Show HN: We're releasing SoundBrush, an app that lets you draw music(getsoundbrush.com)
getsoundbrush.com
Show HN: We're releasing SoundBrush, an app that lets you draw music
http://getsoundbrush.com
32 comments
It looks awesome, however I'm very hesitant to download free apps at this point. I would rather buy something for $5 or $10, because then I have more confidence I'm not going to have popups or have to endorse or recommend it for rewards or something.
I still don't mind in-app-purchases. Free always sets off warning bells though.
I still don't mind in-app-purchases. Free always sets off warning bells though.
I've recently started to compose music, and nothing beats the simple notation software like TuxGuitar. I don't even attempt to use any other complicated software. Note I'm only talking about composing, not effects and mixing.
But a very impressive looking software and very cool introduction video. And a good composition too!
But a very impressive looking software and very cool introduction video. And a good composition too!
Ok so its a piano roll sequencer with nice chrome and a locked set of mildly acceptable instruments. Sorry but this just isn't overly exciting to me in its current state.
Unlock all the instruments, add MIDI and charge for it. Then we're talking
Unlock all the instruments, add MIDI and charge for it. Then we're talking
Probably one of the best video introduction I've seen in a while!
HHmm reminds me of fruity loops
Really cool app. Are you planning to add an iPhone version?
I use a lot (actually way too many) music creation apps. This looks really nice, but there are a few things that made me turn away after only a minute:
1) In order to use any instruments other than piano I need to like or share. I haven't even had a chance to build a song. As a user, I'm not comfortable enough to recommend your app to friends or endorse it.
2) There doesn't seem to be much available in terms of drums / bass. I might be missing something.
3) This is more of a nice to have, but customizing sounds through effects or parameters would be amazing and add to the diversity of sounds.
I really do love the interface. I think with a few changes you could be on to something great!
1) In order to use any instruments other than piano I need to like or share. I haven't even had a chance to build a song. As a user, I'm not comfortable enough to recommend your app to friends or endorse it.
2) There doesn't seem to be much available in terms of drums / bass. I might be missing something.
3) This is more of a nice to have, but customizing sounds through effects or parameters would be amazing and add to the diversity of sounds.
I really do love the interface. I think with a few changes you could be on to something great!
1) We definitely don't want to force you to recommend an app you've just started using. Feel free to experiment a bit more. You can also download songs from Discover (the cloud in the toolbar) to see how the different instruments sound.
2) We have drums and bass in two different packs, the Rock pack and the Jazz pack. The drum kits come with pre-set loops as well as individual samples for making your own beats.
3) Right now we have basic echo and reverb effects (in the mixer) and we're working on adding more!
Thanks for trying it out
2) We have drums and bass in two different packs, the Rock pack and the Jazz pack. The drum kits come with pre-set loops as well as individual samples for making your own beats.
3) Right now we have basic echo and reverb effects (in the mixer) and we're working on adding more!
Thanks for trying it out
Dude, why would you weld a nice responsive interface to the sound and sensibility of a cheap plastic keyboard? Make it work with Audiobus, rebrand it as a sequencer, and sell it for $10 to musicians that actually want something that sounds good. Nobody needs another half-assed implementation of General MIDI.
Exactly. It's a giveaway: this product was not designed by musicians who regularly use music software.
Can I pay you and not have to recommend or like anything?
Do you have a recommendation for an app that I can use to make basic music for a game (think Ludum Dare level)? I'm not a music creator, but I want be able to create some sort of music without having to learn much about music creation.
The easiest one I've used is Figure (http://www.propellerheads.se/products/figure/). You'll probably want something on your desktop/laptop to pull everything together. Feel free to reach out if you'd like help with workflow.
I made this using mostly Figure and Garageband (to give you an idea of what can be done): http://rickohalloran.bandcamp.com/
I made this using mostly Figure and Garageband (to give you an idea of what can be done): http://rickohalloran.bandcamp.com/
+1 for Figure.
Looptastic HD is quite nice for putting something together with almost no effort.
Looptastic HD is quite nice for putting something together with almost no effort.
http://www.drpetter.se/projects.html
Musagi and Sfxr were both created essentially for making basic game music and http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA022293/pxtone/index.html PXtone from the maker of cave story.
Neither are particularly easy in comparison to other tools but because they come out of the game design community basically all the tutorials online are geared toward vg tunes.
Musagi and Sfxr were both created essentially for making basic game music and http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA022293/pxtone/index.html PXtone from the maker of cave story.
Neither are particularly easy in comparison to other tools but because they come out of the game design community basically all the tutorials online are geared toward vg tunes.
Renoise http://www.renoise.com/ (demo seems to be full-featured) is a little more complicated but pretty powerful. It took me a little while to get used to the UI but it's worth it.
Very cool, love the fusion of music creation and touch gestures!
Looks really cool. Too bad SoundBrush is already the name of Roland's app for their 'GS' MIDI extension. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_GS
(Not that most people would notice.)
(Not that most people would notice.)
Just downloaded it - beautiful app! I also love the intro video - slick and professional, but gets straight to the point and gives an excellent overview of how the app works.
Been playing with this for 10 mins now...awesome concept. Instant fan!
Unfortunately you need a fairly new Android phone to be able to pull something like this off. I wish Android didn't take so long to fix the audio latency issue.
I am not musical. This app has not changed this. Everything I draw sounds like crap.
That's because it's chromatic; the smart thing would have been to let you pick a scale (a subset of the 12 notes that sound good together, and which are standardized)and then constrain your note input to that, using the inaccuracies in your drawing for expression.
Also, in-app purchases for individual sounds, no MIDI, and no audiobus? Sorry, total fail. No musician is going to buy this and no non-musician is going to be any better off with it.
Nsxwolf, I suggest a copy of Animoog (if you feel spendy) or Borderlands Granular (if not), either of which will allow you to enjoy a rich musical experience within certain limits by applying touch to other things besides chromatic sample playback.
Also, in-app purchases for individual sounds, no MIDI, and no audiobus? Sorry, total fail. No musician is going to buy this and no non-musician is going to be any better off with it.
Nsxwolf, I suggest a copy of Animoog (if you feel spendy) or Borderlands Granular (if not), either of which will allow you to enjoy a rich musical experience within certain limits by applying touch to other things besides chromatic sample playback.
We actually do have the ability to constrain notes to a scale (the default for new songs is in fact C Major Pentatonic, not chromatic). We're also working on MIDI and other import/export options for future releases.
Lovely execution. This is the type of app that I feel Bret Victor is talking about, allowing you to explorer and create in new ways with immediate feedback.
The disappointing part is seeing that this is an iPad only app.
The disappointing part is seeing that this is an iPad only app.
I'm sorry that we're iPad only, but you won't believe how large SoundBrush is, and how small our dev team is (just the two founders). We're right now strained for resources, but hopefully that won't be so later on.
I completely understand, best of luck to you guys!
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Would love to see Dropbox integration for backup and sharing :)
So would we! No promises on feature release date, but we would love to get it into our user's hands ASAP!
Nice app. I find the overall color of UI elements to be a little too dark. Right now with a little room light reflections on my iPad I find it hard to see some parts of the UI.
The biggest issue I have is, unless it supports CoreMIDI that leaves anything I create trapped in the app and makes it much less interesting and useful to me as a music creation tool. It also rules out using it in conjunction with all the other music apps out there. I would really encourage looking into this and it is something I would probably pay for to enable.
Also I don't (and won't) use Facebook so that rules out any sharing, etc... for me. I'm not opposed to sharing features at all, I just won't use Facebook to do so.
edit: a word
The biggest issue I have is, unless it supports CoreMIDI that leaves anything I create trapped in the app and makes it much less interesting and useful to me as a music creation tool. It also rules out using it in conjunction with all the other music apps out there. I would really encourage looking into this and it is something I would probably pay for to enable.
Also I don't (and won't) use Facebook so that rules out any sharing, etc... for me. I'm not opposed to sharing features at all, I just won't use Facebook to do so.
edit: a word
We're definitely planning MIDI export and possible CoreMIDI support, stay tuned! The new Inter-App Audio in iOS7 also looks interesting...
In terms of sharing, Facebook definitely isn't required - you can email the song to your friends or you can upload it to our Discover service and share the link.
In terms of sharing, Facebook definitely isn't required - you can email the song to your friends or you can upload it to our Discover service and share the link.
ok, I see that Facebook isn't required now but it wasn't completely obvious to me. When I tapped "create", it still showed the login via Facebook button and that confused me that it was asking to create a Facebook account. Maybe a carefully placed "Or" would make it clearer.
Inter-App audio as well as Audiobus (since it has so much traction) support would also be nice.
Inter-App audio as well as Audiobus (since it has so much traction) support would also be nice.
thanks for the feedback, we'll take a look into making that clearer
Its amazing what a good video can do to sell an app.
I haven't tried your app, but from the video it seems you have those discrete notes. Have you though about having a sort of continuous time/frequency domain? I guess you could do that with an Inverse Wavelet transform or Inverse Short Time FT with logarithmic frequency scaling. I'm assuming your sounds are synthesized, not recorded.
Another idea - how about making a part of the app sort of "real time" (or short delay), like an instrument? Seems it would take the intuitiveness and freshness of gesturing to a whole new level.
Another idea - how about making a part of the app sort of "real time" (or short delay), like an instrument? Seems it would take the intuitiveness and freshness of gesturing to a whole new level.
Those are some great ideas. We actually do have a realtime component - the note labels on the left side can be played like a piano without messing up your drawing.
The video is awesome!
Looks like the app is free? What's the $$$ plan?
The app is free to download and includes all functionality and 1 free instrument. You can get additional instruments by liking us on Facebook and tweeting, or through in-app purchases
Looks like people want more than 1 instrument to create a song with.
The restriction isn't letting people get a feel for the potential of your app.
The restriction isn't letting people get a feel for the potential of your app.
I would like to recommend it to my fellow electronic musicians, but with such restrictions it is literally not worth the time. Make a lite version that presents the interface and 2 or 3 instruments simultaneously, and a premium one that just unlocks everything. There's a huge variety of electronic music software on the iPad, and musicians don't have the patience to be nickel-and-dimed.
Reminds me of SoundBow [0].
0: http://www.binaura.net/stc/wrx/soundbow/
0: http://www.binaura.net/stc/wrx/soundbow/
Hyperscore was my first thought
https://hyperscore.wordpress.com/
Though in the intervening years (6 shit!) it appears to have gone from a cute mit tech demo to a commercial application.
https://hyperscore.wordpress.com/
Though in the intervening years (6 shit!) it appears to have gone from a cute mit tech demo to a commercial application.
very cool interpretation of drawing music!
It's a shame it won't install on my iPad 1 -- the required camera seems like more of a frill.
Well, it's less of the camera and more of the iPad 1's processing power and memory. We do have an iPad 1 in the dev office - but no matter what we tried, we couldn't get it to run properly on it. Sorry, but this is something we probably won't be able to support in the future.
Fair enough! Good luck with it, it looks neat.
No offense. This looks nice for casual user and whatnot..
But I was expecting something actually interesting like being able to draw waveforms like oramics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oramics
But I was expecting something actually interesting like being able to draw waveforms like oramics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oramics
That was my first thought on seeing the multiple time lines. An Oramics based drawing system would be great along with a Nancarrow inspired pianola system!
People may be interested in http://dinisnoise.org/ by S Jagannathan - not trapped in discrete pitch classes. Not for tablets yet but I'll bet that happens...
PS: I might just get a tablet to try some of these direct manipulation music apps...
People may be interested in http://dinisnoise.org/ by S Jagannathan - not trapped in discrete pitch classes. Not for tablets yet but I'll bet that happens...
PS: I might just get a tablet to try some of these direct manipulation music apps...
It would be neat to create a VST based on oramics, though I think OP's product is more of a DAW than a specific instrument.
Yeah a vst would be great!
There is a thing for ithings already actually I have just discovered.
Drawing waveforms is a neat approach to visualizing music, but we decided to take a different direction for more casual users
I like the interface, and the marketing website / video did a great job of explaining the product.
Had fun playing with it. Trying to play http://i.imgur.com/ArXK5rW.png didn't go so well, it exited after one or two notes.
The 'music' category is one of the very few places left in the app store where you can actually charge a reasonable price for your work and still get traction. It's a shame to see something like this show up as a free app, especially with such granular IAPs as separate 'synth pads' and 'synth leads'. It smells a bit of the worst parts of free-to-play.
Also, you're risking a future rejection by requiring the camera when the app doesn't use it. Apple has a long history of pulling apps which request specific features that they don't use.
The interface is nice, an appealing take on the piano roll.
Also, you're risking a future rejection by requiring the camera when the app doesn't use it. Apple has a long history of pulling apps which request specific features that they don't use.
The interface is nice, an appealing take on the piano roll.
very nice. now if it could only export notated music...
Impressive interface!
What I would love: When tapping a note for the second time would make it disappear. Currently, when Im trying stuff, I constantly switch between the piano set and the eraser. Thats pretty tiresome.
What I would love: When tapping a note for the second time would make it disappear. Currently, when Im trying stuff, I constantly switch between the piano set and the eraser. Thats pretty tiresome.
This looks promising. It would be nice if you could constrain single strokes to only play single notes simultaneously — as it is you often get very discordant hits when a line gets steep.
I also wish you could draw strokes when zoomed out.
My daughter loves playing with the app.
I also wish you could draw strokes when zoomed out.
My daughter loves playing with the app.
Can you tell us how long it took to develop and challenges or technologies used.
(I know this sounds like a job interview question but I'm actually quite curious :-)