Floating an idea - Ask app makers to add "a reference track"

[shannong]

We all know the basic problem that not even AudioCopy/AudioPaste can solve: unless you can hear the reference material you're designing some new material for, the workflow on iDevices is quite cumbersome. For example, say I start with a nice seed idea I whipped up in BeatMaker or Looptastic (or ...drool... Nano Studio in a few more weeks when it's released). Now I want to add a funky bass line with Bass Line. Or a nice synth lead with MorphWiz or ThumbJam. Problem is, I cannot play along with the seed idea in those other apps unless I'm willing to import/paste the seed material into that other app and then layer my new stuff on top of that. If the app even supports doing that.

Well, that's no good is is? Whether I'm using MultiTrack DAW or Looptastic or (soon) Nano Studio to do my arranging and mix down, I want all my bits and pieces in separate, modular wave files that I can chop up and mix and match as needed.

So pwnified here mused recently in the big Mics and Inputs thread about creating some kind of ReWire-like standard now that iOS 4 is out and we have some limited multitasking available, but IMO that's the difficult way to achieve workable results.

All that's really needed is for the serious music app makers to simply add the concept of "reference tracks" into their apps. I already floated this idea to the main coder for MorphWiz (Kevin) and he liked it. Ultimately, the iDevices can support a lot of tracks. What's in short supply aren't the resources to play back multiple tracks so much as screen real-estate to design a usable UI.

But what if any given serious app maker (and by that I mean the folks who understand why they need to implement AudioCopy/AudioPase or the Intua equivalent) simply adds a mono or stereo track that is meant specifically for loading an external wave file into so that it can play along as a "reference track" for the tracks you're really developing in the App? All you need is one (mono) or two (stereo) track channels with a simple mixer to balance that track's level against whatever is happening in the rest of your app. The "reference track" would in all other respects stay isolated from your recording and bouncing and resampling.

So workflow would go more like this: I record a seed idea in BeatMaker. I put that mix into Intua's Pasteboard. I open up MorphWiz and AudioPaste the clipboard into the special "reference track". Now every time I loop through the measures in MorphWiz, the same measures from the "reference track" are played at the same time. I can set the level of the reference track as high or low as I like. Now I do all my content creation in MorphWiz, informed by hearing the actual reference track that I plan to eventually merge that MorphWiz content with, over in some finishing app like MultiTrack DAW here, or ThumbJam, or Nano Studio (when they finally integrate audio tracks in the future), etc.

See how that would work? Any app that can already copy or paste audio data could implement this concept pretty easily. My suggestion? Start asking for this feature in all the good apps that are capable of supporting serious audio work: BeatMaker, MorphWiz, ThumbJam, DrumTrack8, iElectribe, DopplerPad, Looptastic, Bass Line, NLogSynth, iSequence, Jasuto, and even Rebirth if they ever get their act together and provide native export to WAV or support for AudioCopy/AudioPaste.

[jorgren]

Shannong, I think that's a good idea.

As a workaround, you could add your reference track to your iTunes library and play it in the background, but of course there are lots of limitations with that approach - limited play controls, leaving the app to re-start the track, and worst of all, having to go home and use your computer in order to get the track into your iTunes library.

The way I've done it so far is just to make lots of sequenced or arpeggiated bits all in the same key and tempo. I assemble 'em later, and with a bit of practice I can make them sound fine together. But that's a stopgap.

[pwnified]

I like this idea.