The iPhone has become an almost absurdly-popular platform for music apps this year, even given more capable, more plentiful PCs. But to those who don’t yet “get” the appeal, talk to a mobile music addict: having the ability to be creatively musically in corners of time that would otherwise go unused, like a cramped bus ride, can be a beautiful thing. (Now, you start talking about taking away my PC/Mac experience, and I will start screaming in agony – but that’s a topic for a separate post.) The question is, what form should that app take? Today, I’ve got an iPhone round-up going as I clear out my news inbox, but that thread lies beneath all the stories…

I’m working on putting together a collection of truly productive, non-gimmicky/non-toy music apps now that the platform is maturing. But two apps released this week I think deserve special mention, and mention together – partly because of the different angle they take.

They’re both essentially handheld grooveboxes. They’re both relatively powerful, bringing desktop-style production to the platform. They’re both good options, and at this price, you might go buy both. But as I go off to test these two apps, I’m already struck by the contrast between the two.

One is the kind of app that we’re seeing a whole lot of on the iPhone, just as we once saw it in me-too apps on desktop computers. It assumes that the way to reach more people is to give them a whole bunch of canned loops that already sound like the styles they might want to play, and assume they’ll be pretty limited in their ability to do much with those loops.

The other of the two apps eschews the obligatory audio loops for real synthesis, and strips out the usual “let’s try to look like hardware” interface for something a lot more minimal and (I think) touch device friendly. That’s a design lesson that might well be applied beyond the iPhone, too.

First, consider the looped audio approach.

In some of the news I’ve missed in the last couple of days are some unusual announcements. Urs Heckmann can be fairly considered one of the great soft synth designers, with accomplishments like Zebra. His latest, Bazille, like many recent soft synths, is a hybrid: FM synthesis plus phase distortion plus the obligatory subtractive synthesis. In an early teaser video (he apologizes for audio quality), he shows off its modular design. Now, modular routing is something we’ve seen in some form in other recent synths, from Maschine to Future Audio’s Circle. But for Bazille, the layout of the whole synth is clearly set up with rack-style modular routing and free-form patching in mind. There’s definitely some promise here. Oliver Chesler of the utterly brilliant wire to the ear found this first and has some other good thoughts.

The surprise news, though, is that Fairlight may be re-releasing the Fairlight CMI, their original digital sampler. The Fairlight Instruments site teases a “CMI Series 30A (Thirtieth Anniversary) Limited Edition.” Peter Vogel’s CMI, ubiquitous sound of the 80s, established many things we take for granted in computer music. Heck, it even had a light pen. So, too, will the 30A re-release. They’ll make 100 of them, you’ll get WAV import and improved sound quality, and… no, you won’t be able to afford it, though Vogel says it’ll be cheaper than the original. (In other words, it’ll be cheaper to get a new Fairlight than a new Buchla.)

Sonic State scoops the details from the man himself:
More Anniversary Fairlight Details: A little more information from Mr Vogel

Of course, I dream of a successor to the Fairlight CVI, their ground-breaking video instrument.

Alternatively… Synclavier: The Next Generation, anyone?

Remember, oh, about a year ago when most new synths were coming out for desktop/laptop computers? Now it seems like you could start an entirely new KVR Audio-style site just to keep tabs on mobile synths on handhelds – okay, on the iPhone.

Nonetheless, megaSynth looks pretty delicious. On the synth side:

• 3 oscillators, 7 waveforms
• Triad arpeggiator and “Chordmatic” chordmaker with 23 scales
• 24-bucket step sequencer
• LFOs: filter, pitch, volume, plus an audible LFO
• Reverb and modulation effects
• 209 factory presets, or save your own

Also, it’s nice to see the megaSynth developers thinking about the unique features of a mobile device:

Ever wished you could pack the sonic goodness and programming power of a soft synth into a hardware box? Dreamed of software that lived in a road case and had the stability and power-on capability of your outboard gear? You’re certainly not alone. That meant many of us were intrigued when soft synth emulator house Arturia showed off the Origin, a DSP-based hardware box that put their emulations in a box that wasn’t a PC.

Dave Dri knows touring with gear, as the founder of Seque and a live electronic festival vet. We got his impressions from across the Pacific in Australia. He’s upfront with everything he loves and everything that annoys. To bring a different perspective to Planet CDM here, I’m pleased to welcome Dave as a guest.

An Origin Of Sorts

Founded in France in 1999, Arturia has gained a solid reputation for the quality of its emulations of classic analogue synthesizers. If the soft synth emulations of the classic Moog Minimoog and Yamaha CS-80 have made Arturia a name in the industry, the news of its development of a hardware DSP system made for enjoyable speculation and furious Google searches for videos, news and reviews. While units in Australia are somewhat scarce at present, an Origin was supplied for review by Musiclab in Brisbane, Australia. Where the initial review was for music press print media, there is so much more to this module that we can take a deeper look and share with the CDM community some of the issues and notable features of the Arturia Origin.

The microKORG is one of the great music instrument product hits of recent years. It’s a product that has managed to reach out of the claustrophobic, aging niche of traditional keyboard buyers to a wider audience of rockers and music enthusiasts. It’s not the only keyboard to be “cool” – hello, Moog – but it’s the rare keyboard that’s both cool and cheap, not to mention small. The cheap plastic-y mic and army beige color only added to the appeal, and encouraged people to write on it with metallic pens and apply stickers and make it theirs. And the sound combination – lovely MS2000-style analog modeling with accessible vocoder – hit the market right on the nose.

Korg has already tried to come up with a sequel, the Korg R3, which we saw at NAMM in 2007. Now, I don’t know how the R3 sold, but I do know that while I was impressed by it on paper, it hasn’t really inspired the love and affection the microKORG did. Somewhere on its way to being a more grown-up microKORG, it became a boring grown-up synth. It’s still small, and it still has a mic and vocoder. And theoretically having real keys should have been a selling point, as should the improved MMT synth engine from the RADIAS. But something about that charcoal-colored case and generic design sucked the soul out of the microKORG and failed to connect to people’s hearts in the same way. People liked the microKORG because it seemed eccentric and toy-like, not in spite of it. Then there’s the problem that “R3” is meaningless and impossible to remember. I’m sure the R3 made many people happy, but I think it’s safe to say it wasn’t the phenomenon its quirky stablemate was.

The R3 was positioned as an older sibling. The microKORG XL, which I expect will be unveiled at NAMM and got its specs released today, is the real successor to the microKORG.

microKORG XL Product Page [Korg UK]

I’ve been utterly scooped by the UK again. MusicRadar gets specs, photos, and the first official announcement (Korg, see my side note about that at the end of this story):

Korg microKORG XL: official specs and photo

Korg microKORG XL to launch at NAMM? 

And Synthtopia got the first scoop and video:

Updated: This video is an excellent illustration of exactly how the XL will sound if you’re at the bottom of the ocean. Inside the stomach of a shark. Broadcasting on a satellite phone from inside the stomach of the shark on the bottom of the ocean. (Sorry, I had neglected to watch the video as I was having connection problems, or the sun was in my eyes, or something.)

This time, the strategy is different. Beige is out, as are the endless silkscreened presets printed on the outside. But the tiny keys and retro-inspired design remains.

How do the two compare?