I have to say, Synplant is something very, very different. Partly because of the user interface, partly because of the strange and mysterious sounds that emerge, Synplant makes you feel like you’re on an episode of Star Trek – like you’ve smuggled some alien vegetation after shore leave and are squeezing its leafy bits so it makes odd sounds. (Watch out for spores!)

The idea of the interface is not unlike the morphing UIs of old MetaTools software like Kai Krause’s Kai’s Power Tools and Eric Wenger’s Bryce and (as U&I Software) MetaSynth. Instead of tweaking a lot of fake knobs and doing the usual oscillator / filter adjustments, you’re presented with a big globe containing a leafy plant. Extend different arms of your plant, and you explore different variations of the sound. All of this can be done in real-time, so you could create ever-changing synth sounds that you modify directly or that randomly respond to input. Or you could use it as an alternative way of dialing in new sounds.

It’s all really inspiring to work with, partly because it returns you to the experience of exploring sound directly. Many user interfaces have tried to do that, but because the interface allows subtle and even fine-tuned exploration and not just randomization, and because the sounds themselves are so exotic, here it really seems effective. In fact, if it were just brute-force randomization that drove Synplant, I think you’d lose interest in it quickly. But there are some clever interface details that allow you to control the degree of mutation, how you restore previous settings, and how you map sounds to pitch and audition sounds. Despite similarities to Apple’s Sculpture (in Logic Studio) and Kai’s Power Tools, I actually find Synplant’s similar UI elements do some of the same things in a way that’s more usable.

(Before anyone asks: on a superficial level, yes, Synplant is closer to Sculpture than the MetaTools work. It’s even got the same circular sliders and interactive ring and draggable circular puck on a modeled, dark 3D-ish globe thing as in Sculpture. But because mutation is central, the functional reality of using it is closer to Kai’s designs. Those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t sweat it, just go have fun with Synplant.)

I’m working on a video / audio walkthrough of Synplant because it’s well worth it. But I couldn’t wait to talk about it. Magnus is finishing up the product site as I write this, so go have a look. I will say, the sound demos almost don’t do the product justice, because you really have to get the impact of using it with the interface. I’ll have more on this soon.

Availability: Right this instant

Price: US$89

Compatibility: Mac, Windows, Universal, Vista (VST/AU)

Sonic Charge Synplant

More good news: Magnus’ µTonic is available as a bundle with Synplant (US$158). If you’re not familiar with µTonic aka Micro Tonic, it’s a truly brilliant drum machine synth in an age of generic drum machine samplers. µTonic is old news, but then many good things are. I feel bad I’ve never written about µTonic so I’ve been working with that, as well. If you do own µTonic, you get a 25% discount on Synplant for a limited time.

Elsewhere:

Digital LoFi also participated in the early, pre-release test and has some thoughtful reflections on using the instrument.

Analog Industries considers the design from the perspective of a fellow designer, and laments that some blogs didn’t “get it” from seeing the press release. (Then again, no matter how press releases are crafted, that always happens … I certainly don’t always get it right.)

Having looked at two examples of what the Lemur multi-touch hardware can do, the videos above illustrate directly what I’m talking about when I describe two different approaches. Metrognome is an insanely-talented guru in the modular instrument/effects-building environment Reaktor. He’s working to build new live performance tools that meld live arrangement / remixing / DJing with a kind of computer meta-instrument. It’s really a great illustration of how software can become a live instrument. It also represents one of two paths in thinking about what touch can do for live music performance.

1. Multi-touch as virtual controller: The Lemur’s design assumes that what you want to do is create virtual hardware, using a stock set of knobs, faders, gestural controllers, envelope editors, and the like. The advantage is, these interfaces are modular and consistent. The disadvantage: you’re limited to pre-built screens and pre-built widgets, so you can’t do anything outside what’s given.

2. Screen as direct controller: The difference with the Reaktor examples is that there’s no intermediary. Whatever is on your computer screen is the interface. The downside: that includes all the usual UI clutter, and the open-ended possibilities could be overwhelming. The upside: as Metrognome artfully demonstrates, you can imagine any interface, build it, and immediately control it – including things the Lemur may not do. The other, not insignificant advantage: you don’t have to buy another piece of hardware, making this route much cheaper. Your screen or projection simply becomes the touch controller surface. Multi-touch isn’t quite ready for prime time on computers yet, but it could be soon.

I’m not saying one is better than the other. In fact, I suspect some people will prefer the Lemur approach even if it means spending additional money, because they want something that has some of the flexibility of a screen, but still behaves more or less like a dedicated controller. But I think it’d be a mistake to miss that we have two very different angles on touch here.

Of course, none of this stops you from building or buying a $50 or $100 knob box and being perfectly happy with that.

For more details on what Metrognome is doing (including an up-close shot of that beautiful ensemble), see our Kore minisite – and expect some more details on this soon over on that site, thanks to our Reaktor contributor Peter Dines:

Reaktor + Touchscreen = Touch Grains, Touch Performances, Wild UIs [Kore@CDM]

We’ve been lucky enough to break the story of Circle, a new soft synth with a creative user interface, and to take you behind the scenes of its creators thinking process in creating the software. But maybe you don’t buy into the idea of a synth that focuses on flow and working method, or its wave morphing, modulation and effects, and quick MIDI learn features. Well, now you can give Circle a try for yourself, because it’s publicly available:

Future Audio Workshop Circle

It’s obviously something a lot of people are eagerly anticipating, because, having missed the announcement only by a day, my inbox is full of tips. (Thanks to all of you for the reminders – and seriously, don’t hesitate to nag me on a story; sometimes I get distracted!)

Normally, this is where I’d put the specs, but the specs you’ve seen before: wavetable plus analog-modeling synthesis, with lots of modulation and effects. That’s the formula we’re seeing in plenty of new synths. The difference here is an unusually clean interface with color-coded assignments and bright, friendly graphics that have been optimized to support touch should computers go that way. (Windows 7? Snow Leopard?) There’s drag-and-drop assignment, much like what I loved in Native Instruments’ Massive, but with a distinct, graphical approach here. And, incidentally, you get this graphical goodness without the latest OS – Vista and Leopard are supported, but so are XP, Tiger, and Panther. Thank cross-platform libraries in the software’s foundation – it’s the Other Platform.

The creators also tell us this release is just the beginning, with additional features in store (like OpenSoundControl support, which I’m personally eager to try out).

I’ll be playing with this in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. But I’m very eager to hear your feedback – and sound designs, if you go that route.

And if anyone sees a cheap airfare from New York to Ireland, I may have to go visit FAW myself. Hmm … Farecast?

What’s this new Max about, and why was it such a big deal at the AES trade show? To really understand, let’s turn to gaming for a moment. When Nintendo described their vision for the Wii, they talked about appealing to three groups of customers:

• The “hard-core” gamer; that is, their existing audience, of course
• “Lapsed” gamers: people who had done some gaming at some point but lost interest
• Entirely new gamers, across a variety of demographics

History will have to be the judge of Nintendo’s slim white box and controller-wagging interface, but I heard some similar development goals at the AES audio show this weekend. Nowhere was this more apparent than Cycling ’74’s upcoming Max 5. Substitute the word “patcher” for the word “gamer”, and you’ve got a snapshot of the new Max.

After all, whether you’ve touched Max before or not, you’ve likely got some needs in at least one of these categories. Beginners are easily intimidated by the “visual programming” metaphors of a blank-slate, modular tool like Max. Many others get through a couple of patches, often in a school course, but wind up having difficulty getting beyond that first work later on. And even advanced users (maybe especially advanced users) are always looking for ways of working faster.

The build I saw of Max wasn’t entirely complete, but I will say it’s tremendously promising. I talked to many for whom the chance to see Max 5 was the highlight of the entire AES show. It’s a tool you really need to see in action, so be sure to check out Cycling’s just-posted videos of the program:

A First Look at Max 5 [Cycling '74]

This is not the all-words, no-pictures manifesto we saw recently: now you actually get to see the tool in action. Highlights:

• The interface zooms, scales, and snaps: I knew this was coming, but I was really pleased at how Max-like this is. It still looks like Max, but it’s more usable.
• There’s a patcher inspector: The inspector lets you easily adjust attributes without mucking about with typing things into an object box or sending messages to an object, which was always very confusing. You don’t see much of this in the video, but trust me, this is huge, especially for more-complex Jitter objects. And while this is shades of Quartz Composer, it works much better than the clunky UI implementation in that tool.
• Finding the object you need is much easier: There’s a pretty visual browser which will be a lot of fun, but there’s also auto-complete when you type in a name. (Programmers will recognize that functionality from IDEs like Eclipse; Mac users, think QuickSilver fast-typing goodness.)
• There’s a nifty new file browser: Drawing from iTunes and Ableton Live, this makes it really easy to get access to files in the file system — no more manually entering paths. The bad news is, it sounds as though this may not initially be usable in your own patches, for, say, making a video navigator for a VJ app or sample loader for an instrument; hopefully, that’ll either sneak into the final build or be available soon after. (The Cycling page does mention integration of the database that powers this browser with JavaScript, though, so advanced users may have some new options.)



A new file browser takes cues from iTunes and Ableton Live.
• Debugging and feedback and help everywhere: The old way of working with Max was pretty slow. Add an object. Click the object’s help to figure out what it does. Look up its help page. Go find the tutorial reference in which it’s introduced. Add a print object to watch what data is coming out of it. Go back and try to see why it’s not working. Now, there’s feedback everywhere: pop-up hints for each inlet and outlet, integrated help, the ability to mouse over objects and see what data is moving through them (including Jitter matrices, apparently), and even better-organized data feedback in the Max window. The integrated help is much richer, too, though it wasn’t quite ready for demo when I saw it; I expect we’ll find out more about this soon.
• Presentation mode for performance, and the end to messy patches: This is really the feature that could make you jump for the new Max. Presentation mode lets you select elements in your patch and add them to a performance interface, so that in addition to locking a patch, you can build a custom interface as an additional layer. Let me translate that: you’ll never have to stare at a giant, messy patch while you’re trying to perform again. Now, Reaktor has had something like that for years, but again, the implementation is really Max-like and unique. When you go to presentation mode, you can drag objects where you want them. Switch back to editing mode, and they remain connected to the rest of your patch and automatically move back to their edited locations. (If that didn’t make sense, go watch the video, and expect to see more examples of this soon!)

There are still lots of questions, of course: there’s no solid release date or pricing plan, and we haven’t yet heard what Cycling is cooking up with its new partner Ableton, or how that fits into Max 5. Jitter will be supported with this new release, though, like the internals in Max/MSP, it doesn’t sound like there will be any earth-shaking changes immediately. (I.e., it won’t be Jitter 2.0.) Then again, Jitter patchers should benefit just as much as MSP heads from all these other features, so I wouldn’t underestimate the potential there.

I think there’s no question this will step up the game for custom-patched music and multimedia software. Max isn’t the only game in town by any means, though it is arguably the most extensive tool (especially if you’re counting number of objects). I can’t wait to get my hands on the new Max and share the patching experience, and I’m equally interested to see what happens with the next version of a more specialized tool like Reaktor. As always, stay tuned.

Technology and music have always had dynamic, changing, intertwined histories. It’s easy to forget that we’re in the middle of that history, both in terms of the now ubiquitous practices of DJs and the mind-numbing progression of software updates.

I recently got to chat with Ableton’s David Cross about the new crossfader curves in Live 6, and we wound up talking more generally and philosophically about crossfaders, how they’re designed, and how they evolved. Crossfaders are wonderful things. We take finely-tuned crossfade curves for granted in video and motion work, but when it comes to music and sound, you rarely see crossfaders outside DJ hardware and software.

Cross, himself a DJ, recently revealed to me that he had been researching mixer history before coming to Ableton’s US staff, and even wrote a thesis paper on the topic. DJ history might not yet have been embraced by the average music historian, but Cross recommends Last Night a Dj Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey, by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton (Grove Press):

Last Night a Dj Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey

Bill and Frank have their own website with more resources:
DJ History

… and they’ve also built “the DJ Centenary”, 100 Years of the DJ, an interactive timeline of DJing for Yahoo! Music UK/Ireland. 100 years, you say? Absolutely, as long as you count the broadcast of a contralto singing Handel’s ‘Largo’ from Xerxes to shipboard telegraph operators in 1906. (Now I feel like I have to do a Xerxes remix!)

Of course, this foray into 100 years of history all began because I asked about a software feature that cropped up just a few years ago. So back to that: David explains how Live 6 wound up with crossfader curves at the eleventh hour of development.

Just to summarize, there are now seven crossfader curves in Live 6. The original ‘transition’ curve is still there, but so are six new ones that cover the spectrum between quick cuts and gradual fades. Three of the curves are dipped, meaning the volume of each channel will gradually decrease across the entire length of the crossfader. This is to accommodate the volume ‘doubling’ that occurs when mixing the drums of beat-mixed sources. The three ‘dipped’ curves are: constant, dipped, and intermediate.

The three remaining curves (fast cut, slow cut, slow fade) are dipless, and are more suited for fading or cutting audio sources that are dynamically different (ie: an acapella onto a beat, or a bassline onto a pad). Compared to the original ‘transition,’ all of these curves have a much more gradual travel at the middle of the fader, which should make them better for people accustomed to DJ mixers.

Initially, the curves were put in as a surprise. The developers included them in beta version 8 (out of 21 total betas). In the “Improvements from Live 6.0b7 to 6.0b8 section” they said, cryptically: “Added some… mhm well, I’m sure you’ll find it :) .” It took about four hours until anyone realized they could right-click the crossfader and find 6 new curves in there. Ed: I didn’t figure it out at all; I was lucky enough to find out from the more attentive Ableton forum readers. -PK

As feature implementations go, the crossfader curves’ introduction in Live 6 was somewhat unorthodox. There were a number of forum threads asking/begging/demanding that extra crossfader functionality be added into Live 6. Now, that’s par for the course on the Ableton forums – what was odd was that our developers responded to this new wave of requests with a fully fleshed-out feature in just a couple of weeks. What’s even more surprising was that this was all done during the beta test period, a time when nearly all of our developers were doing nothing but squashing bugs.

I asked our CEO about the implementation, and it sounds like it was a combination of unlikely factors that got the curves in Live 6. First and foremost, Live’s development is tied into satisfying user requests – when a vocal subset of our user base raises a ruckus about the program, we’ll actually take note. Second, compared to something like Plug-in Delay Compensation or Multicore and Multiprocessor support, adding a few extra curves to the crossfader takes very little time. Finally, our development team was already working non-stop on tweaking Live 6, so adding a new feature (especially one that didn’t require too much time) wasn’t too big a deal.

That said, I would strongly suggest requesting new features between versions, not right before they’re released! This was a very unique situation, we at Ableton usually spend a ridiculous amount of time discussing new features before we even consider writing a line of code.

And there you have it. Part of what I like about Ableton’s cross-fader implementation is that, because it’s integrated into a general-purpose music environment, it lets anyone benefit from DJ techniques in whatever music genre they like, even if they don’t call themselves a DJ.

I don’t expect Live 6, or any other software upgrade that came out this year, will be showing up on anyone’s history. But then, maybe someone using some of these tools will make history of their own — and that’s always more interesting.

Thus concludes a major tangent around what just looked like a single feature bullet point, just to prove how interconnected these things can be.

Last days of disco ]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/12/100-years-of-dj-history-modern-software-development-inside-ableton-live-6-crossfader-curves/feed/ 1 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/05/kvr-contest-developers-get-prize-money-you-get-free-music-plug-ins-with-unusual-interfaces/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/05/kvr-contest-developers-get-prize-money-you-get-free-music-plug-ins-with-unusual-interfaces/#comments Thu, 05 Oct 2006 17:14:14 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/05/kvr-contest-developers-get-prize-money-you-get-free-music-plug-ins-with-unusual-interfaces/

Music-making in the age of ElectroPlankton: colliding organisms and physics may be just as likely on your plug-in interface as the usual fake-aluminum knobs. NuSofting’s Collide and Play.

Johan Larsby points us to a developer contest at the mind-bogglingly comprehensive audio plug-in site, KVR Audio:

KVR Audio Developer Challenge

Developers are competing for a prize fund donated by readers and users, currently up to US$1770 (probably more than you’d make from a small plug). Developer entries are currently closed, but that means voting is on. There are 31 entries; the contest is pretty Windows-biased with only 5 Mac-compatible entries, which makes me suspect that cross-platform developers will have a major edge in voting.

Of course, the upshot of all of this is that you get to take advantage of lots of free software — just leave a few dollars in the hat to keep the thing going. Here are a few of the more unusual contributions:

1. Bram Bros Lunchbox Battles: “Play drum contests in your lunchbreaks and earn street cred from your coworkers with your block rocking jams!”
2. Videovst by Metamorphosis: “Videovst is a freeware VST plugin for playing back MPEG1 movie files in time-sync with your favourite audio host.”
3. Pondular by Mopiskevin @ Mopis-Synth.com: “Pondular is a unique way of interacting with a synth. The grid on the screen is your “pond.” Playing notes or clicking creates ripples in the pond.”
4. Collide and Play by NuSofting: Standalone program for Windows designed to compose ambient music in realtime by the interaction of animated graphic elements

There are also some very mature-looking instruments and effects in there, including some feature-laden pattern sequencers, compressors, and synthesizers, as well as the usual experimental stuff and a random plug-in featuring a picture of a voluptuous woman in a Catwoman outfit to “sweeten” your sound.

Updated: Johan’s own submission is one that should interest a lot of you: Repeatler is a real-time “sample accumulator” for adding loops from prerecorded or live sources. I’m constantly getting requests for plug-ins just like this, so the fact that this is simple, elegant, free, and Mac/Windows compatible probably means you’ll want to check out the download!

Repeatler from Larsby of BetaBugs is a live looper plug-in for Mac and Windows.

Not that I’m necessarily endorsing them for victory, but I find it interesting that there are unusual new, game-like interfaces with built-in physics, as I think you’ll see a lot more of this in the future. (From me, even, if I can keep practicing my ActionScript skills.) I had to picture those, because I’ve seen enough of the usual plug-in interface fare.

May the best contribution win!

Like, totally Pondular: probably the first of many liquid-simulation interfaces for music. Now if I just had a virtual skipping-stone …

]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/05/kvr-contest-developers-get-prize-money-you-get-free-music-plug-ins-with-unusual-interfaces/feed/ 5 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/03/autotune-5-graphical-input-microtonal-tunings-pen-tablet-input-beat-sync/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/03/autotune-5-graphical-input-microtonal-tunings-pen-tablet-input-beat-sync/#comments Wed, 04 Oct 2006 03:15:11 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/03/autotune-5-graphical-input-microtonal-tunings-pen-tablet-input-beat-sync/

Yes, now not only will Jessica Simpson be able to sing in tune, she’ll be able to be tuned to an Indonesian pelog scale!

AutoTune, the ubiquitous and now pretty ridiculously powerful tuning software, has some major new improvements in AutoTune 5. Central to the upgrade is a graphical mode that lets you draw pitch envelopes over a representation of the detected pitch. Here’s where things start to get interesting: the developers at AutoTune have added pen tablet input, so you can hook up your Wacom tablet, polish off your drawing skills, and perform either subtle tweaks or expressive, experimental pitch changes to an audio source.

Microtonal and alternative guru Carl Lumma, a veteran of Keyboard Magazine, writes to point out that the upgrade now no longer limits you to conventional major and minor modes: 26 historical and microtonal scales are included in the new release. That’s great, but they don’t seem to support Scala tuning files, which would be even better. There’s also new sync-to-host support, so you could do some crazy beat-synced pitch distortion with this.

It’s too bad AutoTune isn’t a little more affordable, because it sounds like just the kind of software a lot of us would love to abuse. The adjustment speed and vibrato controls are all designed to be expressive and closely controlled, so I think there’s likely a wide range of sonic effects you could coax out of this very powerful software. Go find a friend with a plug-in-laden Pro Tools setup and ask if you can borrow it late at night.

Antares AutoTune 5 Preview [Antares, via]

]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/03/autotune-5-graphical-input-microtonal-tunings-pen-tablet-input-beat-sync/feed/ 5 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/09/11/apple-sculpture-lemur-touchscreen-ripped-off-visual-comparisons-of-sincerest-form-of-flattery/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/09/11/apple-sculpture-lemur-touchscreen-ripped-off-visual-comparisons-of-sincerest-form-of-flattery/#comments Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:55:25 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/09/11/apple-sculpture-lemur-touchscreen-ripped-off-visual-comparisons-of-sincerest-form-of-flattery/ Separated at birth — or fresh off the photocopier?

In the case of Lemur touchscreen versus Mono Touch, it’s pretty obvious the creator of the Mono Touch software just worked on cloning the exact layout of the Ableton Live template on the Lemur. David Cross points us to this comparison from the Ableton forums, as created by axou:

And speaking of copying, some readers were confused when I said a leaked shot of the “Prologue” synth from Cubase SX4 was … inspired … by Logic Pro’s Sculpture. But, then, I’ve spent a lot of time staring at Sculpture programming sounds. Maybe it’ll help if you see them on the same screen. Note the unique curvature of the raised background, the faux-silver knobs, and the exactly-copied effects switches. The knobs alone I’d say were both copying hardware, but the particulars of the switches and the background are just too specific to be accidental. Then again, after seeing the Mono Touch, I have to give Steinberg credit: at least Prologue is just ripping off individual elements, and admittedly on an entirely different synth, though it’s still … uncanny, shall we say?

Leaked screen capture of Steinberg’s Prologue synth, as seen on Cubase.net and Music thing

Sculpture from Logic Pro, top, and — in case you’re having trouble telling them apart — at bottom left, elements from Sculpture, and bottom right, elements in Prologue. Maybe Prologue’s designers are Logic users?

]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/09/11/apple-sculpture-lemur-touchscreen-ripped-off-visual-comparisons-of-sincerest-form-of-flattery/feed/ 12 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/09/04/apple-copies-garageband-interface-for-xcode-30/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/09/04/apple-copies-garageband-interface-for-xcode-30/#comments Tue, 05 Sep 2006 02:15:30 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/09/04/apple-copies-garageband-interface-for-xcode-30/ Ever thought music software would inspire developer tools? Only Apple would try something like this: they’ve copied the interface of their own GarageBand software, almost button for button, in the new Xray developer tool in Xcode 3.0 (part of Mac OS X 10.5). The developer’s work process will be much like someone mixing music in GarageBand.

Xray is designed for visualizing performance and debugging code, which is a linear, time-based process. That means that some kind of timeline interface makes perfect sense. Apple didn’t just stop there, though: the track view, transport controls (including record button), volume, channel controls, ruler, and loop display elements are all there. It’s so close that you wind up with sentences like this:

Add different instruments so you can instantly see the results of code analyzers.

Instruments turn out to be exactly the same word in development; see comments for more details of what this means for real programmers as opposed to weekend coders like me. :)

I’m just waiting for Apple to add an Apple Loop Browser so you can lay down a groovin’ trance or house beat while you figure out why your application is sucking so many CPU cycles.

Mac OS X Leopard Sneak Peak: Xcode 3.0 [Apple.com]

And in a non sequitur at the end, Apple reverts to their usual marketing hyperbole: “Xray. Because it’s 2006.” So we should have a developer tool with the interface from Sonic Foundry’s ACID in 1998? Hey, if it saves developers time and makes the dev tools more intuitive, I’m for it! Developers who want to chime in on this and let us know what you think, please do.

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