Music production!!!

[viktorfrankl]

As a musician and music producer, having a pocket-sized computer has all kinds of awesome potential applications.

Are there any maemo apps that detect BPM based on tapping? In other words, you are listening to a song (from any source), tap your finger on the tablet to the beat of the music, and the program reads your finger tapping to determine the beats per minute of the song (which is a way to measure tempo).

If there is not, this would be very simple to write. I don't know the first thing about writing software but all it would take would be to read the times between finger taps over a time period (such as five seconds) and mathematically derive how many beats there would be in one minute. I suppose it wouldn't even have to be five seconds... I don't know. But this would be very handy to have when making mashups, sample-based music, or DJ-ing.

How bout a guitar tuner? Just play certain tones on command! Can't get any simpler.

How bout a drum machine, or sample-trigger? There was a piano program but it was slow and the author seems to have left it behind.

So many cool possibilities. WiFi MIDI control? I can do it on my Mac....which I assume means it's possible on the tablets.

(For those who doubt Linux audio software capabilities, check out Ardour, an open source, complete Linux music creation station. Ardour.org)

[qwerty12]

Bearing in mind I know nothing about making music;

denemo and timidity was ported to internet tablets but I assume you want a lot more/ different programs :)

[endorphinum]

Hi pal,
if you want to, i can make that one as a Flash application for
the Mojocafe!
The only problem is that Flash as plugin is not the best one in
reaction what means that there would be minor differences in
milliseconds, i suggest.

What i mean you can see and download here:
http://www.mojocafe.net/testing/drums.swf

If you hit a lot of drums at the same time or within a few
seconds, the system goes down on its knees.

Nevertheless, as mentioned: if you want to, i can try to
make a Mojo for Mojocafe.net as BPM counter.

Greetings,
Carlos

[phutterman]

I'm a musician, too, and I think there's a lot of potential for a device like the N8x0.

Metronome, tuner (based on mic input), and tone generator could all be handy. It could also come in handy as a remote control for software like Ardour.

There's a drum machine for the iphone, but it's definitely more of a novelty than a serious or useful musical instrument. Still, I think a touch screen is potentially a very powerful thing.

If nothing else, maemo recorder is handy for getting a quick, if not good, recording of something.

BTW, Ardour is a great piece of software.

[Randy]

I was thinking it would be nice to run some MIDI sequencing software on the N800/N810. Maybe a "Cubase Light" for Linux and a USB to MIDI converter. Then I could bring my Yamaha S90 to a gig with a bunch of songs on it, and play the piano part while the tablet takes care of the rest. The other neat app, although a big longshot, is porting the Clavia Nord G2 editor to the tablet.

Randy

[Jerome]

There is a guitar tuner (based on mic input) for the Tablets and you can download it here:
http://n770galaxy.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-holidays-and-tuner-tool.html

[crabolsky]

All this talk about music editing and music utilities on the tablet gets me very excited. However, Iam skeptical that we have enough power to run a lot of these programs. That being said, I would LOVE to have a wave editing program on the tablet!

[mrlanrat]

possibly a loop mixer?

I can wish cant I?

[SCIBOTIC]

http://www.milkytracker.net/

The armel port works, although it still needs some developer love to make it more usable with the touchscreen.
http://packages.debian.org/sid/milkytracker

[kashief]

No updates on this???

[hordeman]

I guess.

Anybody know how I can hook up a USB sound card (with external) power and record some decent multi-track to the N800? Is there even enough CPU power for this?

[TenSpeed]

Anybody know how I can hook up a USB sound card (with external) power and record some decent multi-track to the N800? Is there even enough CPU power for this?

I know - you can't. The N800/810 isn't able to record at even moderate sample rates (like 44.1k); I think it's limited to 8k instead. And there certainly isn't enough power for multitracking.

Watch as details of the new device emerge - it will have better audio system software, meaning it'll be easier/possible to port existing linux audio packages. And the new processor should mean that at least 2-track audio recording will be possible. Still lots of details to be discovered, so we'll have to wait patiently.

[allnameswereout]

I'm a musician, too, and I think there's a lot of potential for a device like the N8x0.

Metronome, tuner (based on mic input), and tone generator could all be handy. It could also come in handy as a remote control for software like Ardour.

There's a drum machine for the iphone, but it's definitely more of a novelty than a serious or useful musical instrument. Still, I think a touch screen is potentially a very powerful thing.

If nothing else, maemo recorder is handy for getting a quick, if not good, recording of something.

BTW, Ardour is a great piece of software.It is, but the interface is not optimized for Maemo. You'll find this problem with many Linux applications even when they do run on ARM. Also, keep in mind some applications are not suitable to use with fingers while some are usable with stylus.

So while there is potention you really want optimized UIs like http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2008/10/10/touch-screen-modular-synthesizer/

[hordeman]

I know - you can't. The N800/810 isn't able to record at even moderate sample rates (like 44.1k); I think it's limited to 8k instead. And there certainly isn't enough power for multitracking.

Sounds like the key is definitely in the latter sentence. The capturing (and horsepower) would otherwise be done on the sound card and the tablet would just take care of saving the file, but if the tablet doesn't have the horsepower to even save the file, then yeah, I will definitely keep an eye on the next-gen tablet! :D