Developer RobStar UG has introduced Square Beats – a simple music sequencer for iOS devices.
Square Beats starts by presenting a set of squares that represent steps in a sequence. Tap on one of these squares to activate its sound. Hit some more and you have your first loop. Pinch Out and you can move on to create additional instrument loops and then export to an audio file or to SoundCloud.
And, as the developer notes, “Square Beats looks freaking cool, too.”
http://vimeo.com/47583423
Features:
- 96 different Instruments
- 17 Drumkits
- Instrument Creator
- Beat Switcher
- Variable Number of Blocks per Set
- Set-based Volume Contoller
- Set-based Sustain Controller
- Set-based Pitch Controller
- Set-based Key Settings
- Export to SoundCloud
- Export to Audio File
Square Beats is $4.99 in the App Store. A free version is also available.
the grid colour fades from blue to slightly off-white, and an active note colour is white- definitely a UI faux pas there. It should be super clear at a mere glance what notes are placed where
rich is totally right ofcourse.
also – in my view sequencers main feature should be inventive and creative way to manipulate timeline.
not eyecandy or experimental interfacing stuff but polyrithmic expressive seq.
if anyone knows something like that give me a tip.
Does anyone know what the range & resolution of the BLOCKS PER SET value is? Can it be set to any integer or does it default to vanilla values 4/8/12/16?
In the key settings what scales are permitted? Chromatic? Or are they all major?
Hi there,
the Blocks can be set to a value between 3 and 16 to be able to construct 3/4 times. And the key can be set to chromatic, minor and major.
Cheers,
Simon, developer of that thing 🙂
cheers for chiming in simon,
best of luck.
Glaring timing problems, General MIDI, 2 static control parameters, no effects, no filter, €4.99…. For some reason I find this oddly annoying.
You have a typo in your app, dude – “standart” kit??
this should be 99 cents. just sayin,
I appreciate a developer who is making something that is flexible and logical for making music. This is a nice expansion of the grid step sequencer into a multi-chain, multi-track model.I think this product has potential as a quick idea producer. I’d like to see the GUI evolve into a better balance between very clear functioning (even with the choice of colors as mentioned above), and aesthetically pleasing design. It would be great if changes to the sequence could take place without negatively affecting the timing (so that edits could be done in realtime without glitches). Down the road having each set be able to transmit note-on/offs on set MIDI channels might be kind of cool.
Really interesting app. Looks like it could be a great sketchpad and a neat jam-along tool. A few thoughts:
– Is there any indication of what the actual notes/intervals are that the blocks represent? Would be nice to have an option for turning on/off an overlay that showed either note name or intervals
– Can the app store more than one “song” at a time?
– Being as this app looks pretty great as a fast sketchpad, it would be awesome to see some batch export features, like “export all patterns as individual files”, which would then create an audio or midi loop for each block which could be imported into a desktop DAW
– Might be handy to have a toggle on each empty block in a column to either stay silent, or simply repeat the block pattern from the previous column (in the same row)
Best of luck with this app!