Android

ags
Posts: 169
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2011 4:06 pm

Re: Android

Post by ags »

TouchOSC doesn't support custom layouts on Android but this one does.

Milky Tracker has made it from beta to Google Play as well, but last time I tried it, it was a bit too fiddly. (Don't have an android device at the moment, but I think I'll switch back.)
pingu
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Location: Russia

Re: Android

Post by pingu »

peacemaker wrote:As Buzz users, have you found some nice Android music apps worth to check out?
I bought an 1 GHz and 1 GB RAM Android tablet recently and of course made a research of available music tools and Android capabilities concerning music and sound production.
Bad knews - bigger latency and slower perfomance compared to Apple's iOS devices in similar apps because of Android's architecture.
Good knews - many promising apps exist and are being developed, latency issue is going to be resolved and it doesn't exist in some apps (or?) on powerful devices (having faster multicore CPU's).

A few not really Buzz-like, but still nice apps I checked out and found remarkable:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .reactable - stutters and hangs after adding more than 4-5 modules, big latency, though the idea is great. Looking forward to perfomance problems solution.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... osonic.SPC - looks rather promising but seemed uncomfortable to use, some times hanged and stuttered.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... e.NodeBeat - interesting app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .mikrowave - nice one, but too limited in features.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... orski.kosm - similar idea to NodeBeat

And a choice of myself:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... re.caustic
Not Buzz-like, but really simple and intuitive, with big control buttons, knobs and keys, which I consider to be very important for tablet-size screens, though a bit limited in capabilities, but still powerful enough to make sketches and even decent tunes. Has 2 types of synths, one is TB303 clone, another is 2OSC subtractive synth with 2 assignable LFO's, also a nice sampler (can load WAV and SF2) and a drum machine, a mixer with 2 insert fx channels and 8 effects, and a sequencer screen. Can be controlled via USB MIDI controller\keyboard. I didn't notice any latency and lagging on my tablet while using it. Dare say it's a 'must have' app.

About SunVox: too much FastTracker-like interface, too many controls on a screen and they are too small. The reason why I always prefered Impulse Tracker and Buzz to other DAWs and trackers - their ergonomy and intuitivity. I really never liked FT and was lazy (or stupid?) enough to study SunVox though it's modularity seems Buzz-like. Maybe later on ))

Some topic-related sites, here you can discover more apps (but I suppose the above-mentioned are the best ones in their categories):
http://www.androidmusician.com - I guess the best resource with many (every?) topic-related apps, categorized and updated often.
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/and ... -up-453135
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/categ ... music-app/

P.S.:
Mu_ wrote:But that was in Russia - so maybe a bear has eaten theirs maintenance guy? ;) Or maybe they didn't pay monthly bribe rate for russian govmob? ;)
Are you serious ? I guess this forum is not a suitable place for such kind of "jesting" jokes and stupid stereotypes or is it ? Hope you didn't mean to be mean )))
ags
Posts: 169
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2011 4:06 pm

Re: Android

Post by ags »

^ Good post. :D
I'd give you the Noooool emoticon for being a human-google but we don't seem to have it anymore.
mute
Posts: 417
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:30 pm

Re: Android

Post by mute »

I've programmed on android quite a bit and looked into the many ways to approach realtime audio @ low latency.

Initially, the only half decent way to approach it was to use libpd for android... which is actually pretty impressive, but it's also a very hacky thing to do and you have to learn ALOT upfront just to use it. If you already know PD or have coded anything FOR (not in) pd.. and you havent heard about this, you should check it out. https://github.com/libpd/pd-for-android/wiki

The good news is that Google has actually implemented low-latency support finally in Jellybean.. but there is a catch - the support is limited to specific hardware at the moment. Only the latest Google Nexus devices support it (though as I type that I realize I've only recently heard that from limited sources (CDM) and its possible that has changed despite people repeating it, because the low-latency news is actually from last July. ASUS's Jellybean for example is always up to date and ASUS h/w rocks.. plus the code is maintained by several ex-android mod developers...so hrmn.. I gotta look into that). Over the next year or so it will become more prevalent. The audio-api itself still leaves much to be desired.

As pingu pointed out, there has been alot more *interesting* audio software to come out lately.. and that is likely to explode over the year as support improves. Apple is popular, but Android is *everywhere*... devs are more than eager.
Mu_
Posts: 126
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:43 am
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: Android

Post by Mu_ »

pingu wrote:
Mu_ wrote:But that was in Russia - so maybe a bear has eaten theirs maintenance guy? ;) Or maybe they didn't pay monthly bribe rate for russian govmob? ;)
Are you serious ? I guess this forum is not a suitable place for such kind of "jesting" jokes and stupid stereotypes or is it ? Hope you didn't mean to be mean )))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GqGGmNKY3Q
vinnie pine
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 9:55 pm

Re: Android

Post by vinnie pine »

:lol:
mute
Posts: 417
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:30 pm

Re: Android

Post by mute »

Mu_ wrote:
pingu wrote:
Mu_ wrote:But that was in Russia - so maybe a bear has eaten theirs maintenance guy? ;) Or maybe they didn't pay monthly bribe rate for russian govmob? ;)
Are you serious ? I guess this forum is not a suitable place for such kind of "jesting" jokes and stupid stereotypes or is it ? Hope you didn't mean to be mean )))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GqGGmNKY3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GK8ewRec7c
mute
Posts: 417
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:30 pm

Re: Android

Post by mute »

new groovebox for android. these ppl have the design sense of a blind chicken with a black crayon, but the ui is still decent in a usability sense and this actually looks pretty promising:

http://www.planet-h.com/gstomper/

might buy it tonight and play around..

whoever makes the first decent groovebox/electribe knock off on android is going to make some serious coin (that is, if they beat market saturation.. which is going to happen, just like on iOS.. tons of garbage, tons of gimmics, few nice ones). not sure this is it, but its definitely a step in the right direction.
mute
Posts: 417
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:30 pm

Re: Android

Post by mute »

I said screw it.. been meaning to play catchup anyways and I had a few dollars.

I just got:
NodeBeat
Reactable
gStomper
Nanoloop
Pixitracker

..and on a side note, apparently DS-10 works decently in nds4droid, so ima check that out since I have the rom already

:D
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IXix
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Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 3:24 pm

Re: Android

Post by IXix »

What works well on a low end phone? I just got a HTC Desire C and it would be cool to have something that could make beats and export to wav.
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mcbpete
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Re: Android

Post by mcbpete »

Nanoloop is very lean on resources - worked absolutely fine on my old HTC Desire
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IXix
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Re: Android

Post by IXix »

mcbpete wrote:Nanoloop is very lean on resources - worked absolutely fine on my old HTC Desire
Thanks, I haven't tried that one yet.

So far I've gone with PixiTracker, which works great. Once I get around to dumping a bunch of useful samples onto my phone it will be very handy for getting down those beats and melodies that pop into my head while I'm out and about. And my 5yr old loves it. :)

There's another one which don't think has been mentioned in this thread, called SPC Music Sketchpad 2 which I've been messing around with. I'll probably buy the full version at some point as it could be useful as a performance tool.

Caustic worked okay but the interface was too fiddly on such a small screen. I'm not optimistic about SunVox but I'll probably give it a try as it looks like it's the most powerful option.

Wishing for a bigger, more powerful phone now. :mrgreen:
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tinga
Posts: 526
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2011 5:25 pm

Re: Android

Post by tinga »

Could we transform an android tablet as a midi controller?

Buzz Modularity+modulable tablet interface=the best musical software for live.
I looking for a midi thing, (thx to Pingu for the links) but maybe one day a dev would code a specific app for buzz, an external peer machine...
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