Coffee ...

Developing software for iOS devices is a coffee-heavy affair. Here at Ellatron central we just got ourselves the coolest Espresso machine on the planet, so pretty it really should be on sale at the Apple Store as the iSpresso.

And it was *cheap*!!


Check out the Presso from Le Cafe Shop - rattling off the benefits one by one, it is
* £200 cheaper than the machine we just retired
* hygenic - no milky ick on a steamer pipe, but a cool milk frotherizer
* easier to clean than the machine we just retired
* makes better-tasting coffee (not sure how they manage that one!)
* uses no electricity - shoulder power pumps the water through the coffee, and your existing kettle heats the water
* uses up way less space in the kitchen than the machine we just retired
* cool cool cool - and gorgeous
* comes with a free pack of exquisite coffee

It is awesome.

Now for some more coffee ...

iPad goes on sale in Denmark today!

And to celebrate, here's Tim Christensen, Denmark's finest export (apart from certain rather special beers!) playing M3000 HD in Copenhagen a couple of months back. Totally Mellotronic!

Ellatron - the missing manual

The guilt got too much to bear. All those users but no user manual.

So finally - real soon now, i.e. before the end of 2010 - there will be a user manual, and because all our customers have iPhones or iPads it makes perfect sense for the manual to be an iBook.

C30 C60 C90 - GO!

Melloman, as featured on Tara Busch's smash hit Motorcrash.

It's like a Mellotron but the tapes are thinner, it has more wow, more flutter, more tape hiss. And there's only one of them. In the whole damn world.

Coming to an App Store near you in 2010 - Melloman, the App. Just 99c.

Because an idea this good shouldn't be owned by one man alone.

*yes, we know Motorcrash wasn't a chart smash - but in our preferred parallel universe, where quality is the only thing that counts, it busted the charts to bits.

Cassandra and the well-tempered Ellatron

Finally, the MIDI-enabled Ellatron was in the hands of somebody who can actually play the piano - albeit rustily, at least 15 years since the last time she tickled the ivories. But didn't she do well?

Next time I'll request she gives us a blast of the Toccata and Fugue on the M3000 Church Organ ...

First project for 2011 ...

... or even very late 2010 if we can get it together - a sweet, fun, 99c app featuring the weird and warbly, cheap and cassettey, hissy but haunting, achingly awesomely wackily walkman sounds of - Melloman! For iPad and iPhone!! How truly brilliant is that?!

Ellatron via CoreMIDI

Following on from the video of 2 days ago which was made with a genuinely brilliant but not yet on the market pro-level MIDI interface, this illustrates the most cost-effective way to turn Ellatron / M3000 and soon Jordantron into a MIDI-powered instrument if you don't mind repurposing other bits of hardware you have hanging around the house ...



Take 1 iPad.
Take 1 Ellatron. Or M3000. Or Jordantron.
Take 1 powered USB hub. The 'powered' bit is important
Take 1 Apple Camera Connection Kit.
Take 1 M-Audio Axiom 49. Or similar. But we really do like the Axiom 49 ...

Instant MIDI-enabled Tron.

CoreMIDI really is brilliant, and will be the way forward for iOS devices and performance music. Unfortunately the iPod Touch 4G (and therefore I assume iPhone 4) don't recognise the Camera Connection Kit, so this route is only available to Paddies. Now I'd better put the USB hub back where it came from ...