Palm Sounds

Some important news about the future of Palm Sounds

2012-01-02T11:52:00.000Z

Well here we are in 2012 already. I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year. I had a fabulous break. It feels like a lot longer than 10 days ago since I posted something here. I've spent a lot of time in the last few days catching up on projects and ideas that I've been putting off doing or starting as I simply haven't had the time over the last few months, and I think that this has really been a catalyst in coming to an important decision about the future of Palm Sounds.

This blog has been around for just over 5 and a half years now and especially in the last 12 months it has required more and more time and effort just to stay on top of everything that's happening in the mobile music world. It now takes up almost, if not all my spare time, and this isn't really a sustainable position.

As a result I've decided to stop writing Palm Sounds from today for the foreseeable future.

The mobile music world is at a point where Palm Sounds has hopefully served a useful purpose in promoting apps and developers to a growing community of users, and I get the feeling that we have moved from a very niche group to something almost approaching the mainstream. When Palm Sounds started there were no other blogs that dealt with mobile music, whereas now there are quite a few mobile specific blogs and sites which have sprung up in the last year or so, and a significant number of mainstream sites are featuring mobile music on a regular basis, so I don't think that Palm Sounds going silent will leave a gap.

Thanks for all the help and support you have given to Palm Sounds over the years. I wish you all the best for the future. I hope you'll stay in touch.

Ashley.

Merry Christmas from Palm Sounds

2011-12-24T21:58:00.000Z

Have a wonderful Christmas, and a very happy new year from Palm Sounds. I'll be taking a longer break this year so the blog will be quiet for a while now, but I'll see you all in the new year. Enjoy your break and make lots of music wherever you are!

All the best!

GuitarJack 2, pictures, thoughts, amazement ...

2011-12-24T20:46:00.000Z

I thought I'd post up some more shots of the GuitarJack 2 and how it works with FourTrack. I have to say that the software / hardware integration is very slick indeed and a big improvement on the first version.

But what really strikes you is the quality of the GuitarJack 2. Not just the external build quality, but the sound quality through the device. I can't remember where I read it, but I remember that someone had written that they thought that there was something wrong with the guitarjack when they plugged in their guitar because there was no noise, but it wasn't broken, just noiseless. Well I found that too. The line in is great too, it works very well to have a stereo in for the iPhone or iPad.

My main planned use of this is recording iDevice to iDevice, but perhaps more of that another day. You could plug anything into the GuitarJack 2 and get great sound out of it I'm sure. The quality is amazing and completely configurable within FourTrack too, which is very handy.

I'll admit that I wanted to be impressed with the GuitarJack 2, but it has exceeded my expectations quite easily. Very nice job Sonoma, excellent job.

What I would have liked to see come inside the box was a case for the device itself, or perhaps a case for it and an iPhone to make it even more secure. Perhaps that will come in the future.

You can find out more about the GuitarJack 2 including where to buy it via the Sonoma site.

SampleTank 1.1 Tutorial PART 2 - KEYS, PADS, Recorder

2011-12-24T19:52:00.000Z

Korg Monotribe: How to silence oscillator when filtering external audio

2011-12-24T19:24:00.000Z

Intermorphic get Mixtikl running on a Kindle Fire!

2011-12-24T18:54:00.001Z

Amazing stuff, Intermorphic have managed to get Mixtikl for Android to run on the Kindle Fire! Good news for all those Fire owners. Anyone know when or if the Fire is coming to the UK?

Read more at Pete's blog.

where the ferns grow by orlandosound

2011-12-24T17:26:00.000Z

Here's the description of the song from SoundCloud:

I'll try again...) new years resolution #1 learn logic!

This is unfinished and not the song I had in mind to share today, but in a week where we have lost christopher hitchens, vaclav havel and cesaria evora, it just seemed, well, right...

As usual, there are living room artefacts we need to fix in a studio on the voice and acoustics. Helped along with many iphone apps; soundprism, thumbjam, geosynth and alchemy.

Hope you like it. I think of it as pop music for a wake.

A Merry Christmas from Moonbuz

2011-12-24T17:22:00.000Z

Nice picture from Moonbuz. Very festive!

Developer of the year poll? No, I don't think so.

2011-12-24T17:09:00.000Z

As you may have guessed I haven't done a developer poll in the end. So many people said that they'd like to do things differently or weren't sure about a poll that selected a single developer as a winner. I can understand and agree to a degree.

So I decided to not do it at all again this year. In a sense, picking who is best out of so many excellent apps and their developers is almost a negative process, so instead I'd like take the opportunity to say a massive thank you to all the developers out there who've made or updated such amazing apps in 2011.

It has been, without a doubt an amazing year for mobile music and probably the most exciting year to date.

So thanks again for all the amazing apps and for everyone involved. Here's to 2012.

Magic Guitar Tutorial #4 [Silent Night]

2011-12-24T17:03:00.000Z

Magic Guitar Tutorial Series #2 [Angels We Have Heard on High]

2011-12-24T15:50:00.000Z

Review: TC-11

2011-12-24T14:14:00.000Z

iPads at the Apple Store

SampleTank 1.1 for iPhone/iPad. Tutorial PART 1 - SOUNDS

2011-12-24T13:49:00.000Z

iPads at the Apple Store

MORE Electric Pianos in Action with SampleTank for iPhone / iPod touch and iRig MIDI

2011-12-24T13:41:00.000Z

iPads at the Apple Store

SampleTank 1.1 released - The first professional sound and groove workstation goes universal!

2011-12-24T13:18:00.002Z

iPads at the Apple Store

A December wait list

2011-12-24T12:10:00.000Z

The wait list seems really small now, but I guess that's to be expected as the year's almost done. If I've missed anything just let me know. I just thought it would be good to get one more in before the end of the year.

iOS Apps:

Cascadr v3
Jasuto Studio
iSequence 3
loopseque extra
Scattr (new app from Michael Aldridge)
Tympanum from miniMusic
iSample update
Mint io
Cream io
Noise.IO XT
Toro Mini for the iPad
GlitchBeats

Android:

FL Studio Mobile - Android
Mixtikl for Android

Hardware:

Akai Synthstation 49

Did I miss anything else?

IPad Music App: NodeBeat HD

2011-12-23T23:33:00.000Z

iPads at the Apple Store

Grain Science — Tutorial 1: Brass

2011-12-23T23:31:00.000Z

iPads at the Apple Store

robu + guitar half improv

2011-12-23T22:20:00.000Z

Oramics: Atlantis Anew, a film about the Oramics Machine

2011-12-23T19:01:00.000Z

Oramics: Atlantis Anew from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

I'm thinking of visiting the Science museum again over the Christmas break, so I think I'll pop into this exhibit while I'm there and try and find out a bit more about this film.

Via the Wire

If you remember there's also an app of Daphne Oram's machine too. You can find it here.

Jazzy mood by valavar made with KORG iMS-20

2011-12-23T18:51:00.000Z

iPads at the Apple Store

Actual Retronyms contest site

2011-12-23T18:45:00.002Z

Apologies, the actual site for the retronyms contest is here and not via their blog.

Tabletop 1.3 SoundCloud contest

2011-12-23T18:42:00.000Z

I don't think I mentioned this when the new version of Tabletop came out. Retronyms are running a contest for 30 with a great prize of a SoundCloud Pro membership.

More at the retronyms blog.

Reminder: Bhajis & Microbe free

2011-12-23T18:41:00.000Z

And as I'm about it, another reminder that you can now get the awesome Bhajis Loops and Microbe for free!

If you don't know these applications, they're for the now long abandoned Palm operating system, but if you're interested you should get yourself a Pam Tungsten T3 from eBay or a Palm Tungsten TX for that matter and try these applications out. They're certainly worth the cost of a second hand device.

In fact, even if you don't plan to get the hardware anytime soon I'd advise you to get the software just in case it vanishes at some point.

Griff post

2011-12-23T18:40:00.000Z

Ok, a final reminder about Griff for this year, as you can go grab Griff as it and all it's plug ins are now free.

If you don't have an WinMo device I can recommend a Dell Axim X51 which has always done really well for me.

Dell Axim at eBay