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Author Topic: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store  (Read 14452 times)

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Chris Ryall

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #20 on: March 16, 2013, 10:50:04 AM »

Clive, you mentioned you built the app using a cross-platform framework, I'm very curious what it was!  In my case, all of my apps are 100% native iOS code and I wrote my own OpenAL-based streaming engine for the sound management.  At work, for my "real" job, I'm looking at how to use HTML5/Javascript/CSS3 to build apps and deploy them across many different platforms using the same code base, but it didn't seem like a very good way to deliver a realtime instrument emulation app. Your app seems very responsive, so I'm curious!

Apple apps are pretty prescriptive in coding and I didn't go that way when I started coding Melodeon Explorer. (Not having an Apple was another consideration)! Like you I explored the HTML5/JS/CSS3 path.

ME is more about finding scales and chords than simulating play, and "sound" was frankly  an afterthought. Even driven directly from code  (bypassing keyboard controls etc) it is difficult to time and it seems that one is completely at the mercy of the user's browser's  implementation of the HTML5 <audio> tag, and in particular whether it takes your hint to pre-load sound samples.  I've had a month or so off from work on it, but think the robust solution may have to be playing all 60 samples as a fast glissando (at low volume) at load time! We used to do that with images in the old dial up days ;)

It's not a big problem to me, I only seek to demo scales and chords and assuming the browser only loads its idiosyncratic choice of .ogg or .mp3 samples, that's a mere 1.5MB. Clive confides above that his app needs the entire sample space, I'm guessing 50MB or so? Clearly "worth the effort"  ;D and it only need to be done once. What I'm saying is that smooth controllable music "on any platform" seems pretty awkward in the present state of HTML5. If you've a trick or two to sort that, I'm all ears.

BTW I've both apps on my new tablet and complement both developers. It's also great to see you guys cooperating. seisiuneer We haven't seen GBH here recently, but on his Facebook, he's used your English Concertina  app as his introduction to the instrument and is thinking of buying one! Given the 1000x or so price ratio between simulations and the real thing, I suspect we'll see more of this?
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sue higham

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #21 on: March 16, 2013, 12:32:00 PM »

Now - I can see some benefits of this one.  We can't just walk into a shop and find such a delectable array of tunings from which to take our pick, so it will really help with decision making .... and then be something to use during the intolerable gestation period, so that when our new baby arrives we're ready for that positive, enriching, two-way dialogue!   :D :||: :D


Apologies for my over-active imagination though - I'm just picturing all those melodeonistas out there who are miserably in debt, mortgaging themselves up to the hilt to feed their obsession and garner a collection of instruments in every possible tuning, and ready to jump off a cliff when they discover that all they'd needed to do was save up for an i-pad and an app! :'( :'( :'(    >:E  ;)
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #22 on: March 16, 2013, 12:46:30 PM »

Yup - finance of my Gaillard purchase was intimately linked to my moving from a 6 bedroom stone pile into a little upstairs flat  ;)

The 'how to play bass' and 'how to do bellows' at the same time is a conundrum, I admit. I think the pull by default mechanism that you use in your Hohner apps (of which I have several by the way) is the easiest to play, but playing bass-chord while doing bellows needs practice - I can do it, but it's a bit of a brain twister! It's a lot easier (I find anyway) using one of the unisonoric layouts and holding the chord down. I did consider a tilt mechanism for bellows like you use in your concertina app; that would be a neat solution, but unfortunately, I just can't get my head around it as a playing mechanism! Presumably you've got lots of concertina users who can get their head around this? Is it just me?  :o

Hope Clive may  forgive me for airing this here - his post seems to invite debate.  The one thing I didn't take to in the beta was the "bellows" issue. Simulating left arm control via a "tablet" is indeed a challenge, and I respect his choice of that touch sensitive strip down the left side.

I do however personally find that awkard, I'm afraid. AFAIR much of Clive's 'real' kit is monosonoric, and perhaps better suited to that method of control? But much of mine is 12 or 18 bass and my left fingers can be busy enough without trying to find one to trigger the bellows strip!

Importantly that also makes left hand technique different between 'real' and simulation  :-\  So I'm up for something that picks up on tilt (if that is feasible). It might even become a configurable option?  What do others think?
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summerstars

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #23 on: March 16, 2013, 12:48:55 PM »

Clive,

I have had your app a couple of days now and really enjoying playing with it; however I am finding the bellows bar very difficult to use successfully, particularly at speed.  You mentioned earlier the possibility of using tilt as a mechanism to control bellows  -  I would be very interested in trying that out, particularly as I would prefer to be holding the ipad in my hands whilst playing, thus requiring the thumbs behind the device for stability - plus the tilt function may be a closer simulation to the real movement of the bellows - an option to switch between tilt or bellows bar would be even better.

(hope you don't mind "wish list" type suggestions)

Malcolm

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Pete Dunk

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #24 on: March 16, 2013, 02:27:59 PM »

So whose going to create an iPad case with shoulder straps?  8)
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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #25 on: March 16, 2013, 02:32:38 PM »

Is there a B/C or C#/D option? I just downloaded it and don't see those. I really got it to play with th quad tunings and 3 row, but I like the sound!
Dan
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Clive Williams

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #26 on: March 16, 2013, 02:38:31 PM »


Hope Clive may  forgive me for airing this here - his post seems to invite debate.  The one thing I didn't take to in the beta was the "bellows" issue. Simulating left arm control via a "tablet" is indeed a challenge, and I respect his choice of that touch sensitive strip down the left side.

I do however personally find that awkard, I'm afraid. AFAIR much of Clive's 'real' kit is monosonoric, and perhaps better suited to that method of control? But much of mine is 12 or 18 bass and my left fingers can be busy enough without trying to find one to trigger the bellows strip!

Importantly that also makes left hand technique different between 'real' and simulation  :-\  So I'm up for something that picks up on tilt (if that is feasible). It might even become a configurable option?  What do others think?

Hi all, yes, it's great to discuss this here - please don't consider it thread hijack, I very much encourage it! If you think you would like to try tilt, please try one of Michael's anglo concertina apps which already has it built in (just play on one row if you don't play anglo); I'd be very interested in knowing if you think the tilt mechanism works well for melodeon playing.

I find I can get up to quite a speed using pull by default playing treble only; a bit slower doing held chords; vamped chords are slower and need more work learning, even for me. I can't get anywhere (yet) on the tilt mechanism in the concertina apps, but that may simply be because I'm now used to pull by default - I'll give it another try, but even if I can't get my head around it, if it works for everyone would be happy to implement it.

Cheers,

Clive

Clive Williams

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #27 on: March 16, 2013, 02:41:18 PM »

Is there a B/C or C#/D option? I just downloaded it and don't see those. I really got it to play with th quad tunings and 3 row, but I like the sound!
Dan

There will be soon, but I may implement it in a separate app - purely because an app called Irish Accordion, or something similar is going to be easier for Irish players to find than Melodeon. If I do, I get a limited number of free codes I can give away for the new app to those who have the current one, so don't be worried about that.

Cheers,

Clive

Clive Williams

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #28 on: March 16, 2013, 02:42:58 PM »

Clive,

I have had your app a couple of days now and really enjoying playing with it; however I am finding the bellows bar very difficult to use successfully, particularly at speed.  You mentioned earlier the possibility of using tilt as a mechanism to control bellows  -  I would be very interested in trying that out, particularly as I would prefer to be holding the ipad in my hands whilst playing, thus requiring the thumbs behind the device for stability - plus the tilt function may be a closer simulation to the real movement of the bellows - an option to switch between tilt or bellows bar would be even better.

(hope you don't mind "wish list" type suggestions)

Malcolm

Of course; all wish list suggestions are very welcome. See earlier post for discussion on tilt; summary  - please try one of Michael's concertina apps and tell me if the mechanism works well for you; happy to implement it if it does work!

Michael Eskin

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #29 on: March 16, 2013, 03:17:13 PM »

I tried a lot of control mechanisms for the melodeon apps before settling on the simple touch bellows. Tilting works very well for my Anglo concertinas, but I think you'll find that it won't work well for the melodeons, but hey, give it a shot!

I don't have a B/C/C# version of any of my apps.
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Curamach

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #30 on: March 16, 2013, 09:41:16 PM »

I have Mike Eskin's app for D melodeon and C#/D, and they are great. I was just wondering. I have already got my money's worth out of all of these.

Dan
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pikey

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #31 on: March 16, 2013, 11:35:25 PM »

Bring back Cobol........   >:E

Real programmers dont eat quiche...... E. Dykstra
« Last Edit: March 16, 2013, 11:37:49 PM by pikey »
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #33 on: March 17, 2013, 06:25:42 PM »

That's COBOL, but never mind. One friend of mine spent her entire IT career programming the "millennium bug" in it. I offered that she might have been better employed coding event driven algorithms for tablet computer melodeon simulation , but somehow she didn't get the joke  :|glug
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Michael Eskin

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #34 on: March 17, 2013, 10:41:20 PM »

My first programming work was all in Fortran...
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #35 on: March 17, 2013, 10:49:46 PM »

Ditto. And at Uni .. we had something called "B"  ;)

[edit] Got a Beeb about 7 years later  - such fun  ;D - it's sound was so awful  :-\ - but yes, we digress. Time for bed m'thinks before it gets silly
« Last Edit: March 17, 2013, 10:56:04 PM by Chris Ryall »
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #36 on: March 17, 2013, 10:52:54 PM »

Ditto. And at Uni .. we had something called "B"  ;)

I seem to recall BBC basic and MS dos
Thread drift ,sorry.
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Clive Williams

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #37 on: March 18, 2013, 12:03:08 AM »

Ah, how I miss that ol' thread drift thread!  :P

Slightly back on track; playing with Michael's excellent concertina app, I think I might reserve the right to change my mind on the ol' tilt mechanism - it's hard to tell exactly because the orientation of the rows on the concertina is different to how it would be on a melodeon, and of course being a melodeon player and *not* a concertina player, craziness happens once I go past the first 5 buttons, but, yes... I think it might be worth a shot! I'll stick it on my long to do list... right behind the work project I *must* deliver in the next 2 weeks, and the new Vivant CD artwork, and the Android port of the app (the whole reason for doing this is supposed to be learning about programming iOS and Android) and ... and...

(I wouldn't hold your breath on that Android port by the way... much as I should do it, I've got more exciting things I'd rather work on!)

Cheers,

Clive

PS: I also considered, just for a crazy minute, breath control! Can you imagine? Anyone who finds their breathing syncs with moving the bellows when playing a real melodeon would be at a distinct advantage!  ;D

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #38 on: March 19, 2013, 01:09:31 PM »

Ditto. And at Uni .. we had something called "B"  ;)


'B' grew up and became 'C'  (True, one of my old lecturers was involved in it).

Maybe we should start a thread for the return of the 'GOTO' ?   (qv the famous letter , "GOTO statement considered harmful').

I remember when someone asked me 'So if you're a software engineer - do you make cuddly toys?' . She was serious...... ;)
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Announce: My Melodeon App for iPad/iPhone is now live on the App Store
« Reply #39 on: March 19, 2013, 02:38:11 PM »

I've inveigled a reference about a 'goat' .. to the parallel thread on dippy eggs and what to do with one's toast soldiers. Will that do?  ;D

[edit] Hmmm, goto's are complicated.  Link now fixed!
« Last Edit: March 19, 2013, 02:41:59 PM by Chris Ryall »
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