Tympanum Preview 1

YouTube via Uploaded by LintLabs on Mar 8, 2011

"A quick first look at Tympanum showing a bit of the mixing interface. The 1st screen is amplitude (volume and modulation), and the 2nd screen is location (panning and reverb). Much much more to come! Next we'll take a look at editing..."

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miniMusic MixPad Press Release

Remember MixPad? The following is the official press release:

"MINIMUSIC MAKES MOBILE MIDI MUSIC MIXER!
MixPad plays and remixes MIDI files on any Palm handheld or phone.

San Francisco, Calif., March 19th, 2007 - The new MixPad application
from miniMusic plays standard MIDI files on any Palm compatible
handheld or phone and can remix the songs as they play. Songs can be
played on most modern devices using miniMusic's Krikit Audio Engine
for rich polyphonic audio. Some handhelds can be connected to
external music hardware like synthesizers, samplers or tone modules
and MixPad can control those. Handheld computers with dedicated
sound cards are also supported, including models from Sony, Tapwave
and Handspring. The mixing board inside the software can adjust the
volume and panning of individual instruments while a song plays, or
solo or mute tracks.

Although MIDI files are not usually used for passive listening, they
remain a primary tool for music studios and live performances; they
provide backing tracks, control instruments remotely and quickly
configure music hardware. MixPad lets professional musicians carry
all of these tracks and settings in their pockets at all times.
Also, music students can rehearse pieces by muting out a part they
want to play themselves, or soloing a part they want to listen to
more carefully. MixPad is a powerful tool for performers, DJs,
songwriters and music hobbyists.

"This has been a major missing piece in our journey to bring desktop
music tools to handheld computers," says Chad Mealey, chief developer
at miniMusic. "Musicians ask all the time if they can put their
whole MIDI library on a Palm or use the Palm to play backing tracks
in live performances. With the release of MixPad the answer is
finally 'yes you can'."

MIDI files are an industry standard format for music that predates
MP3. Containing no actual recorded sound, MIDI files instead contain
detailed instructions for performing the music (details like how hard
a piano key is struck, or the subtle bending of a guitar string).
Although MIDI files cannot include vocals, the instrumental songs are
MUCH smaller than MP3s and much more flexible. MixPad's ability to
change levels or panning of individual instruments would be
impossible with a standard MP3 file. A MIDI file is easily 1000th
the size of an MP3! Due to their small size they are still used
widely on the internet, in computer games, and for ring tones.

This first version of MixPad only plays and mixes MIDI files and
requires a handheld or phone running Palm OS version 3.5 or higher
(Palm OS 5.0 or higher is needed to use the Krikit Audio Engine). A
Pro version of MixPad will be offered later this Spring adding
recording and editing capabilities -- a complete portable MIDI
studio. Since MixPad uses the Krikit Synth, you can use sounds
designed with miniMusic's SoundPad to play songs in MixPad.

Pricing, Availability, and Distribution
MixPad is available now for $29.95 US. However an introductory sale
at miniMusic.com brings the price down to only $19.95 US. MixPad is
also included in the miniMusic Pro Suite, bundled with the NotePad,
BeatPad, AxisPad, and SoundPad applications; the suite retails for
$89.95 US. A free demo of MixPad is currently available for download
from the miniMusic web-site at www.miniMusic.com.

About miniMusic
Based in San Francisco since 1999, miniMusic creates handheld
computer software for music composition, education, performance, and
entertainment so that musical ideas can be explored anywhere and
anytime, giving individuals the freedom of musical expression on
their own terms. Shipping applications include NotePad, BeatPad,
SoundPad, MixPad, AxisPad, EarTrain and BugBand. Upcoming products
will tackle multi-track editing and innovative new musical interfaces.

All prices listed are in US Dollars. For more information please
visit the miniMusic website at: www.minimusic.com"

miniMusic MixPad

"MixPad is a full featured MIDI file player/recorder/editor. It will let you take any raw MIDI file with you on your Palm compatible handheld or phone. You can play the song with our Krikit audio engine, on connected MIDI hardware, or on a sound card if your handheld has one. MixPad differs from any other MIDI file applications for the PalmOS; it includes powerful graphic support for simple viewing and mixing.

Usable for real performance situations, or music practice, MixPad gives you a powerful real-time mixer interface to control channel volumes, panning, and solos and mutes for every track during playback. The main display gives smooth scrolling of all MIDI data (including velocities and controller data) and zooming. Unlike other MIDI file players that use hundreds of kilobytes (or even megabytes) of memory for sound samples, our software synthesizer generates audio without any recorded sound; it's only 10k! Song files are also very small (usually under 100k)."

Title link takes you there. Be sure to check out the rest of the miniMusic suite.

Zire 71 Music System

Click here for shots pulled via this auction.

Some Details:
Chocopoolp Bhajis Loops (worth $27.00)
Chocopoolp Microbe (worth $16.00)
MiniMusic SoundPad (worth $19.00)
GBulator running Nanoloop and 8 Cylinder apps.
SpeakMemo speech application
LingvoSoft English-Japanese translation software (worth $20.00)
Oblique Strategies

Chocopoolp
MiniMusic
Zire 71

The only thing missing is a MIDI cable for controlling your outboard gear. I have MiniMusic which is a great suite of software for sequencing synths. You can see some previous posts here. If you want to control your synths with this, I'd recommend checking out the Minimusic Hardware page for more info. Via DK.

Analog Industries Taking Feedback for Next Product

Just in case you missed it, title link takes you to a post on Analog Industries where Chris Randall is taking feedback on their next product. Here's your chance to ask for what you want. On my list? An uber analog style multitrack sequencer that'l let me control my hardware synths via a tablet PC. Think the Sequentix P3 and MiniMusic BeatPad on steroids. Imagine a virutal that you can map to your midi controller of choice or just use your tablet.

Behind MiniMusic's BeatPad

I absolutely love MiniMusic's BeatPad. You can see some of my previous posts on BeatPad here. Here's a post of BeatPad driving a Moog Voyager and Roland TR-909.

Simon Gatrall sent the following to AH. It's great to know where the design came from.

"I based the analog line portion on the EML 400, and the drum portion on an X0X style machine. I designed Beatpad and Minimusic did the coding/support/etc.

I have a prototype of the "analog" portion of the sequencer built in Max, but it doesn't have the same pattern storage tools or the start point changing.

Some day I'd like to reproduce or expand on the concept for a Mac based version.

I also ran a company called Swivel Systems which developed a General MIDI add on for earlier Palms, but I have to say that the concept of Beatpad was what got me started with the whole thing."

Cheers to Simon and MiniMusic for creating such a cool piece of software. Now we just need a Mac and PC version for the tablet. Title link takes you to MiniMusic.

miniMusic MixPad

"MixPad is a full featured MIDI file player/recorder/editor. It will let you take any raw MIDI file with you on your Palm and play on any connected MIDI hardware. MixPad differs from any other Palm MIDI file applications with powerful graphic support for simple viewing and quick editing." Think about that for a sec.

BTW, I love miniMusic. I'm still waiting for someone to come out with something like BeatPad for the PC. If you know of any software like this, please comment.

via Palm Sounds.

Z4 Music and Griff - Pocket Samplers

Griff


Z4 Music


Kirk emailed me asking if I knew of any IPod sized samplers. The smallest hardware sampler that came to mind was the Yamaha SU10. I then remembered there was Griff for the Pocket PC and possibly others. I did a quick search for Kirk and found Z4 Music and Griff. There is also my favorite Sequencing software, MiniMusic for the Palm with SynthPad. Finally there's the M-Audio MicroTrack and the Edirol R-1 and R-09, but I beleive they are more straight audio recording devices rather than samplers. I figured I'd put up a post for others as well. If you know of any other IPod sized samplers, feel free to comment.

Update: A couple more:
Via the comments: The Roland MS-1
Via Kirk: The Boss SP-202.

Update via David Kristian in the comments:
"Chocopoolp also makes some decent Palm OS apps, including Bhajis Loops, which combines sampling, sequencing and effects. http://www.chocopoolp.com/"

Sonicbytes

I'm still in research mode looking for the best PC sequencer (btw if you have any recommendations for the PC feel free to comment - unfortunately I don't have a make yet and can't afford one at the moment).

I want something similar to miniMusic's beatpad to use with a small tablet PC.

So, back to Sonicbytes. I heard about them via Sonic State News. The post was on Phrazor Preview #3, a fully functional "virtual synthesizer workstation" with sequencing. I decided to check it out, but the sequencer looked like your standard piano roll - not what I'm looking for. However they do have a dedicated sequencer called ERA (pictured) that I will check out.

Their products as of this post: EST - Sampling Groovebox VSTi, Gat'R - Trancegate MultiFX, ERA - Midi Step Sequencer VSTi/MFX, Phrazor - Virtual Synthesizer Workstation.

Title link takes you there.

Fruity Loops Resource

Editor posted a link to his Fruity Loops Resource, in the comments of this post. What's interesting is that it's a blog! I don't think I've ever seen a resource site dedicated to a given instrument as a blog before. I think it's a great idea as you can subscribe to it and get udpates over time. Pretty cool. BTW, I'm thinking of replacing my Palm running miniMusic with a UMPC/Origami so I have more room and more software to sequence my synths with. Fruity Loops is on my list for it, so this blog will come in handy. Title link takes you there.

Origami

I've been following the Origami buzz lately. If you haven't heard, it's rumored to be a UMPC or Ultra Mobile PC by Microsoft. I didn't think I was going to be putting a post up on it here, but then it clicked.


Image via Longhorn Blogs

Remember these posts?
miniMusic BeatPad driving a Voyager and 909
Multi-Touch Interaction Research
Apple Lemur?
Lemur Workshop
Live Lab - Tablet 2 MIDI and Live Slice
Audio Pad
Lemur-like Rear projection control
Lemur and a Continuum - Video

Well it just dawned on me that Origami might be an affordable alternative. I'd love to see a more robust miniMusic suite for it. We'll soon know... Title link takes you to the Origami site - still giving teasers.

miniMusic BeatPad driving a Voyager and 909

Update2: Moogulator put up a post on this. The funny thing is that I completely missed the irony in the shot - a mighty knob ladden Voyager being driven by a tiny pda. Too funny. Thanks Moogulator!

Update: I should note that everything in the samples is being triggered by BeatPad - I am not using the 909 sequencer. Also you can sync to BeatPad, so I could have the 909 running its own sequence, synced to BeatPad and have BeatPad sequencing another synth though the 909 via the 909 MIDI through.

I just posted about the miniMusic MixPad. That post actually came about when I was setting up this post. I was playing around with BeatPad driving a Minimoog Voyager and a Roland TR-909 and I thought I'd put up a couple of samples and a link to miniMusic. When I checked out their site I found the new software. That aside... Title link takes you to a couple of samples and shots. Note that these samples are a bit long, daft and don't fully showcase what BeatPad is capable of. I was just dinking around. BeatPad has a super intuitive UI. There is one page for your main lead and one for your drum machine (pictured above - click the shot to see the individual parts). You can mute and solo different sounds on the drum grid and you can mute either the entire lead or drum section. In the lead section you can mute notes, adjust the length of the pattern , gate time, velocity, transposition and tie notes all on the fly. It's a blast to tweak things live. There are four things I wish it had - support for driving multiple lead sequences driving different MIDI channels at the same time (basically multi-track live sequencing), the ability to sequence MIDI CC independent of notes for things like filter, resonance and other modulations, the ability to save sequences, and the ability to flip back to saved or "sanp-shot" sequences. To clarify when you edit one of the 64 sequences available, the edits remain when you close out, so in that sense they are saved, but once you edit one there is no way to go back. I beleive you are supposed to just use a new track, but when you have multiple tracks previosly saved it can be painful remembering each track. Hmm... Add a fifth item - the ability to name your sequences for saving. Regardless BeatPad is pretty amazing - there is just something super intuitive in using a stylus to control your sequences. Believe it or not, it beats the pants off of a bulky knob box. I'm still in disbelief that a Pocket PC MIDI device/cable for external sequencing has not yet hit the market.

What's up with that?

miniMusic MixPad and More

I previously posted about updates to MiniMusic's Beatpad. Well it looks like they have more software coming including MixPad, a full featured MIDI file player/recorder/editor. Title link takes you to the miniMusic site.



"MixPad is a full featured MIDI file player/recorder/editor. It will let you take any raw MIDI file with you on your Palm and play on any connected MIDI hardware. MixPad differs from any other Palm MIDI file applications with powerful graphic support for simple viewing and quick editing.

Ideal for real performance situations, MixPad uses the Palm hardware buttons for playback control, allows you to lock songs to prevent unintended changes, and gives you a powerful real-time mixer interface to control channel volumes, panning, and solos and mutes for every track during playback. The main display gives smooth scrolling of all MIDI data (including velocities and controller data in the lower window) and full zooming functionality. We are also building in a full range piano controller to play along with the current file or to add a new track to an existing file, and some slider controllers as well that can be assigned to any MIDI controller value (pitch bend, volume, vibrato, etc.).

We expect to release a Lite version of MixPad that works only as a player/viewer, and a full Pro version with complete recording and editing features enabled.
Available soon for $19.95 (Player) and $39.95 (Pro)"

MiniMusic BeatPad Update

Via Create Digital Music. I have BeatPad along with the other MiniMusic products. It a great product and a blast to play. I run it into my TR-909 and out to any other given synth. Sequence heaven.



"BeatPad is a pattern based sequencer. It provides a simple yet powerful interface for creating musical patterns of various instruments or drum kits, layering these patterns, and performing them on your handheld or exporting them to your desktop/laptop. Using the Palm Platform's large touch sensitive screen, it is easy to see every aspect of a pattern at once and manipulate it with the stylus."