iOS Release: CTRL+Console

CTRL+Console, the kick started app designed to control Final Cut and Adobe Premiere Pro has just been released.. It's free to try and each editor cost $30 via in-app purchase. Not a bad deal considering hardware of this nature costs a lot more. Someone already made an Avid Media Composer template for it so expect more to come! There are official templates coming for Light Room and Mackie Mixers too.  Check it out in the App Store.

OSX Update: Logic Pro X

Earlier this week apple introduced the long awaited update to their digital audio workstation Logic Pro now titled, Logic Pro X. Apple used this naming scheme to coincide with the ability to natively transfer your work in Logic Pro X to Final Cut Pro X. This is not their main selling point however.

Apple's developers have updated their patch library to work with new features regarding sound design, as well as new pitch tuning algorithms and a free dedicated iPad app called Logic Remote which includes an assortment of controllers for playing instruments and useful transport controls. The midi fx seem to be the David of the Goliath. Within the midi fx plug-ins, there is something called scripter and it lets you code your own midi plug-ins using JavaScript. I have a feeling scripter will become a big reason to stay with Logic Pro X as more plug-ins will be released overtime. Hopefully coders will be able to add more than custom midi scripts in the future such as maintenance plug-ins like Cockos' excellent digital audio workstation Reaper. Logic Pro X is still priced the same as it's predecessor at $199 US in the Mac App Store and the iPad app Logic Remote, which only runs on iOS 6, is of course at the iOS App Store.

iOS Freebie: Traktor

Get on down to the app store today and download Native Instrument's DJ app Traktor for FREE! (reg $19.99)

I don't know how long this deal will last so get stepping!

iOS Review: Figure (The 3 track workhorse)

Since Thor has been released it reminded me that I was going to do a review on Propellerhead's Figure which is a great music app for people with only partial (or just plain lack of) rhythm to come up with some really high quality song sketches. The app has a set of tools most apps don't have such as it's musically scaled touchpad keyboard appregiator wheel of fun, x/y effects per track and live transpose features. You can make songs in just a minute or two and spend another 10 minutes tweaking them and come out with something useable. The program's sounds are big, powerful and eq'd nicely and the "power wheel" lets you change your groove with ease. Recording is done live and is quantized if the "power wheel" is set to anything above zero. One feature I like is being able to play live ad-lib on top of prerecorded material on a track. If you find your songs all start to sound the same, use the transpose feature in the song page to get to other scales on the keyboard. This is a great way to give your songs more variation. You can export any loop or one track of a loop by muting the other tracks then exporting. You have two ways of exporting loops. One is using iTunes which will leave the delay trails intact so your loops will not be trimmed to properly loop without alteration in a DAW. The other way to export is using Audio Copy Paste which exports the audio "loop ready" to throw into apps like Looptastic or Glitch Breaks but doesn't leave the delay trails intact so some loops will sound like they are being cut off.

I honestly wish I didn't have to export audio loops to make full use of figure but it's the only way to use it in a multi track scenario. This leads me to my main gripe with Figure which is the lack of midi clock sync. Why the f**k do we keep getting WIST support and no midi clock? WIST only "start syncs" when you have 2 devices paired and the sync sucks and goes out every time you change a patch or tweak a sound. If we were given midi clock support, we could actual sync Figure internally with other apps, over wifi wireless network sessions and hardwired core midi over the camera connection kit and be stable for hours. Don't even get me started on why Figure added the ability to upload to sound cloud direct within the app. Can someone please comment on why that is something to give two flying s**ts about. If Propellerheads just charged more for the app than its $0.99 asking price, maybe they would give it the support it deserves. I would gladly pay for a midi upgrade of Figure. That I would blog with great joy. I think I will hold my reservations about the app on this blog and go bitch in the App Store because after emailing Propellerheads, they told me to start a thread on their forum to get people interested in midi clock but the problem with that is, any time you post a topic, it gets lost in an abyss of threads only a couple days later so that idea was useless. I can only hope that iOS 7's inter-app midi feature can be easily implemented with an update and Propellerheads take note of it. They did get on the Audio Bus band wagon which is pretty simple for developers to add to their apps. I can either wait forever for midi or get cracking exporting loops or just give up and play with my Monotribe.

iOS Review: PixiTracker

I decided to give PixiTracker for iPad a try since it's free right now and I left impressed and inspired by the features it has on hand. First forget any idea that this is a PC music tracker. This is a drum machine with a few surprises. Not only does Alexander Zolotov give us a great drum/synth step sequencer, you'll notice at the top of the display, there is a keyboard with octave and velocity controls which is used to change the pitch of each seperate note of each track. With this simple feature you can make any melody you want and with the song mode you can chain patterns to make even longer melodies. The sounds are very 8 bit and can sound extra crunchy pitched down. Another cool feature bottom left of the display is a waveform viewer that lets you scrub the selected sound and change the sample start and end points. This app may not be a one stop shop but you can make full compositions with it or just focus on pattern creation and export as WAV files or use audio copy paste to send your loops to Looptastic or GlitchBreaks or Auria ect. The app's settings page was recently updated with connections for AudioBus and Jack Audio so try routing it to Sugar Bytes new iPad effects app Turnado. The ability to save and load songs, a dedicated main volume control, 12 track sequencer, 16 cool pitchable sounds, sample start/stop adjustments and a very cool video mode makes this app worth much more than the asking price of free!!! (limited time) So leave a good review as a way of saying thanks. Works great on iPad 1 too.