In a world of $5 apps and no upgrade fees, the fear of abandonware casts its shadow on the otherwise lush gardens of the App Store. (The spectre was raised just yesterday by iMaschine lovers eager for new functionality.)
Here’s a terrific counter-example. Loopseque was a compelling app when released; we covered its launch and design in 2010, complete with one of my favorite images from an iOS story on CDM, impromptu ballpoint-pen sketches of its circular interface.
Loopseque hasn’t just gotten updates. It’s gotten MIDI functionality so rich that it could be worth a second look, even if you skipped it the first time around.
Using this wild-looking circular layout, you can now output events and clocks, build chords, get fine-grained control of envelopes, and assign controls to pads. In fact, all in all, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a visual sequencer this robust beyond your desktop computer – and there, direct control of parameters is tough without a separate MIDI controller.
New in this release:
MIDI (iPad 2 or higher):
• MIDI-out: Clock, Events, CC, Latency.
• MIDI-in: Clock.New layout for MIDI events:
• MIDI note for each circle: channel, velocity, volume, root key.
• Attack, Release, Start and Length for each note.
• Chord maker presets.
• New layout for MIDI assignable CCs: 4 pads controllers for X/Y parameters, sliders and buttons.
And there’s more:
Other features:
• Retina Display.
• Background audio.
• New BPM control.
• Minor GUI improves.
• OMAC support.
• WIST now works fine like master and slave.
• Loopseque Store on iOS 6.
While Audiobus tops the feature list request for many, here I think MIDI may be even more powerful, because it makes Loopseque a beautiful companion to hardware. I’ll be messing about with it, certainly – and this is one of those apps that hadn’t gotten much use since I first tried it. I expect that to change.
Details:
http://loopseque.com/loopseque-for-ipad/
See also their nice featured artist section and a location to share sample sets, helping along the longevity of this app, without question.