EDIT II: Ignite appears to work with some non-M-Audio keyboards. It apparently requires a keyboard that connects directly to the computer with a usb cable. (NOT a usb-to-midi cable, such as M-Audio's Uno cable, but instead a simple usb cable, through which it will send midi data. At first, my Yamaha CP300 did not appear to work with it. However, after I installed the Windows 8 usb drivers and directly connected the CP300 to the computer with a simple usb cable, Ignite is working fine. Receives data from the keyboard and records.

I'll take some flak for this, but I'm finding this thing very interesting. It could be, and is being, accused of being overly simple, but it's almost exactly what I've been looking for--a way to piece together bits of songs. AIR's free, downloadable Ignite, a kind of free-form composition tool that records into blocks that can be dragged around as you please.

http://www.airmusictech.com/product/ignite

An eleven minute demo of putting together part of a song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDSoLEBpDAM


Some bad things:
Only uses its own instruments and effects. No vsti or vst support yet.
Requires Windows 7 or above. Simply will not install on Vista. (I tried...)

On other forums, many people are disparaging this, but it looks sweet to me. The ad copy talks about musicians wanting to avoid learning about recording tech, which is, yes, silly, but in reality I want to use this as a composition tool. I think I may actually upgrade to Windows 8 to try it.

Anyone here already experimenting with it?

(Beware: the e-mail you receive with the link may go into your SPAM folder. Mine did, and at least one other person had the same problem according to the AIR forum.)
Last edited by Jake Jackson on Sat Feb 09, 2013 7:40 pm; edited 4 times in total

Indeed, Ignite has a very interesting user interface. As an Ableton Live user the clip paradigm isn't new, but the way to create an arrangement in Ignite with these clips is unique. Cool workflow.

But I think this software requires a M-Audio midikeyboard as dongle?

From thier website...
Export WAV, MP3 and MIDI files, and import them into any DAW recording software
You can simply export the MIDI files and put into your DAW to load any instrument you choose.


From thier website...
Unsupported Operating Systems/Hardware Windows Vista
Even though the website clearly states that Vista is not supported, you still tried.

My impression is that it automatically assigns its software knobs if you have a recent M-Audio keyboard, but that you don't have to use one. Don't know if one can assign midi cc's to the software knobs or create your own knobs.

From thier website...
Unsupported Operating Systems/Hardware Windows Vista
Even though the website clearly states that Vista is not supported, you still tried. [/quote]

But of course...

Thanks for pointing out this software, I just downloaded it and I'll play with it tonight.

VST users might find this interesting

http://community.airmusictech.com/airmusictech/topics/are_th e_air_plugins_vst_format_also

Yes, I'm hoping that the vst version comes out soon. Adjusting the levels and instrument parameters in another daw might take some time. Much cleaner to do it from the start.


EDIT: In the first post, I linked to the main site twice. The link to the 11 minute video is now corrected:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDSoLEBpDAM

Just found that there are 13 video tutorials for Ignite at:

https://www.youtube.com/user/AIRmusictech


Cheers.
Last edited by Jake Jackson on Sat Jan 26, 2013 12:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

The rotary knobs from my Oxygen 49 doesn't respond...

I think the virtual keyboard controls only work with recent M-Audio keyboards. There is a support forum, in any case:

http://community.airmusictech.com/airmusictech

I posted a request there that someone check in here, so maybe we will learn some more.

I would imagine that the situation with using the virtual keyboard with other controllers might change with the VST version, or at least in some future version, though--no reason to reduce interest in the large number of people who use other keyboards.
Last edited by Jake Jackson on Sat Jan 26, 2013 12:33 pm; edited 1 time in total

General Thoughts:

1. Pretty damn clever.
2. If it was a VST Plugin I would buy it today.

Think about it running as a VST plug, using your own instruments as sound sources, and running in sync with your DAW transport and doing the same thing it's doing in the video. That would be pretty great.

Think FLStuduio running as a VSTI... but this.. nice.

The bad news, which I added to my first post: As far as I can tell, Ignite requires a recent M-Audio keyboard. There does not appear to be a way to assign a midi driver to it, and thus it does not register midi input from another keyboard. A nice program, but not a program for all.

As you probably surmised by now,the main objective of Ignite,is seamless integration-across the board.
It seems clear to me,that Ignite was designed mainly for not only novices,but to promote the sales of M-Audio keyboards in a big way.

Of course Ignite(as well as the users who support it),are going to take flak for it's simplicity...but so what of it?That is the very essence of this program-period.

I don't view any closed systems with exclusivity in VST's & such,a bad thing..because as such,they are very stable,reliable & insanely easy to install!
This is why I love my Reason 6.5 so much.

As for your Vista OS,you need to dump that crap,regardless of whether or not you decide to use Ignite....as it will make your life so much easier.

I didn't take to Ignite initially,but once I saw the Namm demo..I was intrigued.
Obviously,one cannot render a radio-ready tune using Ignite,but it does serve as a good supplemental tool for other DAW's and Ignite's MP3 converter is ace!

The only real drawback to Ignite as I see it(with regard to DAW newbies),is that learning Ignite,is not adequate preparation for conventional DAW use.
That being said,if a novice who is fluent in Ignite,will still have a tough time learning their way through Reason,Presonus,ProTools..etc.,.