Monday, July 20, 2009

DopplerPad Expressive Touch Instrument in the App Store!

You might have seen the first demo video for Doppler Sound a ways back; the app has since been retitled DopplerPad, and is now available in the App Store for the introductory price of $9.99. Take a look at the video to get the details of what DopplerPad is and what it can do, and the rest of the product specs, screenshots, and all that fun stuff are right after the jump.

In a nutshell, DopplerPad is the most exciting new thing to come to the iPhone music category since FourTrack. Rather than being a music recording application, DopplerPad is a live performance and music production app. Its interface mimics the standard DJ setup of a mixer and two turntables, and replaces the turntables with music-producing touchpads.



The mixer provides access to the two touchpads, their playback controls, a crossfader, and a loop bank. Tap Pad A or Pad B to open up a touchpad and start making music.



Tap the top of the screen to open the loop menu and set the tempo and number of beats for the loop. You can set the loop to 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 beats.



There are 37 instruments you can choose from, out of bass, drums, leads, sound effects, pads, and samplers. Tap the square button at the bottom of the screen labeled with the instrument class to open the menu, scroll through the instruments, and select what you want to play. Test out the instrument before closing the menu by tapping the open space on the touchpad below the loop menu.



A scale editor and gate/arpeggiator let you edit what notes are available to play on the touchpad and create rhythmic patterns.



When you play the touchpad, the notes light up on screen. Overdub instruments onto the loop, or play along with what's there.



If you want to record additional audio and include it in the mix you're making, select one of the samplers from the instrument menu. Tap sample to record up to 4s of audio, and tap the section of the sample that you want to hear to play it back.

Once you've perfected your loop, tap the arrow in the bottom inside corner of the screen to go back to the mixer, and drag the visualizations from the touchpad to the loop bank to store recordings. You can play a loop on each touchpad and crossfade between the two, mute one of the pads, or repeat a beat.

Maybe even more exciting than DopplerPad's release is a video contest we're holding to see who can make the most awesome DopplerPad track. The contest continues until August 21, and the winner gets an iPhone 3GS! Check out the site for all the details on the contest and how DopplerPad works.

We're pretty excited about DopplerPad, and we hope you will be too! Let us know what you think about it!

7 comments:

  1. DopplerPad is lacking both a metronome and quantise, making it tough to enter patterns in sync.

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  3. Hi Paul,

    We thought about adding a metronome however we felt that the Gate/Arp was a better solution. I use this to lay down drums that act as my metronome. You can even use Gate/Arp as a quantizer.

    Check out our latest tutorial video. It shows some of these techniques in action:
    Here

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  4. Great job guys on DopplerPad! I'm leaving all my high praise for your iTunes review...

    What I'd really would like to express is that there is not undo/redo functionality, and I know by having to store any type of media data in the buffer takes a lot of memory and slows down performance....

    So would there be any way to move the trash can away from where you drag and drop the loops? I have fat fingers and twice now I've been trying to drag a loop to the trash can and accidentally placed it on top of another loop; therefore deleting them!!! I see the placement of the trash can not ideal in any way it really shouldn't be so close to where a user would save work that may have taken a great deal of time, yet with the touch pad there's little room for being off just a bit. So I hope you seriously consider this.

    The rest of my wish list is also on the iTunes review ;-)

    Best!

    Bdclark0423@hotmail.com

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  5. Would it be possible to undo the last overdub? Right know I would have to make a dublicate of the loop each time before I start a new overdub so that if I don't like it it doesnt destroy the previous work ... and that gets kinda frustrating over time.

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  6. We have been discussing this around the office. I hope the feature makes it into a future release. Stay tuned to this blog or our twitter feed.

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  7. First off I'm really digging the program. I see your response to Paul, but I still think without a quantizer and a metronome that Dopplerpad isn't living up to it's potential. I really really want to be able to make Doppler a staple in my iPhone music creation and it's almost there, the wishlist includes:

    - quantizer (the gate/arp isn't cutting it... with that you have to prethink... ruins the stream of creativity for me)
    - a way to selectively delete samples from a loop
    - a metronome (again... gate/arp... sometimes i want a beat on fours to use as a guide and then remove... seems silly that i'd have to create a metronome beat then go to the other mixer and create my desired beat... go back and delete the metronome...)
    - more sample libraries (i might be willing to pay a buck or two per library... could be another way to make money)

    anyway great job... i really think with some more updates and some agressive marketing that dopplerpad will be as frequently found on musicians' phones as beatmaker!

    -Chris

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