KVR Audio

hauke · Post by **hauke** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 10:24 am

Hey everybody,

I am back from the dev cave and I am happy to share a sneak preview and a beta with you

XotoPad 2 turns your Windows 8 or 10 tablet into a full-featured multi-touch MIDI instrument/controller with chords, scales, faders, and more.

XotoPad is a software-based grid controller with a flexible amount of rows and columns. Each pad can either work as a note, chord, fader, slider, CC button, or x/y controller.
Compared to version 1 we got a bunch of new features included. The most important addition: XotoPad contains several specialized setup wizards now. Each of them helps you to create scale keyboards, chord pages, sliders, faders, CC grids, etc.
Personally I use the new scale + chords features the most

. Imagine to have more than 300 scales available to jam around safely... and the chord wizard will give you direct access to the most important chords of any scale. Just at the tip of your finger

.

Other new features: undo/redo, two colour schemes for the user interface, copy/paste of pads and pages, load/save pages and page bundles separately, support for high-dpi displays, built-in audio engine if you just want to play around without your DAW, page actions like "transpose all notes one octave up" etc.

Watch this short video to see everything in action:

You can find the FAQ/manual here:
http://feelyoursound.com/faq-xotopad-2/

XotoPad 2 is a free upgrade for all existing users. Your XotoPad 1 serial will work in XotoPad 2 as well.
If you want to buy a license now, you can use the voucher code "betabonus" to get 15% off during the beta period. The final price will be announced soon, but it will probably be higher than the current price.

Download the beta here:
http://feelyoursound.com/beta-xotopad/

Please let me know if you find a bug or have some feedback

!

Cheers,
Hauke

(Surface Pro 3 device graphic by Paco Soria under a Creative Common's Attribution license 4.0)

themusicproducerblog · Mon Sep 14, 2015 2:45 pm

Can you use it on a windows tablet only as a midi device and control an external DAW with it ?

hauke · Post by **hauke** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 3:26 pm

themusicproducerblog wrote:Can you use it on a windows tablet only as a midi device and control an external DAW with it ?

You can either use XotoPad as a MIDI controller for your DAW/hardware or you can use it as a standalone instrument if you just want to jam along (the new version contains a built-in soundset).

If you want to connect it to your DAW, you will need to install a virtual MIDI cable.
Quick and easy setup guide: http://feelyoursound.com/faq-xotopad-2/#daw

Best regards,
Hauke

Kalamata Kid · Post by **Kalamata Kid** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 6:31 pm

Hello Hauke,

1. Is there a chance that Xotpad will ever become a VSTi?
I can then put is on a track or for me more likely use it in
Bidule, IL Patcher/Minihost, EnergyXTand other modular VSTi's.

2. Do all your keyboards have velocity sensing depending on
the location of the strike? I see that your piano type keyboard
does but how about the other ones? I assume everything
functions as multi-touch?

check out my thread:
Need a virtual Multi-Touch Midi Keyboard Controller VST
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 4&t=449091

hauke · Post by **hauke** » Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:15 am

Hi Kalamata Kid,

thanks for your interest and for pointing me to your other thread

At the moment it is not very likely that I will do a VST port. The programming language that I used for XotoPad cannot be used for creating VST effects/instruments.
However, I think I will play around with some VST toolkits in the near future, maybe I can find a way to provide some kind of bridge between the standalone tool and a VST then (but again: this is just a rather vague idea, so don't count on this)

Velocity sensing: When you create a scale or chord page with one of the wizards, the keys will have a fixed velocity value. But there is a very easy and fast way to turn on velocity sensing after that step.
Just click on "Edit" -> "Edit page" -> "Change pad properties..". Choose "Velocity" and select the y-axis option. This is all you need to do to turn velocity sensing on for all pads on this page

.

Cheers,
Hauke

Kalamata Kid · Post by **Kalamata Kid** » Thu Nov 12, 2015 9:16 pm

Hello Hauke,

In the near future I will very likely get XotoPad. I already have a 23” 10-touch monitor. I am attempting to do away from having a hardware midi keyboard. Not that I do not like hardware Midi Keyboard controllers but my studio setup has no room for one. So the XotoPad is the top contender. I just upgraded my signature.

I am sure that you are aware of the advantages of having the XotoPad function as a VSTi. These are some of my thoughts:

In Cubase and Sonar and likely other DAW’s the XotoPad VSTi can be opened as an IN. In this position the DAW treats it as midi controller whether hardware of software. Usually I open Bidule in the IN and there I can do some midi mapping and even add midi fx. Bidule has a Midi out that controls the VSTi. In my current favorite DAW, FL Studio 12 I will use Patcher and open the XotoPad VSTi inside which gives me great flexibility for routing.

As a VSTi, XotoPad will just work out of the box. It will open with the project and it will be saved in the project file. Wow that will be fantastic!

VST’s made on JUCE are automatically multi-touch I understand.

That all the keys can be set to receive velocity is fantastic! Thanks for the prompt reply and the instructions for velocity sensing.

hauke · Post by **hauke** » Fri Nov 13, 2015 9:31 am

Hi Kalamata Kid,

yep, using XotoPad as a VST this way would be very nice indeed

. Well, I put it on my list and will see what my tests with other frameworks might bring up.

Yes, I also heard that JUCE supports VSTs with multi-touch, but I would have to rewrite XotoPad from scratch in a completely different language. But for new products this might be a very nice solution

.

Cheers,
Hauke

Kalamata Kid · Post by **Kalamata Kid** » Fri Nov 13, 2015 3:29 pm

Hauke,

I appreciate your replies. I realize this is a big undertaking for a small company.
If you go this route Xotopad will be a the one and only in a rising sea of demand.

I wish you the best in this overlooked Windows multi-touch segment of the music
creation market.

Vas

VariKusBrainZ · Post by **VariKusBrainZ** » Fri Nov 13, 2015 3:55 pm

+1 for a multi touch VST version

hauke · Post by **hauke** » Fri Nov 13, 2015 7:28 pm

Very interesting, thanks again for your input! I didn't think of a VST version before, but it makes sense for sure

.

Cheers,
Hauke

auron · Post by **auron** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 5:16 pm

Hi there, is there a template for controlling Bitwig or Ableton Live included?

hauke · Post by **hauke** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:13 pm

auron wrote:Hi there, is there a template for controlling Bitwig or Ableton Live included?

Nope, there is no template yet.
Any wishes what such a template should provide or do?

Best,
Hauke

auron · Post by **auron** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 2:20 pm

hauke wrote:
auron wrote:Hi there, is there a template for controlling Bitwig or Ableton Live included?
Nope, there is no template yet.
Any wishes what such a template should provide or do?

Best,
Hauke

I would appreciate it a lot. There are so many controller apps on ipad available, but i have a windows10 tablet

.

Kalamata Kid · Post by **Kalamata Kid** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 9:14 pm

Hauke,

I cannot find the free download for LoopBe1.
It does state Free but where is the free download
button? I must be blind!

BTW are you planning on a black Friday/Cyber whatever sale?

VariKusBrainZ · Post by **VariKusBrainZ** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 9:30 pm

hauke wrote:
auron wrote:Hi there, is there a template for controlling Bitwig or Ableton Live included?
Nope, there is no template yet.
Any wishes what such a template should provide or do?

Best,
Hauke

Bitwig has its own built in touch template FYI

XotoPad 2: Windows MIDI multi-touch controller - sneak preview + beta