Anazing app, so what's next

[MusicMagic]

Quick note that I left in the iLounge Readers' Choice awards topic: two days left to vote for iPhone developer of the year in the iLounge poll. Good through Oct. 28th. Put in a vote for harmonicdog! Coding innovations developed for MultiTrack are truly impressive.

[Crikey]

Well done. For some reason I couldn't believe this could be a stable app - my experience with using "4 Track" is very frustrating due to it crashing and I thought MultiTrack might be 4 times more unstable - my fears have vanished and I'm mighty impressed.
I have some suggestions but will wait until I've racked up some more time with it. It is very logical to use but I'm stumped when it comes to clearing a track. How can I select a track and delete it's content?

This is my third multi track app, they all have some pros and cons but top of the list should be stability.

[MusicMagic]

I could be corrected by the developer, but I believe deleting a track would be part of the "non-destructive editing" category that includes features such as copy, paste, and so forth that will be coming in a future update.

I may be a dunce, and not accessed an existing delete feature, but I have gotten around the issue by using the WiFi to PC connection, deleting the track in that online Web page's actions, then downloading the song file back into MultiTrack. Cumbersome, for sure, but doable. The other work-a-round I have used is simply to "mute" the track during the current working session until I later do the WiFi to PC operation mentioned above. With 16 tracks, this works OK until the project gets "busy" with drum tracks or lots of vocal overdubs.

[Crikey]

Ok, I can live with that - I will mute the track. Which brings me to a suggestion, it would be nice to be able to re-arrange the tracks i.e. put the muted tracks down the bottom out of the way.
I do like the way that I get a choice of keeping a take or not, that at least is half way there. I'm waiting for my Mikey to turn up so I can give it a good workout.

[MusicMagic]

. . . it would be nice to be able to re-arrange the tracks i.e. put the muted tracks down the bottom out of the way.

Yes, agreed. Rearranging tracks would be nice—in which I also would include setting track "subgroups" that would move together, such as a set of two or three vocal overdubs, or subsets of percussion tracks.

The extreme power of the digital age. Not even in your wildest dreams in the old days.

Doable, for sure, but the developer's plate is pretty full with suggestions even for the 1.1 update coming in a few months (December the target, but we have to be realistic about the headaches you run into unexpectedly as a developer if that target gets pushed back any). He might could implement track rearrangement. We'll have to see.

Good luck on you Mikey!

[anthony]

just to let you know I am really impressed with how you keep checking in and your positive attitude to all the suggestions you are getting. You are surely building a loyal customer base along the way. And I also support you holding to your price, as long as you keep up this kind of performance. The most important of all is that we can communicate with you - anyone ever try THAT with Rectools?!

Keep up the good work sir!!

Anthony

[pwnified]

Great! Thanks! What would be really good is if you all could review the app on the iTunes App Store (I know some of you already have, thanks for that!). It seems the only ones reviewing the app are 0.1% users who have a bone to pick for some unfounded reason... It only takes a minute to review and would greatly help out an independent developer. Thanks for listening

just to let you know I am really impressed with how you keep checking in and your positive attitude to all the suggestions you are getting. You are surely building a loyal customer base along the way. And I also support you holding to your price, as long as you keep up this kind of performance. The most important of all is that we can communicate with you - anyone ever try THAT with Rectools?!

Keep up the good work sir!!

Anthony

[Crikey]

Fair enough.. I'll post a review tonight.

[genzo13]

being able to delete individual tracks within a session would b great - i would definitely vote for functions like that before any bells and whistles. to me, reverb and other fx are not that important - i would assume this app appeals more to pro users who are bound to have studio setups that they do their final recordings with (or at least a way to effect trax later on their computer). it runs so smoothly now, i would hate to think adding a bunch of fx would hinder the performance in any way.

an undo feature would also be high on my list (even just one level to start would be good).

you mention automated punch-in & out. does that mean we will be able to monitor what's already recorded on the track until the punch?

a way to export an mp3 mix and directly email would also be great for times you don't have a computer nearby.

overall, awesome app, can't wait for updates!

[eocaecilia]

Wow. I'm completely blown away by the MultiTrack app. Thank you, thank you so much for creating it.

I'm so glad that with MultiTrack, job one was smooth accurate recording, monitoring, and playback. How nice to find a multi-tracking iPhone app that adheres to Apple's prime directive...it should "just work". But so much more wonderful that it just works with sixteen tracks, and with an elegant, simple, waveform-oriented interface. I really am in love.

I could go on... But in the interest of keeping things productive, here's my $0.02...

• Pre-roll - I see from perusing this and other threads that automated punch-in/punch-out is on the way. (Awesome.) I'm assuming/hoping this includes the ability to pre-roll for a set time before recording starts at the punch point...?
• Time marker ticks in the track displays - for some perspective when zooming/scrolling...looks like that may be also on the way, though...?
• Single takes within a track graphically separated within individual blocks - to separate tracks from empty space, and to find punch points, etc. Also sounds like it might be on the way, to go along with trimming/moving editing features...? (WOW.)
• Play bar location - I lost contact with the yellow playback bar a few times during my first few songs. During non-playback, might be nice to be able to tap a location to jump the play bar to it. During playback, might be nice to have a gesture that jumps the display to the play bar's current location.
• Picky, whiny UI stuff - In edit boxes, a little 'X' in a circle that clears out the current text value would be nice. On the keyboard that pops up, an action word ("Save"?) in a blue submit button might be nicer than grey "return".
• Speaker-phone playback (or is it available and I just haven't figured out how to do it?)
• Vertical zoom - or, some way to increase the height of a given track.

For what it's worth, I'd probably vote no on effects, automation, and midi stuff. It is an iPhone, after all, and at some point, there are certain features where you should just put the phone down and fire up your ProTools rig on your laptop. But maybe that's just a knee-jerk reaction to how much I love what's there currently. I'm sure if these things were done in a way that kept the interface clean and intuitive....

Ah, but listen to me. Clearly this app is in good hands.