Category Archives: Moog

Minimoog Model D App Launched by Moog — An Overview of Resources

What to expect in this article: what is the Model D app, link to Model D presets, video tutorials and which documentation to read. You’ll find more, even newly free Animoog presets and timbres! Enjoy :-)

Welcome, Minimoog Model D

Dear Animoog enthusiasts, rejoice! A few weeks ago Moog Music released a new stellar app-instrument, modern replication of their Model 15 modular synth from 1973 as an app, this time we get a modern version of the iconic Minimoog synthesizer initially built in 1970. The Minimoog is absolutely relevant today and remains an excellent tool not only to play great synth sounds live, but also for learning and experimenting with sound synthesis.

I’ve been fortunate and have helped beta testing Moog’s Minimoog Model D app before it launched. While my contributions were clearly minor, there’s a little of me in it! Many others have said it and I confirm with confidence that you’re in front of an outstanding app and a wonderful synth. Wikipedia introduces the original Minimoog this way:

[…] the Minimoog was designed to include the most important parts of a modular synthesizer in a compact package, without the need for patch cords. It later surpassed this original purpose, however, and became a distinctive and popular instrument in its own right. It remains in demand today, over four decades after its introduction, for its intuitive design and powerful bass and lead sounds

Amongst the significant new features Moog added to the app over the real-life Model D, you get “[…] the ability to play chords with up to four-note polyphony, an easy-to-use arpeggiator for rhythmic pattern creation, a real time looping recorder with unlimited overdubbing capacity, a tempo-synchronizable stereo ping pong delay module, and the Bender — a wide-range stereo time modulation effect module. The Minimoog Model D App also supports AUv3 Audio Unit extensions, which allows multiple instances of this powerful instrument to be used simultaneously […]” All these features brings lots of value to players and tinkerers amongst us. Here’s the official Model D announcement video.

This Moog app goes beyond the current versions of Model 15 and Animoog in terms of features and I can only hope these older Moog apps will eventually benefit from the nice things Model D can do.

Given that Model D’s price is less than a meal at a restaurant and considering that a physical Minimoog Model D synth will cost you several thousand dollars, it’s a bargain and the sensible thing to do is to head right away to the App Store!

If you read Geert Bevin’s interview on Synthopia, Geert being a Senior Software Engineer at Moog Music and leading the development of the Model D app, you’ll learn about this interesting difference between in the hardware Model D and its app incarnation:

“One thing that took a completely different approach was the actual feedback path – where you have the external audio which is normalized to the output of the mains. That’s really, really hard to do in DSP, because you have a buffer size which prevents you from having a real feedback path. Because of latency, you don’t get the same behavior.”

In the interview we’re also advised not to expect desktop or Android versions anytime soon, “It’s going to be a lot of work, if we go to other platforms. It doesn’t meant we won’t do it, but we’re going to need a lot of additional resources. We’re in the process of discovering how we can move through this software world, while building synths in the way we build them, which is with a lot of love and care and attention to detail.”

A Fountain of Presets

While the Minimoog really invites you to explore sound synthesis from scratch, I personally like presets as starting points and inspiration. It feels like standing on the shoulders of giants. Model D ships with over 160 presets and offers hundreds more in its in-app store.

If you search the web, you’ll find a lot more. And I’m going to give you a head start, here’s the 3 thousands presets we have for Animoog. Furthermore, in Tom Rhea’s Minimoog Sound Charts, you can even find the appropriate settings to play classic instruments such as the harpsichord, the cello, the flute, the clarinet, the trumpet, the xylophone and so on.

Here’s a test solo track I improvised with Model D made with haQ attaQ’s ‘init’ preset, which I modified a bit. Jakob gives this Model D preset to RISE 42 synth solos album heavily rely on this incredible product. I didn’t told anyone at the time, my apologies. I’m excited and have been writing a detailed article on using MIDI Expression with synths, you can simply subscribe to Animoog.org’s newsletter, or follow the Facebook page or the Twitter account to ensure you don’t miss it once I publish it. Meanwhile, the following ‘Embrace m’ track provides an example of improvising with two expression pedals connected to the Model D app.

Watch the (Tech) Doc

While I started by reading the Model D manual — reviews were obviously not available during the Beta testing phase — I’ll completely understand if you favor watching videos first! Amongst the most interesting ones, I selected the next two videos from haQ attaQ to share with you. They clearly explain modulation sources and how the filter works on the Minimoog. Absolutely valuable.

Read the (Tech) Doc

Years ago when I was looking for documentation on sound synthesis and synthesizers, one of the nice people who replied suggested experimenting with sound as one of the best way to understand sound synthesis.

I claim the Minimoog and its subtractive synthesis, centered on oscilloscopes, the famous Moog ladder filter, envelopes and modulations, is a great synth for learning and understanding sound synthesis

To help you in the process, Moog provides useful documentation. You can have fun with Model D without reading the manual, but to improve your understanding of the synth, and thus your ability to make it sound like you envision, you’ll likely need time reading and experimenting. Unless you’re already an expert, you’ll want to read the ‘Understanding Sound and Synthesis’ section. And even more important to learn to use the Model D app-instrument, head to the ‘Features and controls’ and ‘Using the effects’ sections. Here’s a tip before you dive. In my experience, the in-app manual is a bit awkward to use (as an example, it doesn’t remember where we were reading if you leave it momentarily to turn knobs a bit and go back to the manual), but there’s a workaround: you can access the full Model D manual on this official webpage. It’s easier to search and to switch back and forth to the app.

Here’s the diagram presenting the Model D audio and control pathways. After some time tweaking Model D, it becomes more intelligible! :-)

Bring in more (synth) joy

While we’re into exploring sound synthesis with Model D, the timing is good for an insightful introduction to synthesizer basics by the Suzanne Ciani herself.

I mentioned MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) several times in the past — this crucial modern MIDI standard elevates synth expressiveness to new levels. Unsurprisingly, Model D supports MPE as shown in this short demo where Jordan Rudess’ GeoShred app is used to control Model D through MPE.

The Model D app was only 5$ for its first days, and at the same time, our dear Animoog was on sale as well. So what I do to ensure fellow enthusiasts amongst us don’t miss such opportunities is by mentioning it on the Animoog Love Twitter feed:

Free Animoog timbres and presets

Hey, this is still an Animoog-focused website! I have several updates I’d like to share with you. While time is infinite, I’m not! Thanks for your patience and meanwhile, I’m glad to inform you that Table of Animoog presets and timbres eventually :-)


In the previous picture, I’m saying hi to all synth enthusiasts from at Moogfest 2016  and it’s only now, thanks to this new Model D app, that I’m happily renewing ties with it. I’m glad we all have this opportunity now.

Enjoy Model D! — Alex / Satri

An Animoog Player Perspective on Moogfest 2016, with Pictures

It’s really with Animoog that I started exploring the richness of sound synthesis. In the past few years, this interest led me to learn a lot about the state of modern synthesizers and how we got here. At some point I learned about Moogfest, the annual, multi-day music, art and technology festival. Moogfest 2016 took place in Durham, North Carolina, May 19-22.

After years of discussing and sharing tips online with other Animoog players, releasing albums of Animoog solos and of course, running Animoog.org, Moogfest constituted an excellent opportunity to go beyond my iPad screen and commit to meet in person other like-minded people. I wasn’t certain what to expect before getting there but I was instantly amazed by the joyful ambiance amongst participants. Moogfest 2016’s had an ambitious program which “included 5 durational sound installations, 11 film programs, 13 art installations, 67 conversations, 100 workshops and 119 performances.” The quality of the talks and activities during the day was very high and I also appreciated several unique musical performances. I even met with the early and current developers of Animoog! There you go, here’s my report on participating to Moogfest 2016.

I care a lot about controllers because they directly impact expressiveness of the instruments they’re attached to. Animoog’s polypressure keys certainly explain part of the success this synth has. While there’s lot to do and hear at Moogfest, there’s also lot to see. Here’s two controllers from Richard Smith’s collection of Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments. Don Buchla was at the origin of the synthesizer era along with Robert Moog.

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Buchla’s Marimba Lumina

It was a good idea to spend time at Moogfest installations before things started to get crazy! The few opportunities I had to play with others Moogfest participants were well appreciated as it made us share our love for playing electronic music. The ‘Ten Minutes Music’ installation brought three enthusiasts together to play a short track one after the other before they get mixed together.

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A fellow musicians at the ‘Ten Minute Music’ installation

I ended up playing the Werkstatt-01, which is a synth you can build yourself and introduced at a Moogfest 2014 workshop. That’s right, Moogfest workshops can last up to several hours. At Moogfest 2016 participants could build their own synth in a 6 hours workshop.

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Moog Music’s Werkstatt-01DIY analog synth

There’s plenty of exciting workshops during Moogfest on a variety of music, art and technology topics. Here’s a tip: some workshops have limited-capacity and you need to purchase higher priced ‘engineer’ tickets to increase your chances of having a spot. By the way, participation to the festival is fairly cheap considering you can get General Admission tickets for as little as 99$ if you purchase your tickets at pre-sale discounts. So I did not get a spot on the popular music in virtual reality workshops but I was able to experience Flatsitter’s Theta virtual reality spa which made us explore a beautiful world. Most of us have seen what virtual reality brings in terms of creativity, but experiencing it was marvellous. Virtual reality will not be a fad.

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The setup of Flatsitter’s spa

I spent lot of time at the Modular Marketplace and the Moog Pop-Up Factory since there were so many instruments to discover and play with! It was one of the rare occasions where I could play on classic synths such as the Minimoog.

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Moog Music’s classic Minimoog

The Modular Marketplace offered a quantity of nice looking modular synth with friendly people ready to tell you all about their creations. There’s even guided introductions to the marketplace, helping us make sense of everything there is to see.

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There even was an Artiphon booth and they were kind to let me test it with Animoog.

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Playing Animoog with the Artiphon

But wait, a wonderful surprise was waiting for me in Moog’s Pop-up Factory: two real Model 15 modular synths! And we could play with them! I must have spent 30 minutes playing on the real Model 15. I was super excited considering I spent weeks beta testing the Model 15 app and even releasing a free album of Model 15 solos made with the Model 15 app. Moog Music officially released the Model 15 app barely two weeks before Moogfest.

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A Moogfest participant playing with a real Model 15 synth
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A real Model 15 modular synthesizer

My first impressions are that while I appreciate the ease of reaching out knobs on the real thing, the Model 15 app has modules that the physical Model 15 synth does not have and which make a significant difference to me in favour of the app.

Moog’s Pop-Up Factory has also been an opportunity for Moog to begin the pilot production of the Minimoog Model D, returning after over 30 years.

I headed off to experience Microsoft’s installation which tracked movements of participants with 4 kinects and used interactions with physical nets to modulate the track Realiti by Grimes. Grimes was also one of the numerous artists to perform at Moogfest 2016.

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Another opportunity during which I could play with other musicians was at the Aloft Hotel Musical Playground. I am amazed that a group of strangers can play something harmonious with simple but yet interesting instruments, Critter and Guitari’s Organelle in this case.

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Playing the Organelle in group

Two years after launching Animoog.org and acting for over a year as beta tester for Moog’s Animoog app and, more recently, the Model 15 apps, meeting with Moog developers at Moogfest has been a significant highlight to me. While I have exchanged countless emails with upcoming Expressive-MIDI standard. I had the opportunity to have a long chat with Moog product developer Amos Gaynes who was involved since the very beginning of Animoog and who shared interesting stories about its coming to existence. Thanks Geert and Amos! Albeit shorter discussions, I’ve been happy to meet Moog’s Chief engineer Cyril Lance as well as Social media manager Jim DeBardi. Those encounters were another reason why Moogfest is a special event for Animoog players such as myself. Maybe one day I’ll dive into compiling in writing the history of Animoog’s development?

At night times, I saw several pretty interesting shows of different styles. Paradoxically refreshing to see Silver Apples perform on stage, straight from the 60’s and playing live electric music. I was ecstatic to attend a show by Daniel Lanois, who worked with Bob Dylan, U2, Brian Eno and  many more. But it gets better since Moogfest features Masterclasses, a rather intimate conversation with the artists. We were about 50 to attend Daniel Lanois’ Masterclass and have the opportunity to go on stage with him and ask questions – that could not have happened anywhere else.

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Daniel Lanois at the beginning of the Masterclass

One of the electronic music stars participating to Moogfest was sound designer Animoog presets. I was lucky to met with him later during the festival to have a brief chat and shake hands. Here’s Richard at the beginning of his 4-hours durational sound installation.

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Richard Devine getting ready for his durational performance

Here’s a track made with Richard Devine’s ‘DreamCycles’ Animoog preset, part of my ‘Pianimoog •• discoverY’ album of free Animoog solos.

While this report focuses on Animoog because thats the purpose of this website, it’s important to know that Moogfest is not about showcasing Moog products: it’s a festival for art, technology and electronic music enthusiasts. Everyone is welcomed. Moog Music is known for the quality and the love they put in their products. Having recently become an employee-owned enterprise, it’ll certainly help them retain their cult status.

There were plenty of ‘Conversations’ during daytime at Moogfest, and all those I attended were of outstanding interest. ‘Conversations’ essentially are presentations interlaced with questions from participants. Amongst those I had the chance to attend was the talk on crowdfunding and micro-manufacturing musical devices with Andrew Kilpatrick of Kilpatrick Audio, a thesis on the death of music mastery by Mike Butera from Antiphon, in the Synth Design Icon themed conversations, I attended Tatsuya Takahashi from Korg and another one by Moog Music’s Cyril Lance, one of the creators of Animoog! One of the numerous interesting bits that Cyril shared is a saying from Bob Moog himself: « God is in the details » => details are actually what make things great. There were plenty other interesting talks from people such as Tod Machover from the MIT Media Lab and Laurie Anderson, former NASA artist-in-residence.

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Sound design icon Cyril Lance

While I think the event is clearly targeting adult music geeks, Moogfest also appeals to families.

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Plenty of families at Moogfest

Moogfest is also open to everyone in the world, just like The Global Synthesizer Project that crowdsourced georeferenced sounds from all around the planet. According to the organizers, “attendees from 44 US States and 21 different countries joined us in Durham. More than 6 million others around the world watched livestreams, and countless more shared our celebration online and in the press.”

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The Global Synthesizer Project

Moogfest 2016 provided the opportunity to listen to difficult-to-find artists such as Suzanne Ciani, well known for her pioneering work with modular synthesizer in the 70’s.

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Suzanne Ciani beginning her durational sound installation

Moogfest 2016 has been totally great! But as an Animoog player, were there any deceptions at Moogfest 2016? There wasn’t time to be deceived, so many exciting things going on! But yes, I do not fully understand why Moog Music apps were not showcased anywhere, not a single mention in the Moog Music space adjacent to the Modular Marketplace. Animoog itself nowhere to be seen, but much more stranger, not even a mention of the Moog Model 15 app that was launched less than three weeks before the event! I do understand that they can’t showcase all of their products, but I think they would have sold lots of Model 15 and Animoog apps considering they are attractively priced when compared to music hardware sold at Moogfest. I would have liked more music enthusiasts exposed to those wonderful app-instruments I like so much.

Here’s the three recap videos published by Moog Music themselves. It’s focused on the music shows of the festival, I suspect that’s why they haven’t provided a video for the fourth day which did not have shows at night time.

Moogfest 2016 ended up being something special to me. Has this first hand report helped you figure out if Moogfest is an event you’d like to participate in the future? Moogfest 2017 will take place in Durham as well on similar dates, May 18-21th 2017.

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Durham’s Fletcher Hall • Caroline Theatre, where lots of the action took place

I hope I’ll be able to make it to Moogfest once again, that was an eye-opening experience to me! :-) Enjoy life — Alex / Satri

Moogfest 2016 Live Reports

Dear Animoog enthusiasts — a quick note to let you know that if you interested in my tweets while I’m participating to MoogFest 2016, simple follow Animoog.org’s Twitter account @animooglove — I’ll certainly publish a post  after the festival ends and I get some time writing it.

So far it’s been great, I even played Animoog on the Artiphon and have been ecstatic to play on a real Model 15! More in the tweets and in my post in the coming weeks. Take care! — Alex / Satri

http://twitter.com/animooglove

 

Satri from Animoog.org at Moogfest 2016

I’m happy to inform you that I’ll be attending Moogfest 2016 next month, to be held in Durham, North Carolina, May 19-22th.

On Wikipedia, Moogfest is described like this:

Moogfest is an annual, multi-day music, art and technology festival. […] The performing artists are not only those who use Moog instruments for their own works, but also those who create musical experiences that embody the essence of Bob Moog’s visionary and creative spirit. The festival also offers interactive experiences, visual art exhibitions, installations, film screenings, panel discussions, question and answer sessions, and workshops.

I’m excited! Here’s a list of some of the participants, to give you an idea of who’s showing up (click the image for a larger version).

moogfest-2016_program-overview

The detailed 4-days program has been announced yesterday  and is accessible to everyone.

I’ll be glad to meet Animoog players there, if interested to have a chat at Moogfest, drop me a line in the comments below, I’ll reply privately

It’s my first time attending this event. I’ll probably share on Animoog.org my Moogfest 2016 experience, especially if there’s anything that can be of interest to Animoog players. I haven’t been able to publish as much as I wanted to Animoog.org lately, but more is coming and I hope your patience will be rewarded! :-) Cheers — Alex / Satri

Animoog 2.3.3 and Animoog for iPhone 1.2.3 Released

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

Animoog Sale for Black Friday: 9,99$/1,99$

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

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The ‘Expressive MIDI’ Proposal and Animoog

Animoog and modern alternative controllers push the MIDI standard beyond its current capabilities — not surprising considering it’s a protocol devised in 1983! A few major stakeholders including Apple, ROLI and Moog Music are working on an extension to the MIDI standard, currently named Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression specification. You guessed right, Animoog would directly benefit from this new specification.

For the past two years I’ve been looking for an iPad app that would properly record Animoog in MIDI. By properly I mean that the replay from the MIDI app to Animoog sounds exactly like the initial Animoog take. Apps I tried fail to record Animoog‘s MIDI properly for fast polypressure changes / legato and all the crucial subtleties that Animoog does. I asked around to no avail. One of the Animoog developers at Moog publicly confirmed there is no such app yet. I badly want this, full MIDI support was even at the top of my initial wish list for Animoog in March 2014.

So, what is this Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression specification? From the specification’s Executive Summary:

“The goal of this specification is to provide an agreed method for hardware and software manufacturers to communicate multidimensional data between controllers, synthesizers, workstations, and other products. The proposed extensions define rules for using MIDI channels to represent one note each, and to use per-channel control parameters to represent note changes in three or more dimensions.”

Multidimensional expression… funny that Animoog.org launched in early 2014 with the following subtitle (still in use!) ‘an other dimension of music’! If the MIDI Manufacturers Association accepts this proposal, which I hope they will, the final name for the specification might become ‘Expressive MIDI’.

To demonstrate that I’m not extrapolating or fabulating a bit too much, Animoog is actually mentioned as an example right in the technical specification document:

“Sentences like ‘Linnstrument is an Expressive MIDI [compatible] controller’ and ‘Animoog is an Expressive MIDI [compatible] sound engine’ are easy to formulate correctly, and provide a clear sense of the value proposition.”

The specification is still considered Draft and its supporters hope to have a final version by the end of 2015. A link to the Expressive MIDI specification was publicly shared at least last April. To access it yourself, follow this link to Google Docs. Revision 1.25 is only three weeks old.

I’m no MIDI expert myself, but that doesn’t stop me from rejoicing at specifications that will allow me to further enjoy Animoog! As usual, don’t hesitate to share additional info in the comments section below. Cheers! — Alex / Satri

‘I Dream of Wires’ Documentary, Animoog’s Origins

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

Animoog 2.2.5 Released, Animoog in Tidbits and Other news

Dear Animoog lovers, some excellent news today!

Animoog 2.2.5 Released

With the new development team in place, less than three week after the major bug fix update, version 2.2.4, a few hours ago version 2.2.5 has been released on the App Store. Here are the official changes:

  • 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!

Animoog featured in Tidbits

Animoog.org readers have seen my first videos made with the iTunes visualizer for my album of Animoog solos. I ended up writing an article for the popular Tidbits magazine on the use of the iTunes visualizer to create live visual performances. This article successfully exposes Animoog to the tens of thousands Tidbits readers. More people discovering our beloved musical instrument Animoog can’t do harm! From the article:

« 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.

Animoog 2.2.4 Released – Major bugfix update

We told you it was coming and now the wait is over! And don’t let you mislead by the it’s name, version 2.2.4 is a major Animoog update considering it brings lots of significant fixes, including stable support for iOS 8. Version 2.2.3 came out in October 2014, over 6 months ago. And now that Moog is putting more love to Animoog development, I expect we’ll have good news from Moog more frequently.

So 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)
  • 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 shows 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

Enjoy! And if you find bugs, Moog, more than ever before, provide feedbacks to its users in order to fix those, so let them know about the remaining bugs! — Alex / Satri