OK, it's all been a bit quiet round here lately, so let's update you all on what's been going on.
First we have been cleaning out the codebase. It had got messy. It's now in much better shape and as a result is running faster and more smoothly than before, which is nice.
Secondly, we've been going universal. Our build system is now in shape and set up to get Ellatron and Ellatron HD merged into the same product. Now it's not clear how we can do this with Apple, we may just have to continue with the 2 separate SKUs and upload the same binary to them - but going forward, Ellatron for iPhone will be the same program as Ellatron HD. For those of you who purchased both we do apologize, but in the early days of iPad development without hardware it was just impossible and we had to get the iPad version out. But going forward, everything we do will be universal from day one.
So Mellotronics M3000 will go universal at the next refresh. This will open up the amazing semitone-sampled ABC-blended tones of M3000 to iPhone and iPod Touch owners. And of course the long-awaited Jordantron will also be universal when it is launched - one binary, all devices, it will be really cool.
And coolest of all - all these apps are going MIDI. We have early access to an advanced prototype of a quite fantastic low-cost MIDI interface for iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad. Latency is insanely low, quality is insanely good. Price - well, all we know is 'low-cost', this should get more clear over the next few weeks. We can't commit right now to when the device will ship - we hope during Q4 this year, so before the holidays - but it will be immense. As soon as we can tell you more about this new MIDI interface we will, but if the design pans out it will be the nicest one we have seen yet. Having 8 of the chord pads available on the programmable pads of our in-house Axiom 49 is *brilliant*!! And continuous controllers for M3000 ABC blend, pitch and volume - it is just so fantastic to have a MIDI keyboard plugged into an iPhone!
Once it's clear we are not breaking any NDAs we will post video ... stay tuned.
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Ok, now I really want to know more about this prototype MIDI interface, can you give me any clues?
ReplyDeleteThis all sounds great, but I have a major problem with Ellatron. How do you save chords to the sound bank? I don't know if I am (and several of my friends are) just plain stupid, but I would think that hitting record, the numbered pad you want to change, inputting notes and then hitting record again should be the logical procedure. I haven't been able to make the "lock" key do anything useful. However I twist and turn it, all my presets are replaced by the defaults when I restart the app. And I haven't been able to fins any info on this online either. So...am I dumb or is there a genuine bug at work? Worth noting is that the same thing goes for both my old 3G and new iPhone 4.
ReplyDeleteJohn
ReplyDeleteI missed this, and am a bit late - however, in case you haven't got to the bottom of it yet - hit record. Then play the keys. The keys are then recorded into that chord. (I think that's the bit you'd got sussed already!) - then hit the disk icon on the control panel to save the changes permanently - that seems to be the step you're missing.
Will document the next version much more thoroughly ...