Wooji Juice, creator of Mitosynth & Grain Science synthesizers and Hokusai audio editor for iOS, has shared the results of some initial experimentation with a new option under iOS 8 – Extensions.
Extensions are designed to allow applications to share features, which are made available in other applications. Apple’s examples include sending alerts to notification center, adding new system-level social media sharing, providing access to file repositories and adding custom keyboards.
Wooji Juice is exploring how Extensions can be used for audio. In their example, an Extension is used to add the option to reverse audio Mitosynth.
They note:
The best bit about this, is that it can work between apps from different developers, with no need to define a new standard or SDK to support it: it just uses built-in iOS features which some developers may support already, and can simply upgrade slightly for iOS 8.Extensions are designed for offline functions, so they complement current options, like Inter-App Audio and AudioBus.
Here’s what Apple has to say about Extensions:
Starting in iOS 8.0 and OS X v10.10, an app extension lets you extend custom functionality and content beyond your app and make it available to users while they’re using other apps. You create an app extension to enable a specific task; after users get your extension, they can use it to perform that task in a variety of contexts.
For example, if you provide an extension that enables sharing to your social sharing website, users can use it to post a remark while they’re reading email messages or surfing the web. Or if you provide an extension that displays current sports scores, users can put it in Notification Center so that they can get the latest scores when they open the Today view. You can even create an extension that provides a custom keyboard that users can use in place of the iOS system keyboard.
Extensions are intended to be a way to open the platform in a secure way, while minimizing system resources required.
The Wooji Juice demo is intentionally basic, but it demonstrates that Extensions might be used to enhance iOS as an audio platform in many ways, adding basic audio editing features system wide, introducing new ways to share audio files between applications and more.
Check out the demo and let us know what you think!
Could there be a master midi clock/bus extension at system level which finally solved midi timing issues in IOS ? If so , great .
However, “social networking at system level ” causes me to worry that for all the music related Apple adverts , They still havent understood the realtime system priority needs of music making in the new OS .
I don’t see the need for plug’ins on iOS. My biggest problems with PC’s was why couldn’t one apps audio be routed into anothers without having to be developed as a plug’in that needs to be a VST, AU, etc. Essientailly in iOS 8 every app is a plug’in.
iO7-iOS8 still lame with sh#t font. Shared Local Documents folder with iFile style management. Until then, its just another lame update.
Guys, iPads are just a few years old. The whole platform is in it´s infancy and it´s developed surprisingly well since the brick generation(gen1) only 4 years ago. DAW´s are about 30 years old and I still have to deal with work arounds, crashes and down right misery more often than not. Plus, just four years after the first launch, we already have awesome proprietary synths like Nave, Animoog, Addictive Synth, etc… Great ported synths like Thor and Alchemy and some basic but truly functional DAW´s like Cubasis and Aria. There are also some really fun apps like Korg Gadget that´s so damn addictive there should be a clinic for all us victims. And they all sound great.
I really don´t think you can look at the iPad as a professional production tool yet, but it´s gotten to a point where if I want to work, I turn on the computer, but if I just want to play around, i grab my ipad and a pair of headphones. These new features are very welcome additions and take it that small step further to making my iPad less of a toy and more of a tool.
If only I could throw away that god forsaken, evil, cruel and teeth wrenching box they call the iConnectivity 2+! The audio pass through function should be available from factory!
A) The power supply is to damned expensive(you might as well go for the 4+) and it´s a battery hog.
B) I just can´t get around the iConfig UI
C) It´s so damn easy to disconnect any of the USB cable, or the lightning connector for that matter that It´s just not gigable.
D)That aggregate device workflow is a bit of a drag. Every time I turn on my computer I have to go to Audio/Midi and set it up from scratch.
Still, I have some great sounding synths with me at all time, and that, is priceless for me. 🙂
@Munir – Well pu!
@Munir – Well put! 🙂