someone who's doing some things
Music is a huge part of my life so it’s almost certain that this category will have a lot of stuff in it.
miniMusic will turn 13 years old soon, and even though they haven’t put out anything new for quite some time I thought I’d give PianoFly Pro Synth a go again. It’s a lovely app, a lovely synth with some features that still aren’t available anywhere else.
I’d hoped that they’d bring out Tympanum, their second app soon, but it still hasn’t seen the light of day. I’d like to think that miniMusic would do something for their birthday as they remain one of my favourite developers.
This wasn’t one of the Strange Agency’s better ideas although the actual idea is a good one. I guess in any business you have ups and downs and the Strange Agency usually have brilliant ideas. Sadly, this wasn’t a great one. It works, but the implementation just wasn’t right.
I played with it again recently and whilst you can make a rhythm track with this it isn’t easy to get things to sound just as you’d want. I doubt that they’ll do much to update this app now, but even so, a good attempt.
When Notion first came out it was a bargain at just $1 but I never really got around to playing with it. So I’ve started to get used to it now, and it’s a very powerful and yet simple to use to notation application.
The sounds aren’t too bad either although I’m not sure about paying for all the in-app purchase sounds as yet.
It is beautiful to look at and amazing to play with, if a little difficult to get your head around. Still well worth it in my book.
I’ve mentioned before that I think that pretty much all the Strange Agency’s apps and this isn’t any different. Slice isn’t their finest, that’s for sure. Many of their later apps are far more interesting, but slice is still good, still fun to play with and still an interesting design.
Another app that seems to continue to work well on my 3G is iSequence. I remember when this app first came out. It was something of a revelation, and it’s still a very good sequencer for putting together tracks.
Anyway, it’s a keeper for my 3G music device and still works very well for setting up tunes either in their own right or for taking into something else to work on.
Another old app that hasn’t seen the light of day for a very long time, and whilst it does still work and in fact works very well on my 3G, it isn’t too functional. You have to remember though that this app first came out back in 2008 I think, so it isn’t as though it wasn’t a good piece of software. When it came out it was an excellent app considering the others that were around back then, but by today’s standards it isn’t anywhere near as complex as many others.
Even so, I think I might keep it on my 3G just for fun.
Another app I haven’t used in ages and ages. But why? bleep!Synth was (is) excellent, and if that wasn’t enough it runs good on my 3G too.
I decided to revisit 8bitone after ever such a long time. To be honest I could never get my head around this app when it came out and never managed to make anything that was even vaguely satisfying. I thought that when I went back to it I might find it easier, but no, I still don’t get it as yet, which makes me really annoyed!
It’s a shame, as Yudo were so promising in the early iOS days, but they’ve just disappeared from that whole scene now. I guess that happens, but I still see it as a lost opportunity.
Now that I’m back to using my iPad for music again I thought I’d have another go at Donut, and suddenly, it really clicked. I used it to record some vocal cut ups and it was wonderful, or that is to say, I really enjoyed it anyway.
I really do love The Strange Agency. They’re amazing!
I am Ashley Elsdon 