Crudebyte have been responsible for a number of interesting and powerful instrument apps and audio units for iOS. Now Colossus Piano 2.0 arrives with a bunch of new features and of course a range of fixes as one would expect.
- Introduces “App States”.
- Introduces native iPhone X support.
- Significant speed improvements when switching between piano models and/or sound variants.
- Unified tuning dialog with master tune, static scale tuning and dynamic tuning (Hermode Tuning).
- Adds extended features to the virtual on-screen piano keyboard.
- Adds optional MIDI device configuration screen.
- Latency down to 1ms now available.
- Adds info resources (including user manual).
2.0 includes a number of software corrections, most notably:
- Audio Unit: Addresses audio export (“offline rendering”) issue (introduced by iOS 11).¹
- Inter-App Audio / Audiobus: Fixes crash which could happen (with iOS 11) when the app was launched from either Audiobus or as IAA from a third-party DAW app.
- Fixes touch latency of 1s on virtual on-screen piano keyboard (introduced by iOS 11).
- Fixes several potential crashes when switching between sounds.
- Fixes issue with manual polyphony and latency settings.
- Fixes piano image disappearing from main screen under a rare condition.
- Numerous other minor UI corrections.
Colossus Piano is free on the app store but requires a number of IAPs to extend its functionality
If you don’t know the app, here’s some more detail on what to expect:
Colossus Piano sets a new standard in terms of realism, detail and overall quality of piano sounds on your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. There are 8 acoustic piano models available as 8 individual in-app purchases, plus 5 E-Piano legends bundled as 1 sound set with this app, together those 13 piano models make up 30 Gigabyte of sound material. All keys of all piano models were recorded in full length with a recording quality of 24 bit and 96 kHz stereo.
Note: this app requires in-app purchases to provide its functionalities!
Minimum Requirement: at least iPad 3 / iPad Air 1 / iPad mini 2 / iPhone 5 / iPod touch 6th gen.
Recommended: iPad Air 2 / iPad mini 4 / iPad Pro / iPhone SE / iPhone 6s or higher.
The dark brown „Colossus Concert Grand” model:
- 24 velocity layers per key.
- Sympathetic resonance (sustain sound).
- Release hammer sound.
- Optional pad sound.
- 14 GB in size (SSD space).
The white „Baby Grand” model:
- 12 velocity layers per key.
- Sympathetic resonance (sustain sound).
- Release hammer sound.
- Optional pad sound.
- 6 GB in size (SSD space).
The „Upright Piano” model:
- 8 velocity layers per key.
- Sympathetic resonance (sustain sound).
- Release hammer sound.
- Optional pad sound.
- 3.4 GB in size (SSD space).
The „E-Piano” sound set:
- 5 legendary E-Piano models (plus different model generations or configurations).
- 17 E-Piano sounds in total.
- Optional pad sound.
- Optional tremolo effect.
- 1.6 GB in size (SSD space).
This app supports Audio Unit v3, Inter-App Audio, Audiobus and Bluetooth LE MIDI !
Software features:
- Modulation wheel support for controlling the most relevant sound parameter of the currently selected sound.
- Warm pad sound of a well known analogue synthesizer (not available for all models) can be turned on/off as support for the piano sound; volume can be controlled by mod. wheel and expr. controller.
- Sustain pedal support for holding notes.
- Sostenuto pedal support for holding individual notes.
- Soft pedal support for a more gentle sound.
- Expression pedal support for controlling optional pad layer’s volume.
- Hammer sound when releasing keys, uses round robin, can be turned on/off and volume controlled (some acoustic pianos only).
- Polyphony of up to several hundred stereo voices.
- Low latency disk streaming.
- Configurable audio latency down to 1 ms.
- Integrated effects (18 presets).
- App States: Save app’s entire state as user presets.
- MIDI velocity response curve editor.
- App can keep running in the background.
- Master Tune, Scale Tuning & Hermode Tuning.
- Provides Audio Unit v3 plugin version of this app, which allows it to be used as virtual instrument directly within 3rd party multi-track DAW apps.
- Supports Apple’s “Inter-App Audio” system.
- Audiobus support.
- Virtual on-screen piano keyboard with velocity support, scalable & scrollable.
MIDI Player / Recorder:
- Record, save and load your songs in standard MIDI file format.
- Share your songs easily as audio file.
- Unlimited amount of tracks.
- Unlimited recording and playback length.
- Open MIDI (.mid) files directly from other apps (i.e. from Safari, Mail).
- Download or upload MIDI files with iTunes.
- Metronome.
- Use the “Tempo Zoom” dial knob to i.e. slow down playback at any time, learn your favorite songs more easily.