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Comments
So, I bought it (Mac and iOS). And, frankly speaking, I'm a little bit disappointed because the UI feels a bit buggy and unfinished on iOS
MIDI learn for a trigger (0/1 value) node does not seem to work and help for this node looks somewhat outdated and confusing. On the iPad, it tells me to right-click the button and select 'Learn MIDI note'. Funny that even on my mac there's no Learn MIDI option in the popup menu. Also, I don't like that the mac version has no internal help - it just opens a webpage on their website.
Don't like that in order to change knob values I need to zoom in a lot and that when rotating those knobs a popup menu is almost always displayed on top (looks like a bug). Though the mac version does not have this problem.
It's laggy on my iPad 2 (though the CPU meter does not go higher than 20%), crashes sometimes, but I'm sure it will be fixed soon
Just don't get me wrong, Audulus is a great piece of software. The iOS version needs some work but I wasn't expecting a bug/problem free experience from version .0 So, if you are into modular synths - buy it, I don't think you will regret it.
I have other modular synths like Zmors, Analogkit, Terra. I like (and will continue using) all of them. Each of them has its own pros and cons, but only Audulus has a desktop version. And I must say it looks very nice on my big desktop monitor. Ah, one more thing (c) Mister developer, if you are reading this, that lasso select tool drives me crazy, and probably not only me. I wish I could use the left mouse button for scrolling and option+left btn for selecting multiple nodes and not the other way around - please consider it
Sorry I only briefly tried midi learn for a knob not a trigger yet. I can see now though that midi learn for a trigger isn't working......
That's ok. My major disappointment was that I thought knobs had no 'MIDI learn' feature. But then I found out that I just need to zoom in more and only then a new popup menu containing 'Learn MIDI CC' is displayed. So, now I'm feeling much better about it
@yug That's what I'd tested, that seems to work pretty well at least. But I agree zooming to the right focus is a bit frustrating I wish you didn't have to be in so close to get the options.
+1. A two finger dealio where you tap a control and then tap the lower right corner or something to mean "pretend I'm zoomed in and show me the control, please" could be cool.
Really sorry to hear that! Please remember we're just two people (full time), and only one (Taylor) is responsible for ev-er-y-thing in the back. With 3 out now, and seeing how much work just responding to people takes, I'm surprised he ever got to 3 without me
You don't need the trigger to get mapped, because you can just use a knob. The trigger SHOULD be mappable, yes, I agree, but there's a lot of stuff to do before Taylor can get to that. Even little things like that can take hours, and that's definitely not more needed at this point than MIDI out, especially since you can just use a knob (not the greatest, but it works).
Audulus has to be Apple-compliant. Apple probably never imagined an app like Audulus being in the store. There is a minimum footprint requirement for a touch, which means you have to be zoomed in close - close meaning, close on an iPhone. This is an iOS app, and we definitely sell most of our copies to iOS, but I'm trying to alert as many people as I can that iOS version is performance oriented, whereas the computer version is design oriented. If you want to get deep with Audulus, you really should just use the computer version. That said, a stylus helps: I made this on iPhone 5c, and I'm pretty sure this is what got me the job at Audulus:
http://forum.audulus.com/discussion/522/bimini-road-cogito-cartesian-sequencer-current-version-0-5#Item_1
(Note - I will not be updating this for 3.0. I'm building a better, easier-to-use sequencer that will allow you to do all of what this does and much more.
As for the radial menu popping up - Apple doesn't like radial menus like that for that reason. We considered getting rid of the radial menu, but some people LOVE it. It works as best as it can within the parameters Apple gives us. Performance mode should lock out the radial menu - if it doesn't, I'll talk to Taylor about it.
iPad2 is very old tech, relatively speaking. As far as I understand it, Audulus could not possibly be more optimized than it is right now. It is rock solid on an iPad Air, I've never encountered a crash. iPad 2 is running near the minimum requirements, meaning you get a minimal version of Audulus's power. If you're a video game enthusiast like myself, and if you're unfortunate enough to only be able to own a Mac, you'll know that games just don't play well with Mac video cards. If I want to play video games for real (like Fallout 4, which I have to get my fix in bits and pieces from gifs I find on Reddit), you need an appropriately powered machine to play them. This is just a byproduct of the exponential increase in technology. As someone who has recently rebought an iPhone because I drowned my last one, I know it sucks having to update your hardware, especially when you like what you have. Just thank god you're not an audio engineer and have to buy the vaporware that is "continually better" AD/DAs that come out every year - JUST so your clients know you have the "best" gear around. People in the know know exactly what system I'm talking about, but I won't name names here. Anyway, I'm really just an evangelist for the computer version. So much frustration people have with Audulus on iOS is just a limitation of working with a) a small screen (iphone) and b) it's not as fast to design with as the computer. Choosing modules in a computer, once you know where they are, is about 3-5x as fast as you could possibly go on iOS.
Audulus really made a name for itself as the "Max for iOS" as some people have put it round the web. But Audulus isn't really just an iOS thing, although I'm obviously on the Audiobus forum right now, haha. While that's a good name to have, it's not all that Audulus is. Audulus is better than that, and part of that is the whole computer-to-iOS cycle of design and performance. It's really why Taylor put the iCloud support there. I mean, emailing isn't that hard, but iCloud allows you to push lots of modules back and forth. Audulus is meant to be used on multiple platforms by the same artist. You CAN use an iPhone alone to design (remember the patch above), but holy crap, that module took 100+ hours to build. I watched ALL of Dexter and more while I made it. All of it. It would have also taken less than 20 hours to do on a computer. I was practically abusing the graphics engine, and I fought through the lag from just so many visual elements (remember this is on 2, 3 has a whole new engine and runs way faster).
THANK YOU. I know you and most people here really understand this. Think of Audulus less like a monolithic corporation and more like your favorite record shop that you love to support. There are probably more people needed to run a record shop than work on Audulus right now. I know for a fact that Harvest Records in Asheville, NC has two AWESOME owners, but they also hire other people to work for them, and their store is pretty tiny (unless they've expanded - it's been years since I've been there - but check them out if you ever do go to Asheville on Hajj to Moog Music, Inc).
Lasso tool 4 LYFE! That was my personal most dearly requested addition. I kinda have to pull a Steve Jobs here and say if you're not liking it, you're using it wrong
. It works much better than a normal square lasso like on a desktop - it allow you to sneak into designs and copy out portions with precision. The cool modules I've made so far? Brought to you by the lasso tool.
Watch this:
I guess I should make a tutorial on how to properly use the lasso tool? I'm sorry you're having trouble with it, but once you learn how to use it, you would never want to be without it.
On computer, you don't need to scroll. Zoom out, hover over the area you want to zoom in on, and then zoom in. It's faster than scrolling. That said, you can use a magic pad or a Wacom tablet (like I have) to two-finger scroll without zooming.
Also, I'd just like to add that people should first look to themselves when running into Audulus's limitations. I made this interlacer to be able to pipe 10 THOUSAND or more control signals over a single monophonic connection between modules. And you know what? Once Taylor makes this certain update he's planning in a 3.X, it will basically be redundant and useless. I will probably have to rip up some old designs and convert them to work on whatever new system he has. But when you're at my level, you stop worrying so much about what Audulus can't do - in fact, you use that as a challenge to goose your grey matter. I thought really long and hard about how the interlacer needed to work - I literally got to the point where I started dreaming up solutions - in my sleep. There will be a "teleport" node at some point (don't know when, but I desperately want it) that will allow you to route signals, in a metaphoric way, "Wirelessly" to another part of the module, using virtual in-app channels (not MIDI channels, just Audulus value channels).
Notice how when the speed of the interlacer increases, the button presses become more responsive. It doesn't make any sound, the music is from JDRaoul's Greenish Blue, which comes with Audulus 3.
Even though the Interlacer will soon be retired to the Audulus Museum, it inspired me to realize that you can create pseudo-3d graphics. I'm pushing the waveform node to its limit until Taylor gets around to adding a vector draw node (shh, keep that between us ok?). He saw what I've been doing with the waveform node and was like, damn, I should just get you the vector node ASAP.
DIY is all about making do with what you have. I don't want that to come across as an apology for the state of Audulus 3.0 (which certainly needs no apology) - on the contrary, if you look at it the right way, banging your head against its limitations will reveal some of its deepest secrets.
@Audulus_Mark Thanks for the response. It's an exciting piece of kit with great potential. I'm looking forward to playing around and learning more about modular....
Do you know if Taylor is aware of the Audiobus/IAA bug? I'm sure there's a lot to do but I hope this is one of his prorities
edit: just seen the other thread so ignore that
@Audulus_Mark thanks for the response
I know my iPad 2 is old and slow, and I should have upgraded long ago... Hmm, maybe I will when iPad Air 3 is out. But you know, I spent more time with the iOS version of Audulus 3 and I must say the performance is not that bad. It definitely won't stop me from having fun with Audulus. It only becomes almost unusable when I open the bottom menu and it starts loading the list of blocks in the background - it takes a lot of time to finish and sometimes Audulus crashes when I try to add(or delete) one of the blocks to my patch while it's still loading the list. Maybe this can be fixed, I don't know. Everything else seems to work ok. I do miss a Save button though
Yes, triggers are not that important. I would definitely choose MIDI out to be added first
As for zooming in - I got used to it so not a problem anymore. And I don't mind the radial menus but I think they should not pop up almost instantly after a long tap on a knob - there should be a 0.5-1 sec delay at least
Lasso tool - I know it's useful, I have nothing against it. I just want to be able to change keyboard shortcuts. Currently, you use the lasso tool with a left mouse btn and scroll the workspace with option+left btn. And I want it to be the other way around. Though I just got a great idea - ControllerMate (awesome software by the way) can help me to rectify this problem
Ok, looks like that's it. I'm a software developer myself (not iOS though) and I understand how complex this kind of software is and how difficult it is to develop and support such apps, especially for such small team of indie developers. Frankly speaking, I admire your and Taylor's work. So, keep it up
Thanks
@Carnbot - Yes, Taylor has fixed the Audulus bug, it will take a week to push the new update though (Apple!)
@yug - Save button is unnecessary - patch saves even if the app crashes, just like Ableton.
Changing the keymappings of the tools is a possibility, I'll talk to Taylor about it.
Thanks everyone! I'm always here and at the forum to answer your Audulus-related questions.
I've had a handful of crashes on my mini, not once did the patch save itself. Did not see any crash reports logged on my iPad.
Would it not be useful to be able to exit a patch without saving changes? Is there a way to do this already?
I have also run into problems with the radial menu popping up when I didn't want it to(too quick?). Not sure there is an easy way to fix this, but....
Perhaps a text list option for the nodes, modules at bottom menu as in the patch menu? My iPad mini seems to struggle a bit with those thumbnails too.
Best app I've purchased in a looong time.
Thanks for your help Mark.
Even looking at the included patches, I get massively lost when considering the signal flow. I would like to learn how to handle this thing and make my own patches. Is there a tutorial resource anywhere on the Audulus forum to help? It seems pretty overwhelming.
@Redo1 - I agree, I'd like to be able to discard changes too. Come over to our forum and request it there so Taylor can hear from you.
There is no way around the radial menu popping up when you don't want it to sometimes. It really shouldn't cause any issues, it might just be visually distracting. We considered getting rid of the radial menu, but some people LOVE it and would scream bloody murder if we did. Radial menus don't work perfectly on iOS stuff, and surprisingly Apple does not like them at all.
And, sorry, but no on the text option. You think it would save a lot of space, but all it would do is make it harder for people to pull out the right one - the font would have to be much bigger than you're imagining it to be compliant with Apple's touch interface requirements.
I've said this elsewhere I think, but if you're upset that it's slow to design on the iPad, well, yes it is. But, you can go lightning fast on a computer. iOS is more performance-oriented (and mobile). My answer to "can we make patch designing faster on iOS somehow" is get a computer version. No matter what we do to optimize the iPad (and there are some more optimizations coming) you will never, ever be able to work as fast as you can on the computer. Mice (mouses?) are much more precise than finger touches.
If you're upset that it's slow to design on the iPad NOW, imagine how long it took me to do this with 2 on an iPhone 5c with a stylus.
And still, because of the new lasso tool - if you know how to use it right, designing on iPad with 3 is already infinitely faster than designing patches with 2.
forum.audulus.com/discussion/522/bimini-road-cogito-cartesian-sequencer-current-version-0-5#Item_1
So glad you're loving the app, come meet me over at the forum and say hi! I posted a bunch of new stuff this morning.
forum.audulus.com
I'm having a blast with Audulus 3, got it for my MacBook Air too but it feels more fun to use on the iPad (The iPad Air 2 does get pretty hot though even with low patch cpu-load, maybe everything on the screen is re-drawn all the time?).
I hope Audulus will some day include a 'slider' and not only 'knobs'. It's a matter of taste I know.
For me the best way to learn Audulus is by exploring and building stuff and figuring out how things work, it will be a challenge to build things like a simple arpeggiator that takes the midi-input and feeds it to sequencer steps and well, it can be done but for now I'm driving the notes from midiSTEPs.
Maybe some day Audulus will have a 'module' that converts human readable notes (C-1, C-2, D#3 etc.) into 'hz' the other way around, that would definitely improve the usability in many areas. (The attached image is my current playground for a simple mono-synth).
Honestly I get a little dizzy knowing that almost everything is there but my knowledge to build stuff needs to improve
I’ve got an iPad 2, and it’s in good condition, no scratches or damage, and has been going since I spent far more than I should have on it, only a few recent years ago. Because it carries on working, there’s absolutely no way another iPad will be struggled to be afforded especially in these economic times. What would be the point? The iPad 2 would still exist and still work and still be used, of course, so I can’t imagine a scenario where another one should be purchased. It just won’t happen.
If the iPad 2 dies, gets damaged, or otherwise becomes unusable, then I might have to think about a replacement (or just consolidate back to my MacBook and stop pretending a touch interface is usable when the thing I’m trying to manipulate is always hidden by all of a fingertip, and when I let go, it nips over to some nearby setting and not the one I left my finger on the glass with, because the fingertip obscures the target).
Also, it would be really nice if we could use arrow keys (or WASD) for scrolling.It's not a big deal but for people with windows laptops it may be a very nice feature to have. For example, I really hate my laptop's keyboard because I'm always pressing the wrong key (Fn instead of Ctrl, Win instead of Alt, and so on). And its trackpad is a real pain to use, nowhere near Apple's magic trackpad
(The iPad Air 2 does get pretty hot though even with low patch cpu-load, maybe everything on the screen is re-drawn all the time?).
Yes, it is.
Me too! I have asked Taylor to expand control surfaces myself. XY controllers, that kinda thing. That kinda stuff is on the list for "someday." Other more pressing things to add first though
There is already a module that does that included in the library - The Warpeggiator.
You can make this yourself. If this is something you're interested in making, come over to the forum and we'll talk about it there - I won't wire up the whole thing, but I can wire up the concept I'm envisioning and then you can do the slog work of copy/paste/arranging on a UI and stuff. That's the part that takes the longest sometimes - often the idea comes to you easier and faster than wiring it up actually does. I know exactly how to make what you're describing with what's there already though.
Just study what's in the module library - look inside the modules. Figure out what they're doing. Make prolific use of value and waveform nodes (or their via versions). It's like using a scope and a multi-meter in an electronic design. Keep asking questions like the ones you are - I would, however, prefer to have conversations like this over at the Audulus forum since they'll be there on record, whereas this is going to get buried on Audiobus pretty quickly.
@yug - thanks for the suggestion - I'll keep it in mind, but really, the best way to keep these suggestions that people have on record is to post them on the feature request thread on the Audulus forum - http://forum.audulus.com/discussion/374/what039s-your-top-feature-request-for-audulus-#Item_132
Maybe get a cheap Amazon mouse? That's what I use as a backup when my hand starts to cramp from using my Wacom.