The people behind AudioKit, the open source successor to The Amazing Audio Engine, brought us FM Player in November last year, and since then they’ve been busy making this app event better. In this release they’ve added ATTACK & RELEASE knobs. Plus what they consider to be a quite beautiful new MIDI velocity handling.
They say that this is because:
“You’re a musician who cares about sound quality. This free update gives you a dramatic increase in realism while playing with a MIDI keyboard. Please leave a good review, We’re still working on FM Player. We think you are all GREAT and we appreciate all your kind words! <3.”
- The team has spent weeks coming up with beautiful velocity curves individually tailored to each sound. This was done with code. Meaning, we app has not increased in size
- Better MIDI keyboard velocity. Each preset has a unique velocity response, inspired by the original hardware.
- The developer says that the Attack/Release controls are the most useful envelopes for a sample-based instrument like FM Player. Turn up the Release knob all the way for beautiful and floating sounds.
- They plan to update the GitHub source-code repo with these new Attack/Release controls. They go on to say that they might even make a tutorial video. Keep an eye out for that on their website, audiokitpro.com
What are they working on next?
Which is a good question. I thought I’d add in what they’ve got to say about what’s next:
We are working on a free AUv3 Synth app that you will love. And, we are working on making FM Player more power efficient. Plus, other improvements you have emailed. In the meantime, it might be best to completely close FM Player when you are not using it to save battery use. We appreciate your patience with us as we figure this out. <3
It’s important to note that the people who make FM Player are volunteers. What’s more AudioKit does not have any sponsors or investors, although quite frankly I’d give or invest money in it if I could, and I seriously believe that they should consider doing something like a crowdfunder or crowd equity thing.
Because of this they obviously want people to spread the word about what they’re doing, which is of course what I’m doing. If you can do the same, I know that they’d appreciate it.
FM Player on the app store (free)