Sales End Friday

Just as a head's up,  the DopplerPad sale and the Tabletop effects sale on Xfade Crossfader, Ekko Delay and Overdose Digitial Distortion will be ending this Friday, February 3.  Hurry up and get these great deals while you can!

New Sales!

Have a couple sales updates to announce:

Tabletop
- RS4000 Polyphonic Synthesizer returns to its normal $9.99 price next Friday 1.27.12
- $0.99 sale on Xfade Crossfading Mixer, Ekko Delay Effect, and Overdose Digital Distortion Effect

DopplerPad
- on sale for $2.99 (regularly $9.99)

Also wanted to send out one last reminder that our Tabletop contest ends at 11:59pm PST, this Saturday, 1.21.12. So if there's something you've been working on, hurry up and get it in!

Liar & Demokracy vs. Dopplerpad

Demokracy's Double Star EP for Robox Neotech is a 7 song extravaganza of beats and wild and soaring synths, like a hip-hop interpretation of Star Wars. Space fighters careen around songs like "Deadhead" and "Zone," with bass cannons in place of laser batteries and crushing drums chugging away in the engine room. The gentle intro of "Voight Kampff" belies the epic battle that awaits on this and "Zeroth Law," a song which asks the question: "Can a robot write a symphony?" While there are other artists working in the same style as Demokracy, this duo have the unique ability to craft songs that are at once tough as nails but with melodies that float above the fray like your favorite outer space adventure's theme.

When asked by Sonic Router about their background, the elusive producers only had this to offer: "We are Stas (aka Hmot) and Albert (aka Damscray). We write tunes together and live in the middle of nowhere." Perhaps it's that isolation that leads them to reach out and collaborate sometimes. Most recently they collaborated with Romanian producer and singer Liar on his forthcoming Lichborn EP. The EP will be out November 11 on Stas' own Gimme5 label, which has been responsible for fantastic release from Moa Pillar, Nocow, Damscray, Maguett over the past year. Happily, the collaboration with Liar led to Stas using Dopplerpad to lay down part of the track's production. The result is "Upjohn," which can be streamed below for the first time anywhere.

Liar feat. Demokracy - Upjohn by retronyms

Read on to find out their thoughts science fiction, studio processes, the digital music industry and Dopplerpad.

Read more »

Palm Sounds 5th Anniversary Sales

One of the greatest supporters of Retronyms since the beginning has been the wonderful blog Palm Sounds. We are continually grateful for their enthusiasm about mobile music apps and ours in particular. This month Palm Sounds' creator Ashley Elsdon is celebrating 5 great years and we want to help with the festivities. We are running special sales for the entire month: DopplerPad for 5 bucks, Synth Patch Editor in-app purchase for 5 bucks, and the Synth Power Pack in-app purchase for 3 bucks! ReBirth is also on sale for iPhone and iPad!

DopplerPad is an expressive touch instrument designed exclusively for iPhone & iPod Touch.

$4.99 sale price for May (down from $9.99) - Go to app store.

Synth Patch Editor: create and save your own instruments, freely editing more than 50 parameters. In-app purchase.

$4.99 sale price for May (down from $8.99) - Go to app store.

Synth Power Pack: four bold new looks with 20 exclusive presets. In-app purchase.

$2.99 sale price for May (down from $4.99) - Go to app store.

ADDED SALES FOR MAY!

ReBirth for iPad: the Propellerheads legend is back and better than ever!

$9.99 sale price for May (down from $14.99) - Go to app store.

ReBirth for iPhone/iPod Touch: pocket-sized Techno Micro Composer!

$3.99 sale price for May (down from $6.99) - Go to app store.

Happy 5th Anniversary, Palm Sounds!

AudioCopy/Paste Article at Evolver.fm

Just wanted to mention that there's a great writeup at Evolver.fm on the AudioCopy/Paste feature that's been taking off and the maturation of iOS devices for legitimate music production.  AudioCopy and AudioPaste are the functions that lets you move audio files between apps, and they started out as a way we could move clips between our apps like DopplerPad and FourTrack.  Now that it's available as an SDK it's in over 40 apps!

A Million Years - Q+A

Recently Retronyms was contacted by Keith Madden, founder of the New York band A Million Years. Together with Andrew Samaha, Andrew Vanette, and Nick Werber, A Million Years has been recording and performing thoughtful pop music since 2007. On June 15th they will be releasing their debut full length album Mischief Maker. While this album is Retronyms-free, Madden has already been sketching out ideas for future songs, and some of the tools he has employed in his songwriting process are DopplerPad and FourTrack! His initial email to Retronyms was chockfull of great suggestions resulting from his practical use of the apps. Among other things, we discuss those suggestions in the interview below. Madden was also gracious enough to supply us with a DopplerPad sketch for a new song. Check the end for this insightful clip of a songwriter at work.

Read more »

2010 NAMM Show

Yes, the 2010 NAMM Show has already come and gone, but as quickly as the time went by, the weekend was a blast. Click through the jump to get the scoop on all the funness.

Our first day at NAMM (which was Friday, not to be confused with the first day of the show itself, Thursday) started off with a bit of a debacle in itself. Flight was fine, but unfortunately the hotel didn't get our reservation from the company that takes their online reservations. Luckily enough they had one suite left, and it was pretty cramped but we managed.

The rest of the day went well, saw some of the exhibits, and rubbed elbows with all the other crazy people at NAMM. Dinner that night was in the Doubletree's restaurant Agio, and had the slowest service of anywhere I've been in a really long time. The food was good enough, but nowhere near spectacular enough to merit that ridiculous wait.

Friday's grand finale was Wham Bam Thank You NAMM, an event kicked off by lectures (which we didn't attend) and concluding with a sweet party. Even though it was a super long trek to downtown LA, the music was great and the party was fun. Unfortunately the day ended with just as much of a debacle as it started with: on the return ride the cabbie didn't know how to use his carbon paper credit card swiper, and it took (no exaggeration) 40 minutes to process the card. Makes it that much better to crawl into bed though.

Saturday also went really well, we did some DopplerPad demos at our friends Sonoma Wire Works' booth, more touring of all the booths, and met a lot of people who thought highly of our work, so hopefully we'll have new projects coming out of some of those interactions. Depending on who you are, a particular highlight of NAMM can be the slew of celebs everywhere. Saturday was my day for an 'oh, that person's famous' sighting of Gene Simmons.

That night we went to the most amazing Vietnamese restaurant for dinner and gorged ourselves on course after course of delicious foodstuffs. Our group parted ways after dinner, some to sleep and some to hot tub at the Marriott, and the next morning we checked out of the hotel. We opted not to go to the show on Sunday, and instead went to brunch* and took some time settling into the house we rented for the debacle. Stay tuned, more will be coming soon on the 2010 debacle!

* We went to this place called Chubby's All American Diner across the street from our hotel Saturday and Sunday for brunch. The place is basically Denny's w/ a different theme, maybe a different menu (don't really recommend it, the only reason we were there was for lack of other options), BUT fun fact about Chubs (the (surprise!) super rotund mascot of the restaurant): his skin color changes from light to dark at night. Our waitress didn't know quite why that was, but did mention that this wasn't the first time someone had asked about it.

On a separate note, I find it incredibly fascinating that an "all American" diner's mascot has a physique akin to that of Violet Beaureguarde, considering that a third of the US adult population is outside of a healthy weight range. I wasn't able to find any info on when the restaurant opened, so I'm really curious as to whether this has always been the case or if this is a recent development meant to cater to that particular percentage of the population, i.e. Chubs is their subtle way of saying 'Hey, it's ok to spend a bunch of money at our establishment on food you don't need to eat. Looking like Chubs here makes you "all American." '

DopplerPad 2.0 available now!

We're happy to say that DopplerPad 2 is available in the App Store! This free update adds some serious features, so I'm just going to jump in and give a rundown.

Effects
The first thing you may notice is that the pads now have an effect button next to the instrument button. This pops open a menu similar to the instrument menu. Tapping effects toggles them on and off. The great thing about this is that you can now apply any effect to any instrument (including samplers and drum kits)!

click to enlarge

New Tools
The heart of this update is in the Tools menu where we find 2 new items. Synths and Effects. These are powerful editors that let you create and edit your own custom synth instruments and effects.

click to enlarge

Synths

In the Synths Tool, you'll find that you can freely edit the parameters of the synthesizer that powers DopplerPad. This editor gives you access to every parameter we had when creating the original set of factory instruments.

• 2 Oscillators – including 5 waveforms, phase control, frequency difference and more
• Amplification Envelope
• Filter – Low Pass or High Pass
• Mod Envelope
• LFO – which includes beat sync, waveform, destination and more
• Mod Y – which lets you control how the Y axis of a pad effects different synth parameters
• Velocity – which lets you control how tap velocity effects different synth parameters

click to enlarge

Each item above gets its own panel in the Synths editor, and they all have many more parameters than I've listed here. If you ever want more details on what a given parameter does, tap the info button on the panel for a detailed description.

Effects

Similar to the Synths Tool, Effects lets you create and edit custom Effects to use on the pads. When editing Effects, you'll find

• Delay – which can be beat-synced
• Delay Filter – which lets you apply a Filter to the Delay
• Distortion
• Mod Y – Similar to Effects, this lets you control parameters of the Effect on the Y axis

click to enlarge

We've been having a lot of fun with this version, and we hope you will too!

Check Out This Sweet DopplerPad Track...

...it's pretty awesome! We love seeing what everyone can do with the app, and speaking as someone with minimal capacity for musical composition, I'm always impressed with what great stuff people create. Keep up the good work, and if you have something you're particularly proud of, share it!

Tune in Monday for a live DopplerPad broadcast

Tune in to our Justin.tv channel next Monday, December 7, 2009, at 10pm EST (7pm PST) for another new broadcast of a live mini-performance using DopplerPad. I'll be improvising, playing tunes and doing a mini Q&A afterward for anyone who's interested.

FourTrack 3.0 Is Out...

Which means you can finally use the new AudioCopy feature in DopplerPad with the AudioPaste feature in FourTrack! Now you can take the loops created in DopplerPad and import them into FourTrack for vocal and instrumental additions.

AudioCopy uploads whatever loops are in Pads A and B, and you can paste up to 100 loops for whatever new beats you'll be laying down. Vox3000 v.2 also has Audio Copy and the next Instant Drummer update will also have AudioCopy/Paste into FourTrack, so keep an eye out!

Cam Session 01 Clips

Cam Session 01 was fun! Thanks to all who showed up. I think we'll definitely be doing more of these - mostly just because I like playing with DopplerPad. Maybe the next one will be with a different team member. We'll post it here, and hopefully give a longer heads up.

I've posted some clips from the musical portion after the jump here, or you can watch them on my justin.tv channel. If you want to see the whole thing, along with myself babbling to the live chat users, you can check out the full archive (you'll want to skip ahead to about 6:57 or so because I inadvertently broadcasted like 15 minutes or so of me just setting up).

By the way, these saved clips distort the audio a bit at full volume, I suggest turning it down about halfway. Justin.tv splits clips up into 15 minutes, so 2/2 picks up right where the first one leaves off. Enjoy!


Watch live video from jpwalton on Justin.tv


Watch live video from jpwalton on Justin.tv

Tune in Sunday for live DopplerPad set

In the first of something we hope to do on a regular basis, I'll be broadcasting a live mini-performance using DopplerPad. Tune in to my Justin.tv Channel Sunday (Nov 8) at 10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific. I'll play some tunes with DopplerPad, and if anyone is interested, I can answer questions, show tips, etc.

Another Chance to Show Off Your Skills and Win Cool Stuff!

IK Multimedia is holding a music-making contest called the Mobile Groove Video Contest! It's pretty similar to the contest we threw for DopplerPad, except DopplerPad is only one among several apps you get to use and there's a lot more being given away. FourTrack, Instant Drummer, MixMeister Scratch, and the GrooveMaker apps are the others you're allowed to use, and you can use one, some, or all of the apps, just not anything outside this list. You're allowed to use other audio equipment, and once you're done you upload the video to YouTube and fill out the contest submission form on the site.

Get your entry in by December 15, 2009 for your chance to win super sweet studio software, DJ tools, and other fun stuff, all of which is detailed in the official list. Unlike our DopplerPad contest, the Mobile Groove Contest is judged exclusively by YouTube viewers. There will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in the categories of Most Commented, Most Viewed, and Most Rated, along with 20 Honorable Mentions. First place gets you about $2600 worth of swag, and 2nd and 3rd round $1400, so to give you a better shot at winning you are welcome, nay encouraged, to get your friends to vote for your video.

This is another really great opportunity to show the world what an amazing musician you are, so get to it and have fun!

In the works for DopplerPad

DopplerPad has had a great release so far, and people are starting to dig their teeth into it. We've had a lot of good feedback including positive mentions on wired.com, mashable, and several blog reviews including this one over at technoheads which says

"The verdict is this; if you’re into making music, and want a compact, portable way to do it, DopplerPad is the best $10 you will ever spend."

Glowing praise is great, but its even better to start seeing DopplerPad creations popping up. Things like mall_2, a video art piece by Christopher Thompson, Pushing It, a track by Project 52 that uses DopplerPad along with FourTrack. Not to mention our video contest winning entry by DJBrettG.

This all makes me even more excited for what we have coming up in DopplerPad.


AudioCopy
If you've updated recently, you have probably noticed there is a new Tool available called AudioCopy. The name pretty much says it: AudioCopy lets you copy loops for use in other apps. The first app available to paste into will be FourTrack. Admittedly, the timing of this release hasn't been perfect -- the FourTrack update that allows for pasting is still in review with Apple so we'll have more info when that is all up and running.

AudioCopy is the first technology to emerge from the Sonoma Wire Works Partnership Program, and there are many more compatible apps coming down the pike. Imagine being able to freely move your audio around between all your music apps! The iPhone pocket studio starts to look like a reality.

Synth Editing
As you read this, we're working on a powerful set of synth editors that will allow you to create your own synth patches! Basically, we're putting all the tools we used to create the original set of DopplerPad instruments in your hands. You'll be able to tweak the existing synths, or create your own from scratch. If you've ever wished you could finesse the LFO in Space Oddity, this will be your chance. Here's a little preview of the categories of parameters you'll be able to fine-tune:

• 2 Oscillators, each with 5 waveforms and phase
• FM synthesis
• Filter (notch, high pass, band pass, low pass)
• 2 types of envelopes (mod and amplitude)
• LFO (tempo-syncable)
• Touch Y-axis Parameter Control
• Tap Velocity Parameter Control
• & more!

Effects
We're currently re-writing big parts of the audio engine to support effects! Whereas now, certain instruments may have a delay, filter, or distortion, etc. In the new version, you can freely apply any effect (called an expression) to any instrument. What's better, you can edit and create your own effects in much the same way as Synth patches. I won't say too much about this system now, but you can bet it will be a uniquely DopplerPad-style take on the subject.

And that's not all...
We're working on several other tweaks, much of it based off feedback and suggestions from users (so keep it coming). So watch this space for more details to come. Thanks!

-jp

Announcing the DopplerPadabra Contest Winners

Since all the entries were really excellent, the deliberations ended up taking a little longer than anticipated, but at last the winners for the DopplerPadabra contest have been chosen! Here's who had the best stuff:

Winner: DJBrettG
1st Runner Up: 24HoursOfNothing
2nd Runner Up: Zxqueb

Many thanks to everyone who participated, and congratulations to all the winners!

DopplerPad Preview

We've been working away on a few things here, one of which is another entry into the music category. Like FourTrack, Doppler (working title) is a portable music sketchpad for your iPhone or iPod touch, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. While FourTrack is a tool for recording your instruments, Doppler is itself an instrument. At its heart, is a very capable synthesizer, sampler, and loop-builder - all controlled with a fun touch interface.

Here's a little peek at an early build:


There's a longer version, with a more detailed description of the various screens at youtube.