MIDI on iPhone

[eduardo_b]

More one of those "because we can" things. Doesn't really serve any useful purpose for serious music making -- and, yes, someone will come out with an album done on an iPhone, but so what. There's no reason people shouldn't have what they want, but whether what they want really matters is quite another question. Overall I agree with brok on this one.

[H.Noury]

There are yet good applications for music creation on iPhone, like Noise io (a very good monophonic modular synthesizer), Beat maker or Four Tracks.

What I would like would be a very portable music bloc note : in the metro or on hollidays, I should dispose of an expressive keyboard (belong the position of the finger on the key, the sound is louder or less, Noise IO does it yet), a playable sounds bank, and a MIDI sequencer. When I go home, I load the MIDI sequence in my desk computer and I produce a more professional song with Cubase for exemple.

It is basic. If the MIDI sequencer was included in the iPhone OS (like it is in the Mac OS), it would be yet done!!

I do not agree with you, Brok Landers : the iPhone is not so limited than you say. Music workstations of the 80's like Korg M1 or Roland W30 had not so powerfull processors, and had 1Mo of memory only. The iPhone is yet much more powerfull. You can imagine to realise some complex softwares with it. You could do with it an equivalent of the first Cubase (Score or less) associated to a kind of Roland Sound Canvas without problem.

Of course, what you can do with the the Core2Duo of modern computers is not alvailable on an iPhone, but that is not what I hope to find or to do with.

[brambos]

Doesn't really serve any useful purpose for serious music making

Why does music-making have to be serious?

I mainly consider it a fun-activity, and as such the iPhone offers a compelling platform to experiment met sound and music on a device that fits in my pocket and is as powerful as a PC of 5 years ago.

[brok landers]

>snip< I'm not going to lose my DAW, that would be stupid, but with my Iphone, I now have a wireless MIDI controller that can enable me to run my DAW while I'm tracking an acoustic instrument across the room >snip<

that's indeed a wheighty point, did not consider this ... good one!

[brok landers]

>snip<
I do not agree with you, Brok Landers : the iPhone is not so limited than you say. Music workstations of the 80's like Korg M1 or Roland W30 had not so powerfull processors, and had 1Mo of memory only. The iPhone is yet much more powerfull. You can imagine to realise some complex softwares with it. You could do with it an equivalent of the first Cubase (Score or less) associated to a kind of Roland Sound Canvas without problem. >snip<

i didn't say so. read again, what i meant was not the processing power, what i meant was the tiny display. it is simply too small to be taken serious. it's a physical thing.

[brok landers]

Doesn't really serve any useful purpose for serious music making

Why does music-making have to be serious?
>snip<

because it _is_ serious. it triggers the deepest aspect of emotion in a human beeing. that's real power you have in your hands as a musician, and that has to be handelled with great responsability.

[WhiteNoise]

Personally, no I don't know anyone willing to shell out $2k for a controller. But then I don't know many rich musicians. I have heard of some big name acts using them though. My point was that this brings a 'boutique' technology within the reach of the average dude.

A touchscreen has lends itself to different things than knobs, or even a mouse based application. The best apps take advantage of the unique features of the platform.

The screen size is limiting, but that makes good application design all the more important. I put a lot of time into the GUI. There are plenty of iPhone music apps that make poor gui decisions - too much on one page, buttons too small, gui widgets hard to use, difficult to navigate, etc.. With my app I tried to hit a balance between complexity and creative potential. I want people to be able to make cool stuff, but not add so many features that it becomes unusable on a tiny screen.

The way I see people using it? Generating little bits of content that to use later. Like coming up with a cool drum loop or synth pattern that I can export to a .WAV and load into my DAW later. That way I can use it when I'm sitting on the train, watching TV, at the airport, sitting on the couch or otherwise chilling out.

[brambos]

Doesn't really serve any useful purpose for serious music making

Why does music-making have to be serious?
>snip<

because it _is_ serious. it triggers the deepest aspect of emotion in a human beeing. that's real power you have in your hands as a musician, and that has to be handelled with great responsability.

I think you're confusing music with the POWERRRRR OF GREYSKULL!!!1

[eduardo_b]

Doesn't really serve any useful purpose for serious music making

Why does music-making have to be serious?

I mainly consider it a fun-activity, and as such the iPhone offers a compelling platform to experiment met sound and music on a device that fits in my pocket and is as powerful as a PC of 5 years ago.

Yeah, but don't you like taking breaks from music as a creative process? I think whatever one's interest, it shouldn't be the only one. It's like photography. Sometimes, instead of always having a camera in case a great shot comes along, it's more relaxing and in the moment to not bring the camera.

[Jazz Franco]

Doesn't really serve any useful purpose for serious music making

Why does music-making have to be serious?
>snip<

because it _is_ serious. it triggers the deepest aspect of emotion in a human beeing. that's real power you have in your hands as a musician, and that has to be handelled with great responsability.

I think you're confusing music with the POWERRRRR OF GREYSKULL!!!1

I'd rather say it's a personal choice (though I'm on bram's side in the debate). Likes, Wagner was dead serious about his music, and Mozart wasn't (or so they say). Both were some of the greatest composers to ever walk this earth; still, I prefer Mozart -- both as a personality and musically. But some would obviously go on with grumpy old Rick
And yes, brok, music does trigger deepest emotions, but imho it's still less 'serious' than literature. 'Cause words can kill -- in the long run, at least (Mein Kampf anybody?), sounds don't. Unless we move over to the Dune reality, of course.

[eduardo_b]

And yes, brok, music does trigger deepest emotions, but imho it's still less 'serious' than literature. 'Cause words can kill -- in the long run, at least (Mein Kampf anybody?), sounds don't. Unless we move over to the Dune reality, of course.

Songs with words are thus equally dangerous, yes?

[Jazz Franco]

And yes, brok, music does trigger deepest emotions, but imho it's still less 'serious' than literature. 'Cause words can kill -- in the long run, at least (Mein Kampf anybody?), sounds don't. Unless we move over to the Dune reality, of course.

Songs with words are thus equally dangerous, yes?

Absolutely! If only one cares to listen...
On a more serious note, remember Victor Jara in Chile. He was murdered for his songs by the junta, so they obviously considered those songs dangerous. There are many more examples, of course, but Jara is probably the most well-known.

[brok landers]

Doesn't really serve any useful purpose for serious music making

Why does music-making have to be serious?
>snip<

because it _is_ serious. it triggers the deepest aspect of emotion in a human beeing. that's real power you have in your hands as a musician, and that has to be handelled with great responsability.

I think you're confusing music with the POWERRRRR OF GREYSKULL!!!1

I'd rather say it's a personal choice (though I'm on bram's side in the debate). Likes, Wagner was dead serious about his music, and Mozart wasn't (or so they say). Both were some of the greatest composers to ever walk this earth; still, I prefer Mozart -- both as a personality and musically. But some would obviously go on with grumpy old Rick
And yes, brok, music does trigger deepest emotions, but imho it's still less 'serious' than literature. 'Cause words can kill -- in the long run, at least (Mein Kampf anybody?), sounds don't. Unless we move over to the Dune reality, of course.

hmmm, i beg to differ ... imo words never kill - people do.
but words can hurt aswell as music can ... and words can trigger emotions as much as music can ... thus you have to handle that power with care, imo ...

and about the mozart thing:
yes, mozart was a rake. but just because his music always has that certain facility, it doesn't mean it wasn't hard work, actually the opposite is true ... he was very serious about his music, he had to ... noone puts thatmuch effort in something he doesn't take serious ... and that doesn't necessarily mean that he did not have lot's of fun doing his incredible work ...
i also consider my job as very serious, but i have lot's of fun doing this serious-taken work ...

[brok landers]

And yes, brok, music does trigger deepest emotions, but imho it's still less 'serious' than literature. 'Cause words can kill -- in the long run, at least (Mein Kampf anybody?), sounds don't. Unless we move over to the Dune reality, of course.

Songs with words are thus equally dangerous, yes?

Absolutely! If only one cares to listen...
On a more serious note, remember Victor Jara in Chile. He was murdered for his songs by the junta, so they obviously considered those songs dangerous. There are many more examples, of course, but Jara is probably the most well-known.

still, it wasn't the words/the music that killed him, it was human beings. you have the power to decide, whether you listen to music/words or not. same about "mein kampf". it wasn't the crap book that killed, but the people that actually decided to go with that philosophy. they had the choice, sadly they we're dumb enough to choose wrong. but exactly _because_ those dumb people (of which too many are around in this world), there's a hughe responsability on how you use/take/make music/words. i don't see any difference in the effectiveness of music compared to literature, it's just slightly different coloured, but the principle is the same ...

wtf, from an i phone to - this??

[rocket34bg]

i can't stand apple and everything they make. but the ipod touch and the iphone are the exception to my opinion. i have the iphone, and i kind of dislike it as a phone and all the limitations apple puts on you (can't even make folders wtf?)... but it's kind of great as a little live music making tool

there's vocoder sv-5, which turns your phone into a vocoder. pretty impressive, sounds good too. (you actually program it and play it like a synth, unlike other voice changing apps for the iphone)

dopplerpad takes advantage of the velocity sensitive touchscreen, kinda cool

bebot takes advantage of the multi-touch screen, it's probably the most fun synth i've ever played, and totally applicable for a live performance. i just wish it could be tweaked more

noise.io takes advantage of touch, multi-touch, and/or tilt when controlling parameters of the synth. it can get pretty crazy too

and beatmaker turns your phone into a multi-touch sampler, very playable live, i just wish it could midi sync

i can see why people think the iphone is a dumb toy. and maybe it is. but saying it's not capable of doing anything musical is just dumb! just say it's not for you, cause it's definitely capable of doing some stuff!