Paul is at band camp, and Chris is leading workshops for the Wisconsin Center for Music Education. Paul called in and visited with us for a half hour–and this is the recording of that visit. As always, thank you to UberChord for providing our hosting at SoundCloud for these podcasts. Show notes will eventually be online at metpodcast.wordpress.com
Category: Uncategorized
Ton: Drum Machine (New and free app!)
This post is a short demo of the newly released drum machine app called Ton: Drum Machine. It is also a chance for me to play with the Screen Recording feature in iOS11 from my iPad, which works brilliantly I might add!
Ton: Drum Machine – (Currently Free!)
Ton is part drum machine and part sequencer all with a new flair to it. It is also free so go play!
In short there are a bunch of pre-loaded drum samples. You then use the drum samples and the circular interface to start creating some beats. Those beats can then be altered in various methods using the nicely done circular interface and in basic, twirling that wheel after selecting a parameter you’d like to adjust.
I particularly enjoy the ability to adjust things like the pitch, reverb and delay. Playing with the filter, attack and decay are fun too!
Jérémy Pinat has a great idea started here. I look forward to a few improvements like being able to change the volume of each individual hit in a pattern – I really don’t want to hear an ENTIRE measure of 16th notes with no change in how hard each 16th is being played!
I played with the app and I also took the chance to hit record on my iPad in iOS11’s beta. In iOS11, if you are not aware, there is the ability to do screen recording! I then transferred that movie to Final Cut for a few edits and uploaded it to YouTube. I hope you can figure out everything I am adjusting – It’s be REALLY nice if the Screen Recording feature would highlight where we are touching the iPad at but I don’t foresee that coming anytime soon as a feature!
Anyways – here is the demo of Ton: Drum Machine
NoteFlight and Google Classroom
I am still amazed that I find MUSIC teachers who don’t know what NoteFlight is!
What I am also amazed at is that NoteFlight has integrated its services into Google Classroom!
This means those of us who wanted to be able to integrate music notation assignments into our online classroom environment (Google Classroom) will now be able to do so! Read below for the statement from NoteFlights Notes found online at notes.noteflight.com…..
“Noteflight Learn offers direct Google Classroom integration! All student and teacher logins, classes, and assignments are seamlessly integrated, offering several advantages:
Google login is automatically synced; simply login to Noteflight Learn using Google.
Individual classes, schools, or entire districts can integrate with a single Noteflight Learn site.
Google Classroom classes are mirrored as Noteflight Learn Groups, so sharing scores and assignments with classes is easy.
Noteflight can create assignments in Google Classroom and students can turn in or mark as done from their Noteflight score.
Using Noteflight Learn with Google Classroom allows teachers and students to easily collaborate on creating, recording, and sharing music on any device. For information on setting up a Google Classroom integration, please read our Google Classroom Integration Setup instructions.
For any questions regarding using Noteflight Learn with Google Classroom, please email info@noteflight.com.”
MET Podcast 09 Now Available with UberChord CEO
Chris and I finally found time in our busy summers to get another Podcast put together! In the first half, we discuss the latest – both as far as what we have been up to and then also in the music education and technology world. In the second half, we have the privilege to interview Eckart Burgwedel, CEO of UberChord.
UberChord kindly offered to pay for our first year’s hosting fees on SoundCloud, but we would have interviewed UberChord anyway. It is always so fun to talk to developers and companies to find out their stories and the ideas behind their apps. Hearing what an app is all about and capable of is even better when talking to those responsible for bringing that app to life!
If you are a developer or a company, and you would like to talk with Paul and I about your product and its potential for music education, please contact us! We are also open to talking to other influential teachers in the field.
We are learning a lot in this podcast endeavor–and we are hoping that you are, too. We enjoy hearing the back stories behind the apps and the products.
ShowNotes are here – https://metpodcast.wordpress.com
Here is the link to the our Podcast Playlist. # 009 is the latest!
BeatMaker3 is Coming July 15!
I’m just gonna throw this out there that BeatMaker 3 is COMING!
July 15!
It’s looking very amazing for creating music on iOS!
It will only be offered at intro price for the first 7 days so hopefully you get paid in that timespan!
Here is more info from their website to give you an idea!
BeatMaker 3’s digital audio workstation provides versatility ideal for both on-the-go production and more complex MIDI/audio studio setups. Suited for both amateurs and professional users, BeatMaker 3 emphasises the strengths of its critically acclaimed predecessors while taking the future of music composition to the next level.
BeatMaker 3’s ability to integrate with both MIDI hardware and the music app ecosystem makes it a powerful tool in any musician’s arsenal. In anticipation of launch, a series of screenshots of the soon-to-be-released app’s UI we’ve posted recently on the company website. Additionally, a list of partial features confirmed in the forthcoming app includes:
Main functionalities
- Compose with high quality instruments & loops, integrated in a powerful and streamlined DAW
- Design your own instruments using a state of the art sampling engine with unmatched modularity (multi-layer, live slice mode, realtime time-stretching/pitch-shifting, Audio Units V3/IAA, full modulation system, …)
- Powerful integration of MIDI hardware to control the app and its instruments in a unique way (MIDI actions, parameter macros, …)
- Arrange songs with instruments & audio tracks
- Play live, remix or sketch ideas with a powerful scene mode
- Export, share, and expand your library with soundpacks designed by the best sound design companies
July 4th Apps Sale! MORE
Oh my goodness how could I forget these two?
Two of my most used apps – I have written about both of these multiple times before so if you want to know more then simply search on the right hand side of my blog for each.
DayOne is the most beautiful and gorgeous way to keep a Journal of any out there! Right now it is FREE for iOS as well as for the Mac! Use it for your personal life, travel journal, a way to keep track of what you do as a teacher or whatever job you have! Make multiple journals and use it on any of your devices and they will all stay in sync!
Cubasis is currently 1/2 off too! This is one of the most full featured AND easiest to use DAW’s for iOS available. This price point makes it simply a no brainer purchase!
Are you a guitar player who doesn’t want to lug around all those amps? Well this app can help!
Amplitube for iPhone is only $10
Amplitube for iPad is only $10 also
Happy Independence Day (Well…. if you are American!) – Apps are going on sale this week!
Hi all – I am back from a two week stint at Band Camp. This time around though I was doing all the video and am now deep into the next five days of editing all that video and learning Final Cut Pro BUT…. I wanted to make sure you were aware of several good sales going on currently…
PreSonus
Notion and StudioOne are at 30% off currently – and this includes upgrades!
DrumKick is currently FREE and a heck of a lot of fun! Get BOTH the phone AND the iPad versions for optimal fun as the phone can be stuck into your sock and you now have an instant kick drum!!!!
DrumKick for iPad
DrumKick for iPhone
Olympia Noise Co Apps –
Patterning $9.99 > $5.99 – THE drum machine app that is the funnest! (Go away English teachers!)
Chordion $4.99 > $2.99
Ribbons $5.99 > $2.99
dot Melody $4.99 > $1.99
Uri Machmias –
Sonic Logic has just had a wonderful update! Use this app is you want to control other music apps – be it on your iPad or even on your desktop AND it works via bluetooth too!
OK – back to editing video!
NinGenius – Student Edition is FREE (Until July 1st!)
Wow, what a Fourth of July Celebration! Thanks Anthony!
KRFT – Modular Instrument for Music Production (and Performance)
KRFT is one of the apps that I have just been begging to dive into for the past 6 months but with school still in progress and a ton of other projects already on the front burners I haven’t had time. Now school is out and I get to play some!
KRFT – Modular Music Production – (Discounted 33% until June 22nd!)
I really like to try to find alternative ways for my music students to perform. I like to perform using interfaces/instruments that do not fit into the traditional mold as well. We ARE trying to teach music in the 21st century right? In the past I’ve always had some grand ideas of being able to have this pre-recorded music that I could instantly play various sections of and still be able to tweak in various ways as I felt fit in the moment. The traditional DAW has not allowed this flexibility and neither have simple looping apps. Now with KRFT I can have a great deal of flexibility, and spontaneity all in a layout that fits my method of creating/performing.
The idea is simple you have a layout of squares, triangle, and circles combined with buttons and knobs that control the music. (The cool glasses and espresso don’t hurt either!)
The app runs on iPhone as well, giving you even great flexibility in where and when you create and play.
When editing your layout you get a blank screen and from there start to build up your musical creation. You add these things called Musical Cells to your blank canvas. Inside of each of these cells you add either you music that you records, audio loops or you use the cells to morph and transform your music.
Recording some loops into some cells are probably the best spot to start – there are bass, drums and lead synths built into the app with quite a hefty list of possible sounds to choose from! From there creating a few fills loops might be next and then moving on to adding in some audio triggers. Then you get to start messing around with the buttons that tweak the sound – allowing you to control things like Volume, Tempo, Swing and Filter on the Master side of things. On each individual channels you get to set up morph triggers that affect individual channels – these are Filter Frequency, Pitch, Attack, Gate, Distortion Level and Mix, Level, Duration of Delay, Chorus Mix, and Channel Volume/Pan/Reverb. So you can see how involved you can get with the control of and morphing of your performance!
When entering in your music you have two methods of entering – the first is a grid of pads that allow for some creative input depending on where you tap the cell. The sound can be affected in several different ways – you can set Gain, Filter, Attack, Pitch and LFO to change depending on how high or low you tap on the grid. There are three rows of these pads to play that funky music on. The Master Tuning section decides that scale that gets used out of the 8 choices – Major, Minor, Harmonic, Doria, Mixolydian, Lydian, Phrygian and Lochrian.
OF course for this of you who simply want a piano roll/step time entry there is that possibility as well.
CONNECTIVITY
KRFT has quite a bit of versatility built into the app and could easily be an app that you use by itself. But, where is the fun in THAT?
As I mentioned, you have three different types of synth sounds built into the app each with a large variety of sounds to choose from. You can add multiple channels of each type too – so if you want several lead sounds simply add a new channel and away you go.
For those of us with other apps we want to tie into KRFT though it is easy to do. Simply add a MIDI channel, select the other app and away you go.
For those of you who want to take connectivity a step further than go ahead… feel free to incorporate your desktop DAW like Ableton Live or Logic as well! Any other app that is MIDI enabled is good to go here! In fact, any hardware that you have connected to your iOS device, that can be controlled via MIDI can be controlled with KRFT! Take a minute and let THAT sink in!
oh…. KRFT does Ableton Link too so everything will stay tightly synced together! AudioBus, CoreMIDI, both are there as is the capability of using the app in AUM!
The developers are two brothers based out of London. I feel like they are onto something exciting here with the flexibility they are giving us in KRFT. It is more than just the flexibility though, it is also the fact that KRFT is pretty simple to figure out. IT doesn’t take long and even us adults can figure it out! Give a few students the task and time in class to figure this app out and they will catch on quickly as well. If they don’t though, there is a nice set of YouTube tutorials they have put together to help guide us through the process of getting going.
Of course what kind of guy would I be if I didn’t let you see the app in action? Here is a nice jam using the app to give you an idea of what all is possible. I do have to say that when Studio Amplify came out with their app NOIZ, I wanted so bad to be able to set up my very own creations instead of being held back by what someone else had created – Don’t get me wrong NOIZ is a blast to play but being given the ability to set things up as I wish, with my own music is like Christmas Morning!
INSERT VIDEO HERE
ME&T Podcast #8 Featuring The Developer from Sheet Music Scanner is now out!
Chris and I have had a busy first part of 2017nso it has been a little while since we have found the time to put a new podcast out. But we had a great talk with David Zemsky, the developer of Sheet Music Scanner – an iOS app that is pretty disruptive to our workflows as musicians. Using this app and your devices built in camera it is simple to turn a static sheet of music into digital music that you can do many things with. One of the most important things is that you can listen to what the music is supposed to sound like allowing for quicker understanding of that sheet music. I love these chances to sit and find out more about the developers who have a passion to help change the face of music education, the developers who want to change the capabilities musicians have through the use of technology. David is a great person whose desire for developing his app is evident in our discussions.
Chris and I discuss quite a few other current topics current in the world of music, education and technology. Check out the show notes on our METPodcast WordPress page
Here is the podcast from our SoundCloud page which is sponsored by UberChord
