chipPad for iPad

[earsmack]

An odd question, slightly off topic but: do you think this will be usable (ie is the Ipad usable) in the daytime, outside? I want something to do music wise on my lunch hours.

I recently tried doing some work on my Nintendo DS, with the Korg DS, but it was not much fun.

e.

The iPad and iPhone screens are very bright and can be used in pretty bright light and outside. Full-on sun in the desert might be pushing it but I think you could probably make it work.

[epiphanius]

Thanks for the reply, earsmack. And for coding this thing - I'm down with it as soon as the Ipads appear in Canada.

Cheers,

e.

[MartinOM28V]

Looks great, Earsmack. Buying it right now. You're onto something here.

[earsmack]

Thanks for the reply, earsmack. And for coding this thing - I'm down with it as soon as the Ipads appear in Canada.

Cheers,

e.

Thanks! I appreciate it. I'm hard at work tweaking and adding some features folks have suggested. Let me know what you think once you pick it up.

[earsmack]

Looks great, Earsmack. Buying it right now. You're onto something here.

Thanks Martin! Definitely let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions for features. I've already gotten some great ideas from users - some really talented folks out there!

[earsmack]

Version 1.1 is now in the app store...changes include:


-Tracks no longer silence when a track that is currently playing is retriggered.

-Microfades are applied to audio to avoid clicks when musically appropriate. The more you play towards the top of a cell, the more the microfade will be applied. Play towards the bottom of a cell to apply less microfade.

-Track number and file name are now displayed on tracks (this is an optional setting in Gear menu, it is on by default)

-Solo and Mute controls are now available per track (on the Mix page) which are also saved with the session. Muted tracks that are playing appear lighter green. Solo tracks that are playing appear brighter green. Both buttons activate immediately upon touch UP.

-Saves the most recent session as a session named (wait for it) "Most Recent Session" so if you ever accidentally quit the app or click a link in the help that exits the app you won't lose your work. Note, any session named "Most Recent Session" will be replaced each time the app quits with the (wait for it again) most recent session. You are still resposible for saving your work with the proper session name - this is merely a backup plan to save you from an "Oh No!" moment.

-Fixed a bug that could cause the app to crash if you changed audio files on a track that was currently playing.

-Fixed a bug that would cause a crash if you tapped two popover buttons at the same time.

-Various tweaks and optimizations throughout the codebase.

[roothewhirl]

This looks great. Keep up the good work, man!

-Ryan

[earsmack]

Version 1.2 is under development and I'm looking for that killer feature that you think is needed in this app...I'm working on mostly performance improvements and new gestures/mechanisms to trigger and control the tracks. If you have something you think would be really cool please post here or email me.

Thanks to everyone who has made chipPad such a success!

Here is a free promo code! YYAWXLYPNYTT

http://earsmack.com/

[earsmack]

In celebration of Europe and Japan (and wherever else!) getting their iPads this weekend, chipPad is now 40% off the normal price until June 1. I hope you all enjoy discovering the amazing possibilities of this platform as others of us have.

http://earsmack.com/

[earsmack]

In celebration of Europe and Japan (and wherever else!) getting their iPads this weekend, chipPad is now 40% off the normal price until June 1. I hope you all enjoy discovering the amazing possibilities of this platform as others of us have.

Just a few hours left...thanks everyone for making chipPad such a success!

http://earsmack.com/

[earsmack]

chipPad 1.2 submitted to the App Store - new feature: Bit mode - providing the ability to make contiguous and discontiguous sub-loops - on the fly!

[slaykent]

Wowzers! This is a great app, and one of the first I put on my shiny new iPad. I really like bit mode, but I find it hard to quickly set subloops like in mlr. A feature where you could push one step and then another on the same row to create a subloop would be amazing. However, the app is wonderful as it is. Thanks for the creation and continuing development of this app.

Edit: I just figured out how to use to all on or all off buttons in bit mode. Tapping one of those and then the bits you want to play seems to be the easiest way to subloop. Any chance of a one step solution?

[oblique strategies]

Is it possible to play non-looping clips without quantizing them?

What I'm looking for is basically a mixer for my own audio files. The few apps I've found that do this have various limitations that prohibit their usefulness for my purpose.

Here's what I want:
-multi-track mixer with basic mixer controls (volume, pan, solo, mute).

-play audio files un-warped, un-looped, un-quantized, & not truncated to fit a quantization grid.

-ability to add new files to tracks, while the files in other tracks are playing.

-a browser for files.

-aif, wav, aac, mp3 support.

-importing of my pre-existing files.


These extras would be nice:
-EQ.
-Aux sends/FX.
-shuffle/random mode for groups of files.
-random population of tracks from the browser.

[earsmack]

Wowzers! This is a great app, and one of the first I put on my shiny new iPad. I really like bit mode, but I find it hard to quickly set subloops like in mlr. A feature where you could push one step and then another on the same row to create a subloop would be amazing. However, the app is wonderful as it is. Thanks for the creation and continuing development of this app.

Edit: I just figured out how to use to all on or all off buttons in bit mode. Tapping one of those and then the bits you want to play seems to be the easiest way to subloop. Any chance of a one step solution?

I see what you're saying - I'll look into doing something where if you have one finger down (while in bit mode) and then press another step it basically turns ON all the steps in between the two and turns OFF all other steps in that track. Right?

I love these kinds of feature requests from folks who really like using the app - good stuff! Thanks!

[earsmack]

Is it possible to play non-looping clips without quantizing them?

What I'm looking for is basically a mixer for my own audio files. The few apps I've found that do this have various limitations that prohibit their usefulness for my purpose.

Here's what I want:
-multi-track mixer with basic mixer controls (volume, pan, solo, mute).
-play audio files un-warped, un-looped, un-quantized, & not truncated to fit a quantization grid.
-ability to add new files to tracks, while the files in other tracks are playing.
-a browser for files.
-aif, wav, aac, mp3 support.
-importing of my pre-existing files.

These extras would be nice:
-EQ.
-Aux sends/FX.
-shuffle/random mode for groups of files.
-random population of tracks from the browser.

If you leave a track empty and set it to be the master track then the quantization is essentially non-existent. Another option is to set your shortest track to be the master track and set the number of steps to the maximum. This will get you the next lowest possible quantization.

Note that the iPad has some memory limitations that it puts on apps (256MB I think?) and so loading full-tracks may only allow you to load a few tracks and (worst case) may cause the app to crash while configuring it. I'm looking into ways to address this but for now chipPad is not designed to be used as a "full track" player as it needs to load all sounds into memory in order to allow random/real-time access as you tap all over each track.

chipPad has volume, solo and mute but no pan. It supports stereo tracks so it's assumed you already have the panning "worked out" in the source material.

You can also add new files to tracks while others are playing.

You can browse aif and wav files that you copy over to chipPad using iTunes. You don't have to sync the ipad, just use iTunes to copy files over to chipPad using the Apps tab in iTunes.

chipPad currently has no effects although I'm thinking through the best way to add some basic ones - probably starting with reverb.

Your "random" suggestion is interesting - I hadn't though of that much - I more designed chipPad to be configured tune by tune and then used to perform the tune ala mlr. Interesting tho to maybe look into randomizing some of the configuration in a musically useful way.

Thanks for the suggestions and I hope this helps a bit.