Velocity Keyboard by Ngo Minh Ngoc

AndyPlankton

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@AndyPlankton said:

@Blue_Mangoo said:
@McD @oddSTAR @lovadamusic

I see your point. We don’t plan to add a scale editor in the next update but I’ll work on a design for a future version.

The one inside Autotune mobile is pretty neat....

You can select a root note and scale type from the drop downs.....you can then turn on or off any individual notes you wish on the keyboard below.

That is a very nice design. I think we will try it. Thanks for the idea!

Pointer to an idea . Good design where it’s due..

auxmux

Thanks @Blue_Mangoo for the scale update. I had a ball with this and Moog Model D. Some sweet velocity playing of the filter.

I did notice a bug though in scale mode. When I select a scale, flats and sharps note names are not appearing on the keys. This happened with Aeolian, minor pentatonic etc. So like CFG show for C Minor but not others.

Blue_Mangoo

@nondes said:
Thanks @Blue_Mangoo for the scale update. I had a ball with this and Moog Model D. Some sweet velocity playing of the filter.

I did notice a bug though in scale mode. When I select a scale, flats and sharps note names are not appearing on the keys. This happened with Aeolian, minor pentatonic etc. So like CFG show for C Minor but not others.

We are not displaying flat and sharp note names on the keys because we haven’t figured how to make them look nice. I think they look better left empty than they would if we shrunk the font or squeezed a # sign in on the right of the note name. We figured that scale mode would be mostly used by people who don’t have the notes in the scales memorised and so they wouldn’t really care about the note names anyway.

If you have a better suggestion about how it should be displayed, I would like to hear it and consider it.

espiegel123

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@nondes said:
Thanks @Blue_Mangoo for the scale update. I had a ball with this and Moog Model D. Some sweet velocity playing of the filter.

I did notice a bug though in scale mode. When I select a scale, flats and sharps note names are not appearing on the keys. This happened with Aeolian, minor pentatonic etc. So like CFG show for C Minor but not others.

We are not displaying flat and sharp note names on the keys because we haven’t figured how to make them look nice. I think they look better left empty than they would if we shrunk the font or squeezed a # sign in on the right of the note name. We figured that scale mode would be mostly used by people who don’t have the notes in the scales memorised and so they wouldn’t really care about the note names anyway.

If you have a better suggestion about how it should be displayed, I would like to hear it and consider it.

Seems like a reasonable choice.

auxmux

@Blue_Mangoo Thanks for clarifying. The beauty of a scales mode is that it can serve as a learning tool for users that don't know scales by heart. It's how I learn new/exotic scales more easily. This knowledge can then be extended to a chromatic layout where they can know which "wrong" notes to play. I hope you'll consider displaying sharps/flats. I don't think it'll take away from the look of the app and can help users know how scales work and better their playing skills.

espiegel123

@Blue_Mangoo : when mapping touch radius to a cc, it looks like a 0 value is sent out when you first touch, even if you have set the touch radius output range to have a non-zero minimum. It would be best, in my opinion, if the CC value is never below the minimum set in the settings.

casual164

I love velocity keyboard. But I have noticed that it seems to be very battery hungry.
Half an hour of playing ifretlessguitar uses 9 % of my iPad Pro's (2017) battery life,
but 2.5 hours playing velocity keyboard uses 65 % battery life.
Extrapolated this is 45 % ifretlessguitar versus 65 % velocity keyboard.
I read it uses much less RAM. So shouldn't it use less power?

oddSTAR

Just a note that the latest update appears to have resolved the issue loading as an AUv3 in AUM on a 1st Gen 12.9" iPad Pro running iOS 11.4.x. Thanks a bunch!

On the topic of displaying sharp/flat, maybe an option to turn it on/off (default off) would be a good solution for those who really want to see it, even if it's somewhat less aesthetically pleasing.

Blue_Mangoo

@espiegel123 said:
@Blue_Mangoo : when mapping touch radius to a cc, it looks like a 0 value is sent out when you first touch, even if you have set the touch radius output range to have a non-zero minimum. It would be best, in my opinion, if the CC value is never below the minimum set in the settings.

Thank you for reporting this. We will fix it.

Blue_Mangoo

@casual164 said:
I love velocity keyboard. But I have noticed that it seems to be very battery hungry.
Half an hour of playing ifretlessguitar uses 9 % of my iPad Pro's (2017) battery life,
but 2.5 hours playing velocity keyboard uses 65 % battery life.
Extrapolated this is 45 % ifretlessguitar versus 65 % velocity keyboard.
I read it uses much less RAM. So shouldn't it use less power?

battery life is difficult to predict, so I would be surprised if an app that takes the battery indicator down 9% in a half hour actually consumes 5x9% in five half hours.

Also, Velocity keyboard controlling iFretless would take more power than iFretless alone simply because you are running two apps instead of one.

A good way to test the battery consumption would be to compare Velocity Keyboard with another MIDI controller app. For example, charge up to 100% and run velocity keyboard controlling iFretless Guitar for 30 minutes. Then charge back up to 100% and run Numerical Audio’s KB-1 controlling iFretless guitar for 30 minutes. If those numbers came out significantly different then Velocity Keyboard is probably consuming more power.

You asked if using less RAM means using less power. The short answer is, when used as a MIDI controller, velocity keyboard should use less than iFretless apps. For example if you are using Geoshred to make sound, then V.kB controlling Geoshred should use less power than IFretless controlling Geoshred does.

espiegel123

@Blue_Mangoo : pretty please add a drum pads mode!

Blue_Mangoo

@espiegel123 said:
@Blue_Mangoo : pretty please add a drum pads mode!

We are working on it.

espiegel123

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@espiegel123 said:
@Blue_Mangoo : pretty please add a drum pads mode!

We are working on it.

Awesome. This app is so nice.

thatguysmitty

Finally went to pull the trigger on this one...but, the App Store won’t allow me to download! When I try to purchase it just keeps spinning and then the price pops back up...😒

Blue_Mangoo

@thatguysmitty said:
Finally went to pull the trigger on this one...but, the App Store won’t allow me to download! When I try to purchase it just keeps spinning and then the price pops back up...😒

This happens on the App Store sometimes. It usually resolves itself after some time.

Things that sometimes help:
1. Power down and reboot your iPad
2. Reset your WiFi router
3. Wait a few hours in case there is a problem with Apple’s servers

thatguysmitty

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@thatguysmitty said:
Finally went to pull the trigger on this one...but, the App Store won’t allow me to download! When I try to purchase it just keeps spinning and then the price pops back up...😒

This happens on the App Store sometimes. It usually resolves itself after some time.

Things that sometimes help:
1. Power down and reboot your iPad
2. Reset your WiFi router
3. Wait a few hours in case there is a problem with Apple’s servers

Got it sorted! Can’t wait to give it a go! Thanks🙏🏾

ricksteruk

@Blue_Mangoo said:
@cuscolima @ricksteruk @nondes @oddSTAR @McD

Ok I think you have convinced us. We have started working on a scale mode where the out of scale notes will not be visible or playable.

Hi @Blue_Mangoo - I just wanted to thank you for adding the scale mode - and getting it out to us in less than 5 days.. absolutely amazing I'll show Velocity Keyboard and it's new scale goodness to my friend with cerebral palsy at tonight's rehearsal and encourage him to buy it.

busker

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@espiegel123 said:
@Blue_Mangoo : pretty please add a drum pads mode!

We are working on it.

Excellent! I’ll probably end up using this for everything once that is implemented.

casual164

Hello @Blue_Mangoo, thanks for your explanation.

I have one more question: I use velocity keyboard to control iLectric Piano. Slide to bend is off. Bend range is set to 0. Single channel polyphonic is selected. If I slide over several notes, I should hear the piano slide at a similar volume. Unfortunately, this only works very quietly. It gets louder when I pull both knobs of the velocity output range almost all the way to the right. But this makes the app no longer velocity sensitive. I have also tried the touch force sensivity and the velocity response curve.

Is there another way to achieve the desired effect?

ifretlessguitar and iLectric piano work fine by the way. Velocity sensitive with the desired piano glide effect.

Blue_Mangoo

@casual164 said:
Hello @Blue_Mangoo, thanks for your explanation.

I have one more question: I use velocity keyboard to control iLectric Piano. Slide to bend is off. Bend range is set to 0. Single channel polyphonic is selected. If I slide over several notes, I should hear the piano slide at a similar volume. Unfortunately, this only works very quietly. It gets louder when I pull both knobs of the velocity output range almost all the way to the right. But this makes the app no longer velocity sensitive. I have also tried the touch force sensivity and the velocity response curve.

Is there another way to achieve the desired effect?

ifretlessguitar and iLectric piano work fine by the way. Velocity sensitive with the desired piano glide effect.

Thank you for bringing this up. I think we can get it fixed soon.

Blue_Mangoo

@ricksteruk said:

@Blue_Mangoo said:
@cuscolima @ricksteruk @nondes @oddSTAR @McD

Ok I think you have convinced us. We have started working on a scale mode where the out of scale notes will not be visible or playable.

Hi @Blue_Mangoo - I just wanted to thank you for adding the scale mode - and getting it out to us in less than 5 days.. absolutely amazing I'll show Velocity Keyboard and it's new scale goodness to my friend with cerebral palsy at tonight's rehearsal and encourage him to buy it.

Thanks. I hope it works well for him.

Blue_Mangoo

@casual164 said:
Hello @Blue_Mangoo, thanks for your explanation.

I have one more question: I use velocity keyboard to control iLectric Piano. Slide to bend is off. Bend range is set to 0. Single channel polyphonic is selected. If I slide over several notes, I should hear the piano slide at a similar volume. Unfortunately, this only works very quietly. It gets louder when I pull both knobs of the velocity output range almost all the way to the right. But this makes the app no longer velocity sensitive. I have also tried the touch force sensivity and the velocity response curve.

Is there another way to achieve the desired effect?

ifretlessguitar and iLectric piano work fine by the way. Velocity sensitive with the desired piano glide effect.

The lead developer suggested to me yesterday that we could improve the efficiency of the app by not animating the background. We will try that to see if it helps.

espiegel123

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@casual164 said:
Hello @Blue_Mangoo, thanks for your explanation.

I have one more question: I use velocity keyboard to control iLectric Piano. Slide to bend is off. Bend range is set to 0. Single channel polyphonic is selected. If I slide over several notes, I should hear the piano slide at a similar volume. Unfortunately, this only works very quietly. It gets louder when I pull both knobs of the velocity output range almost all the way to the right. But this makes the app no longer velocity sensitive. I have also tried the touch force sensivity and the velocity response curve.

Is there another way to achieve the desired effect?

ifretlessguitar and iLectric piano work fine by the way. Velocity sensitive with the desired piano glide effect.

The lead developer suggested to me yesterday that we could improve the efficiency of the app by not animating the background. We will try that to see if it helps.

It would be great if animation were an option. I am doing some screencasts and the animation is helpful for that but otherwise not necessary.

Blue_Mangoo

@espiegel123 said:

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@casual164 said:
Hello @Blue_Mangoo, thanks for your explanation.

I have one more question: I use velocity keyboard to control iLectric Piano. Slide to bend is off. Bend range is set to 0. Single channel polyphonic is selected. If I slide over several notes, I should hear the piano slide at a similar volume. Unfortunately, this only works very quietly. It gets louder when I pull both knobs of the velocity output range almost all the way to the right. But this makes the app no longer velocity sensitive. I have also tried the touch force sensivity and the velocity response curve.

Is there another way to achieve the desired effect?

ifretlessguitar and iLectric piano work fine by the way. Velocity sensitive with the desired piano glide effect.

The lead developer suggested to me yesterday that we could improve the efficiency of the app by not animating the background. We will try that to see if it helps.

It would be great if animation were an option. I am doing some screencasts and the animation is helpful for that but otherwise not necessary.

To clarify: we are planning on disabling the background animation; not the animation of the keys and controls.

Edit: I checked the "Energy Report" for this app using Apple's app testing tools. On an iPad from 2017 the energy impact of the current version is already at the lowest level:

However, the lead developer tells me that on his second generation iPad Mini, it is less efficient than this. We suspect that the older iPad may lack some 2D graphics acceleration hardware that is present in the newer devices.

At any rate, I think we will leave the design as it is, since it seems to be performing efficiently on most devices currently in use.

SashaPonkratov

small bug
when i change number of rows, number of columns changes as well.
for example, set columns to 13, then set rows to 6.

Blue_Mangoo

@SashaPonkratov said:
small bug
when i change number of rows, number of columns changes as well.
for example, set columns to 13, then set rows to 6.

When you change the number of rows, the number of columns updates automatically to optimally fill the screen with keys. If you want another number of columns, just set the columns manually after setting rows.

SashaPonkratov

why does it updates automatically?
when I change number of strings in GeoShred, it preserves number of frets.

but not a big issue )

Blue_Mangoo

@SashaPonkratov said:
why does it updates automatically?
when I change number of strings in GeoShred, it preserves number of frets.

but not a big issue )

Unlike GeoShred, Velocity Keyboard always makes the keys square shaped. Because they are square, once the app knows how many rows you want, it can compute the optimal number of columns in order to use the space efficiently. We set it automatically because in most cases, the automatic setting is the one you want because it is the only one that doesn't leave blank spaces at the top and bottom or on the left and right sides. For the times when you want some other number of columns, you have to set it manually.

espiegel123

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@SashaPonkratov said:
why does it updates automatically?
when I change number of strings in GeoShred, it preserves number of frets.

but not a big issue )

Unlike GeoShred, Velocity Keyboard always makes the keys square shaped. Because they are square, once the app knows how many rows you want, it can compute the optimal number of columns in order to use the space efficiently. We set it automatically because in most cases, the automatic setting is the one you want because it is the only one that doesn't leave blank spaces at the top and bottom or on the left and right sides. For the times when you want some other number of columns, you have to set it manually.

I find the way it works quite handy.

Any chance that Velocity could be made compatible with ancient iOS versions so that an iPad 2 could be used?

I would even pay for a separate version. Velocity works better than my midi keyboard and would love to convert my iPad 2 to be a dedicated keyboard.

Blue_Mangoo

@espiegel123 said:

@Blue_Mangoo said:

@SashaPonkratov said:
why does it updates automatically?
when I change number of strings in GeoShred, it preserves number of frets.

but not a big issue )

Unlike GeoShred, Velocity Keyboard always makes the keys square shaped. Because they are square, once the app knows how many rows you want, it can compute the optimal number of columns in order to use the space efficiently. We set it automatically because in most cases, the automatic setting is the one you want because it is the only one that doesn't leave blank spaces at the top and bottom or on the left and right sides. For the times when you want some other number of columns, you have to set it manually.

I find the way it works quite handy.

Any chance that Velocity could be made compatible with ancient iOS versions so that an iPad 2 could be used?

I would even pay for a separate version. Velocity works better than my midi keyboard and would love to convert my iPad 2 to be a dedicated keyboard.

Sorry, no. Supporting old versions of iOS is expensive because we would need to buy an iPad and an iPhone for each version of iOS we want to support so that we could do testing on them. I'm glad to hear you like the app so much though