Android - when will the serous dev's get up with the best ... Alchemy, Spectrasonics, others

[ZenPunkHippy]

The developer wasn't whining, he was providing answers to questions posed by the OP. He stated the issue, others agreed, time to move on. That's not whining.

Of course it's whining:

"Would you please port your exotic iOS apps to something more wide spread?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because the android system is crap. Buhuhuhuh, bueeeeh. Crap there, crap that buhuhuhuee etc"

"Have you told the coders at Google, what you don't like about the system or even offered assistance to make it work better?"

"No, of course not. They are not related to Apple so they must be crap too."

For f**ks sake mate. I WAS NOT WHINING.

OK?

Do you understand?

Just the basic facts. That's all I'm here for.

The other users get it. Why can't you? No f**k off and stop putting shit words in my mouth.

Peace,
Andy.

[rockstar_not]

I got lucky - my employer supplied me with an iPhone 4S as it was priced basically the same as similarly spec'ed Blackberry and Android phones at the time.

My AppleID account is my own.

Yesterday, I bought Impaktor from Beatstreet for said iPhone. It simply rocks. Oh yeah, it cost 5$ which I happily gave up to the App store.

I am not affiliated with the developer in any way, but 5$ is an incredibly great price for this app. I've already had way more than 5$ fun with it, and I can see using it in some performance settings already. The Hang drum that is in it is just way too cool.

Without some standard API for Android, it just doesn't seem like it will ever happen for Android.

While I loathe Apple for 'trying to think for me too much' with their product and software design, I'm slowly becoming a convert - though I think iTunes is still one of the most confusing applications for PC that exists. Some version of an iPad is next for me - a personal purchase. Need for a laptop is nearly gone these days, particularly now that hardware developers are starting to do interfaces for the multi-pin port (Tascam has the one I'm interested in)

Apple seemed to have learned that an nearly closed platform like the original Mac is not the way to go, but to offer great I/O and a development kit with the intention to make money on the content. Little bits of money x tons of sales = big piles of money.

There is no central authority steering Android development. There is no cooperation amongst music equipment manufacturers like there was with MIDI development was back in the day. There's no software company (that we know of) like Steinberg that is writing what would basically become a standard like what happened with ASIO and VST/VSTi. Until then, Android owners will surf the web and be able to enjoy music content, but the creation side will probably still be down to the iOS owners.

Complaining to Google probably won't resolve it. It's likely going to take a Steinberg like move with ASIO & VST which will benefit lots of other companies in the end, that will move the needle from where it is right now.

-Scott

[Numanoid]

I've been on Android for about a year now, and thank God for Caustic.

That programme is really cool, and is the killer app when it comes to music making on the Android platform.

Without it, Android would really be empty.

Image Line is trying with FL Studio, but it is a sloooooow process:

-The process indeed goes a lot slower than any of us expected.
-A lot of time was wasted trying to get low latency audio at the time Android didn't allow it)
-Right now we're porting about 1 tab/month

[steff3]

The developer wasn't whining, he was providing answers to questions posed by the OP. He stated the issue, others agreed, time to move on. That's not whining.

Of course it's whining:

"Would you please port your exotic iOS apps to something more wide spread?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because the android system is crap. Buhuhuhuh, bueeeeh. Crap there, crap that buhuhuhuee etc"

"Have you told the coders at Google, what you don't like about the system or even offered assistance to make it work better?"

"No, of course not. We'll never do anything if we don't get spoon fed."

So, what about you? Who wants to be spoon fed?
Instead of whining here, sit down, learn how to program and do the stuff you want yourself. No developer is really interested in having misarticulated users like you.

best

[polaris20]

The developer wasn't whining, he was providing answers to questions posed by the OP. He stated the issue, others agreed, time to move on. That's not whining.

Of course it's whining:

"Would you please port your exotic iOS apps to something more wide spread?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because the android system is crap. Buhuhuhuh, bueeeeh. Crap there, crap that buhuhuhuee etc"

"Have you told the coders at Google, what you don't like about the system or even offered assistance to make it work better?"

"No, of course not. We'll never do anything if we don't get spoon fed."

The irony is pretty thick here. Perhaps you should stop whining and do something about it, since it clearly bothers you. Contact Google. Learn to code yourself. Or better yet, pick a platform that fits your needs.

[VSTJuNkiE]

I've been on Android for about a year now, and thank God for Caustic.

+1

Caustic is AWESOME. And he's adding a modular soon as well.

If Caustic can do it why can't others?

[Jace-BeOS]

Maybe the developer has a day job and Caustic is a hobby(??).

[SingleCell]

Maybe the developer has a day job and Caustic is a hobby(??).

It started off that way. I don't work anymore (video game studios have crashed down here) so I work on Caustic 3 days a week and take care of my little man the rest of the time.

I can't say Android sales would pay the bills if my wife didn't work, but it's getting close. I'm really hoping to release Caustic on iOS in a couple of months so maybe by then I'll be able to give you guys some comparative market figures. I don't care about piracy, it's a waste of time even thinking about it. Putting in paranoids licence checks just ends up pissing off the paying customers. Not everyone is willing to go over to the shady side of the internet and install something untrustworthy on the device they keep all their personal info.

As for why other devs don't release, I guess it really depends on the app and what it requires. Ultimately it's up to them. For real-time stuff (live synths, amp modelers, etc) latency is still too high. Google have talked about lower latency but haven't yet released any tools to access this yet.

I can't say supporting multiple resolutions has been a problem for me because I'm using OpenGL (the 3D library used in games) to draw instead of Google's horrible Java layout system.

MIDI works as of Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) but it took a while for a lot of devices to be updated. Good news is right now, my dev stats show 25% are on 3.1 or greater in general, and that number climbs to 40% for Caustic users. On my phone I'm looking at about 50ms via MIDI which is still high, but is surprisingly playable. I'll be including basic MIDI support in my next release.

I'm not making excuses for Google, they know very well about this problem. They've mentioned several times it wasn't going to be an easy fix. I'm just angry that at their last "fireside" talk they finally said they were addressing it and mentioned 10ms, yet they haven't provided any way of achieving that. Now it just makes things worse for us devs that DO bother with Android because I'm getting emails every week of "I have a JellyBean device and it's supposed to have low latency, can you fix Caustic?"

Anyway, my star is on issue 3434 but Google are notoriously bad at communication. We take what the great G-gods hand down to us, just like everyone else.

edit: spelling

[Benutzername]

The developer wasn't whining, he was providing answers to questions posed by the OP. He stated the issue, others agreed, time to move on. That's not whining.

Of course it's whining:

"Would you please port your exotic iOS apps to something more wide spread?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because the android system is crap. Buhuhuhuh, bueeeeh. Crap there, crap that buhuhuhuee etc"

"Have you told the coders at Google, what you don't like about the system or even offered assistance to make it work better?"

"No, of course not. We'll never do anything if we don't get spoon fed."

The irony is pretty thick here. Perhaps you should stop whining and do something about it, since it clearly bothers you. Contact Google. Learn to code yourself. Or better yet, pick a platform that fits your needs.

OK, let's see.

Learn to code yourself

Trying every day since 1986. Since I get paid very well for trying I think I might have learned something in all these years since then. While I can do a lot I cannot add low latency audio to a closed operating system. That's the job of the OS developers.

Contact Google?

Trying since the very first versions of Android. But the communication from Google's side is very poor as already stated. But I'm following Google's several development channels for many years now. Occasionally there are some KVR developers over there. But I've not seen you over there or Andy/Ben from CA or most of the other people who are whining around here about how bad Android is.

My point is: If you want to get spoon fed by Google then you should at least tell Google that you want to get spoon fed and especially what you want on that spoon!

[ZenPunkHippy]

But I've not seen you over there or Andy/Ben from CA or most of the other people who are whining around here about how bad Android is.

That would be because:

1) we're quite happy with the current sitation
2) therefore it's not "whining"
3) we're running a business and don't have time for silly games with Google

I hope the message gets through this time. Thanks for reading.

Peace,
Andy.

[whyterabbyt]

My point is: If you want to get spoon fed by Google then you should at least tell Google that you want to get spoon fed and especially what you want on that spoon!

which bit of "we're not going to X until Y happens" was difficult for you?

[Jace-BeOS]

This reminds me so much of my days on BeOS, which reminded me very much of the Linux world, near the end, which puts a bad taste in my mouth. We have what we have and there's only so much we can do to change that without independent wealth. We can vote with our money, but that's a small vote when it's just our own selves. We cannot do much more than tell others what we like about something. We have to let them make their own decisions based on their own needs and preferences, rather than trying to indoctrinate them or convert them to our side. The results aren't necessarily what we want, in the end, and that's life. i lost my precious BeOS, and discovered that it wasn't so precious after the other OSes sort of caught up to what it did right (mostly; i still like the file system, but that's becoming irrelevant too, the way Apple is going and i'm all for it; dumb it down till it works, mates!).

[xkadathx]

There are some smug iOS fanboys in the world, but my god, Android fanboys are an insufferable lot. They always have to swarm in like locusts and trash-talk iOS and anyone who uses/likes Apple products, proclaim the superiority of Android/Google, and then go on to make demands of developers. These people need to stop acting like children.

The fact is, iOS is currently a superior platform for audio application development. If Android would get its crap together, you'd see apps like Auria and apps from companies like Camel Audio being developed for it. But the audio situation on Android continues to be unacceptable, so you won't see these apps there.

If Android fanboys think otherwise and want to prove a point, then they can develop their own music apps. Good luck.