What we need in 2022 from Music App Devs | 2022

gusgranite

@NeuM said:

@Identor said:

@ion677 said:
We don’t need more synths, or drum machines, or reverbs, or effects. We need better DAWs with better work flows. Better and cleaner interfaces. The ONLY app that has this nailed down is AUM. But alas it’s only a mixer. BM3 is close.
We need . . . AUMdaw.

+1

All the DAW's I mangled with, are too colourful, cumbersome, too many information crammed in a screen, or too less, non scalable, too tiny fonts, etc etc.
I want a clear, understandable DAW. I like the layout of Ableton (not the page switch between clips and timeline), I like the colour coding of Bitwig (dark screen, orange markers, visible modulation in light blue).
The idea of AUM extended with a timeline, appeals me, especially with automation lanes.
It seems that most developers want to reinvent the wheel according to a DAW. Just take a look at desktop DAW's and take the workflow that most accessible (the least amount of clicks to do a task and integration of file management and access to plugins and effects).
The DAW that comes closest to a desktop DAW is still Cubasis to me, but i don't like the workflow.
The touchscreen usage of an iPad is a relief and a burden. I want an ideal integration between multitouch and mouse usage. I still prefer a mouse pointer above vinger/pen clicking.

Have you tried GarageBand?

I think GarageBand’s limitations have been well documented.

NeonSilicon

@gusgranite said:
[...]

I think GarageBand’s limitations have been well documented.

GB does have some weird limitations and workflow issues, but in the context of this thread, it does also have multiple high priority threads running. Not enough to take full advantage of the M1, because it does still have to run on A10 or whatever too.

One thing to note is that on iOS (or macOS) there isn't really a difference between multi-core and multi-thread. You don't get to tell the os where to run the thread. You don't get to set a thread affinity. The OS handles this. With the new libraries from the Apple audio group, you do get to tell the OS that certain threads are related and how they need to perform together (completion time wise). But, where the OS decides to run these is completely out of your control (and in my opinion, that's the way it should be on these devices).

As a developer, the only reason I started to write plugins for iOS is the touch interface. Exploring how the touch interface can be applied to music creation is the only point of doing anything for i(Pad)OS for me. If I want a desktop DAW, I'll use a desktop computer.

Getting back to multithreaded audio apps, yes, being able to throw more power via threads (cores) would be really nice. But, it does come with complications. If you look at the way Logic or MainStage runs their threads, you can see that they take advantage of the way the bussing structure works. This lets them do things like absorb extra latency needed to do the multithreading into the delay time of reverbs and such. In something like AUM, that is very freeform in its structure and layout, this would be really hard to achieve. It would have to be able to do things like let the user mark which mixer sections were independent or do some post analysis of the configuration to figure out what was possible threading wise. It would need to do this every time you added a buss or interaction between busses.

What I want from music apps in 2022? I just want DAWs that use tracks as mono when I want to use mono. That would save a ton of processing that isn't needed. I run most everything as mono up until the point where I want a stereo effect or set the pan position in the mix.