The good news about the latest Animoog releases, version 2.3.3 and version 1.2.3 for iPhone, is that they are the result of feedback from members of the community of Animoog players: Moog Music is listening and they’re serious about improving Animoog. I’m happy Moog takes Animoog seriously since I’m seriously counting on Animoog to have fun playing freetronica tracks! ;-)
These fixes are directly related to the following issues and requests mentioned by Animoog players on the official Moog Music forums: here and here as examples.
What’s new with this version:
Fixed regression where the delay rate knob position wasn’t properly being interpolated anymore
Added support for MIDI program change, mapped to the presets in the currently active category in the order they’re displayed
Improvements to Audiobus integration stability
Fixed occasional glitches at the end of making a recording
I updated the Animoog Wikipedia page accordingly. Stay tuned, more exciting Animoog news in the coming weeks, cheers! — Alex / Satri
Happy 2016! It begins well with updates to our dear Animoog. Animoog version 2.3.2 and Animoog for iPhone version 1.2.2 have been released.
Here’s the official changelog that applies to both new versions:
Fix for Animoog not properly working with Cubasis through Audiobus
Fix for mod wheel and pitch wheel not working properly when visible on screen and played from external MIDI
Fix for poly-legato MIDI, now using the proper MIDI CC 84 message and correctly sending and receiving the MIDI data
Better support for varying sample rates
Updated Audiobus to 2.3.1
Updated AudioCopy to 3.1-final
Unrelated, while I just updated the list of Animoog presets to version 1.3, one of you contacted me to share even more free Animoog presets! I’ll test them in the coming days and update the table accordingly as soon possible. Cheers — Alex / Satri
Chances are that if you’re reading animoog.org, you already own Animoog! Let’s see this as an opportunity to tell your friends about it or buy the iPhone version or the iPad version if you don’t already have it.
Here’s the Moog announcement: prices for Animoog are down to 9,99$ for the original Animoog, and 1,99$ for the iPhone version. Sale lasts until Monday night. Enjoy! — Alex / Satri
In a nutshell, if you’d like to understand where Animoog comes from, from the very beginning of sound synthesis and modular synthesizers up to now, I strongly encourage you to watch the ‘I dream of wires’ documentary.
When I discovered and fell in love with Animoog, I knew very little of electronic music — its origins and history. While I’ve been slowly learning, I watched ‘I dream of wires’ over the weekend and not only numerous pieces of the puzzle found their place, but I learned much in this information-packed documentary.
While the documentary focuses on the modular synthesizer, I consider it really helps understanding where Animoog comes from — its sound design capabilities and even its user interface. Animoog is even shown for a second or two in the documentary itself, the only app to make an appearance.
This documentary was also inspiring to me at multiple levels. I hope it will do the same to you. Here’s the trailer. Enjoy! — Alex / Satri
Excellent news, a few hours ago were released Animoog 2.3.0 and Animoog for iPhone 1.2.0. Major improvements include increased iOS 9 compatibility as well as the latest Audiobus SDK.
The official release notes for the iPad version:
Support for Audiobus state saving
Support for configurable sample rates and buffers sizes, up to 96kHz/1024
Support for iOS 9
Better background audio behavior
Support for latest Audiobus version
Auto-scroll for timbre slots will now be canceled when there’s a touch on the right table with categories
Animoog for iPhone 1.2.0 also brings support for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
Meanwhile, I continued to receive Animoog Fan Art contributions after the initial call. Here’s two new examples, one from Jon Rawlinson aka PantsofDeath, and the second one from Bobby Simmons. Thanks guys! Yes, I’ll publish all the contributions I got in a new home for such content. And I’ll continue collecting the result of your inspirations!
I consider running Animoog.org as being amongst my most tangible contributions to the Animoog community, but I also help improve the app itself by acting as a beta tester. I’m grateful to Moog which sent me a Moog beta tester T-shirt – I got it in the mail today! Thanks Moog :-) — Alex / Satri
Today Apple released iOS 9. Many music apps which haven’t been recently updated break with such major iOS revisions. I’m glad to inform you that according to early reports from players, the latest Animoog version works fine with iOS 9. A Moog developer also indicated today that a minor update will be submitted this week in order to support the latest Audiobus SDK. Yes, that means Audiobus doesn’t currently work properly with iOS 9 and the update has been submitted to Apple. Be aware that this might be true for other music apps, they may not work as expected until their developers take care of compatibilities issues. For Animoog itself, we’re apparently on the safe side with iOS 9 and Moog developers are ensuring that if bugs are found, they’ll quickly be addressed.
On an unrelated topic, yesterday I invited you, Animoog enthusiasts and users of this site, to contribute Animoog fan art. I was pleasantly surprised to receive submissions in such a short time! Thanks!
Here’s this one from Heide Hoffmann:
And this one from Andre Wild:
Big thanks to Heide and Andre! I’ll copy all Animoog Fan Art contributions to a page of its own. Cheers! — Alex / Satri
These Animoog news cover versions 2.2.6 and 2.2.8 and Animoog for iPhone 1.1.10, both supporting the new Audiobus Remote app.
Animoog version 2.2.8 has been released yesterday and here’s the official release notes:
Added support for AudioBus Remote with triggers for Recorder, Preset Navigation, Scale Lock, Hold and Orbit Time Change
Added support for mixing down to AudioCopy and AudioShare in the 4-track recorder
Stability improvements
As an happy Animoog beta tester, I can confirm there’s useful fixes in the ‘stability improvements’ category. The big addition here is Audiobus Remote support. Audiobus itself is a popular app to route audio from one app to other apps, making it easy to add filters and effects, adding tracks from other apps, and more, all this in real-time. As an example, you can run drums from the Sector app and play Animoog live while recording both in a third app. With version 2.2.8 released yesterday, Animoog can now be controlled on another iOS device with Audiobus Remote. Moog developer Geert Bevin shared the following screenshot of Animoog and Filtatron in Audiobus Remote.
Animoog version 2.2.6 was released on June 29th, 2015, while I was on holidays and away from computers (but with my dear Animoog alongside), and its official release notes are:
Stability improvements for a very rare crash at launch
Stability improvements in situations where the audio engine is reset by iOS itself
Improvements to restore purchase functionality
That’s correct, Animoog version 2.2.7 never made it to the public.
Updates to Animoog for iPhone were also released, with version 1.1.7 released on June 15, then v1.1.8 on June 17, followed by v1.1.9 on June 27. And now, lucky us, we’re at version 1.1.10 released on July 30.
Moog developers taking care of Animoog since last Spring continue to be closer than ever to its users and the iOS musicians community, and that’s great news for the future of Animoog!
Mapped controls now respond to MIDI when Animoog is in the background
Fixed MIDI input and output port selection sometimes tacitly picking another one
External pitch bend now behaves linearly across the pitch bend range
Pitch bend strip is more usable by reducing the sensitivity in the middle
Stability improvements of the 4-track recorder
The recording length of the basic recorder has been doubled
Invalid timbre files are marked and don’t cause crashes anymore
New installations now by default map CC64 to the Hold switch
Version number is now shown at the bottom of configuration screen
Improvement of in-app store layout
Overall stability improvements
There’s also a little nice surprise the official changelog won’t tell you, look in the in-app store, scroll down and you’ll find that the ‘BASE Pack’, an expansion pack containing 25 presets and 40 timbres, is now not only available for in-app purchase, but it’s also free to everybody! Thanks Moog!
« To demonstrate some of what you can do, I’ve created a few sample videos based on music I improvised with the award-winning Animoog app for iPad ($29.99). Music made on mobile devices is quickly growing in popularity with tons of innovative musical instruments disguised as apps being available for iOS »
Here’s the third video I recorded live in the context of this article. It’s for the ‘don’t June’ track. It’s voluntarily less diverse than the previous two videos since I used it to showcase a specific technique with the iTunes visualizer.
Animoog for iPhone 1.1.7 Released
The smaller but very capable version of Animoog also got an update, Animoog for iPhone version 1.1.7 has been released. This is the first update since November 2014 and brings major bug fixes and new features, here’s the official changelog.
Stable support for iOS 8
Stable support for 64-bit devices
Revised timbres panel with categories (touch-hold timbre in category for preview)
Added ‘hold’ switch to keyboard for iPhone 5 and later
New installations now by default map CC64 to the Hold switch for iPhone 5 and later
Audiobus input slot compatibility fixes
Pitch bend range can now be selected in MIDI settings
Pitch bend strip is more usable by reducing the sensitivity in the middle
External pitch bend now behaves linearly across the pitch bend range
Pitch and mod strips now light up with incoming MIDI
MIDI CC mapping can be edited through the dialog after double-tapping a control
Mapped controls now respond to MIDI when Animoog is in the background
Virtual Animoog MIDI ports are now always available even if no port is explicitly selected
Fixed MIDI input and output port selection sometimes tacitly picking another one
Preset menu doesn’t cover minimized keyboard anymore
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
Page selector can now be latched by tapping without dragging the menu
All drop-down menus now support latched operation
Invalid timbre files are marked and don’t cause crashes anymore
Keyboard scale selection now doesn’t misbehave after selecting the whole tone scale
Resuming after interruptions from Siri now reactivates audio
Proper handling of large amounts of MIDI expression data, coming from alternative controllers
Page selection widget now appears below the active page title for easier visibility
Added store entry to the page menu
Proper launch screen across all iPad and iPhone devices
Version number is now shown at the bottom of configuration screen
Overall stability improvements
Moog Music is now employee-owned
I can’t tell how this will affect Animoog’s future, but this is a major change for the creators and developers of Animoog. Earlier this month, Moog Music became an employee-owned company.
Lots more than I expected has happened over the weekend! A book on iOS music which mentions Animoog, Animoog currently discounted to half its regular price, and an Animoog article on the ‘Create Digital Music’ website featuring my ‘Unanimoog’ album.
Animoog discounted to $14,99 / $1,99
If Animoog discounts matter to you, follow our Animoog version 2.2.4 released this week, there’s no better time to acquire Animoog if you don’t have it already.
Animoog on ‘Create Digital Music’
Second time I get honored this month, in an interesting article named ‘Unanimoog’ Animoog improvisations album. 2,000 people heard my album in the 3 days following this publication, thanks ‘Create Digital Music’ for highlighting Animoog capabilities!
The article includes a great quote for those who might be ambiguous because of Animoog’s price tag:
« And yes, I’d rather pay thirty bucks for that once than 3 bucks a hundred times for stuff I won’t use »
The book mentions Animoog in a section specific to iOS instrument interfaces:
« In my opinion, Animoog offers one of the best keyboard- like interfaces with full custom scale support. Animoog sounds great itself, but it can also send MIDI to control other apps in the background. You can save custom keyboard configurations with each preset, or lock the current scale in place so you can change presets while keeping the current configuration »
