Anazing app, so what's next

[dagmarpiano]

Great work, you've made a stable, professional program with great simplicity.

I think certain features would make a massive improvement, in order of importance:

1. Time display. As you say, the option of a transparent display would really help knowing where you are.
2. Metronome. A great way to create instant compatibility with other works in progress.
3. Automation, particularly volume automation. then this software will be able to create proper demos.

Luxuries for the future?

1. EQ, compression, delay and reverb!
2. Sequencing of drums, piano, guitars, other instruments. Although, this would involve a drift away from the simple 16 track audio concept.

[dagmarpiano]

I'd like to make some marketing suggestions:

1. Create a very cheap $1 4-track version then a medium priced 8 track version. This will enable curious people to take a small risk to try it out. And then you will get the half serious buyer buying the 8 track. Otherwise, one high price product will scare off casual customers, non pros or those who don't like risks.

2. This work great. You should contact every music magazine on earth with a press release emphasising the technical breakthrough, the simplicity, stability and low latency.

3. "this works just like a 16 track tape machine" (which you said above) is true and a perfect sales pitch. It hooked me!

[project52]

So, project52, my cable came in today. Yeah! Looks nice, very professional.

However, I cannot get the mic input recognized. The internal mic of the iPhone is all that I get. I have the cable plugged in, and everything turned on, then boot up MultiTrack, but get nothing but the iPhone mic input. I went over to Rectools08, booted her up, and had the same problem. Rectools08 also would not recognize anything I had plugged into the mic input of the cable, instead giving me the internal mic of the iPhone as the audio input. I tried microphones, active and passive guitar pickups, but nothing that I plug into the mic input of the new cable is recognized as an audio input when a track is armed and ready to record.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

When I read this, to be honest, I hadn't tried the cable with MultiTrack yet - I've done most of my work in FourTrack. I was trying to figure out if there was some difference in the way the app is programmed that would make the cable incompatible. But, I tested out my setup with MultiTrack and it worked like a charm. I'm not sure about the specifics of your setup, but here is what is working for me. On the break out cable: headphones out of the "spkr" jack and then the "mic" jack is connected to a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter, and then a Radio Shack 1/4" TRS to XLR adapter, an XLR mic cable to a dynamic mic.

The one thing that I can think of is checking the connection to the iPhone input jack. I've had a couple of times where I needed to remove my protective case to make sure that I was getting a full connection - there's just a tiny bit of area where the case is rubbing into the jack. Maybe if you have a case, take a look at that as the cause. Otherwise, if all else fails, I'd contact the cable people. They were really quick to get back to me.

Good luck!

[MusicMagic]

When I read this, to be honest, I hadn't tried the cable with MultiTrack yet - I've done most of my work in FourTrack. I was trying to figure out if there was some difference in the way the app is programmed that would make the cable incompatible. But, I tested out my setup with MultiTrack and it worked like a charm. I'm not sure about the specifics of your setup, but here is what is working for me. On the break out cable: headphones out of the "spkr" jack and then the "mic" jack is connected to a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter, and then a Radio Shack 1/4" TRS to XLR adapter, an XLR mic cable to a dynamic mic.

The one thing that I can think of is checking the connection to the iPhone input jack. I've had a couple of times where I needed to remove my protective case to make sure that I was getting a full connection - there's just a tiny bit of area where the case is rubbing into the jack. Maybe if you have a case, take a look at that as the cause. Otherwise, if all else fails, I'd contact the cable people. They were really quick to get back to me.

Good luck!

Much appreciated. At least this information lets me know that the cable does work with MultiTrack. I will have to explore my situation further to see what I can determine. Thanks again.

[pwnified]

and then have the whole transport get bigger when you touch it to make the controls more accessible (which is a great work around that you've developed for this app by the way).

I was pretty proud of myself when I first 'discovered' that UI system. I imagined a panning knob that you could actually 'grab' and twist with more than one finger. It would have 'ghost lines' connecting the large version to the small version so you could see exactly which control you where changing. Unfortunately you cant use more than one finger for now, and the ghost lines didn't make it in, but the rest is in there. It also quickly became apparent that it could not be used for everything. I classified items into 1 of 2 categories, 1st order items are ones that need to happen with a single touch, such as play, stop, and record. 2nd order items could be volume, pan, arm, solo and mute. All the 2nd order items require a minimum of two touches, whereas 1st order items are things you want to happen right now, with no delay.

It's possible to shrink the transport, and maybe even the tracks themselves slightly, this should free up some room for a ruler along the top of the waveform display, and a time counter in the upper lefthand corner above the track headers. What do you guys think of this? I would like to keep things like the time display up higher, because they get obscured by your fingers. As a thought experiment, imaging dragging the song position pointer to find a point in the song. Where are your fingers and where do your eyes want to go to?

A quick note: I really appreciate the input you all have given, I read all the posts and think about all the ideas mentioned.

[project52]

I like that idea. What you're saying about my finger being in the way makes total sense.

Thanks again for working with us.

[spyderum]

It's possible to shrink the transport, and maybe even the tracks themselves slightly, this should free up some room for a ruler along the top of the waveform display, and a time counter in the upper lefthand corner above the track headers. What do you guys think of this?

Great idea!! That would be perfect. Thanks for taking the time to listen to our requests. After working with this app I especially like the ease of use. I dont find myself fighting the app at all. You nailed that aspect and its great having a solid foundation for when you start adding new features. Any thought on what might be in the first update?

[MusicMagic]

It's possible to shrink the transport, and maybe even the tracks themselves slightly, this should free up some room for a ruler along the top of the waveform display, and a time counter in the upper lefthand corner above the track headers. What do you guys think of this?

Great idea!! That would be perfect. Thanks for taking the time to listen to our requests. After working with this app I especially like the ease of use. I dont find myself fighting the app at all. You nailed that aspect and its great having a solid foundation for when you start adding new features. Any thought on what might be in the first update?

Yes, yes. Agreed right away. Ruler at the top for viewing while taking action with the fingers on the screen seems almost imperative. Putting the ruler anywhere else seems self-defeating of purpose on a touch screen paradigm.

[MusicMagic]

Much appreciated. At least this information lets me know that the cable does work with MultiTrack. I will have to explore my situation further to see what I can determine. Thanks again.

OK. Got the cable to work, but I actually do not know how. I put the app on another iPhone to eliminate the iPhone itself as the cause. Cable did not seem to work on the other phone either. Thought for sure that meant the cable. However, inspected the cable on the two open caps, and she sure looked clean and neatly soldered to me. So, I kept punching away, stubbornly. One trick I tried was that suggested in the discussion on inputs in the "How To" topic of the sequence in which things are plugged in. Somehow that worked, and I think the process was cable into iPhone, boot up MultiTrack, and then plug in mic.

However, then, I encountered the problem of the iPod current playlist selection kicking in sporadically in the middle of both record and play, which deactivated MultiTrack altogether. Had to quit MultiTrack, go over to the iPod, stop the play function, reboot MultiTrack, then have the iPod kick in again quickly (within 10 to 15 seconds of MultiTrack activity or less). This interruption happened repeatedly. I finally on intuition and a hunch went into the iPod and went to the video area and started a movie and paused the movie, rather than leaving the iPod in the music playlist function. Low and behold, that seemed to work. Back into MultiTrack, and she did not get interrupted again.

However, in the last analysis, this "solution" is only a temporary fix. I cannot say for certain with any confidence that the iPod app will not kick in again even when left in movie mode while trying to work with MultiTrack. So, I still need to find a more permanent and reliable fix.

At least I know the cable itself is fine. I will not have to bother the company with a bogus complaint about a supposedly faulty cable for exchange. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Keith]

After a few days with multitrack, the only thing that would help me is to be able to hear the audio on the track I'm recording on before punching in and after punching out. In the old days we called it selsync, selectake, auto input. Oops, guess I showed my age.