IK Multimedia's iRing Motion Control

It's been a little while since I last posted an update here, but rest assured we have been very busy here and I'm pleased to announce that the next version of Symphonix Evolution is almost complete.  We hope to be releasing it very soon, most likely before the end of July 2014.

Symphonix Evolution v2.5 is a major update that adds a number of new features including inbuilt support for the iRing motion control system from I.K. Multimedia!

For those who are unfamiliar with the iRing, it uses the iPad's camera sensor to detect the position of two ring-shaped controllers in real time.

The position of each controller is determined in 3D space allowing X (horizontal left-right), Y (vertical up-down) and Z (depth) coordinates to be used by the app.  Symphonix Evolution can map each of these parameters individually to a MIDI custom controller or pitch bend, creating six possible controller inputs.  As far as the app is concerned this input is treated exactly like the input from any other MIDI device, allowing rich expression to be added to song compositions.  The app reads the iRing at least 25 times a second so latency is approximately 40-50 milliseconds.

Symphonix Evolution also sends the input from the iRing to any connected MIDI devices, allowing the app to control other apps in the same way.

We're really excited about the flexibility this adds to Symphonix Evolution and we look forward to revealing more information about the upcoming version 2.5 over the coming weeks!

Add a Sustain pedal to Symphonix Evolution with iRig BlueBoard

Recently IK Multimedia introduced the iRig BlueBoard, which provides four programmable buttons and two external controllers.

The BlueBoard is an excellent way to add a sustain or expression pedal to Symphonix Evolution.  It's a wireless solution and is battery-powered for maximum portability.  When combined with a USB keyboard controller via a suitable MIDI adapter, you can quickly create a piano or keyboard setup for live gigs that uses Symphonix Evolution as the sound engine.  Guitar players and vocalists will also find the BlueBoard useful as a way to quickly switch through a playlist of backing tracks.

The iRig BlueBoard allows a Sustain pedal to be connected

  

Setting up a sustain pedal is very easy:  Simply start the BlueBoard’s own control app, connect the pedal to one of the ports on the side of the BlueBoard itself and then tell the iRig BlueBoard to use MIDI controller #64.  Symphonix Evolution will immediately “see” it as a sustain controller.

The four buttons marked "A", "B", "C", and "D" on the BlueBoard can be used in either a program change or MIDI controller mode.   When in Program Change mode, pressing a button will send a MIDI "program change" message, and Controller mode treats each button as a control "toggle" where the button is either on or off (the buttons stay lit when they are "on").

 Symphonix Evolution can use either mode, but the BlueBoard’s controller mode only sends “toggle” type messages so it is of limited use in our app when controlling functions because you have to press a button twice to toggle between "on" and "off".  However, Program Change mode is much more useful; by using the External Command function in Symphonix Evolution it’s possible to map the program change messages to different functions, and this works much better.  For example, I was able to map the buttons to “Next Track in Playlist”, “Previous Track in Playlist”, “Play” and “Stop” by setting these up on the BlueBoard as program changes 124, 125, 126 and 127 (I chose these preset numbers because I don't use them often on my other MIDI gear, which limits the potential for conflict).

If you are currently using a keyboard controller that doesn’t allow you to connect an external sustain or expression pedal, or if you just want a set of foot switches for triggering the different functions in Symphonix Evolution, then the iRig BlueBoard is highly recommended.

Symphonix Evolution version 2.1.1 is coming soon

We've been working on Symphonix Evolution version 2.1.1  This update will focus mainly on stability rather than adding too many new features but there will still be some surprises.

Most importantly, we're pleased to announce that version 2.1.1 fully supports the 64-bit ARM architecture so that it can take full advantage of the processor improvements in the iPad Air.  This required a complete rewrite of the virtual synth engine, which also gave us the opportunity to add some architectural improvements that will become apparent over the next few months as we make further enhancements to the app.

The update will be available early in February 2014.

Symphonix Evolution and the iPad Air

We've now had a chance to play with the new iPad Air and were very impressed with the new form factor and processing power.  Symphonix Evolution runs better than we've ever seen it before!

For those who are lucky enough to have an iPad Air, you will find that it is now possible to set the Virtual Synth in Symphonix Evolution as follows:

• Polyphony to 256 voices
• Reverb ON
• Chorus ON
• Full Instrument Mode ON

As a result of the increased polyphony the app's internal synth was able to handle any MIDI files we could throw at it including some rather intense orchestral pieces, without dropping any notes or stuttering (normally when the polyphony increases, the load on the CPU causes digital noise in the output due to the synth not keeping up with the sample rate).  This is the first time that we've been able to do this on the iPad.

Astonishingly, the average CPU load during our tests was about 30%.  This is truly an excellent result: Symphonix Evolution can now work as the keyboard or sound source for other apps without impacting performance.  The iPad is now approaching laptop performance levels.

(For those interested in a comparison, on the iPad 4 we were able to get the polyphony to 128 voices but still had to disable Reverb and Chorus effects for some songs).

The main limitation now is RAM where the iPad Air still only has 1GB of memory to work in.  This is the main thing stopping us from adding higher quality instrument samples, although we are working on some new functionality soon in this area.  It is going to be very interesting to see what happens in the next iPad generation!

Symphonix Evolution 2.1 for iOS 7

We're pleased to announce that version 2.1 of Symphonix Evolution is about to be released!  This update supports iOS 7 and the user interface has been changed to a "flat" look, while preserving the familiar layout of previous releases.  We think you'll find that the new interface is much cleaner and more modern-looking:

The old look is also retained when running under earlier versions of iOS, so if you haven't yet upgraded you won't see too many differences to the screen design.

Other changes in this release are:

• Added a new setting so that the Drum Percussion MIDI channel can be changed or completely disabled
• Added a new setting so that the mixer volume controls can be locked during playback so that a song cannot change the volume using MIDI messages.
• The Piano Roll now scrolls when a song is playing
• New Tempo Track function allows the user to select which track to use for tempo change events
• Tempo Changes can now be edited in the Piano Roll screen using the Controller lane
• It is now possible to connect two or more instances of Symphonix Evolution running on different iPads using the remote connection function

There are also some bug fixes:

• Resolved an issue with Audiobus initialization on iOS 7
• Fixed crash when saving a file that was last loaded using Dropbox
• Fixed incorrect note values when selecting chord inversions
• The Undo function was not working for ties and slurs
• General stability enhancements

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR EXISTING USERS:
In order to resolve an iOS 7 bug that affected Audiobus integration we needed to change the app's internal product name.  This means that you may have to delete the old version from your device and then reinstall it manually using the "Purchases" tab in the AppStore app.   DELETING THE APP WILL ALSO DELETE YOUR FILES so it is important to back them up before you update.  (We understand this is inconvenient - we made this change because our only other option would have been to require you to purchase a new app).

To back up your existing files you can use the iTunes "file sharing" method to copy them to your computer as explained in the Symphonix Evolution user manual, or you can use a tool such as the excellent iExplorer application from Macroplant.  Alternatively, saving the files to a Dropbox account will prevent them from being lost.

About Symphonix Evolution on iOS 7

We're aware of a number of issues with Symphonix Evolution on iOS 7.  In particular, users will see a message on startup about Audiobus initialization failing due to Apple's tighter sandbox rules and improved OS security (it's taken us a little while to find a solution that works reliably).  The good news is that these problems have now been resolved by our development team and we'll be submitting the update to Apple for review in the next day or two.

In the meantime if you've not updated to iOS 7 yet and are using Symphonix Evolution, you might want to wait until our Version 2.1 is released.

I'll update this blog soon with more information about our new version!

Symphonix Evolution news

I can't talk too much about it yet, but we're really excited about the work we're doing for iOS 7.  A major refresh of the user interface is coming soon!

iOS 7 raises a number of challenges because so many things have changed, and one of the more interesting aspects is the need to make the app look great on iOS6 while simultaneously embracing the new look.  We believe we've accomplished this by allowing the app able to dynamically change its graphical elements depending on which operating system version it is running on.  This means that you won't have to worry about having to purchase a separate "iOS 7" version of the app - we're absolutely committed to supporting our existing users as much as we can!

Unfortunately there are some changes that we can't avoid, and one of these is that the minimum iOS version required to run Symphonix Evolution will soon be iOS 6.0.  This means that the next major update will no longer support the iPad 1.  We'll be releasing one more minor update to the current version so that our iPad 1 users get the benefit of the latest bug fixes.

But now is a good time to tell you about some of the things we've got planned for the next few versions so I'm delighted to present the product roadmap.  These enhancements won't all happen at once but you will see them over the coming months:

• Major UI refresh for iOS 7
• More guitar functions including support for bass, capo, strum patterns and user-defined chords.  We're also looking at a way to zoom the fretboard.
• Digital audio enhancements such as the ability to bounce down MIDI tracks to audio and apply filter/processing effects
• Improved interoperability with other apps
• Improved track editing functions and notation entry
• Piano Roll improvements
• New sheet music editing and viewing modes
• Improved support for custom instrument presets

Symphonix Evolution continues to grow thanks to the great user support and feedback that we receive.  Keep the great emails and suggestions coming!