CAUSTIC audio rack for Android

[SingleCell]

- You mention running it under Win32 for your development. How about offering the Win32 version as a download for registered users? This gives the user the benefit of a larger work surface when at home, and still work on the cell phone when mobile.

I think the developer means he tests the android app under windows, in a testenviroment for android apps.

Actually, it's a standalone windows app, but it was never meant for release. It doesn't use any standard windows functionality. For example the file dialogs are the same as on the phone instead of the usual windows-style ones we're all accustomed to. Also there's no keyboard support so you have to click on screen to type any filenames. Little things like that, but mostly I don't have the energy to support it. I might clean it up eventually and offer it without support to those interested, but with MIDI export coming up, I'm not sure why you'd chose to work in Caustic on PC...

As for mmelzer's other two points:

The app will never go as far as Reason, I'm just one guy doing this a few hours a day, there's no way I could compete with a 30-person company. But I do believe the dynamic rack idea opens up a lot of possibilities. And I can't wait to make machines again, I really enjoyed seeing them come alive when I first wrote Caustic. I'll just have to make sure it doesn't become overwhelming to beginners. There's nothing more daunting than staring at an empty rack!

The app manual is about half-written and coming soon, in the meantime mail me any questions. I'm happy to answer.

[hopkirQue]

Hello SingleCell, first of all I must say big THANK YOU for this Android app. I like the way I can compose whenever the idea is about to come up.

Last changes are great, most of all I appreciate the stereo panning in MIX and new "visual" function in SEQUENCER, is it possible to bring the PAN control also to BEATBOX?

Thanks.

[bwwd]

I tested it and first thing that came to my mind is... it would be great if every knob would display big values onscreen when you touch them, so you would know whats the value of current knob, lets say values from 0 to 128.Right now knobs are so small and i have to look up what im doing, having values displayed onscreen in some corner using big fonts would be very nice.
Would it be possible to implement vsti host in this app ? Is it possible ?
I guess many functions could use Zoom in during changing values, even on piano roll making notes isnt as user friendly as it could if you would zoom in temporary to allow for better precision, every knob we touch could be zoomed in so we could move it more precisely and then zoom out if we let it go. The same could be with piano roll notes.
Overall im very impressed, so can we throw out own wavs into pcm players ? Didnt tried yet but i will.
So how about displaying big version of knob onscreen when you touch small knobs on synths ? That way we could edit more precisely.
OR.. slider on side so we would touch knob on synth and then use big slider on side to control the knob.Slider wide enough for finger.Knobs are too small, current ones at least.
I would like to be able to make a note just with touch, cause its painful to do that right now you have to drag it to make it longer, would like some option to store last note lenght and apply it to all new notes which i could then make with one touch on piano roll.
When i zoom in on piano roll then it doesnt really zoom in, it just makes view wider... and whats needed is ability to create note more precisely, real zoom so finger wouldnt slip off , just temporary lets say zoom in so only 4 notes would fill the screen, right now you have whole octave on all zoom levels, more height so mt finger would sit on note easier.
Its hard to move the note sometimes cause moving it up/down is available during drawing as well or its a bit buggy, im touching the note and want to move it up but it wont, only some ghost notes appear on top/bottom when i want to move it.I prefere completely separate mode for moving notes if its the reason why it doesnt work too well.
If i hold delete button in pattern mode then remove whole pattern would be nice, not easy to remove many notes.
When im makin new note in pianoroll then it would be nice to hear a sound of it according to pressed note, now it makes a sound only when i press on keyboard in piano roll.
The only real problem for me is tiny screen, hard to control it thats why temporary zoom overlay on knobs and piano roll would be great.

[SingleCell]

I tested it and first thing that came to my mind is... it would be great if every knob would display big values onscreen when you touch them, so you would know whats the value of current knob, lets say values from 0 to 128.

I had planned for something like this initially, but then I ran into problems with multi-touch.. how do you zoom in and show values on ten controls all next to each other correctly? Instead, I've leaned more towards the, admittedly imprecise, method of going by ear, like on real physical equipment. The controls all let you drag away from them to see where's they're at so my hope was that people would have their track running in a loop, toggle solo on the instrument and then tweak the knobs until it sounded right. Now there's still some workflow improvements for this, so I'm working on that for the next version. For example, each instrument will have pattern editor to facilitate loop creation and each instrument will also have a mute/solo button linked to the mixer.

Would it be possible to implement vsti host in this app ? Is it possible ?

Afraid not. VSTs and VSTi's files were compiled for PCs, usually for intel chips. Most mobile devices use ARM chips so the VSTs you have simply won't run on them without some MAJOR magic. There's nothing to say VSTs couldn't be compiled by their vendors for mobile chips, but any recent VST would probably run like a dog because running code made for intel chips on ARM is VERY slow. The equivalent ARM 1GHz is probably equivalent to a 400 MHz intel chip when performing math-intensive operations like sound processing. But they're great on battery life which is why they're in all mobile devices. Most of Caustic's instruments were written specifically for ARM chips.



I know the whole tiny knob thing is a little annoying, I do most of my testing on a Nexus One with a 3.7" screen. All knobs and boxes have a "error zone" around them to help guide your touch to the one you probably wanted to press.

In the end, if it comes down to removing features to fit everything on screen, that makes me sad because I'm a tool maker. I feel bad when I don't give you guys ALL the control I could. I've done it already, the subsynth has about a dozen more parameters that could be controlled, but that instrument is quite packed already.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback, I will look into some of the piano roll improvements you mention, some of those are definitely possible, thanks.

-Rej

[captain caveman]

Very cool app! I bought it last night (g/fs account) and it's great stuff.

One little BR, when a note is triggered in the sequencer and it is deleted before the note off is reached it hangs indefinately. Also it would be good if the edit cursor orange line could locate to increments smaller than one beat, dependant on zoom level, for pasting notes.

Really slick work, looking forward to the pattern stuff on all instruments.

[SingleCell]

One little BR, when a note is triggered in the sequencer and it is deleted before the note off is reached it hangs indefinately. Also it would be good if the edit cursor orange line could locate to increments smaller than one beat, dependant on zoom level, for pasting notes.

Yeah, the note hang bug is fixed and will go into the next version. Until then, hitting stop works ... but sorry 'bout that. I though I had caught all those edge cases on the last update.

The paste/zoom problem will get fixed once all instruments get their pattern editors.

Hang tight

[bwwd]

So no numbers/values next to sliders or something ?
I want to move all notes one note higher and im screwed with so many tiny notes onscreen, selecting them one by one often results in changing their lenght by accident and i cant even change the lenght back to make it shorter.Something which selects all notes in piano roll would be nice or some sor of rectangle or lasso to select notes.Separate button for "selecting notes mode"

[Omnivox]

tried to install to my htc desire z (recognized my android market as tele2 htc vision) and it says it is incompatible with my device

[psionic]

So no numbers/values next to sliders or something ?
I want to move all notes one note higher and im screwed with so many tiny notes onscreen, selecting them one by one often results in changing their lenght by accident and i cant even change the lenght back to make it shorter.Something which selects all notes in piano roll would be nice or some sor of rectangle or lasso to select notes.Separate button for "selecting notes mode"

From the sequencer machine, click on the icon with the 3 orange lines. Now you can click on notes one by one, and they will all be selected. When selected, touch-drag them all up one note. Boom.

Click on the icon again to de-select its functionality, and continue on writing your song.

[bwwd]

Are you serious ? Youre gonna do this on arpeggio melody and click on every tiny note ? Its very easy to make the note longer by accident(happens all the time in my case) and screw the melody thats why i asked about "select all" function.

[SingleCell]

Are you serious ? Youre gonna do this on arpeggio melody and click on every tiny note ? Its very easy to make the note longer by accident(happens all the time in my case) and screw the melody thats why i asked about "select all" function.

I plan to add pattern editors to the synths in the next version, and probably have a toggle for "note length mode". Would that fix your problem in this case, I presume the arpeggios are repeated to some degree? You'd be editing one pattern at a time and stringing them together in the sequencer...(with copy paste between patterns of course)

I'll still try and improve the full-length piano roll in the sequencer, so I'll do some usability tests on things like lasso-select and bar/group select, but I'm hoping patterns will make things more painless all around.

[bwwd]

Lasso select would help a lot

You know how it is with touch panels we tend to touch them a lot by mistake and this happens to me in piano roll sometimes and my note change lenght when i want to select more and more and if arpeggio has variable note lenghts then im screwed.
Main problem is the size of piano roll, you know whole octave is cool but not that cool on smaller displays and with big fingers, i would appreciate true close up mode with lets say only 4 visible keys so i would fit my finger more precisely, it could be up to user which zoom level he prefers, with 4 notes 3 notes or 5 notes visible instead of whole octave.
Right now we have whole octave and keys arent tall enough i mean keyboard is on side so they arent wide enough for fingers and i tend to enable wrong notes when im making new notes, i could use smallest finger but its still gimmicky way i would really appreciate bigger piano roll mode, if i need whole octave i just move window up but fighting with notes where they arent suppose to be is not fun, i have bigger screen than yours( 88mm vs 100mm ) but i still cant manage and im really skinny you know.
How is reverb implemented? Is it on send channel? I would prefere it like that, one reverb and just send synths to it.Its the proper way to use reverb and slapping reverb right on whole synth sound isnt nice, so its better if sounds plays without reverb and reverb on send plays with it too but i could control the amount of it.
IMO if app runs in landscape mode then piano roll should be really on top not on side cause space is wasted, that would solve problems with whole octave and note width.
When im making note in piano roll i would like option to hear the sound of it, tap a note mode would be nice too but with option to disable it(dont wan it on all the time and delete all mistake notes).

[SingleCell]

Lasso select would help a lot

You know how it is with touch panels we tend to touch them a lot by mistake and this happens to me in piano roll sometimes and my note change lenght when i want to select more and more and if arpeggio has variable note lenghts then im screwed.
Main problem is the size of piano roll, you know whole octave is cool but not that cool on smaller displays and with big fingers, i would appreciate true close up mode with lets say only 4 visible keys so i would fit my finger more precisely, it could be up to user which zoom level he prefers, with 4 notes 3 notes or 5 notes visible instead of whole octave.
Right now we have whole octave and keys arent tall enough i mean keyboard is on side so they arent wide enough for fingers and i tend to enable wrong notes when im making new notes, i could use smallest finger but its still gimmicky way i would really appreciate bigger piano roll mode, if i need whole octave i just move window up but fighting with notes where they arent suppose to be is not fun, i have bigger screen than yours( 88mm vs 100mm ) but i still cant manage and im really skinny you know.
How is reverb implemented? Is it on send channel? I would prefere it like that, one reverb and just send synths to it.Its the proper way to use reverb and slapping reverb right on whole synth sound isnt nice, so its better if sounds plays without reverb and reverb on send plays with it too but i could control the amount of it.
IMO if app runs in landscape mode then piano roll should be really on top not on side cause space is wasted, that would solve problems with whole octave and note width.
When im making note in piano roll i would like option to hear the sound of it, tap a note mode would be nice too but with option to disable it(dont wan it on all the time and delete all mistake notes).

Points taken and noted, I'll see what I can do. I appreciate you writing this.

Yes reverb is on a send bus, with all instruments fed into an input mix based on the send amount for each track, then returned to master mix and added onto the dry signals.

[artik]

hi. best production app by iles tht ive found so far.
im currently stuck in spain through choice, ha.
i dont have any of my studio equipment with me so caustic is my only option it seems.
htc desore hd...

ok so.

how the hell do i delete automation recordings.

are there plans for an automation editer? would be very useful...


great work. i m stuck here for 2 months with nothing but caustic to use....

please keep up the ood work. its the only thing keeping me sane at the moment, haha


edit, get the manual finished.
get a webspace and make a user forum.
if you develop this right it could run for years!!

seeing as i have nowt to keep me occupied but staring at the sea for the next 2 months let me know if you need any help with anything.
you mention you havnt had a chance to use the app much as your busy actually writing the app. i could be usefull there. been producing for over 8 years etc etc. artikproductions (at) gmail (dot) com

drop me a message if you like.

regards paul.

[SingleCell]

hi. best production app by iles tht ive found so far.
im currently stuck in spain through choice, ha.
i dont have any of my studio equipment with me so caustic is my only option it seems.
htc desore hd...

ok so.

how the hell do i delete automation recordings.

In song mode, with the record button pressed but NOT playing the song, press and hold the control you want to reset. Have you seen the youtube videos yet? they're accessible from within the app in menu/help/help, there's one on automation that shows how to do it

are there plans for an automation editer? would be very useful...

Yup, that's planned, stay tuned.