Iterator, ‘The Strange Little Performance Based Audio Chopper’, Now Available

Developer Bret Truchan has introduced iterator – a sample based musical instrument with a simple interface.

The idea behind iterator is simple: The x-axis controls the sample playback position. The y-axis controls the repeat speed.

You can start with any of the built-in 75+ samples from over 25 artists, including Richard Devine, Parallel Worlds, Toppobrillo, Atomic Shadow, and more. You can also load your own .mp3s via iTunes.

Here’s a demo of Iterator in action:

Iterator is $3.99 in the App Store.

22 thoughts on “Iterator, ‘The Strange Little Performance Based Audio Chopper’, Now Available

  1. Looks fun and actually useful. But sampleloadig thruog iTunes? No pasteboard? Really???? When are new developers to learn that itunes sharing is useless?

    1. When will Apple learn that restricting access to the filesystem and forcing sandboxing of apps severely limit their inter-connectivity.

      Its 2012, how come its not possible to get some kind of shared documents folder and API on an IOS device?

      1. Google Docs
        Dropbox
        Skydrive
        Email
        Browser
        FTP
        Audio Streaming
        Image Spectral Representation

        These are just a few solutions I’ve encountered in numerous iOS Apps to go around the sandbox barriers 😉

        1. No its not.

          These are solutions to load documents inside an app, but once the documents are in the app, those solutions doesn’t make those documents available to other apps. You must still transfer your documents manually to every apps (For example, BM2 cannot see the sounds I have copied in BM1, I have to copy them again, creating a duplicate file in the process).

          What I want is a central document library available to all the apps, without forcing us to re-transfer the same documents to different apps.

          1. I actually prefer to copy the sounds to each project I make. It makes managing a project a lot easier and is less prone to lost assets.

            And you can actually load the documents from Dropbox (or other), use it, change it and then save it back. It’s the developer’s choice. And before you argue that if you’re off-line you can’t use Dropbox, there’s the favourites option that let’s you access files even when offline.

            While I agree that a common document folder would make life easier, I believe it would also cause a lot of headaches due to it illiterates misbehaviour and badly coded Apps. It’s not an easy call for Apple.

      2. “When will Apple learn that restricting access to the filesystem and forcing sandboxing of apps severely limit their inter-connectivity.”

        It comes down to filesystem access being a liability for 99% of people that buy these devices.

        Locking this down may be inconvenient for some people, but locking it down makes it impossible for users or malicious/incompetent developers to screw things up.

        This means that your $’s are not going for Apple technical support to help noobs figure out where they saved their documents or why their apps don’t start correctly. It completely eliminates the need for that.

        Microsoft is doing exactly the same thing with Windows Apps on Windows 8 tablets, because it makes them reliable and cheap to support.

        The other issue with direct file-system access is that it makes it easy to copy and share apps. This is why there are tons of great apps on iOS and Android is plagued with crapware.

        I do hope that one of these companies will figure out better ways of balancing the needs of power users and noobs. But at this point, do you think anybody is really doing it better than Apple?

        1. “locking it down makes it impossible for users or malicious/incompetent developers to screw things up.”

          Impossible? Then tell me why every version of IOS has been jailbroken within 1 week of their release?

          “Microsoft is doing exactly the same thing with Windows Apps on Windows 8 tablets”

          Microsoft is doing the same thing with Windows RT tablets, Windows 8 Pro tablets won’t have that restriction. You can use a full DAW with plugins with Windows 8 pro tablets.

          “The other issue with direct file-system access is that it makes it easy to copy and share apps.”

          Again, tell me why there is so much piracy on IOS? (search “Piracy rates are higher on iOS than on Android, developer says”).

          “But at this point, do you think anybody is really doing it better than Apple?”

          Android, Windows XP/7/8pro, OSX, Linux… pretty much everyone else.

          Apple restrict IOS the same way Nintendo restricts the Wii or Microsoft restricts the Xbox, they want to make sure to get a part of the revenue for every software sold for their devices. They don’t want you to be able to purchase/download software for their consoles all by yourself.

          There is a reason why Apple dropped “Computer” from their name in 1997, because nowadays they are mainly selling consoles, not computers.

          1. Goode

            Surely you know that the Windows App store is locked down on both Intel and ARM platforms!

            And it’s not really plausible that the small percentage of people that jailbreak their tablets create a significant support overhead for Apple. Apple doesn’t even support jail-broken devices,

            If you feel like “pretty much everyone else” is doing a better job at creating a tablet platform than Apple, why aren’t you telling us how great those options are, instead of griping about the iPad?

            After using both Android and RT devices, it’s clear that BOTH have MAJOR issues to resolve before you can consider them seriously for music.

            The iPad is currently much more useful for most users than any competing tablet in its price range. If file-system access is a deal-breaker for you, realize that it isn’t for most users.

            1. ” the Windows App store is locked down on both Intel and ARM platforms”

              Yeah, but software can be obtained outside of the Windows App Store. Just like with the Mac App Store on OSX, you can’t buy Photoshop in the Mac App Store (because the Mac App Store won’t carry apps that have plugins), but you can buy it from anywhere else and then use it.

              The same will happen with Windows 8. Do you believe Cubase, Live, Reason, FL Studio, and all the other Windows DAW will suddenly remove those features once they will be available for Windows 8 pro on tablets?

              “How great those options are, instead of griping about the iPad?”

              Motion Computing, Indamixx, Tablet Kiosk, HP Slate are a some interesting models. Some can be gotten for cheap if purchased used (its how I got my Motion Computing for less than 1000$ a few years ago).

              “If file-system access is a deal-breaker for you, realize that it isn’t for most users.”

              If it isn’t for most user, would you explain to me why its the most requested feature from musicians? (well its true that we musicians are not “regular users” ;). And can you explain the need for something like Audiobus? I’m not saying its a deal-breaker, I like my ipad for some instruments like Animoog and controller apps like Mugician/Geosynth, TouchOSC, etc.. but for DAWs I think its useless. Its really hard to integrate into an efficient workflow, even with ACP.

              What I would really like to know is why do you believe it would be bad for us to be able to access a shared document folder? Every OS has one, why do you believe its bad for IOS?

              1. The lack of file system access is clearly not a deal-breaker for most people, or the iPad wouldn’t be the most popular tablet in the world.

                The benefits of sandboxing and locking down the system on the iPad are that your money isn’t going to pay for tech support for noobs that hose their tablets, that the iPad has the highest reliability of any tablet and that you have a huge selection of great apps.

                Several iPad music developers have specifically said that they won’t develop for Android, for example, because or rampant bootlegging on that platform, though it has not been a problem for them on iOS

                The bizarre thing, to me, is that you call this a deal-breaker for you, yet you appear to still be an iPad user.

                Put your money where your mouth is and get one of those awesome Android tablets and make some music with it!

              2. Goode : “I’m not saying its a deal-breaker”
                Neil P : “The bizarre thing, to me, is that you call this a deal-breaker for you, yet you appear to still be an iPad user.”

                What? Did you read what I wrote? And when did I say the ipad was total shit? Yes exactly, I never said that. What else did you misinterpreted from what I wrote?

                “Put your money where your mouth is and get one of those awesome Android tablets and make some music with it!”

                Nah, my old-school XP tablet does everything better when it comes down to synths and samplers, but the ipad is great for controllers, my Motion Computing tablet is not multi-touch.

  2. Ok, I still bought it 😉 And yes, this is a really cool little app. I like the record mode where you can record ontop of the previous session to add to it. Also, very smart to implement the pitch slider into the recording aswell. In addition to my (obvious) wish for pasteboard support, I have one more wish. That is to to put the waveform of the sample in as an image on the xy pad. That way it will be muche easier to see where you want to play from in a live situation. As for studio use, I like the randomness og not being able to see where I play from 🙂 So maybe a choise betwen image and not?Just a suggestion though 🙂

  3. Ah! Another wish. A redo button. Dont need more then 1 step. Just so irritating to have a great recording and then destroy the whole thing with one simple mistake 🙂

    1. Hey Saulton,

      This is Bret, the developer. Sorry it didn’t work on your iPad 1. When I beta tested, people with older iPads were able to use it OK, but perhaps they were running a later version of iTunes. Could you please contact me through the support system at touchsynth.com?

      Thanks,
      – Bret

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