I wanna be slated

The iPad is out (in the US anyway), and will be here in the UK next month. No word on pricing yet, which is a tad worrying. My guesstimate is over £400 for the base model.

I still have gear lust for it. It looks lovely and, taken as a "giant iPod Touch", it seems to run very slick indeed. I have to say few of the apps have really astounded me yet. Perhaps the most impressive native app in my mind is Korg's iElectribe. Most of my fave synths have yet to be updated, but I'm sure they would be much more usable with larger on-screen "keys".

But apart from the unknown price, and the delays, some cracks are starting to appear. Weak wifi is a concern for me (my access is borderline at best) and I recently heard over at PalmSounds that the dock connector doesn't support audio-in, which buggers up my beloved stereo recording Macally iVoice Pro 3.

This has made me sit up and consider my usage requirements. In all honesty, my music making is better served by my PC, with its multiple soundcards (one internal, one USB) and professional level audio software (Cubase VST and VirtualDJ). The reason I do more with my iPhone is simple: it is there, on my desk or in my pocket, and is "instant on". My PC is a hulking beast that takes about a week to finish booting up.

Going full circle this points me back towards portable Windows based devices. I lusted after the Viliv S5 before getting my iPhone, and then kept a watchful eye over the myriad tablet/slate devices that were rushed to announcement a short while before everyone knew Apple was likely to announce a slate/tablet. Most of these run either Android or a Linux variant, but the HP slate has really caught my eye. It's a PC. It runs PC software. It's compatible with PC peripherals. It's portable and multi-touch. It's expandable. It runs Flash on websites (Hobnox?). It's allegedly going to be competitively priced with the iPad. I work with Windows all day and like it. I could run the Windows-only work apps I need on the HP slate. The only kick in the plums is the screen resolution - 1024x600 is also what puts me of most netbooks. It does have HDMI output though.

Hmm, am I breaking up with the iPad before we even go on our first date?

iPhone OS 4.0

Lots announced. My personal take:

* Folders. Finally!

* Multitasking. A little bit of a fudge by the looks of it, but highly welcome. Probably as good as it was going to get.

* Background audio. Cool!

* Bluetooth keyboard. Ooooh. Potentially thus Bluetooth gamepad?

Definitely did not see explicit reference to shared files between apps though. Why? What is so bad about having sound files that can be used by a bunch of different apps?

iPad, will uPad?

Had to laugh at the Apple press launch yesterday - quite literally the iPad is a giant iPod Touch. They could have even named it the iPod XL or something. Many were hoping for a touch-screen laptop minus the keyboard, like the Windows based tablets on show, which would be nice for business users and those wanting to integrate with their work. I can't say I'm overly surprised at what it turned out to be, and I doubt it will be that sucessful in its first version.

However, I really really really want one! Sure there's no GPS on the base model, no front mounted camera that would allow for awesome Skype video calls and no standard USB ports for adding storage, cameras, game controllers, midi devices etc. If there's one thing we have learned from Apple in recent years, it's "expect to be underwhelmed and the device to be underspecced compared to what others have been doing for years."

So why do I want one? Web browsing at a higher resolution would be great. My iPhone is already my main browser these days, so a bigger version has to be cool. No flash though (d'oh!). Being able to use my many apps without re-buying them would be great too, although I'm not that convinced about pixel-doubling meaning games will simply "just work" (not least of which due to the placement of on-screen controls that were designed for a 3" device not a 10" one). Video will also be amazing - BBC iPlayer, YouTube HD etc. Bring it on!

Mainly I look forward to music apps. Full width virtual keys, more stuff on screen, more multiple touches (is that one true, about the 10 finger multi-touch?). That's going to be awesome.

It's far from perfect, far from business-like, far from a Windows tablet killer, looks like it'll slip off your lap and smash into a thousand tiny pieces and far from pocketable. I love it :o)

Soldering non talent...

I bought myself one of these iSpin mixers for 15 quid:

At first glance, and watching the videos you'd be right in thinking, "gimicky, silly scratch sound, very limited with only 4 proper effects."

At first glance I thought, "cool, a cheap way to charge my two iDevices (also has 3.5mm line in), a way to cross-fade between the two of them (both running some DJ software) and possibly hackable."

So it arrived, I briefly plugged it in and tried it out. The fader works, the microphone is a nice to have (sits in the fx path if you want) and the headphones can be either master out or cue, which is great. Yes, the "scratch" effect is awful. The other 4 effects though are rather good (reverb, flange, hi-pass filter, lo-pass filter in two switchable "banks" each with two fx). After a few minutes I got out my screwdriver.

First to go were the little "wheel" things, now replaced with some knobs I had lying around. Sadly the central "scratch spinner" is a rotary encoder, so that'll be replaced with a rotary pot soon.

Ok, onto the meaty bit. The fx chip is called the FV-1 by Spin Semiconductor. It turns out it is a much more capable chip than it seems from the built in two patches of fx. You see, it has 8 internal fx patches (with 2-3 fx on each patch) and an external sound bank, where the iSpin's own fx are housed. After a trip to Spin's website I found that you can switch between the internal bank and the external bank if you solder in a switch. You can also choose any of the 8 patches if you solder in 3 more switches (or an 8-position rotary switch, which I thought would be easier).

So some dremmeling and soldering later I've got the 8-position switch mounted into the case (top right corner, next to the right side iPod) and re-hacked the prog1/prog2 switch to select internal/external banks instead. The 8-position switch isn't quite working yet - it can select the first two patches, but nothing else...

A couple of observations thus far:

1. Soldering onto the legs of a chip is a nightmare!
2. My soldering iron is rubbish.
3. My soldering skills are non-existent.
4. I don't think my circuit skills are up to scratch! I thought I could hook "ground" up to the 8-way switch instead of 3.3v but something seems to be creating a short-circuit I think. I don't really know what I'm doing :o)

Next steps are to re-do the switch (a big job) and then somehow replace the rotary encoder with a linear potentiometer. Why, you might ask? Because the FV-1 allows analog control over 3 different parameters for each sound patch. Hence the 3 dials on the front of the device. They are not jog-dials, they control the fx!

Hopefully I won't fry anything, then I'll end up with a whole bunch of new fx, essentially becoming an extremely cheap fx unit that mixes and charges my two iDevices or any of my other devices with 3.5mm outputs.

B Good :o)

Spot the E.T. reference there? Anyway, back in May one of my wishes was to have a Hammond B3 app for my iDevice. C3B3 videos emerged a few months back and my appetite was well and truly whetted.

Well now it's launched, and it is absolutely brilliant! Of course, it looks the part but more importantly it sounds fantastic too.

Everything you'd expect is there:

• Configurable scrollable split keyboards
• Overdrive
• Reverb
• Key click
• Fantastic presets
• Rotary speaker

As soon as you fire it up, you'll be hammering in those classic pieces from rock gods gone by. You just can't help it.

Seriously, I am very, very impressed indeed.

One thing sure to raise a few moans is the use of in-app purchase, which is popping up everywhere these days. On the one hand I hate the idea of constantly coughing up for something I've already bought, but on the other hand this is a B3, for less than 2 quid! Having to pay 59p to be able to save my own presets is a bit cheeky though, but 59p per new sound bank seems fair enough if I knew what they sounded like first. Afterall, the developer has spent the time making those presets so why not get paid for it?

I'd love to have recording built-in (many apps do this very well now) along with using these recordings elsewhere (ioLibrary?). Not only for productivity reasons, but because, well, my talent runs dry very quickly so playing two parts at once is something of a challenge for me. Also my fingers have never felt so over-sized before. This inspires you to want to play big chords, but without configurable key-widths (that I can see anyway) my efforts need to be toned down somewhat!

I can see me spending literally hours with this, jamming along (pathetically) to Deep Purple (apologies to Jon Lord in advance) and all manner of stuff.

What a great way to start a Saturday morning!

Check out their videos here to hear/see for yourself.

iTunes link

Hey Mr DJ put two records on...

Finally the DJ apps that have been held back by Apple are starting to flood in. And what a varied bunch they are!

The one that's been out for a while, and is truly a magnificent turntable simulation is Flare. I've had this since launch and I absolutely adore it. I'd love pitch control, uploading my own background loops and an FX engine, but as it currently stands nothing comes close for those used to spinning the wheels of steel. Even works beautifully with time-code recordings for desktop apps like Virtual DJ. But there's something else I'd like to see added (see later on...)

The most publicly held back DJ app was Touch DJ by Amidio, creator of the uber-synth, Noise.io. As my coffers are stretched at the moment, courtesy of buying an iPhone 3GS, I'm not quite ready to try this out at $19.99 but that's not to say the price is too high - it really looks like a premium product and $19.99 doesn't buy you much else in the world of the desktop DJ! It uses an interesting visual-mixing technique, where you see the key beats on each waveform and line-them up before hitting the x-fader. A nice idea for getting around the obvious problem of the iPhone only having a single stereo output. But there's something else I'd like to see added (see later on...)

The interestingly named Sonorasaurus also arrived this week, with a gorgeous looking interface. I haven't seen much in the way of video demos of this (only one on youtube that I could see) and I'm not sure if it allows looping like Touch DJ appears to. It is, however, half the price of Touch DJ. But there's something else I'd like to see added (see later on...)

Also allowed out to play are abcDJ ($3.99) and "and Scratch" both by Sanken System. I think "and Scratch" is a single-deck version of abcDJ, with a price ($1.99) to match. Both apps look similar to Flare, but with extra functionality. Unfortunately the demo videos on Youtube have quite poor audio quality so it is hard to say how they truly compare. But there's something else I'd like to see added (see later on...)

Finally, from what I've seen, is DJ Player Blue Edition at the top end of premium at $24.99 for what appears to be a single-deck application. I imagine that price may be revisited fairly swiftly in light of the competition. It appears to have a Kaoss pad inspired FX section, which is nice. But there's something else I'd like to see added...

Ok, so what is it I'd like to see added to all of these? Is it the ability to use tracks straight from your iPod library instead of having to upload an additional copy of the track per app? Well, that would be nice, but I think that's an Apple restriction so you can't ask the developers to do something beyond Apple's limits! No, what I'd really like to see is this:

Use local wifi to sync and stream a "deck" on two iDevices (e.g. iPod and iPhone) and crossfade between them! So one device could output the crossfader mix (i.e. what the audience hears) and the other device could output a headphone mix for the DJ's use. How awesome would that be? No more worries about single audio output, "visual mixing", guessing the mix etc. I'm sure a few people now have a couple of iDevices thanks to upgrades etc, plus second-hand 1G iPod Touches are now really cheap.

Anyway, it's something I'd like to see :o) Any devs wanting to give it a try let me know!

I've got the power

Just watched Synth Britannia on the BBC, all about the rise of synth music in the UK from the 70s onwards. Some awesome stuff on there, including a few snippets and interviews from Kraftwerk. After watching Vince Clark talk about the DM performance on Top of the Pops and how they lugged their synths on the train to get to the TOTP studio I realised just how much synth and recording power now resides in my coat pocket when I wander around.

I need to spend more time playing and less time looking for new apps I reckon!