‘Unanimoog’ Featured by Moog Music, and other Animoog news

2015/05/19Animoog App, Animoog Users Map, MoogSatriSatri

Some recent Animoog news of interest

‘Unanimoog’ Featured by Moog

I am delighted that Moog Music featured my Animoog solos album on their front page and dedicated a page on their site to the album. As far as I’m aware, it’s the first time Moog put such a spotlight on Animoog creations.

Thank you Moog! :-) — Satri

If you haven’t got the ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music’ album of Animoog solos yet, get it now, it’s free.

Animoog Players Map Improvements

We recently announced the ‘Animoog Players Map’ experiment. It’s nice to see that a few fellow Animoog players already added themselves to the map. The improvements done since initial launch:

There are now several screenshots in the instructions to make it easier for everybody to add themselves to the map
There’s are now symbols and colors on the map markers

Want to see the improved instructions and maybe add yourself to it? Here it is!

Animoog version 2.2.4 is coming

With Moog’s renewed focus on Animoog development, they selected a few beta testers to help improve the app we love. I’m one of those lucky Animoog beta testers. And the excellent news is that version 2.2.4 has been submitted to the App Store and should be available to all any day now. Moog developer Geert Bevin publicly shared on Facebook the following list of changes and fixes:

Stable support for iOS 8
Stable support for 64-bit devices
Revised timbres panel with categories (touch-hold timbre in category for preview)
Fixes for timbres showing up with domain name prefixes
Audiobus input slot compatibility fixes
Virtual Animoog MIDI ports are now always available even if no port is explicitly selected
Improved IAA instrument compatibility (IAA transport panel will be done for a future release)
Use with any buffer size from 128 to 4096 (256 being the intended size for all supported devices)
Fixes for restore purchase functionality
Improved in-app store layout and interaction
iTunes File Sharing access to timbres, presets and projects
Removed import/export preset from setup panel since iTunes File Sharing should cover all needs
Added timbre category list under ‘random preset’ to enable/disable categories to randomize timbres from
4-track recorder fixes for loading clips, pasting clips and AudioPaste
4-track project fixes for save/load/delete/share
4-track now remains unlocked when not connected to network
Pitch bend range is now always saved with presets and correctly loads from presets when this option is active
Pitch and mod strips now light up with incoming MIDI
Hold button now more clearly show when it’s active
Manual MIDI CC input now ensures only numbers can be entered
Keyboard scale selection now doesn’t misbehave after selecting the whole tone scale
Preset panel is laid out more consistently
Resuming after interruptions from Siri now reactivates audio
Proper handling of large amounts of MIDI expression data, coming from alternative controllers
Updated built-in manual

While you now know in advance most of the wonderful surprises the next Animoog version will bring, expect me to post a new entry when it will actually become available for download.

Still reading?

Next major step for Animoog.org is to provide an updated Expansion packs table, which I hope to complete before mid-June. Afterwards, I have a little surprise for Animoog players, but since I’ll be away from computers most of the Summer, I expect to launch this new Animoog.org component during Fall 2015. Cheers — Alex / Satri

Announcing the Animoog Users Map!

2015/05/07Animoog Users MapSatri

This is an experiment. We’ll see if this attempt can bring value and if you, other Animoog enthusiasts, are interested to participate.

What I propose here is a simple collaborative Animoog Users Map. You can add yourself to the map in 5 minutes and then you discover people nearby who share your interest in Animoog. The use cases I can foresee:

Find Animoog users and fans near you and meet to share tips and tricks, and maybe even jam together?
Find Moog-related stores around you
Maps are fun!

Here’s the page where the map is found, and here’s the map data and instructions to add yourself to the map. As usual, please don’t hesitate to share ideas and opinions in the comments. Cheers — Alex / Satri

Satri’s Animoog solo ‘And back to space’ video

2015/04/13PlayingiTunes visualizer, Satri, videoSatri

Please allow this entry focusing on what I do on Animoog

Satri’s And back to space video

I’m happy to present to you my second video for the ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music [Unmastered]’ album. It’s for the 45th track named ‘And back to space’ which is a solo improvised with the Animoog app. Playing a single Animoog preset in solo is just like playing a raw violin solo: a single instrument played live without loops, sequencing or external effects. Because of the expansive frequency content and harmonic complexity of Moog’s Animoog iPad app, along with the heavy presence of stereo ping-pong in the preset, please wear high end headphones to fully enjoy the track. All of this work is licensed as Creative Commons CC-BY.

Liked the track? My latest album contains 47 such Animoog solos, leveraging numerous different presets. Learn more about it here and listen to it.

The whole video is made from a single run of the iTunes visualizer. Anyone with a Mac or Windows computer and the free iTunes software can make similar videos live, that’s several hundred millions people! The entry for my first and similar video for the ‘Curious explorer’ track details the iTunes visualizer shortcuts, even the hidden ones, and tells you how to make the best out of it. I’m also working on a longer article which would provide even more details.

Enjoy! Alex / Satri

Animoog Improvements Wish List Updated

2015/04/11Animoog App, Wish listSatri

I took the time to make a significant update to our Animoog improvements wish list. It incorporates the community feedback we got so far (thanks for your contributions! :-)), I added a few of my own and removed wishes that have actually been fulfilled by Moog in the latest versions (proving that what we wish for is actually making sense! ;-).

I’m sorry I’m not providing a log of what changed with this new version of the wish list, most sections have actually been augmented or enhanced, so you might as well read it all.

The timing might actually be an excellent one since we got recent news that Moog is spending efforts on Animoog development. As always, everyone is welcomed to share comments, insights and opinions regarding what could be done to improve this app we love.

iOS 8.3 Warning: Transferring Presets and Timbres

2015/04/09Animoog App, Expansion PacksSatri

Thanks to user SZak on the Moog forum, we learned that iOS 8.3, released this week, makes it more difficult to transfer presets and timbres to Animoog.

For the official expansion packs sold within Animoog, restoring purchases works fine. However, for third-party presets and timbres, such as the ones we list on this page, using iTunes for such transfers is cumbersome at best. Solutions included using software such as the our wish list for Animoog.

SZak also reminds us that, strangely, Animoog currently stores presets and timbres in a ‘caches’ folder, which is not backed up during normal iPad backup procedures and now with iOS 8.3, is not as easily accessible as it was.

I’m happy we got recent news from Moog on Animoog development efforts, we can hope such annoying issues will eventually be fixed.

UPDATE 2015-04-24: Good news, according to Tidbits: “iFunBox and iExplorer have been updated to sidestep the new security settings, but with the limitation that they work only with apps that use iTunes File Sharing.” which the case of Animoog. I haven’t tested the new version, but those third-party solutions should work now. UPDATE 2014-04-26: Ah zut, those solutions now work again for presets, but not timbres or anything else such as recorded tracks. I’m back to hoping Animoog will support iCloud Drive or anything similar for moving such files around.

Animoog Development News from Moog

2015/03/30Animoog App, MoogupdateSatri

Some news from Moog Music regarding our dear Animoog app.

The last update we got was version 2.2.3 in October 2014. In February I shared some good news from Moog about beta testing a new version which is 64bits and fixes issues with Audiobus, those news were shared from Animoog.org’s Twitter account.

Today we got some fresh news over the ‘iPad Musician’ Facebook group, thanks to Brian Brylow. Here’s most of what’s exciting: “[… ]provided to me by one of the executives at Moog. […] Here is the text that they are comfortable publicly sharing:”

“Moog has recently expanded their software team and are actively engaged in supporting and updating both the Filtatron and Animoog applications to address known bugs and to implement product improvements and new features. We will also be implementing a more streamlined way for users to give feedback and bug issues in the near future that will enable us to support the community much more effectively. All of us at Moog really appreciate your patience and continued support of these products.

You should be seeing a number of updates in the near future for both products.”

You can expect we’ll publish news on Animoog.org as soon as new Animoog versions become available. The wait should be over soon and according to Moog, we’ll have new means to provide feedback regarding its development. Great news overall! — Alex / Satri

‘Curious explorer’ Animoog solo video with iTunes visualizer

2015/03/09PlayingiTunes visualizer, Satri, videoSatri

This entry is about what might well be the very first Animoog app solo video. The video itself is made with iTunes’s built-in visualizer

Satri’s Curious explorer video

I’m happy to present to you my first video for my ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music [Unmastered]’ album. It’s for its fifth track named ‘Curious explorer’ which is a solo improvised on the Animoog app with the ‘Daemian 1 – Phatty Saw’ preset. Playing a single Animoog preset in solo is just like playing a raw violin solo: a single instrument played live without loops, sequencing or external effects. Because of the expansive frequency content and harmonic complexity of Moog’s Animoog iPad app, along with the heavy presence of stereo ping-pong in the Phatty Saw preset, please wear high end headphones to fully enjoy the track. All of this work is licensed as Creative Commons CC-BY.

Liked the track? My latest album contains 47 such Animoog solos, leveraging numerous different presets. Learn more about it here and listen to it.

The whole video is made from a single run of the iTunes visualizer. Anyone with a Mac or Windows computer and the free iTunes software can make similar videos live, that’s several hundred millions people! I recorded the video with Quicktime, which can record a screencast. I however had to change the screen resolution of my old mac to the lowest possible (1280 x 720 pixels) to reduce the stuttering during recording. The simple montage was made in iMovie using one of its default themes. The following instructions tell you how to play and fully enjoy the iTunes visualizer yourself, at the full resolution of your screen and, of course, no stuttering since you’ll be playing it live. It’s a much nicer experience than what is shown on the video. I only played with the iTunes visualizer for less than an hour, I suspect someone’s skills after more practice means great fun.

iTunes visualizer

I found undocumented keyboard controls in this 2008 lifehacker article. Once you know and use the various controls in harmony with the music that you hear, you play the role of a VJ. Let me tell you about the basics of controlling the iTunes visualiser:

There are three main visual components, (A) the cores, which are the moving spheres, (B) the rays, which flow out of the cores, and (C) the nebula clouds, which fill the whole screen and changes the ambiance
There are 20 modes for you to enjoy, you incrementally cycle from one mode to the next with the ‘M key’. Take the time to explore the various modes since they’re what alter the visualizations most
You can modify the movement of the visual components by freezing the rays (F key) and by locking or releasing the camera rotation (L key)
The nebula clouds (N key) should not be underestimated, they radically change the ambiance and can also be toggled on/off rhythmically. Pressing the ‘E key’ will enhance the nebula clouds, making them more prominent
The ‘A key’ and ‘S key’ will add or subtract rays to the visualizer, usually, I prefer when there’s more
The ‘+ key’ and the ‘- key’ are equally important since they increase or decrease the brightness of the of the rays
Finally, you can change the color palettes (P key) which obviously impact the general feel of the animation
Once you understand the basics, the most artistic and technically challenging part begins: controlling it live over a great song! A difficult part of the performance to me is making certain changes of modes (M key) and freezing (F key) along with the rotation (L key) generate something beautiful and in sync with the music. That makes the most significant difference
Keeping the rotation enabled (L key) mean you can get closer to the cores. Once very close to a core you may want to freeze and stop the rotation since the effects are often superb
Try also toggling freezing and rotation rhythmically, you can achieve something nice this way

The iTunes visualizer keyboard controls that I’m aware of, for iTunes version 12.1.0.50:

iTunes visualizer keyboard shortcuts

Key	Effect	Description
M	Change mode	Increment to the next visualizer 'mode', out of a total of 20 modes
F	Freeze cores and rays	Freezes the movement of the cores and rays, which can still rotate (L key). With freeze and lock rotation enabled, nebula clouds will also freeze
L	Lock rotation	Stops and starts the rotation of the camera. If the rays are in the frozen state (F key), only brightness of the rays will change according to the music's loudness
N	Nebula clouds	Enable nebula clouds that fill the screen with an animated haze. These clouds are not available for all modes (M key)
E	Enhance nebula clouds	If nebula clouds (N key) are enabled, pressing the 'E key' will accentuate them
+ / -	Adjust ray brightness	Increase (+ key) or decrease (- key) brightness of the rays, multiple presses further increase or decrease their intensity
A / S	Add or subtract rays	Add (A key) or subtract (S key) rays to the visualizer
P	Change color palette	Increment to next color palette, out of about 10 different color palettes
I	Track info	Displays the track cover image, title, artist and album names at the bottom left of the screen
C	Cycle mode after track	The visualizer mode increments to next mode when a new track begins. Enabled by default
R	Reset	Reset the brightness (+ / - keys) and density of rays (A / S keys) to their default values
?	Help	Displays most of the keyboard shortcuts, but this current table also tells you what the official Help won't
Any other key	Annoying sound	Avoid hitting unpaired keys!

The two improvements I’d like to see to the iTunes visualizer: (a) easy control for the number of cores in the scene, and (b) full control on how close or far we are from the cores.

If I missed any hidden iTunes visualizer keyboard control, please let me know in the comments below! Have fun — Alex / Satri

Why Animoog requires high end headphones

2015/02/08Animoog App, Playingheadphones, listeningSatri

While watching Suzanne Ciani’s performance with Moog’s System 55 modular synthesizer, I found interesting the way Moog invites listeners to use proper hardware to fully enjoy the experience. Here’s their warning:

While this type of recommendations can make sense for most music genres, to some extent, I do believe high end headphones do make a significant difference when listening to today’s digital instruments which can subtly change the sounds and extensively leverage stereo panning. We can thus claim:

« Due to the expansive frequency content and harmonic complexity of Moog’s Animoog app, studio monitors or high end headphones are required for the proper listening experience »

Do you agree?

For the curious ones and not directly related to Animoog itself, here’s Mme Ciani’s solo with the System 55:

Airplane Shadow Presets Available Again

2015/02/03Expansion PacksAirplane Shadow, presetsSatri

Thanks to animoog.org user ‘Jagged Doctrine’ who pointed out in a comment on the expansion packs page that the free presets from Airplane Shadow were not accessible anymore. I contacted Jeremy Lewis, aka Airplane Shadow, and he allowed me to host his free presets right here on Animoog.org for the benefits of all Animoog enthusiasts. You can download the 74 free presets here. Amongst the next steps, I’ll need to update the expansion packs page accordingly… meanwhile, enjoy the presets! Thanks Jeremy :-)

On my recently-released free Animoog solos album, I used one of Airplane Shadow’s presets, named ‘Horizontalist’, here’s the track (best with high-end headphones):
<a href="http://satri.bandcamp.com/album/unanimoog-escape-inside-the-music-unmastered">Unanimoog, escape inside the music [Unmastered] by Satri</a>

Here’s the 3 original YouTube videos that shows Airplane Shadow’s presets:

Animoog solos: free ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music’ album

2014/12/30PlayingAnimoog, apptronica, Moog, music, SatriSatri

Animoog.org wasn’t built for self-promotion but this announcement is an exception and does focus on my creations with Animoog. Happy new year!

I’m delighted to introduce you to my second music album named ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music’, exclusively made with Moog’s award-winning Animoog iPad app.

In a world where there’s hundreds of excellent albums being made available daily, what excites me about what I propose with this album is you don’t need anything special other than the Animoog app to reproduce or play similar tracks. They’re single-track improvisations with no loops, no sequencer, no external effects, no complex or expensive music gear, everything is played live leveraging a single Animoog preset. It’s music you can listen to and music you can play in the comfort of your home or anywhere you’d like. The app is played and enjoyed just like any other musical instrument would be. I hope it inspires you to create your own tracks and discover that nowadays, we can have deep fun creating live music with accessible instruments and some practice.

[…] single-track improvisations with no loops, no sequencer, no external effects, no complex or expensive music gear, everything is played live leveraging a single Animoog preset

It’s only recently that I discovered the richness of sophisticated electronic sounds. This new chapter really begun with the advent of Moog Music’s award-winning Animoog music instrument. After I came to know Animoog through unexpected lucky events, I became enamored with its expressive capabilities. It became a hobby to explore Animoog sounds on quiet Friday nights. Wanting to share my enthusiasm and contribute to a same-minded community, I launched Animoog.org in March 2014 to discuss and document everything revolving around the app. While lots of the work remain to be done, the website does offer value and is the only place where you’ll find a list of third-party Animoog expansion packs. My early 2013 Animoog improvisations sounded good enough to me that I decided to make a collection. While my playing improved, I started a second collection in January 2014 with the intention of making an album out of it. In August of the year I had enough material to prepare the release of most of those tracks on what became the ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music’ album.

Similarly to my ‘Beau temps’ music album, released in 2002 under the royalty-free ‘open audio’ license – before Creative Commons licenses existed and at a time when it was unusual to provide albums for free on the Internet, this new album is available under the CC-BY Creative Commons license and consequently, free to anyone to copy, remix and transform. Each track has its cover art made with the amazing Uzu app.

Ironically after recording the last track, I learned about and watched ‘PressPausePlay’, an insightful documentary on the democratization of culture production in the digital era. I’m a child of PressPausePlay in the sense that I’m one of the many scouts of the new generation of musicians having fun and exploring the newly accessible ways of making music through the exposure and use of modern software-based music tools. Music has accompanied humanity for thousands of years and it’s reassuring that the means of expressing emotions through music are still evolving. While music production is getting democratized, just like a traditional instrument, it requires practice, experimentation and time to begin to master the most complex tablet-based music creation apps.

[…] I’m one of the many scouts of the new generation of musicians having fun and exploring the newly accessible ways of making music […]

This album is ‘unmastered’, it’s the raw tracks for which sound levels have not been corrected and no adjustments were done to convey an enhanced listening experience. I resorted to a diversity of Animoog presets to create the 47 tracks of the album. Those presets were created by several sound designers and I have to thank them for making it possible for us to play with their soundscapes. Preset ambiances range from soft and harmonious sounds, with ping pong stereo delay or not, to rhythmic and more brutal sounds. Credit is given to the tracks’ presets and thus anyone can launch Animoog and replay a track they liked and make it much better, just like when someone sits in front of a piano to jam on an existing song.

I invite you to listen to the tracks which are available for free. These types of sounds and performances are best enjoyed by listening with quality headphones. This album is distributed and promoted by the Apptronica label. Like any music genre, you might not like it and that’s fine. I hope you’re amongst those who might get inspired by this album and enjoy playing Animoog yourself.

Alex . . Satri

Listen and get the album for free : https://www.animoog.org/satri/unanimoog

Info and links:

All my synth albums: https://www.animoog.org/satri/
Creative Commons CC-BY license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Apptronica Label: http://apptronica.co.uk
Animoog on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animoog
PressPausePlay free documentary: http://www.presspauseplay.com
Uzu app: https://itunes.apple.com/app/uzu-generative-design-playground/id376551723

Artist: Satri
Album title: Unanimoog, escape inside the music [Unmastered]
Album genre tags: Apptronica, electronic, instrumental, improvisation, solo

Animoog love

an other dimension of music

‘Unanimoog’ Featured by Moog Music, and other Animoog news

‘Unanimoog’ Featured by Moog

Animoog Players Map Improvements

Animoog version 2.2.4 is coming

Still reading?

Announcing the Animoog Users Map!

Satri’s Animoog solo ‘And back to space’ video

Satri’s And back to space video

Animoog Improvements Wish List Updated

iOS 8.3 Warning: Transferring Presets and Timbres

Animoog Development News from Moog

‘Curious explorer’ Animoog solo video with iTunes visualizer

Satri’s Curious explorer video

iTunes visualizer

iTunes visualizer keyboard shortcuts

Why Animoog requires high end headphones

Airplane Shadow Presets Available Again

Animoog solos: free ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music’ album

Listen and get the album for free : https://www.animoog.org/satri/unanimoog

‘Unanimoog’ Featured by Moog

Animoog Players Map Improvements

Animoog version 2.2.4 is coming

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Listen and get the album for free : https://www.animoog.org/satri/unanimoog

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