Animoog hits the iPhone

Animoog is my current favourite synth on the iPad, it's beyond awesome and it sounds really cool. Moog recently released it as an iPhone app so as you can probably guess; I brought it. The iPhone version is currently on sale for 69p so it's pretty cheap for such a cool little synth.

With the iPhone version I can now have the power and awesomeness of Animoog with me at all times. The iPhone app is pretty much exactly the same as the one on the iPad with the layout slightly modified so that it fits nicely on the smaller screen.

Your probably getting sick of hearing me complain about this but this app isn't universal, I don't understand why some companies think that people should buy their apps twice. I know it brings in a little more money but many people aren't going to buy something twice anyway. I've only made an exception here because of the low price and the quality of the app, but I still feel slightly cheated here. Universal apps are the way forward, stop scamming your customers out of their money.

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Happy holidays from Voltage-Controlled

Have a great Christmas and New Years, all the best for 2012.

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Punchy bass tutorial (Propellerheads sound design)

Here's the second video in Propellerheads sound design series. It focuses on how to make a punchy bass patch in Reason, perfect for modern house music.

These videos are extremely useful, especially if you're new to music production. For more tutorial videos from Propellerheads check out James Bernard's 52 Reason/Record tips.

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If anyone wants to know what to get me for Christmas...

...I'll have one of these little beauties ;). The DSI Tempest has to be one of the coolest drum machines I've ever seen.

"Tempest is a professional drum machine that generates its sounds using six powerful analog synthesis voices, and uses an innovative, performance-oriented operating system that permits an extraordinary level of control to create, edit, arrange, and manipulate beats in real time without ever stopping."

Tempest - Beat Exercise from Richard Devine on Vimeo.

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Lemur for iPad, quick jam session.

I love the new Lemur iOS app. I'm still learning but here's a short video of me messing around with one of my custom templates.

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Get featured on the first Voltage-Controlled compilation album

I mentioned on Twitter a few days ago that I was looking into releasing a compilation album featuring some artists that use the site. Soon after I got quite a few @replys from people that were interested in putting a track of theirs towards the album.

So here's the plan, I'm aiming to release a 20 track album called 'Voltage-Controlled vol.1'. There's no set release date set for the album as of yet but I'm hoping that it will all pull together sometime around New Years. So the quicker you put your track forward the better chance you'll have to be involved. The finished album will be released as a free download.

Here's a few basic rules:

- the track must be your own original material.

- no un-cleared/copyrighted samples. It's not my responsibility to clear samples for you.

- no remixes.

- must be unsigned.

- you can still upload the track elsewhere on the net.

- the genre must be considered to be electronic music

- you must submit a correctly labelled .wav file (artist name + track name) to the email below

The rights to the submitted tracks will still belong to you, but please bear in mind that if the track you submit gets signed in the future then it will remain as a free download as part of the compilation.

If you wish to help out by submitting art work for the album feel free to contact me.

If you have any further questions please email me at DanWeatherall@Voltage-Controlled.com

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ShakeMidi for iOS review

ShakeMidi is a wireless music app with a difference. Instead of controlling your software with touchscreen sliders and faders you just shake your iOS device and The app will send midi note information to your DAW.

This app is a lot of fun to play around with but I'm not sure that I could see myself making any serious music with it. But I suppose that's the main selling point of this app, it's fun. The App itself is set out really well, it's simple to understand and there's a built in help section just incase you run into any problems.

I've had a few issues with wireless midi apps in the past but I had no real trouble connecting ShakeMidi to my laptop. All that you have to do is download and install the free rtpMIDI program on your computer to set up a midi port. When you've done that Shake Midi will auto connect. Then there's the small matter of opening Ableton (or whatever DAW) you're using and selecting it in the settings. If this sounds a bit much there's a help page here.

The app also connects via core midi which means that if you have any supporting apps on your iOS device they can be easily controlled with ShakeMidi. This also works with multiple iOS devices on the same wifi network (for example: you can control GarageBand on your iPad with ShakeMidi on your iPhone).

It's always good when an app is universally compatible, especially music apps. Shake midi is indeed a universal app, meaning that it will work on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with no problems. However, I can't really imagine anyone with an iPad using this as much. I tried it myself and I just felt a bit foolish shaking my iPad around (good fun though).

Anyway, here's a short YouTube video of my shaking my iPhone. I have ShakeMidi hooked up to Massive in Ableton Live.

More about the iPhone midi app here

ShakeMidi is available from the AppStore now.

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First opinions on Lemur for iOS

So yeah, I couldn't help myself. I brought the new Lemur app by Liine. For me, the original Jazzmutant Lemur was the perfect controller, I wanted it so badly but unfortunately the original hardware version was a little out of my price range. The other day I posted here on Voltage-Controlled that Liine had just released an iOS version of Lemur.

I did say that I was going to wait a while before I brought the Lemur app but obviously I had a moment of weakness soon after and brought it. Now I'm in love with it, it's something that I know that I'm going to use a lot and when I say a lot I mean a LOT. It might have quite a high price tag for an iOS app but I can tell you, if you're serious about writing/performing electronic music then it's most definitely worth it.

I'm going to be writing a proper review of this thing soon and maybe posting a few YouTube videos of me messing around with it but for now I'm still learning about the editor and familiarising my self with it.

But anyway, here's a pic of the first custom interface that I made with the Lemur app.

Lemur is available from the app store now.

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It's here! Lemur for iOS has hit the AppStore

That's right the legendary multi-touch controller has finally hit the iOS AppStore. Lemur is available to download onto your iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch for £34.99.

The original Lemur hardware controller was used by many artists including: Daft Punk. Björk. Nine Inch Nails, Deadmau5. M.I.A., Justice, Hot Chip, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Orbital, Richie Hawtin, The Glitch Mob, Matthew Herbert, Joris Voorn, Stephan Bodzin, Modeselektor, Alva Noto, Richard Devine, Gui Boratto, etc.

£34.99 is a bit of a hefty price tag for an iOS app but you have to admit that this does look pretty awesome. I think for now I'll stick with TouchOSC for now but I'll definitely be considering an upgrade to Lemur in the near future.

You can get Lemur from the AppStore here.

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Korg Monotribe version 2 update.

Korg have released an update to their Monotribe ribbon sequencer. The update is made my playing an audio file into the sync in jack of the Monotribe. Here's a few videos from Korg USA that walks you through some of the new features as well as informing you how to go about update the OS on your monotribe.

New features include:

• 16 step sequencer
• volume automation
• drum roll
• gate time
• two or more monotribes can be played in rotation

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Propellerheads countdown to the holiday give away

It's that time of the year again, Christmas is nearly upon us. While we're opening the doors to our advent calendars the folks over at Propellerheads software are celebrating by giving stuff away. That's right; every day until the 24th of December propellerheads will be giving away gifts.

Follow Propellerheads on Twitter, Google+ or like them on Facebook for more details on how to enter the daily competitions.

That's not all, every week Propellerheads will choose one lucky winner to receive a copy of Reason Essentials and their new Balance interface.

Check back on them daily for your chance to win.

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