Anazing app, so what's next

[pwnified]

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.

Interesting that a paused movie can disable ipod interruption callbacks, good to know. It should not come to this, though. What it means is that the impedance on the mic is too low. Any low resistance, all the way down to a direct short, is going to trigger the ipod playback. You're going to need some kind of isolation transformer or small preamp to buffer it. Or try an electret condenser with a 1k resistor in parallel instead of a dynamic. Check out this blog post at faberacoustical http://blog.faberacoustical.com/2009/ip ... t-options/

BTW MultiTrack fully supports starting and stopping the iPod without rebooting MultiTrack, but unfortunately due to a bug with the iPhoneOS, the ipod is never sending the 'all done' message so that I can re enable the outputs (or continue playback if thats what was happening when multitrack got interrupted). I've filed a bug report with apple and hopefully this will get fixed in a future iPhone OS update. Obviously the best thing to do for now is to not start up the ipod while MultiTrack is running. Which is what you're trying not to do
What version of iphone software are you running MusicMagic? If it's 3.1 then the bug still hasn't been fixed.

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.

That's a good suggestion and is great for the current 'edit by overdub' system which is in place right now. It fits well for overdubbing tracks and a punch in/out system of recording.

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?

First of all thanks, and thanks to everyone for the compliments.
Unfortunately non-destructive editing, and effects, are proving to be very complex, not from a user interface perspective but a technical one. The algorithm in use in MultiTrack has never been used before in any other software, the caching algorithm is a completely new invention with a patent currently in the works. Essentially, the technology doesn't exist yet to support editing and effects. I can do it, I can create the technology, but it's going to be potentially a slow process to add these features.

So realistically, sometime in mid Q1. This will be version 2.0, it will come in lite version with in-app upgrade capabilities ($4.99 for 4 tracks, with each additional track for $1.00 each, available at 4, 8 or 16 tracks). All of you who have already purchased MultiTrack will of course have the full version 16 tracks automatically when it updates.

I want to avoid ever selling MultiTrack for 99 cents. I've thought long and hard about this, it took me a while just to come around to 4.99. In the end it's better to avoid all the casual users who know nothing about recording and are a support nightmare. Plus you get people just not getting it, at all, posting nonsense reviews in the app store. Already got some of those even at 14.99. So even if MultiTrack doesn't get as popular, or make as much money as it could have, I think it's better to build a more professional user base.

Im also planning an earlier 1.1 update, pretty much all the other things mentioned are doable and should be ready hopefully in about 2 months. Preliminary timelines:

Version 1.1 (Dec 2009)
Stereo recording
Punch in/out using 2 locators
Automation tracks for volume and pan
Editing of automation track data splines
Notes per track (Annotations) (export to text file for now)
Time Display (timecode/counter)
Ruler Bar with seconds and partials along top
In-App menu options for Closing the song, enabling input monitor, speaker/receiver switch, and auto input

Verions 2.0 (Mar 2010)
Non destructive editing
Effects
Low price with In-App upgrades
Midi Timecode and smpte sync through wifi (more about this later)
Mixer screen with 16 tracks with vu meters displayed, plus maybe a signal scope or FFT?

Looking into compressed formats for export, and sending as email attachments directly from iPhone

I wanted to look more into ioLibrary, but my request for more information has gone unanswered for weeks. Doesn't look good for ioLibrary.

[MusicMagic]

Im also planning an earlier 1.1 update, pretty much all the other things mentioned are doable and should be ready hopefully in about 2 months. Preliminary timelines:

Version 1.1 (Dec 2009)
Stereo recording
Punch in/out using 2 locators
Automation tracks for volume and pan
Editing of automation track data splines
Notes per track (Annotations) (export to text file for now)
Time Display (timecode/counter)
Ruler Bar with seconds and partials along top
In-App menu options for Closing the song, enabling input monitor, speaker/receiver switch, and auto input

Verions 2.0 (Mar 2010)
Non destructive editing
Effects
Low price with In-App upgrades
Midi Timecode and smpte sync through wifi (more about this later)
Mixer screen with 16 tracks with vu meters displayed, plus maybe a signal scope or FFT?

Thanks for all the responses on various items, iPod interruption callbacks and etc. Also, thanks for all the information. And being able to see an actual development schedule in advance is almost unheard of in the App Store genre and really fantastic. You are blazing a different path as a developer that has sort of caught me off guard in my expectations--but, boy, is that ever great. I am comfortable with MultiTrack leaning more toward professional perspectives and attitudes. Quite refreshing, actually. And I suddenly have a logical explanation and reasoning for why no firesales to boost app user base. Might not actually be the user base desired. Ironically, you will still attract the more DAW-challenged users just by the simplicity of the user interface, which will be a little bit of a misdirection about the actual nature of the software.

As a user base, we will need to find patience in waiting for these developments, which will be harder to implement because of the new technology that is the foundation of MultiTrack. And, we also will need to remind ourselves that even in our own respective fields of work, we can fall behind production schedules due to any variety of circumstances and unexpected setbacks or roadblocks. I'm so chomping at the bit that that will be hard, but I will do my best.

Again, thanks for everything!

[MusicMagic]

P.S. What about actionability of the song position pointer and more powerful use during play mode?

[MusicMagic]

P.P.S. I'm running iPhone OS 3.1, so the bug has not been fixed. You can assume for any software to which I refer that we are talking the most up to date iteration.

[dagmarpiano]

Great to hear about development plans.

Is there just no way to get the mixer screen in the next version!? I'm just imagining what a great accompaniment it would be to automation - having 16 virtually motorized touch-faders recording your mix...!

wow

[project52]

Wow! That is all great news and great stuff. I think the 2.0 plans are quite ambitious and far surpass my expectations.

Maybe it was implied with the timecode and ruler, but there was no mention of a metronome. That's a biggie for me.

[pwnified]

Wow! That is all great news and great stuff. I think the 2.0 plans are quite ambitious and far surpass my expectations.

Maybe it was implied with the timecode and ruler, but there was no mention of a metronome. That's a biggie for me.

Oh yes. Not sure how that got left out. Version 1.1 will have the metronome. The time display will double as a time signature/tempo display. In version 2.0 it will triple as a bar/beat/measure display.

Is there just no way to get the mixer screen in the next version!? I'm just imagining what a great accompaniment it would be to automation - having 16 virtually motorized touch-faders recording your mix...!

Yes, that would look very cool. I had initially hesitated on a separate mixer screen because there is not a lot of 'new information' that is not already preset in the main track view. With automation, you would still see all the faders and pans moving for 4 tracks at a time, really the only thing that another mixer adds is the ability to see all 16 tracks at once (although 30 pixels width for each channel strip is too narrow). There are also UI problems of the popup controls covering up elements you might want to see, or not standing out enough from the background, giving a messy look with stacked components everywhere. But in the end I think it's a good idea, it's just that there is plenty more to think about to get this to look and feel right.

P.S. What about actionability of the song position pointer and more powerful use during play mode?

Yes. One of the nice things about MultiTrack and its 'technology' that I keep going on about is that things like scrubbing practically fall out with hardly any work, and are very efficient with the current system. Imaging scrubbing through ALL 16 tracks, forward and back, in real time! So your ideas for pausing and playing automatically when moving the timebar have not been overlooked, and could be the new fallback if scrubbing is disabled in the options (and makes it into the new version)

[MusicMagic]

there was no mention of a metronome. That's a biggie for me.

Oh yes. Not sure how that got left out.

just no way to get the mixer screen in the next version!?

But in the end I think it's a good idea, it's just that there is plenty more to think about to get this to look and feel right.

P.S. What about actionability of the song position pointer and more powerful use during play mode?

Yes. . . . So your ideas for pausing and playing automatically when moving the timebar have not been overlooked, and could be the new fallback if scrubbing is disabled in the options (and makes it into the new version)

Good golly, Ms. Molly! This is all so way cool! Voice of Gomer Pyle: "Thank ye! Thank ye! Thank ye!"

[spyderum]

pwnified wrote:
Im also planning an earlier 1.1 update, pretty much all the other things mentioned are doable and should be ready hopefully in about 2 months. Preliminary timelines:

Version 1.1 (Dec 2009)
Stereo recording
Punch in/out using 2 locators
Automation tracks for volume and pan
Editing of automation track data splines
Notes per track (Annotations) (export to text file for now)
Time Display (timecode/counter)
Ruler Bar with seconds and partials along top
In-App menu options for Closing the song, enabling input monitor, speaker/receiver switch, and auto input

Verions 2.0 (Mar 2010)
Non destructive editing
Effects
Low price with In-App upgrades
Midi Timecode and smpte sync through wifi (more about this later)
Mixer screen with 16 tracks with vu meters displayed, plus maybe a signal scope or FFT?

Wow!!! I'm impressed. I think you covered just about everything. What do you mean by speaker/receiver switch? Oh and thanks for the faberacoustical link. I didnt even know they made dock connecters with line inputs. Anyway, keep up all the good work and thanks for all the info.

[MusicMagic]

Hi all. Just wanted to tip you off to a new topic I started in this "New Features" forum. The topic is "iLounge Readers Choice Awards." I have nominated our own Harmonicdog and hope you will join me in this honor to the creative mind and innovative technologies behind MultiTrack.